The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 161

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 161. Witch of Night (2)
Frozen earth.
Blood droplets scattered across the pristine white world of swirling snow.
“…Ah.”
The Witch of Night gazed down at the blade piercing through her abdomen and exhaled a faint sigh.
The witch collapsed slowly onto the thickly accumulated snow.
She turned her head toward the gray-haired hero who had driven the sword into her belly.
“Hah… hah…!”
The hero approached her fallen form, breathing heavily and ragged.
Squelch.
He wrenched the blade from her abdomen with brutal force.
Crimson blood spread across the Snowy Wasteland.
“…Cold.”
The witch murmured, cradling her bleeding abdomen.
“Cold?”
The hero’s expression twisted savagely at her whisper.
The witch nodded, her breath so faint it seemed it might cease at any moment.
“Yes. So… very cold….”
“Ha.”
A bitter laugh escaped the hero’s lips.
He glared at the witch with bloodshot eyes.
“So even you feel the cold, do you?”
The very architect of this Snowy Wasteland.
The worst of witches who slaughtered tens of millions without blinking an eye.
Trembling from ‘cold.’
He couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity.
“Yes…. I was always cold. From so long ago… always, so very cold….”
The witch reached toward the hero, her gesture pleading.
“Just once… even just once, that’s all.”
Crimson tears mixed with blood streamed down the witch’s cheeks.
“I want… to feel warm….”
“….”
Crack!
The hero brutally knocked her hand away, grinding his teeth.
“You want to feel warm, even just once?”
He tightened his grip on the blade, his mouth twisting into a grimace.
How pathetic.
He muttered a crude curse.
“Freeze and die trembling in the cold, you damned witch.”
Thrust!
I drove my sword through the Witch of Night’s heart.
And so.
The Witch of Night’s long nightmare came to an end.
The hero’s long nightmare had just begun.
* * *
“….”
I recalled memories from my past life.
The day I killed the Witch of Night, Raneez Malam.
After overcoming countless sacrifices, innumerable deaths, and immeasurable despair, when I finally reached her.
The memory of dying tens, hundreds of times before barely managing to plunge my sword into the Witch of Night’s heart.
For me, Raneez Malam was a nightmare incarnate.
I wandered for thousands of years within the Snowy Wasteland she had created.
Pure white blizzards, earth that sank up to my knees, and a cold so bitter it stung.
That memory remained etched deep within my chest, a trauma that still hadn’t faded even now.
“….”
And yet.
The witch who had given me this trauma.
The horrifying monster who had slaughtered millions of people.
“I’m, I’m sorry… I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
Watching her curled up, tears streaming down her face, my mind became tangled trying to figure out how I should react.
Should I feel vindicated, calling it karmic retribution from my past life?
Or should I pity her, questioning how such a past could exist?
As I searched for an answer to this impossible question.
“What are you all doing here?”
A silver-haired handsome man walked toward us.
Aaron Baek.
The top-ranked Candidate of the current fourth-year class and a descendant of Baek Seung-hyuk, the “Divine Spear” among the Great Five Heroes.
Behind Aaron was Bella Leonhardt, ranked second in the fourth-year class and destined to become Aaron’s lover in the future, the “Precious Sword.”
“Ah, Aaron?”
“Why is Aaron here….”
The group of Candidates looked flustered at Aaron’s sudden appearance.
They exchanged nervous glances and quietly distanced themselves from Raneez Malam.
“I asked what you were doing.”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“We just happened to get into a little argument….”
“An argument?”
Aaron let out a hollow laugh at the Candidates’ desperate excuses.
He fixed the group of Candidates with a sharp gaze and continued speaking.
“I clearly told you before not to touch Raneez Malam, didn’t I?”
“…But, but….”
“She’s a witch! How are we supposed to attend class with a Demon’s child!?”
A Candidate cried out, his voice dripping with indignation.
True to his words, Raneez Malam was a half-blood born between a Demon and a hero.
She possessed neither magical power nor the stigmata of the Demon God.
Yet undeniable Demon blood flowed through her veins.
And not just any Demon—the blood of one who had once risen to the rank of High Archbishop.
“Sigh.”
Aaron exhaled softly and continued speaking.
“Of course I understand how you all feel. But Raneez didn’t choose to be born as a Demon’s child, did she?”
“That’s….”
“And we’re graduating after just one more semester anyway. Why bring this up now?”
“Because graduation is coming soon!”
One of the Candidates gnashed his teeth and glared at Raneez with savage intensity.
Raneez, who had lifted her head slightly to gauge the situation, quickly lowered it again in panic.
“In one more semester, that witch will get her hero’s license! A hero’s license for a Demon’s child—do you really think that makes sense, Aaron?”
“Calm down.”
Aaron placed a hand on the agitated Candidate’s shoulder, his voice dropping to a measured tone.
The Candidate’s body trembled.
“I’m… I’m sorry.”
“In any case, I hope this doesn’t happen again. We’re all classmates sharing the same classroom, after all.”
“…Yes.”
The group of Candidates turned away with dejected expressions and entered the building.
“Phew.”
Aaron sighed and approached the cowering Raneez, extending his hand.
“Are you alright?”
“Y-yes. Th… thank you.”
Raneez nodded slightly and reached for the hand he offered.
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
Bella Leonhardt, who had been watching from the side, brutally kicked Raneez in the stomach.
“How dare a witch try to hold Aaron’s hand?”
Bella’s eyes fixed on Raneez with the contempt one reserves for a crushed insect.
Aaron spun around in shock, his voice sharp with rebuke.
“Bella! What are you—”
“I know you’re kind-hearted, Aaron. But.”
Bella bit her lip tightly as she turned to face him.
“At the very least, you shouldn’t shield this witch the way you do.”
“That’s….”
“I’m leaving.”
“Ah… wait! Hold on, Bella!”
Turning on my heel, Aaron rushed after Bella as she walked away with quick, purposeful strides.
“….”
After the two of them disappeared.
Left alone, Raneez Malam slowly picked herself up off the ground.
“Ugh… ah, it hurts.”
She clutched at her stomach where Bella had struck her, her face contorted in pain.
“Hic… hic.”
Tears streamed down Raneez Malam’s cheeks.
After sobbing for a while, Raneez Malam staggered forward with unsteady steps.
“…Oh.”
Our eyes met.
Raneez Malam flinched and took a step back, her gaze drifting to the nameplate on my left chest.
“Third year…?”
“….”
Raneez Malam approached me hesitantly as I stood in silence.
“I’m, I’m sorry.”
What was she apologizing for?
“It’s… I did something wrong, so…”
What was she claiming she’d done wrong?
“It’s not that they’re all bad people!”
“….”
“So… please, don’t spread any weird rumors about this!”
Having cried out those words to me as I remained silent, Raneez Malam quickly turned and fled.
Left alone, I leaned my back against the building wall and exhaled a deep sigh.
“…What in the world is going on here?”
Despite having lived for so long.
The world remained filled with incomprehensible things.
* * *
The next day.
I summoned Sophia to the Main Building Cafe, keeping my distance to avoid running into the other fourth-year Candidates as much as possible.
“How presumptuous of a junior to summon a senior all the way out here. You haven’t changed a bit.”
Sophia complained about having walked for over twenty minutes, then ordered a caramel macchiato piled high with whipped cream, which she doused generously with syrup before sipping it down.
“…Isn’t that bad for you?”
“Sugar is the elixir of the brain.”
“At that rate, it seems more like poison than elixir.”
Sophia shot me a sharp glare at my criticism before speaking.
“So, what did you want to ask?”
“You said before that you knew something about Raneez Malam, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, to some extent.”
“I was hoping you’d tell me what you know.”
Sophia’s eyes narrowed.
“…Have you taken an interest in her?”
“It’s less interest and more curiosity, I’d say.”
“Sigh. Drop it. Getting involved with her won’t do you any good.”
Sophia exhaled deeply and shook her head.
“Well, I’ll tell you what I know, at least.”
She set her coffee cup down on the table and continued.
“Raneez Malam. A fourth-year Candidate in the Magic Department with grades in the lowest bracket.”
The lowest bracket.
It was clear that the ‘blessing’ dwelling within her had yet to awaken.
“You’ve heard that she’s a half-breed between a Demon Human and a hero, right?”
“Yes.”
“Raneez’s mother was a Demon Human called the ‘Frost Archbishop’ thirty years ago. And her father was a hero famous enough to rank in the top five.”
This much I already knew.
And I understood why both were referred to in the past tense.
“Despite the opposition, the two married, had Raneez, and lived well together….”
Then tragedy struck.
“The Frost Archbishop… Seria Malam had a seizure, killed her own husband, and went on a rampage murdering people indiscriminately. And not long after, she was killed by a hero’s hand.”
In the end.
Raneez Malam was left alone, having lost both parents.
“The reason she was able to enroll in the Hero Academy….”
“Her father and Raonell were supposedly quite close. Raonell decided the child bore no fault and permitted her enrollment at the Hero Academy.”
Sophia let out a short sigh and continued.
“Well… honestly, it probably would’ve been better for her if she hadn’t enrolled at all.”
“….”
I recalled the image of Raneez huddled and trembling, surrounded by Candidates.
“Do you know what happened between Raneez and Aaron?”
I asked, remembering Bella Leonhardt’s words: “At least Aaron shouldn’t be protecting this witch.”
“…I said the Frost Archbishop had a seizure and died by a hero’s hand not long after, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“The hero who killed the Frost Archbishop was Aaron’s father.”
“….”
“And Aaron’s father died from wounds sustained during that battle with the Frost Archbishop.”
“…Then.”
To Aaron, Raneez was.
“The child of the enemy who killed his parents….”
“….”
Contemplating the tangled, knotted relationship between them.
I could only let out an involuntary sigh.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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