The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 193

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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 193. Intermission – Because You Existed, I Existed.
The evening we returned to the Academy after the field trip.
Burying the joyful memories in nostalgia, I prepared to return to my ordinary routine.
[Everyone, please gather in Elisha’s Professor’s Office.]
I sent a message to my companions, who were each retreating to their rooms to recover, saying I had something important to tell them.
And so, gathered in Elisha’s Professor’s Office were Iris, Yurina, Camilla, Sophia, Berald, Lanez, and finally Elisha herself.
They all sat in silence, their expressions bewildered by the sudden summons, watching me.
“Something important? Has something happened?”
Yurina asked in a worried voice.
“This is the first time Dale has called us all together like this, isn’t it?”
“Right. The fact that he called us right after we got back from the trip makes it seem pretty urgent.”
“Oh, could it be… did you and Iris have a fight…?”
The atmosphere in the room grew unsettled.
I exhaled a deep sigh, watching my companions murmur among themselves.
‘I knew I’d have to tell them eventually.’
The story of my past life.
I’d been agonizing over the right moment to reveal it.
‘I never thought it would come out for a reason like this.’
I rubbed my face with a complicated expression.
When I glanced toward Iris, I saw her face—anxious about something, watching me intently.
I hadn’t yet told her the details about my past life.
‘If I’m going to reveal it anyway, it’s better to do it when we’re all together.’
I’d considered telling only Iris, the way I had with Elisha, but I decided it would be better to tell everyone rather than hide it from some and reveal it to others.
After all, I’d already told Elisha long ago, and I’d built more than enough trust with my other companions that there was no reason to keep hiding it any longer.
“Dale. Surely you don’t mean to tell us… that story?”
Seeing my expression, Elisha seemed to guess what I was about to say.
The Professor spoke with a stern face, trailing off.
I nodded slowly and opened my mouth.
“Everyone… I know this will be hard to believe, but please listen to my story.”
And so began my tale of my past life.
The long story of failure endured by a once-great hero.
The story that began in the early evening stretched on until the day was about to change.
“Phew. And so… that’s how things came to be.”
Whether it was because I’d spoken so much, or because my companions’ faces grew increasingly rigid as the story continued.
I drank the water sitting on the table, moistening my parched throat.
“So….”
“Hah… such shocking words have left my head spinning.”
After the long story ended.
My companions’ expressions were a tangled mess of complex emotions difficult to put into words.
Well.
Had I been in the same situation, I would have reacted exactly as my companions did.
“….”
“….”
Silence stretched between us, unbroken by words.
My companions sat with their lips sealed, lost in thought, until one by one they began to exhale soft exclamations as realizations dawned on them.
“Then the reason Dale looked so sad when he first saw me was….”
“Ah, yes. That day.”
Camilla’s eyes narrowed as the memory of our first meeting surfaced.
“Right. When Dale sent Camilla flying.”
“S-sent flying? It wasn’t quite that severe!”
“Oh, if I recall correctly, you performed a rather spectacular somersault through the air, didn’t you?”
“Ugh….”
Camilla swallowed hard.
She let out a short sigh and nodded.
“I’ll admit, I found it strange. No matter how careless I was, I couldn’t understand how someone who’d been dead last in our year could overpower me with just a casual gesture….”
“I apologize for that. My emotions were running high right after I regressed.”
“Ahem! I-I wouldn’t have been caught off guard if I’d been more careful!”
“Of course, of course.”
I smiled wryly and nodded.
“Is that also why you suddenly offered to teach me martial arts, brother?”
“Yes.”
“Ah… I see. That makes sense now.”
Berald gazed down at his hands, wrapped in worn bandages, as he continued.
“I always wondered why you named the martial art you taught me ‘Berald’s Martial Art.'”
When you think about it, it doesn’t make sense.
You’d name a technique after the one who teaches it, not the one who learns it.
“So the martial art I learned from you, you created it yourself….”
“No, Berald. You created that martial art.”
I nodded and continued.
“I simply passed on to you what I learned from you.”
That’s why.
Even knowing it was strange, I couldn’t give Berald’s Martial Art any other name.
His legacy, his memories and moments—
I didn’t want to carelessly alter them with my own hands.
“So I created it….”
Berald stared at his fists with a complicated expression.
“Then you learned magic from me?”
Sophia, my senior, turned to face me with her arms crossed.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Hmph, I thought it was odd for someone from the Warrior Department to have such exceptional magical prowess. So it’s because I taught you?”
I chuckled softly and nodded my head.
“It’s all thanks to having such a wonderful senior.”
“Of course. Who else would it be?”
Sophia puffed out her chest with pride, but her expression soon grew wistful.
“Then in my previous life… I must have remained enemies with Jade the entire time?”
Her magic underwent a significant transformation when she met Jade.
But the magic I’m currently learning is hers from before that meeting—magic that had never been transformed.
She was far too intelligent not to understand what that meant.
“Yes.”
“…Is that so?”
Sophia smiled faintly, as if she’d already anticipated this.
“Then my future changed because of you.”
“….”
“Thank you. For changing my future.”
Thank you for changing my future—those words.
Why was it?
That single phrase shook my chest almost unbearably.
“Dale. I have something I’d like to ask you too.”
Yurina slowly rose from her seat.
She gently removed the pendant hanging around her neck.
With a brilliant flash of light, she returned to her original form.
“In my previous life… did I eventually become Yuren?”
“…Yes.”
I nodded solemnly, my expression heavy.
“I see. So that’s what happened.”
Yurina, her expression complicated, turned her gaze toward the mirror hanging on the Professor’s Office wall, then looked back at me.
“Then you changed my future too.”
“Not just yours, Yurina.”
Iris swept her gaze across all the companions gathered in the room and continued.
“You changed the futures of everyone here. All by yourself.”
“…No.”
All eyes converged on me.
Overwhelmed by indescribable emotions, I clenched my trembling fists.
“I didn’t change it alone.”
Suddenly, a memory surfaced.
A night when stars poured down from the sky.
Berald and I sitting around a warm campfire, drinking together.
Iris watching over us with a smile.
Yuren leaning against a tree, sipping tea, while Sophia casually read a book nearby.
‘I was….’
Even if they don’t remember.
I do.
The warmth of that day.
Those days of boundless happiness.
“The reason I can be here now… is because all of you were there for me.”
If anything, I was the one who should be grateful.
“Thank you.”
Because you existed.
I existed.
“…Thank you.”
With my head bowed, I swallowed my tears silently.
Why was it?
It felt as though my comrades in memory were gazing at me and smiling.
* * *
Though everyone had much more to discuss, Elisha insisted it was growing late, so my comrades returned to their respective lodgings.
A night where stars scattered like rain, twinkling brilliantly—just like that day in memory.
Rather than heading straight to my room, I climbed to the rooftop and gazed up at the night sky for a moment.
“So you’re here.”
At that moment, Elisha followed me up to the rooftop.
“How did you know I was here?”
“A woman’s intuition.”
With those words, Elisha gently brushed away the ‘spider web’ that had been clinging to me.
I stifled a laugh and nodded.
“How does it feel to have laid everything bare?”
“Well… it’s refreshing.”
When I first gathered my comrades, I was troubled by doubt—was revealing this truly the right choice?
But now that I’d laid everything out, it felt as though I’d set down a heavy burden.
“For my part, I’m a bit disappointed that the secret I alone knew has vanished.”
Elisha sat beside me with a playful smile.
She withdrew a cigarette from her pocket, placed it between her lips, and continued softly.
“I’ve been wondering why now.”
“Why what?”
“Why Dale suddenly revealed the truth of your regression.”
Elisha turned to look at me, a faint smile on her face.
“Well, I knew I’d have to tell them eventually.”
“But there must be a reason why that eventual moment is now, yes?”
“That’s…”
If I had to give a reason… well…
There is a reason, certainly…
“Is it because of Iris?”
“…!!!”
“Hehe. You’ve hit the mark, haven’t you?”
Elisha nodded as if she’d expected this all along.
“Well… I mean, the thing is….”
“Ah, there’s no need to explain. I can already guess the situation well enough.”
“….”
You can guess?
“Being around Iris must have stirred up complicated emotions for you as well, Dale. After all, you’ve been hiding the fact that you were lovers in your past life until now.”
“Well….”
“I suppose you’d call it guilt? I imagine you’ve felt something akin to that. Regardless of the reason, it’s true that you’ve been deceiving her.”
“No, that’s not….”
It wasn’t guilt that made me feel this way.
There was another reason entirely….
“Don’t burden yourself too much. Everyone understands that you’ve kept the truth hidden all this time for everyone’s sake.”
Elisha stubbed out her finished cigarette and offered a gentle smile.
“That’s what I came to tell you.”
“….”
“Has it been… very difficult?”
Elisha asked softly, tenderly stroking my cheek.
I looked at Elisha and….
“Yes. All this time… my heart has felt heavy.”
I wiped away the tears that had gathered at the corners of my eyes.
“I didn’t want to lie to someone precious to me… no, to the one I love….”
“I know, I know.”
“How much longer… will I have to keep wearing this mask? Thinking about that made me feel so suffocated and tormented.”
“I understand it all.”
Elisha patted my back gently and smiled warmly.
“Hehe. Looking at it this way, Dale is quite… remarkably pure-hearted, isn’t he?”
“…I apologize.”
“What do you have to apologize to me for? In any case, now that you’ve laid everything bare, there’s no need to suffer from guilt any longer.”
And so, with Elisha’s gentle consolation….
the night of truth came to an end, and a new morning dawned.

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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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