The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 209

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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 209. Interlude – The Crimson Moon (2)
“….”
“….”
Silence descended like a curtain.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry, as I gazed at Yurina wrapped in a large towel.
“U-um… w-what did you say?”
“I… I finished washing.”
“Then… I should too…”
As I rose to head toward the Shower Room, Yurina grabbed my arm.
She averted her gaze, turning her head away, and pouted her lips.
“D-Dale doesn’t need to wash. W-we didn’t even fight that much anyway.”
“No, but still…”
“I’m t-telling you it’s fine! When I was next to you earlier, there was no smell at all!”
Yurina cried out, pulling my hand toward her and sniffing it.
“Hehe. It smells nice…”
“…It does smell.”
“B-but it smells good, so it’s fine!”
Yurina tightened her grip on my hand, refusing to let me go to the Shower Room.
I exhaled a short sigh and sat back down.
Whoosh.
Yurina sat beside me and gently leaned her head toward me.
The damp strands of her hair and the faint scent of shampoo tickled my nose.
“…please.”
Yurina, clutching the towel draped around her like a cloak with both hands, opened her mouth in a hushed voice.
“N-now… please… p-pet me.”
“…Why are you suddenly using formal speech?”
“Huh? D-did I just use formal speech?”
Yurina’s face flushed crimson as she fumbled about, seemingly forgetting what she’d just said.
If a painter had depicted her current state, they surely would have drawn her pupils as @ symbols.
I stifled a chuckle and slowly raised my hand to Yurina’s head.
“Ah…”
As my hand touched the crown of her head, Yurina let out a soft gasp.
Her body, which had been fluttering about as if ready to fly away at any moment, quickly calmed down.
Stroke, stroke.
I gently stroked Yurina’s hair, applying slight pressure with my palm.
“Hehehe. Dale’s hand… is warm.”
Like settling beside a hearth on a cold winter’s day, Yurina clutched the soft towel around her body and beamed with contentment.
As I unconsciously imagined what lay beneath the thin towel, my heart raced uncontrollably.
“Dale.”
“Hmm?”
“In my past life, I… never experienced anything like this?”
“Well, you never sat beside me and begged me to stroke your hair, that’s for sure.”
“Ah, no! That’s not what I meant!”
Yurina trailed off, her gaze fixed on the sword resting atop the table.
“I was asking if you were shocked by having killed someone.”
“I’m not sure.”
To be honest, I don’t know myself.
“I didn’t join the same Party as Yuren until ten years after graduation, so I don’t know exactly what happened during that time.”
But.
“At the very least, the Yuren I met ten years later never hesitated to wield his blade, whether his opponent was a Demon Human or a hero.”
“…I see.”
Yurina nodded slowly, her head bowing.
“You said that in your past life, I became the greatest swordmaster, right?”
“That’s right.”
Humanity’s last hope.
Child of the Sun.
The swordmaster who came closest to the ‘ultimate pinnacle’ of the blade since Reynald Helios.
There were countless titles that adorned Yuren Helios’s name.
“…Do you think I could become… a hero like that?”
Yurina stared down at the sword, her expression clouded with doubt.
I chuckled softly, stroking her hair.
“No. You won’t become like Yuren.”
“…Then…?”
“You’ll become something greater.”
A place that the ‘Yuren’ of my past life never reached.
A moon shining far brighter than the radiant sun itself.
“…Really?”
“Yes, I’m certain.”
“…”
Yurina’s voice grew quieter as she asked.
“How can you be so sure?”
Yurina bit her lip, her jaw tightening.
“I just stained my blade with blood, and I’m already falling apart like this…!”
“You’re not falling apart.”
I shook my head firmly and continued.
“I pushed your back, but the decision was yours to make.”
I took her hand with the same hand that had been stroking her hair.
Her hand trembled faintly—the sensation from that moment still vivid and raw.
“And if Yurina had killed someone without any hesitation or doubt… then my thoughts would have changed instead.”
“Changed your thoughts…?”
“In my past life, I heard Yuren mention something like that.”
I continued speaking while gazing down at the blood-stained blade.
“A sword devoid of any worries or anguish is far too light—it can never reach the pinnacle of mastery.”
“…I said something like that?”
Yurina’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Well, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what it means either.”
But one thing was certain.
“Yurina, you’ll reach the heights that Yuren attained—no, far beyond that.”
“….”
Yurina, who had been lost in thought with her eyes closed for a moment, finally spoke softly.
“If what you’re saying is true… then in my past life, I became a man entirely?”
“Yeah.”
“How was I back then?”
“How was I?”
As I tilted my head in confusion, Yurina fidgeted with the towel in her hands and asked.
“Did I… seem sad or regretful back then?”
“Well, I never even considered that Yuren was a woman back then, so… but there was one thing.”
“What?”
“You often nagged when Iris and I were together. Asking if this was really the time to be playing around so carelessly.”
“Ha. That’s exactly the same as now.”
Yurina let out a light laugh.
“Yeah… I suppose so.”
Yurina slowly rose from the sofa.
Her shadow fell across my head as I sat.
“So then… I’m now standing before the very dream my past self yearned for?”
“Huh? What dream…?”
“Dale.”
Whoosh.
Yurina unfurled the towel she had been wearing like a cloak.
“….”
What first caught my eye was her pristine skin, illuminated by moonlight.
The silver moonlight streaming through the window scattered and created a brilliant sight so surreal it felt like a deep dream.
And then came the luxurious lingerie adorning that flawless skin.
Black stockings reaching to her thighs, connected by delicate straps.
It was lingerie in the form commonly known as a garter belt.
“H-how is it…?”
“….”
The visual impact was so overwhelming that I froze, unable to produce any response whatsoever.
I even forgot to breathe.
My bloodshot eyes traced over Yurina’s body from top to bottom.
“Say something, anything. Does it… does it look good on me?”
“….”
The design was neither excessive nor overly plain.
Lingerie better described as elegant than risqué.
If Yurina were to ask whether it suited her….
“Honestly, it doesn’t suit you at all.”
“Ugh. J-just as I thought! I knew it!!!”
Yurina’s face crumpled as she stomped her feet.
“I told you I wouldn’t pick this one!”
“But.”
“Huh? Kyaaah!”
I sprang to my feet and swept Yurina into my arms.
Cradling her in a princess carry, I gazed down at her with bloodshot eyes.
“Forget whether it suits you or not—if you’re asking whether it’s effective… my answer is this.”
“Wh-what? D-Dale? Wait… kyah!”
Still holding Yurina, I strode purposefully toward her bedroom.
That’s right.
To be honest, the lingerie did feel premature for Yurina.
Like a hero fresh from the Academy suddenly clad in top-tier artifacts—that sort of feeling.
But.
What of it?
‘A garter belt… a garter belt?’
What did it matter if it didn’t suit her?
Top-tier artifacts possessed power capable of elevating a hero’s rank by two or three stages in a single stroke.
And.
The equipment (?) Yurina wore now was easily on par with such supreme artifacts.
“D-Dale! Y-your eyes! Your eyes are terrifying!”
Before that overwhelming destructive force, the walls of my reason crumbled pathetically.
“Kyaaaaah!”
With Yurina’s scream.
Slam.
The bedroom door shut.
* * *
The next day.
Well past noon.
“D-Dale, you pervert!”
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
The pillow Yurina wielded struck my philtrum squarely.
“It was my f-first time! And you wouldn’t even l-let me rest!”
Yurina’s face burned crimson, her eyes glistening as though tears might spill forth at any moment.
“I… I’m sorry.”
Defeated miserably in the tug-of-war between reason and instinct, I hung my head like a criminal.
“Haa, haa… I, really….”
Yurina pulled the blanket up to hide herself, her gaze drifting toward the underwear scattered like shed skin on the edge of the bed.
“You said it wouldn’t suit me….”
“I told you. Not suiting you and being ineffective are two different things.”
“Hmph. You didn’t even care about underwear halfway through anyway!”
“That… well….”
She had a point.
“…Hmph.”
Yurina, curled up like a ball beneath the blanket, gradually inched closer to me.
As she approached, Yurina puckered her lips slightly.
I gently pulled her into an embrace and kissed her, and a bashful smile bloomed across Yurina’s lips.
“Ehehe… A kiss, we finally did it.”
“We did plenty yesterday.”
“B-but I was so overwhelmed I didn’t even properly feel it!”
Yurina’s face flushed crimson as she pinched my side.
“So now you won’t be sulking about being the only one who hasn’t kissed yet, right?”
“Hmph. When did I ever sulk?”
“Oh please. Are you really going to say that now?”
I looked at Yurina in disbelief, and she responded with a shameless expression as if she had no idea what I was talking about.
As we continued teasing each other and passing the time.
“…Dale.”
“Hmm?”
Yurina gently rested her head on my shoulder.
“I’m going to become stronger. Far stronger than I was in my past life.”
“…Yeah.”
“And… I’m going to be happy. For the sake of everything my past self couldn’t enjoy.”
Yurina tightened her grip on our intertwined hands, steeling her resolve.
“Why suddenly talk about your past life?”
“Mm… You said it before, didn’t you? Because my past self existed, the current you could be who you are.”
“Ah, yeah. That’s right.”
“So that means my past self’s role played some part in allowing my current life to change.”
I see.
So that’s why she said she’d be happy for her past self’s sake too.
“Mm. Then I suppose there’s no helping it.”
“Huh? What do you mean there’s no helping it?”
“I was planning to stop because you looked exhausted today… but if I need to account for your past self’s share as well… then I suppose there’s no choice.”
I slowly rose and reached for the blanket covering her.
“W-wait, Dale! You’re not thinking of continuing here, are you?!”
“Ahem.”
“Kyaaaa! D-Don’t take the blanket! Ugh…!”
Yurina, her face flushed crimson, swung a pillow at me repeatedly.
“D-Dale, you pervert!”
The sun hung high in the sky, casting the world in brilliant daylight.
Yet within the room, a crimson moon seemed to glow.

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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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