The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 215

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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 215. Seven Star Church Cultural Festival (1)
A garden brimming with fresh, vibrant flowers.
The White Mask Man hummed a cheerful tune as he watered the blooms in the flower beds.
Trickle, trickle, trickle.
A butterfly alighted on a flower petal glistening with transparent droplets.
The chirping of birds and the croaking of frogs, flowers in full bloom and trees standing tall and dignified.
If paradise existed, I imagined it would be a place as beautiful as this.
“Ahh. There’s truly no healing quite like this.”
The masked man gazed upon the garden he’d created himself, smiling with satisfaction.
He walked toward the worn rocking chair in the center of the garden.
“Let’s see. I’ve watered everything, so now I can relax and read a book….”
Knock, knock.
Then.
A sharp, rigid knocking sound echoed through the garden, utterly at odds with its serene atmosphere.
“Come in.”
The garden door opened, and a lean man wearing a bear mask entered.
The White Mask Man turned to face the bear-masked figure and asked.
“What is it?”
“Wolf is dead.”
“….”
A heavy silence descended in an instant.
The White Mask Man settled slowly into the rocking chair.
“By whose hand?”
“That’s….”
The bear-masked man trailed off.
“You couldn’t even confirm who killed him?”
“…My apologies. All I can confirm is that the person is connected to the Hero Academy.”
“The Hero Academy, huh.”
Tsk.
The White Mask Man clicked his tongue.
He picked up a book from the table beside the chair and opened it.
“…What will you do? The Seven Star Church Cultural Festival at the Hero Academy begins soon, so we could infiltrate from within….”
“No, never mind.”
The White Mask Man shook his head quietly.
Sharp black eyes gleamed between the gaps of the mask.
“What matters now is the ‘Empress’ situation.”
“Yes.”
“Contact Mephistopheles.”
The White Mask Man turned the pages of the worn book as he continued.
“Tell him the ‘Ember’ has begun to bloom beneath the Imperial Palace.”
* * *
The Party Training Facility sprawled across three floors.
In a space grand enough to be called a Party House rather than merely a “Training Ground”—more akin to a guild hall in its scale—gasps of wonder echoed through the halls.
“Wow… we get to use this entire building exclusively for our Party?”
“That’s right.”
Iris’s eyes widened in disbelief as she turned her head, taking in the sight.
Even she, who had received the highest treatment within the Academy as the Saint of the Holy Kingdom, couldn’t have imagined such extravagant accommodations. Her mouth hung open in shock.
Iris wasn’t the only one astonished by the enormous Party Training Facility.
Berald and Sophia wandered through the building’s interior like country folk who’d just arrived in the Capital from a remote village.
“B-brother, we received this as compensation? What exactly are you doing out there?”
“Did you hypnotize the Headmaster or something?”
“Hypnotize? What are you talking about?”
Even if I possessed such an ability, I wouldn’t use it on a 150-year-old man.
“Hypnotize…?”
“Hmm?”
“Hypnotize… so that method exists too… I hadn’t thought of that….”
“Lanez?”
“Oh, w-what? Ah, it’s nothing!”
No.
It definitely seems like something.
“Hehe. Th-this building is great~ Dale!”
You weren’t interested in it just a moment ago.
“Well, if we go this way, the Training Ground entrance is—”
“Ah, Dale. You mentioned the second floor is a rest area, right? Could we check that out first?”
“The third floor is empty, you said? Then we could use it as a magical research laboratory.”
“Brother! How about we throw a celebration party to commemorate getting our own Hideout?!”
Everyone seemed excited about finally having a Hideout where the Party members could spend time together.
Though it was nominally called a Party “Training Facility,” their interest clearly lay elsewhere rather than actual training.
“Dale… w-where is the Changing Room?”
“….”
Lanez, what are you planning to do that you need to find the Changing Room first?
“Sigh.”
Well.
Fundamentally, everyone trained diligently enough, but naturally they’d be more interested in this first “space that’s ours alone” than in a Training Facility whose primary purpose was training.
“Ugh.”
What good is it to procure a state-of-the-art Training Facility through such means(?)
when no one even pays attention to the actual Training Facility?
“Dale! The Training Facility! Where is the Training Facility?!”
Just as I was feeling a twinge of disappointment, an excited voice reached my ears.
“You want to check out the Training Facility first?”
“Of course! With a training facility this magnificent! They said there’s a training mode created with the latest Republic technology, right? How do you use it? Have you experienced it directly, Dale? From what Professor Elisha told me, there’s supposedly a mode called Challenge Mode that’s absolutely insane!”
Yurina fired off questions rapid-fire, her eyes sparkling like stars.
True to her love of training, she showed keen interest in the state-of-the-art training facility.
“Ahhhh! This is amazing! Dale, can we try using it right now?”
“Yurina.”
“Hm?”
“You’re the only one.”
“Why? Why are you saying that?”
I suddenly pulled Yurina (in Yuren mode) into my arms, her eyes wide and round.
You’re the only one who appreciated the fruits of my efforts.
“Yurina’s right. Everyone, change into your training clothes and let’s start Party training immediately.”
Wait, there’s one more person.
“Let’s start training tomorrow.”
“What?”
Camilla’s eyes narrowed at my suggestion to begin tomorrow.
She placed her hand firmly on her hip, her expression stern.
“Start tomorrow?! Weren’t we supposed to begin today?”
“We haven’t finished moving everything in yet, and it’s our first day. Today, let’s just take a look around the training facility and have a celebration party in the 2nd Floor lounge like Berald suggested.”
I felt disappointed by my party members’ lack of enthusiasm for the training facility, but I had no intention of starting Party training today.
After all, on the first day of school lectures, don’t instructors usually just announce the semester’s plans and take it easy?
‘Though I did get blindsided that one time when I skipped the entire first week of lectures and then the professor actually started teaching.’
Well, anyway.
Since it was the first day the Party Training Facility existed, I thought it would be better to spend today raising a toast with my party members and planning our future.
“Hmph! How pathetic!”
Camilla snorted and shook her head firmly.
She crossed her arms and glared fiercely.
“How could we possibly become the strongest party surpassing the Great Five Heroes with such rotten determination?!”
When did our party’s goal become so grandiose?
Well, I suppose it’s not wrong since our goal is to fight and defeat the Demon God’s forces.
“Missing even one day of training means suffering for three days! We don’t have the luxury of leisurely celebrating!”
“Oh, that’s right. Headmaster Raonel sent us some rare liquor to commemorate the opening of the Party House.”
“What?”
One thing I’d learned from spending over half a year with Camilla in the Party.
This girl secretly loves alcohol.
“It’s supposedly premium Holy Kingdom whisky directly received from Pope Marian.”
“….”
Especially the Holy Kingdom whisky, famous for being dangerously potent.
“T-to refuse liquor given by the Pope as a follower of the Seven Star Church would be disrespectful.”
Ahem.
Camilla gulped and glanced at the bottle.
‘Look at him drooling from his mouth.’
Personally, I preferred wine or beer with relatively lower alcohol content to the intensely strong Holy Kingdom whiskey.
Anyway.
If I’d already persuaded Camilla, there was only one thing left to do.
“Alright then. While Berald and I go grab some drinks and snacks, you all continue enjoying the place.”
“Hehe! We’ll be back in a jiffy!”
* * *
Thus began the commemorative party held in the 2nd Floor Lounge.
Following Berald’s suggestion to do things properly if we were going to throw a party, cases of beer and wine purchased from the Convenience Store were stacked like mountains in the corner of the lounge.
“Well then, a toast to Dale and Raonel for preparing such a wonderful party house!”
“”Cheers!””
With the clinking of glasses, the drinking session began in earnest.
“It feels nice having a place like this that’s just ours.”
“You like it?”
“Yes.”
Iris nodded with a bright smile.
“By the way, why didn’t Professor Elisha come? I wish we’d invited her too.”
“Ah… well.”
There was an incident not too long ago, you see.
“Did you perhaps have a fight with Professor Elisha?”
“No, it’s not like that.”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell Iris what happened that day.
‘I wanted to keep that sight to myself.’
Recalling the image of Professor Elisha with glistening tears, looking embarrassed, my lips naturally curved upward.
“…Something seems suspicious.”
I quickly turned my head away to avoid Iris’s narrowed, scrutinizing gaze.
I could see Yurina accepting a drink from Berald.
“Yurina. Don’t drink too much today.”
“Huh? Why?”
“…Why, you ask?”
Had she already forgotten what kind of disaster(?) occurred during the last school trip?
“Haha. Don’t worry, Dale. That time I just failed to pace myself a teensy bit. I’m good at drinking!”
“….”
“You haven’t forgotten whose descendant I am, have you, Dale?”
I distinctly remembered that she said exactly that, and an hour later she was completely wasted.
“…Berald. Don’t give her too much.”
“Hehe. I’ll control the amount, so don’t worry, brother.”
Berald grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
“By the way, brother. Next week is the Seven Star Festival—what are you planning to do then?”
“Oh, has it come around already?”
With my recent suspension keeping me away from classes, I’d completely forgotten about the upcoming cultural festival.
“Well… honestly, it’s not like we’re doing anything particularly grand, right?”
Since the Hero Academy wasn’t a typical educational institution but rather a school dedicated to training future heroes, the cultural festival here was remarkably modest in scale.
The festival lasted only a single day.
There were naturally no event performances featuring invited singers from outside.
At best, it was similar to the Seal Festival—a few external merchants would set up street stalls.
‘It’s less of a cultural festival and more like a day off from classes where everyone drinks and has fun.’
Well, there was supposedly a poetry competition (Lucas Kane had won it last year) held under the pretense that heroes needed literary refinement, but participation rates were abysmal in reality.
“Still, they do launch fireworks in the evening, don’t they?”
“Ah, well. I suppose they do.”
Whether they launched fireworks or cannonballs, I couldn’t care less.
“By the way, have you heard this story?”
“What story?”
“You know, when they set off the fireworks that evening. Among hundreds of fireworks, there’s supposedly one heart-shaped firework, and the rumor goes that any couple who kiss while that heart-shaped firework is bursting will stay together for life.”
“…There’s a rumor like that?”
I’d never heard of it before, not even in my previous life.
“It’s been spreading rapidly among the Candidate Program students recently.”
“It’s exactly the kind of rumor you’d expect to circulate around a school.”
Just as one would expect from a place where young people gathered, the Hero Academy was no exception.
As I was about to brush it off with a chuckle,
“Could you tell us more about that story?”
“About when the heart-shaped firework bursts, you mean?”
“Um, when exactly does it go off?”
I noticed Iris, Yurina, and Lanez huddled around Berald, their eyes sparkling like stars.
“…”
Why was this happening?
The cultural festival, which I’d dismissed without a second thought in my previous life, suddenly felt like it might be different this time.

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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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