The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 22

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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 22. So It Was You? (3)
“Ah… ugh, ahhh!”
The man shrieked through his burst and mangled lips.
I stared down at him with eyes sunken deep, bringing the tip of my blade to the corner of his eye.
“Not going to answer?”
Then there’s no helping it.
“Let’s start with the most useless eye….”
“W-wait…! I’ll talk! I’ll tell you, please just stop…!”
The man pleaded in a desperate voice.
“Yeah? Then go ahead and spill it.”
“I, that is… ah, what you asked before… so….”
The man trembled violently, his head bowed as he tried to recall the memories before the beating.
And then.
-Uuuuuuung!
A torrent of black light erupted from his left chest.
“You were asking how you wanted me to kill you, weren’t you?!”
The man who had been hunched over sprang up like a coiled spring, his arms crossed.
Two scythes now gripped in his hands.
He spread his crossed arms like wings, and the scythes wreathed in black light swung out viciously.
“Looks like this old man took so much of a beating that his memory’s gotten a bit fuzzy.”
Watching the man charge at me with a gleeful expression, as if he’d found an opening, I smirked and stepped back.
From the start, ‘Pressure Point’ was a technique designed to easily subdue opponents with relatively little mana.
I already knew that with my pathetically meager mana reserves, I couldn’t keep a Demon Human restrained for long.
‘But.’
Just because I couldn’t restrain him for long didn’t mean he was an opponent I couldn’t handle.
“Now, let me ask you one more time, and listen carefully this time, will you?”
Solar Blade.
First Form, Initial Darkness.
An upward slash rising from the lower corner.
My blade threaded between the two scythes swinging viciously, cutting through the man’s chest as if performing acrobatics.
Flesh tearing open, blood gushing forth.
“Ah, ugh.”
The man’s face drained of color as he pressed both hands against his bleeding chest.
Clang.
The two scythes fell from his hands and rolled across the ground.
“What… what are you exactly….”
“I’m the one asking questions here.”
Crunch!
I stomped brutally on the fallen man’s knee.
His screams echoed sharply through the Cave.
“What was the Demon Human doing here?”
“Ah, uh….”
“Let me think… which part did you say was most useless earlier?”
“I, I was merely following orders!”
“Whose?”
“That is….”
The man averted his gaze from mine, turning his head slightly to the side.
Just as he began to answer, his anxious expression betraying the way he gnawed at his lips.
“Ah… cough! Gack, hack!”
Suddenly the man clawed at his chest violently, crying out in agony.
His wide-open eyes were bloodshot and crimson, while grotesque veins bulged like tree roots, creeping up his neck and spreading across his face.
“This is….”
Had they placed a curse to prevent information from leaking?
I reached out desperately toward the man, who trembled violently like he’d been electrocuted, blood foam at his lips.
“Tsk.”
By then, all light had already drained from the man’s pupils.
In truth, I’d considered the possibility of a curse from the moment I subdued him.
‘It was a high-grade curse.’
Most ordinary curses activated when specific words were spoken or certain actions taken.
But the curse on this man was a high-grade one that severed his life the instant he harbored the will to divulge information.
“What exactly are these people?”
From the way he’d mentioned “Priest” earlier, it seemed certain they were affiliated with the Demon God Church.
But since the Demon God Church itself had so many factions and operated as a cell network, there was no way to determine which faction they belonged to.
“Hmm.”
First, I picked up and examined the black nail-like object the man had been carrying.
‘It seems to be something that affects the ley lines.’
This cave was a place where ley lines flowed densely enough for Seven-Star Grass infused with mana to grow in abundance.
From the way he’d driven the nail into the stone wall and poured demonic energy through it, I could infer it was meant to affect the ley lines somehow.
“But I can’t determine exactly what effect it has.”
I wondered if perhaps this nail was the reason the Demon God’s seal had weakened in my past life.
‘No, that can’t be it.’
If the Demon God’s seal could be weakened by merely driving such a small nail into a wall, it would have already been broken long ago.
Even if there were dozens or hundreds of these black nails, the result would be the same.
The Demon God’s seal was not so fragile as to weaken from merely affecting the ley lines slightly.
‘Then what is it?’
I continued pondering, but no answer emerged.
‘Perhaps I should search for more clues.’
As I reached toward the corpse sprawled on the floor.
-Tap, tap.
Faint footsteps echoing from somewhere distant.
I halted my extended hand toward the man and spread mana throughout my body to activate my sensory perception.
‘Three… or perhaps four?’
It wasn’t difficult to discern who the footsteps belonged to.
‘The one who gave this creature orders.’
They were likely approaching this way to assess the situation, as the man’s return had been delayed.
“Hmm.”
The four approaching me were certainly not the entirety of Demon Humans hidden within the Academy.
‘There will be more.’
While I couldn’t yet discern their purpose for infiltrating the Academy, any faction bold enough to penetrate a school teeming with Heroes couldn’t possibly be a minor faction comprised of mere handful of Demon Humans.
‘Even if I subdued them, the curse would prevent me from extracting information.’
I needed to find another method to trace the tail of the Demon God Church faction.
“So then, how should I proceed….”
As I continued my thoughts, two scythes lying scattered on the ground entered my vision.
The moment I saw them, an idea flashed through my mind.
“Ah.”
There was that method.
“Let me see first….”
I severed the neck of the Demon Human lying dead, blood still dripping from his mouth.
‘With this, they won’t suspect he died from the curse.’
I lifted my lips in a sinister smile and picked up one of the scythes scattered on the ground.
And next.
Thud.
Without hesitation, I brought the scythe down toward my abdomen.
* * *
“How long has it been since we lost contact with Husk?”
Four men clad in black robes.
The man with crimson hair standing at the forefront turned his head.
Grotesque burn scars covered his entire left cheek.
His deeply sunken eyes gleamed with a blood-red light so sinister that merely witnessing it sent shivers down one’s spine.
“That would be… approximately thirty minutes ago, sir.”
“Thirty minutes.”
The man with crimson hair’s brow furrowed slightly.
“I distinctly remember instructing that the task of driving the nail should be carried out by at least two people together.”
“I-I sincerely apologize, Calix Priest!”
The three Demon Humans standing behind the man called Calix Priest bowed their heads in terror-stricken expressions.
Calix turned to regard his subordinates with eyes gone cold, then clicked his tongue and turned away.
“…We’ll address the matter of punishment later.”
“Yes, sir!”
For now, locating the Demon Human who had lost contact was the priority.
“Show me the way.”
“Yes, sir!”
Calix Priest and his subordinates entered deeper into the Cave, moving swiftly while remaining vigilant of their surroundings.
When they reached the position where they were to drive the “nail,” what they found was.
“Ah… ugh, ah. P-please… save me. Please….”
A single Candidate sprawled on the ground, blood pouring from their abdomen, and the corpse of Husk lying dead with his neck severed.
“Why would a Candidate be here at this hour…?”
As Calix Priest narrowed his eyes and turned to his subordinates, one of the three Demon Humans answered in an urgent voice.
“Oh, today was definitely supposed to be a day without Outdoor Training Grounds scheduled!”
“Hmm.”
Then this meant the Candidate had entered with a separate access permit from a professor.
“This has become troublesome.”
From the scene unfolding before his eyes, it wasn’t difficult to deduce what had transpired within this Cave.
‘That Candidate must have discovered Husk after entering the Outdoor Training Grounds with a professor’s permit.’
And after a fierce struggle, Husk’s neck was severed and he died, while the Candidate suffered a fatal wound as their abdomen was split open by Husk’s scythe.
“Tsk, pathetic wretch.”
Calix Priest looked down at Husk’s corpse lying on the ground and clicked his tongue in disdain.
How could someone blessed by the Demon God, even if merely a lowest-ranking acolyte, lose to nothing more than a Hero Candidate—not even a proper Hero?
From the perspective of a Demon Human who had received the Demon God’s blessing like Husk, it was a shameful disgrace that could scarcely be tolerated.
‘The plan has gone awry.’
Calix Priest narrowed his eyes as if his head ached.
The plan he had been conducting in secret, avoiding the Outdoor Training Grounds schedule, had been thrown into chaos by the intrusion of some nameless Candidate.
‘If that person learns of this fact….’
Calix Priest trembled slightly, his eyes clenched shut.
‘I must conceal this no matter what.’
Should word of the plan’s disruption reach that person’s ears, he might very well become the corpse rolling about on this floor instead of Husk.
“By the way… what should we do with that Candidate? If we leave them as is, they’ll die from blood loss before long.”
A Demon Human asked, looking down at the Candidate who was gasping as though their last breath might escape at any moment.
Calix Priest gave his order in a decisive voice, as if there was no need to deliberate.
“Kill them.”
“What? B-but!”
If word that the Candidate had died reached the Academy, the professors would surely take action.
“W-wouldn’t it be better to treat them and silence them, then send them back to the Academy?”
“Silence them?”
A bitter smile played at the corners of Calix Priest’s mouth.
Treat this nameless Candidate, silence them through appropriate threats and inducements, and send them back to the Academy, he said.
‘If things went according to plan, that would be the best method.’
But.
“I do not trust the living.”
Calix Priest’s fingertips extended toward the fallen Candidate.
Uuuuuuung!
Black luminescence erupted from my left chest, coalescing into the form of a dark awl.
And then.
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, the black awl shot forth and pierced straight through the Candidate’s heart.
“Ugh… hack!”
The gray-haired Candidate let out a final death rattle before collapsing.
“Dispose of it.”
“Yes, at once!”
Terrified by Calix Priest’s merciless hand, the Demon Humans hastily hoisted the corpse—its heart still impaled—onto their backs.
Calix Priest turned to regard his subordinates bearing the body, clicked his tongue, and pivoted away.
“If you wish to survive in this world, remember this well: never trust the living.”
The only ones worthy of trust are always.
“The dead.”
Calix Priest spoke in an icy voice as he made his way toward the hideout.

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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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