The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 221

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

Chapter 221. Seven Star Cultural Festival (7)
“Multiple… lives?”
Seto clutched his pierced abdomen, his eyes narrowing in incomprehension.
Multiple lives?
What kind of nonsensical drivel was that supposed to be?
‘It’s not regeneration.’
My entire body had been shattered into fragments no larger than two finger joints, yet I returned completely intact.
Even if one drained the Holy Kingdom’s entire supply of elixir, such a thing would be impossible.
Therefore.
Not regeneration, but resurrection.
It wasn’t a human on the brink of death miraculously returning to life—it was as though a corpse long dead had suddenly risen from its tomb with vigor.
And it had returned as though it had never died at all.
“Exactly, how could you… AAAAAAAH!”
Whoooosh!
Searing ash-fire consumed Seto’s body.
“Since I won the game, I get to ask the questions.”
“Ugh! You, this bastard… ARGH!”
I approached the fallen Seto and seized his throat, hoisting him into the air.
“Gasp, cough!”
Seto gasped in agony, his throat constricted.
Given his diminutive frame, his legs dangled uselessly in the empty air.
“You said you had information about the Eternal Order, didn’t you?”
“Ugh…”
“Don’t even think of moving. Unless you want to become nothing but ash.”
Whoooosh!
Ash-fire engulfed the captured Seto’s body.
Wrapped in the ashen flames, his face drained of all color as he bit his lips.
“You… are you really a Candidate? Or better yet, are you even human?”
“I’m a Candidate, and I’m human.”
At least far more human than someone who summoned unrelated people for their own amusement and orchestrated a bombing attack.
“The Eternal Order—what exactly are they?”
“Heh… I don’t know much about who they are either.”
“Is that so?”
Whoooosh!
The ash-fire enveloping Seto’s body flared viciously.
“But I do know that Mephistopheles is secretly colluding with them.”
“…Keep talking.”
Effective indeed.
“I don’t know what purpose Mephistopheles had in contacting those mysterious figures, but I do know where they’re gathering right now.”
“Where?”
Seto’s lips curled into a smirk as he continued.
“The Imperial Palace.”
Across this vast Continent, there was only one place that could bear the title of “Imperial Palace.”
‘The Imperial Palace of the Empire.’
The Empire—the undisputed strongest of the three nations that ruled the Continent.
And the Emperor who governed that Empire, the current number one ranked Hero.
‘Empress’ Camelia Padshah.
The place where she resided.
‘Empress Camelia….’
The moment her name crossed my mind, a certain incident from my past life surfaced.
The worst catastrophe that had plunged the peaceful Continent into the abyss of war in a single moment.
‘The Assassination of Camelia.’
The current number one ranked Hero.
The incident where she, who was called the ‘Incarnation of the Seven Gods’ and boasted overwhelming majesty through her innate blessed power, was discovered as a corpse one morning.
Regarding her death, which bore no trace of resistance whatsoever, countless theories circulated.
She had taken her own life.
Someone had poisoned her with deadly toxin.
It was the work of the Demon God’s incarnation, and so forth.
Though many speculations arose, ultimately the culprit was never found.
‘The Empire, having lost its leader overnight, began to crumble rapidly.’
As a result, the relations between the Three Nations, which had been maintained reasonably well until then, descended into catastrophe.
‘War between the Empire and the Republic.’
The Empire, needing to vent its directionless rage somewhere, and the Republic, revealing its ambition to devour the Empire amid the chaos.
Hundreds and thousands of Heroes vanished as dew upon the battlefield from the war between the two nations.
‘There’s still more than five years before the assassination incident occurs….’
Well.
Considering the previous attack by the Archbishop of Beasts, I couldn’t trust the information from my past life.
The future had already become too twisted to predict.
“…Why did those bastards go to the Imperial Palace?”
“Hell if I know.”
“Really?”
Whoooosh!
The embers flared up viciously once more.
“No! I really don’t know!”
Seto thrashed about, his face drained of color.
Judging from the desperation etched across his features, he didn’t seem to be lying.
‘So that’s all the information I can extract.’
That the Beastkin Group’s true identity was what they called the ‘Eternal Order.’
And that they had headed toward the Imperial Palace together with Mephistopheles.
‘Though somehow it feels like I’ve only accumulated more questions.’
Still, this much counted as a decent harvest.
At least I no longer needed to spend the entire day ransacking Valhalla City searching for the Beastkin Group, whose whereabouts remained unknown.
‘That aside.’
I glanced back at Seto, trembling violently while engulfed in ashen flames.
‘Was the Archbishop of Madness always this kind of person?’
They say no one can avoid trembling in fear before death.
Yet for an archbishop bearing the title of “Madness,” his appearance was far too pathetic.
“S-so, have you finished asking everything you wanted to know?”
“Yeah.”
Seto asked in a quavering voice.
Just as I nodded and was about to ignite the ashen flames—
“But hey… you didn’t forget something, did you?”
Seto, who moments before had been trembling in terror, split his lips into a grotesque grin.
“…Forget?”
“The bomb, the bomb! You forgot about it?”
Seto burst into cackling laughter as he stared at me.
“Hahahaha! Even if I die, I absolutely wanted to see that thing explode!!!”
“….”
Right.
I’d sensed something was off.
“You were acting terrified just to buy time?”
“Exactly! Do you know how worried I was that you’d kill me right away?”
Seto grinned widely and thrashed his feet roughly.
Ssshhhhh!
The moment Seto moved, the ashen flames enveloping him savagely consumed his flesh.
“Ahhhhh! It burns! It burns! It burns! It’s so hooooot!”
Even as his body was being incinerated, Seto bounced and leaped, bursting into wild laughter.
“Ahahahahaha!”
What could possibly bring him such joy?
Seto turned to face me with a serene smile.
“To be honest, I’m a little disappointed in you.”
“…Disappointed?”
“Yeah! I really thought you were a true ‘hero’!”
Seto shaped his hand like a gun and pointed it at his own head.
“Remember the game we played before? Back then, you pulled the trigger five times on your own head! To protect your comrades’ lives!”
Seto continued speaking, clasping his hands together as if recalling that day’s memory.
“I thought then—ah, I’ve finally met a true hero! Someone who cares nothing for his own life, who can sacrifice himself for others until the very moment of death!”
But.
“The reason you could pull that trigger back then wasn’t because you were a true hero.”
Because you possessed the ability to resurrect even after death, you could pull the trigger without hesitation.
“You were nothing but a common fake… just another counterfeit found anywhere in the world.”
Someone who simply possessed multiple lives.
Phonies who put on airs of nobility, yet in the end reveal their grotesque true nature and scramble to save themselves.
“And here’s the proof.”

Seto surveyed the Central Plaza, where the Festival was reaching its crescendo.
Candidates gathered in the Central Plaza, huddled together with joyful smiles on their faces, anticipating the fireworks.
“You drew your blade against me instead of saving those people, didn’t you?”
Seto’s lips twisted into a grotesque grin as he stared at me.
“Dale, you can be resurrected even if you die, right?”
But here’s the thing.
“Even if your life isn’t just one, what about everyone else?”
He spread both arms wide and smiled brilliantly.
“Now! It’s time for the fireworks!!!”
Along with his booming laughter.
“BOOM!!!”
A massive explosion should have erupted in the Central Plaza….
“Huh?”
It didn’t happen.
“What, what? Why didn’t it go off?”
Seto’s head swiveled in confusion, his expression bewildered.
Watching him like that, I suppressed a quiet chuckle.
Then.
Ding.
An alarm sounded from my Hero Watch.
[Dale, all bombs installed in the Central Plaza have been located and removed.]
“Thank you.”
[I’ll head over there right away for support.]
“No, that’s not necessary. We’re nearly finished here anyway.”
After ending the call, I walked leisurely toward Seto, who stood frozen in shock.
“…How?”
Seto blinked, unable to comprehend the situation.
“Insight’s Blessing shouldn’t have been able to track the bombs’ locations?”
“That’s right.”
If this were an ‘ordinary’ situation, that is.
“What exactly did you do?”
“Did you know? Insight’s Blessing amplifies its effects when you consume the target’s bodily fluids.”
“…Bodily fluids?”
“Yes, for instance… your ‘blood.'”
I gestured toward the blood flowing through Seto’s body.
“Wait, hold on! When did the spider ever get to drink my blood?!”
“Don’t you remember? Your side got slashed by the sword I threw.”
“…!”
Seto’s eyes widened in alarm as he whipped his head around urgently.
It hadn’t been long after the battle began.
He hadn’t noticed the sword that had flown past, slicing through his flank.
“I didn’t try to save the people in the Central Plaza because there was never any need to save them in the first place.”
“You….”
“And what? You could pull the trigger because you’d just come back to life anyway?”
I let out a soft laugh and seized Seto’s head in my grip.
“Have you ever died and come back to life?”
“….”
“Of course you haven’t.”
I slowly concentrated my mana into the hand gripping Seto’s head.
“Want to experience it?”
“…What.”
“There’s a type of spirit magic that allows you to share memories.”
Of course, I couldn’t forcibly extract someone else’s memories.
The only memories I could share were my own.
And even then, not complete memories—merely fragmented shards of recollection.
But.
That was enough for now.
“Wait, hold—!”
Before Seto could stumble backward in shock,
foreign memories flooded into his mind.
“Ah.”
The memory of a head being severed.
The memory of limbs being crushed.
The memory of eyes being torn from their sockets while still alive.
The memory of a jaw being ripped away.
The memory of being split open from crown to groin.
The memory of entrails spilling through a ruptured flank.
Shattering bone, tearing flesh. Torrents of blood.
And.
“Ugh, ah.”
Within countless deaths,
The memory of being ‘resurrected’.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!”
Seto convulsed violently, clutching his head as if seized by a seizure.
I gazed down at Seto thrashing about with eyes rolled back, my lips curling into a sinister smile.
“How about it?”
Could you pull the trigger if it were you?

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