The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 222

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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 222. Interlude – Fireworks (1)
“Haah.”
I exhaled a low breath and leaned my back against the wall.
Lifting my gaze to the sky, the darkness of night studded with glittering stars filled my vision.
A fatigue that seemed to crush down upon my body.
Though the battle with the Archbishop of Madness hadn’t lasted long, I’d poured everything into it, and now an overwhelming exhaustion flooded through me.
Whiiiiiing.
As I steadied my breathing with my back against the wall, I noticed transparent spider silk wrapping around the Annex Rooftop.
Soon, a single figure came racing up the Annex Building as if about to take flight.
“Dale! Are you alright?!”
Elisha approached urgently, seeing me sitting with my back against the wall.
“The Archbishop of Madness….”
Instead of answering, I pointed to one corner of the Annex Rooftop.
There, black ash that hadn’t yet fully scattered lay piled on the ground.
“…Did you win?”
“Well, it was a bit of a struggle, but yes.”
“….”
Elisha crouched down in front of me with a hardened expression.
She slowly reached out and caressed my cheek.
A touch far too soft and warm to belong to the “Spider.”
“…How many times did you die this time?”
“Not that many times.”
I truly died only once.
Though the Primordial Flame burned my body and I died a few more times, considering my opponent was the Archbishop of Madness, this wasn’t really that many deaths.
“Don’t speak of it so casually.”
Elisha narrowed her eyes and pinched my cheek with the hand that had been caressing it.
“I haven’t experienced dying and coming back to life like you have, but I know well enough that it’s not a pain to be laughed off so easily.”
She too had crossed countless battlefields and sustained more wounds than could be counted on her fingers.
Among them were wounds so severe that death would have been no surprise.
She’d been clawed by demonic beasts until bone showed through torn flesh, and she’d been cut by a Demon’s blade until her entrails spilled out.
The terrible pain she’d felt then was so intense it still haunted her nightmares occasionally.
‘But the pain Dale must have felt was on an entirely different level.’
He had surely experienced a pain beyond anything she could dare imagine.
“So….”
Elisha carefully drew Dale into an embrace.
Holding his head against her chest, she whispered softly.
“At least in front of me, you don’t have to pretend to be so strong.”
I recall that day’s memory.
When I first heard Dale speak of his past life.
The memory of him speaking so composedly as if unbothered, then trembling violently as he finally released the emotions he’d been suppressing.
“You’ve had a rough time.”
Elisha gently patted my head as she held me close, as if comforting a child.
“…Professor Elisha.”
“Did that help comfort you at all?”
“…”
Instead of answering, I gave a quiet nod.
“Hehe. I’m glad.”
Elisha held me for a while longer, patting my back gently, then took my hand and helped me to my feet.
“I’ll handle the cleanup, so you should go rest now, Dale.”
“No, there’s still something I need to do.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“Didn’t we agree to meet on the rooftop of the Party House this evening?”
“What?”
Elisha furrowed her brow slightly as she continued.
“Surely you’re not thinking of going to watch the fireworks in your current state?”
“It’s a promise. Besides, I’m just tired—my body is fine.”
“Fine? What do you mean fine!”
Elisha bit her lip and spoke sharply.
“Even if you look fine on the surface, you’re so exhausted you can barely stand!”
She was right.
I had overused the Primordial Flame so excessively that without Elisha’s support, I would have struggled to stand on my own.
“I still need to go.”
“You…!”
“The Cultural Festival only happens once a year, doesn’t it?”
In my past life, I never cared whether the festival happened or not.
‘But things are different now.’
Lanez, walking through the streets with an excited expression.
Iris and Yurina, smiling with delight.
Elisha, disappointed that she couldn’t enjoy the festival alone.
My life, which once had nothing, had become filled with so many precious things.
That’s why.
“Today, we should all enjoy it together.”
“…Sigh.”
Elisha exhaled deeply and pressed her hand to her forehead.
“Take my hand. I’ll take you to the Party House.”
“Thank you.”
I let out a soft laugh and took the hand Elisha offered.
* * *
When Elisha and I arrived at the rooftop of the Party House, I could see Lanez, Iris, and Yurina already waiting for us.
“Dale! Why are you so late?!”
“That’s right! We agreed to meet at six!”
Iris and Yurina—who had fortunately changed into their Academy uniforms—pouted at me and Elisha as we arrived late, their lips jutting out in displeasure.
“Oh, you made it… Dale.”
Lanez, crouched in the corner of the Rooftop, emanated a gloomy aura.
“T-time passed and you didn’t show, so I was wondering if I should j-just cut…”
“….”
Cut what, exactly?
“Sorry. I got held up doing some work with Elisha.”
“Work? What kind of work?”
“Academy patrols and monitoring outside merchants, that sort of thing.”
“Monitoring? Why would you be doing that, Dale?”
“I mentioned it before, didn’t I? I got selected for the Special Candidate Program this time.”
“Ah.”
Raonel had asked me to keep the Special Candidate Program confidential, but I’d already given my Party members a heads-up.
“The fireworks display is coming up soon, so I was investigating in case any problems arose—that’s why I’m late.”
I planned to tell them about the Archbishop of Madness after the Cultural Festival ended.
There was no point worrying them now.
“Sigh. You should have contacted us beforehand. We were worried something had happened to you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Hehe. It’s fine. We still have some time before the fireworks anyway.”
Iris smiled faintly, gazing up at the darkened night sky.
“You haven’t eaten anything since the omelette rice earlier, have you? Would you like me to prepare something simple with Lanez?”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Iris! What about me, me?!”
“Yurina, you stay here quietly. You helping means doing nothing at all.”
“Ugh. That’s so mean…”
Yurina deflated like a punctured balloon.
“Shall we head down to the Second Floor Lounge, Lanez?”
“U-uh, yeah. But…”
Lanez gently tugged at Iris’s collar and continued shyly.
“Lanez… don’t use the honorific. Just call me however feels natural.”
“Pardon? But…”
“W-we’re… colleagues… after all.”
“Oh my.”
Iris smiled knowingly as Lanez spoke with a flushed face, embarrassed.
“Then from now on, I’ll call you Lanez unnie.”
“Wh-unnie?!”
“Hmm? Isn’t that what you are?”
“W-well, yes, but… unnie…”
Lanez writhed at the unfamiliar term, as if hearing “unnie” for the very first time.
Yurina watched the scene unfold, a smirk playing at the corners of her mouth as she approached Lanez.
“Then can I call you Lanez from now on too?”
“Y-Yurina as well?”
“Why? Am I not allowed?”
“N-no! Yes… call me that!”
Lanez cried out in an excited voice.
“Ehehe… she called me… big sister…”
“Lanez. Stop that and come down quickly.”
“O-okay! I’m coming!”
Lanez followed Iris down to the Second Floor Lounge.
About fifteen minutes had passed since the two descended.
Lanez and Iris returned to the Rooftop carrying plates, accompanied by an appetizing aroma.
“Already? You finished cooking?”
“I prepared simple dishes that work well as appetizers.”
Iris set the plates on the table and retrieved a bottle of alcohol she had prepared in advance.
“Is Professor Elisha still occupied with work and unable to drink?”
“Well, it’s fine for now.”
“Then let me pour you a glass.”
After filling each of their glasses,
Cheers.
A casual drinking gathering began.
“It feels like the first time the five of us have gathered together to drink like this.”
“Ah, now that you mention it, you’re right.”
“Yeah. Usually there are other people around too…”
Iris, Yurina, Lanez, and Professor Elisha.
This was my first time sharing a drink with these four members of my Party who had forged such special bonds with me.
“This will become a frequent occurrence. It wouldn’t be bad to get used to it now.”
Professor Elisha tilted her glass with a faint smile.
“F-frequent…?”
“Hmm? Well, even if not immediately, eventually we’ll all be living in the same house, won’t we? Then every evening will feel like this.”
“”…!!!””
At Professor Elisha’s bombshell remark, Iris, Yurina, and Lanez widened their eyes in shock.
It was a future they hadn’t yet considered, having only recently become lovers.
“A-all of us… living in one house…?”
“With Dale… sharing a home…?”
Iris and Yurina, their cheeks flushed like ripe fruit as they imagined the future with excited expressions,
“Hup…! Y-you absolutely cannot enter my room, Dale…!”
And Lanez, trembling with a pale, sickly expression for some reason.
“There’s no need to make such a fuss. After all, there are many things we need to resolve before that…”
In that moment, Professor Elisha’s expression darkened.
“Something I need to resolve?”
“Is there something wrong?”
The moment confusion flickered across the three women’s faces.
Boom! Boom-boom-boom!
Fireworks burst across the night sky, illuminating the darkness.
“Wow!”
“It’s started!”
The fireworks display had begun.
Though the Party House was quite a distance from the Central Plaza.
The brilliant cascade of colors painting the night sky was impossible to miss, even from afar.
“We do this every year… but I’ve never seen it look this beautiful before.”
Iris gazed upward at the sky, a gentle smile gracing her lips.
“I, I know. Every year during the festival, I’d deliberately go to bed early….”
“This year, it’s nice having someone to watch it with, isn’t it, sister?”
“Y-yes. Being together like this… it’s nice.”
Lanez looked up at the sky with a bashful smile.
“Oh, now that I think about it… we haven’t decided on the most important thing yet.”
As Iris broached the subject, all four women’s gazes turned toward me.
“Who should kiss?”
“….”
“….”
A heavy silence fell.
The warm atmosphere that had filled the moment before froze in an instant.

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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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