The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 223

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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 223. Intermission – Fireworks (2)
Colorful fireworks illuminated the night sky.
As the Festival drew to a close with everyone basking in happiness.
The rooftop of the Party House was shrouded in a cold atmosphere that clashed entirely with the warm word “Festival.”
“I believe this, you see.”
Iris was the first to speak.
True to her title as Saint, she continued with a smile brimming with mercy and affection.
“Just as the Seven Gods were created over seven nights, all things in this world follow an order.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’ll take the kiss as the representative, so the rest of you should stay quiet and accept it.”
….
At her bold declaration of monopoly—so at odds with her gentle voice—the eyes of Lanez, Yurina, and Professor Elisha gleamed coldly.
“Heh. If we’re going by that logic, the first of the Seven Gods created was the Sun, so I should be the one?”
“Yurina, you don’t have the Sun’s stigma.”
“I can just wear the pendant.”
“…You’re saying you’ll kiss Dale while in male form?”
“Dale will understand.”
What.
“…That’s not the expression of someone who understands at all.”
“Anyway! It’s unfair for Iris to be the only one kissing Dale!”
Yurina shook her head firmly, as if it were absolutely unacceptable.
“W-well, that’s true. Both Iris and Yurina… it’s unfair for both of them.”
Crunch.
Lanez nervously gnawed at her nails.
Her eyes hollow and devoid of light, she moved her lips as if chanting a curse while staring at Iris and Yurina.
“IrisandYurinaalreadydidXwithDale.Andnowthey’retryingtokisstoo?Unfairunfairunfairunfair.BothofthemaretalldarkandhavefriendsbutihavenothingunlessitisDale.IwanttodowiththDaletoo.Icandoitbetterthanthemsowhydoesithavetobemeonlymeonly.”
“I’m not entirely sure what Candidate Lanez is saying, but I must admit she makes a somewhat valid point.”
Professor Elisha sat in her chair with arms crossed, leisurely crossing her legs.
“Aren’t Candidates Iris and Yurina already involved with Candidate Dale? Wanting a kiss on top of that seems a bit excessive, don’t you think?”
“T-that’s a completely different matter!”
“That’s right! This only happens once a year!”
As the argument grew increasingly heated.
The gazes of four women intersected.
‘Wait, why did the mood suddenly shift like this?’
Just moments ago, everything felt so warm between us.
‘You said we were colleagues! That we’d all live together later…!’
Unable to voice the words that rose to my throat, I stood between the four women and swallowed hard.
And there was one more thing.
There was a bigger problem than who would do the kissing.
‘Heart-shaped fireworks don’t even explode in the first place.’
That’s right.
The rumor about heart-shaped fireworks exploding was merely a fabrication Seto had spread to gather couples in the Central Plaza.
“Come to think of it, there’s an old saying in the Republic: ‘The young must not covet what belongs to their elders.'”
“…What does that mean?”
“It means the young shouldn’t dare desire what belongs to adults.”
No.
But Professor Elisha, you already know the heart-shaped fireworks aren’t going to explode.
Why have you been appealing so earnestly since earlier?
“Don’t you think the same way, Dale?”
Watching Professor Elisha’s lips curl upward in a smirk, a memory suddenly struck me—something she’d said at the hot spring last time.
-I’ll remember this humiliation well!
….
Could it be… she’s seeking revenge for teasing her at the hot spring?
“Hehe. Why aren’t you answering quickly?”
Damn it.
That expression makes it clear she’s definitely teasing me.
“Hmph! In any case, I won’t compromise on this!”
“I, I won’t either! I… I understand Professor Elisha and Lanez’s feelings too, but… I don’t want to miss an opportunity like this!”
Others might think that since we’ve all agreed to become lovers together, why would we fight over something so trivial?
But there exist certain small matters in this world that are precisely because of their insignificance that one cannot yield on them.
Especially for someone like me who has never experienced romantic events as sweet as “if you kiss when heart-shaped fireworks explode, your love will last forever.”
“W, well… we, we’ll have to split it somehow….”
Just as this fierce dispute over management rights was about to face physical division(?),
“Everyone, calm down.”
Unable to watch this unfold any longer, I exhaled slowly and opened my mouth.
“So… all we need to do is kiss while the heart-shaped fireworks are exploding, right?”
Breathing slowly and steadily.
I drew upon the power of Primordial Flame.
‘Ugh.’
The moment I tried to summon Primordial Flame, overwhelming fatigue crashed over me—perhaps the mana I’d expended fighting the Archbishop of Madness hadn’t yet recovered.
It felt like wringing water from a bone-dry cloth.
‘Still.’
Gritting my teeth, I pulled forth the power.
Whoooosh!
Ash-white flames pierced the darkness and soared high into the sky.
And then.
Boom!
Ash-white flames blazed brilliantly, tracing the shape of a heart.
A colossal firework embroidered the heavens so magnificently that the fireworks bursting far away in the Central Plaza looked pathetic by comparison.
“This is….”
“Ohhh.”
Lovers gazing up at the heart-shaped embers burning across the sky, their voices filled with wonder.
While they were still marveling, I quickly approached Elisha.
“Professor Elisha. Could you relay a message to Professor Bianca? Tell her I secretly prepared heart-shaped fireworks as a surprise event.”
Since the fireworks had detonated unexpectedly in the sky, there was a chance she might mistake it for an external terrorist attack.
“Hmm. So you’re escaping this way….”
Elisha chuckled with a hint of regret, then shrugged her shoulders and activated her Hero Watch to send a message to Bianca.
“Well then….”
I slowly walked toward the lovers still gazing up at the fireworks made of ash-white embers.
Since these weren’t real fireworks but rather embers I’d conjured, they wouldn’t burst and vanish in an instant.
“Iris.”
“Yes? …Mm.”
One by one, they could enjoy this ‘event’ for as long as they wished without any issues.
Starting with Iris, I slowly kissed each of them in turn.
Only after I had kissed all four of my lovers beneath the primordial flames that so beautifully adorned the night sky did I realize.
Whoosh.
The ash-white embers illuminating the night sky began to fade.
“Phew. That should do it, right?”
I turned to look at my lovers, exhaling in relief at having overcome this crisis.
Yes, they’d all gotten their kisses as they desired, so surely everyone was satisfied now….
“Dale….”
“…It’s not enough.”
“Y-yes. Right, not enough. That… that was nowhere near…!”
My lovers gazed at me like ravenous beasts, their breathing heavy with excitement.
“Huh?”
There were several facts I had overlooked.
First, no matter how unlimited the time was, kissing all four of them meant each one received only a brief moment.
Second, a half-satisfied appetite makes hunger worse than no satisfaction at all.
Third, though they all appeared composed on the surface, they had already consumed a fair amount of alcohol before the fireworks even began.
And finally.
“Give us a little more….”
“Dale. Come here.”
“F-first… let’s t-tie up your legs so you c-can’t escape.”
“I’ll handle the binding.”
Actions one wouldn’t take alone become permissible in a group, justified by the thought that ‘everyone else does it anyway, so what’s the harm?’
“Wait, everyone, just calm down… Ugh!”
Shing.
Elisha’s webbing bound my body.
Under normal circumstances, I could have torn through it easily, but now I had almost no mana left after my battle with the Archbishop of Madness.
Moreover, I had recklessly used the primordial flames to create the ash-white embers, leaving my body completely drained of strength.
In other words.
“Ehehe. Dale~.”
“N-no, this time I want to go first!”
“Haa, haa. Dale….”
“Hmm. Well, this situation has become quite entertaining, hasn’t it?”
There was no way to resist the lovers approaching with eyes gleaming like predators who had caught their prey.
“Everyone, please calm down… mmph… mmph!”
And so.
The curtain fell on the Seven Star Cultural Festival.
* * *
“He fell asleep right away.”
“Now that I think about it… Dale seemed exhausted from earlier. Did something happen?”
“Hmm.”
Elisha wore an awkward expression as she gazed at the unconscious Dale.
A belated sense of regret—’Did I go too far?’—flickered across her face.
“Do you know something, Professor Elisha?”
“Well… just hear it directly from Dale’s mouth later.”
It was better for Dale to explain the matter concerning the Archbishop of Madness himself.
“By the way… Professor Elisha.”
“Hmm? What is it, Candidate Yurina?”
“I… um, would it be okay if I called you… sister?”
“….”
Sister.
At the unexpected title, a soft laugh escaped from between Elisha’s lips.
“That would be difficult while you’re still attending the Academy.”
“Ah… y-yes, that’s true.”
“Hehe. But if we end up living together later… well, then you can call me that.”
Elisha felt a ticklish happiness wash over her and shrugged her shoulders.
‘Sister.’
Even though they harbored feelings for the same man, she had never thought of Iris, Yurina, or Lanez as younger sisters.
‘…It’s not a bad feeling.’
For her, who had lost her family in childhood and lived alone, the sensation that the existence of a ‘younger sister’ brought was peculiar and precious.
“Come to think of it, none of us have intact families.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
Iris was born an orphan, Yurina was essentially estranged from her mother, and Lanez had nearly died at the hands of her own mother who had gone berserk.
“The fact that we, who had no connection whatsoever, came together like this… it’s all thanks to Dale.”
Iris gently stroked the sleeping Dale’s head and offered a faint smile.
“I wonder if Dale knows how much of a salvation he has been to us?”
“Well, Dale probably doesn’t care about things like that at all.”
“I agree.”
The four women gazed down at sleeping Dale, their minds drifting into contemplation.
“By the way… later on… we’ll all live together, won’t we?”
Lanez carefully broke the silence that threatened to stretch on indefinitely.
“Well, I suppose that’s how it will be, just as Elisha mentioned.”
“Then… at that time… besides kissing, we’ll… we’ll do other things… all together too?”
“Huh?”
Iris’s eyes widened at Lanez’s unexpected bombshell.
“Oh, no. I don’t think that would be quite….”
“Hehe. It’s fine!”
Lanez flashed a radiant smile and clenched her fist with determination.
“I’ve already thought of a good solution!”
“…?”
Sensing that probing further would be unwise, Iris hastily changed the subject.
“Well then, since Dale has fallen asleep, shall we have another drink among ourselves?”
“A splendid idea.”
“I want to drink too!”
“…Yurina, you cannot.”
“Nooo! Why only me?!”
Darkness draped over the Party House rooftop like a curtain.
Their private celebration was raising its curtain once more.

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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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