The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 23

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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 23. So It Was You? (4)
Valhalla—a city built around the Hero Academy.
As a city situated in a ‘neutral zone’ alongside the Academy, it was where the cultures of the Three Kingdoms converged to bloom into a magnificent civilization.
Connoisseurs say that Valhalla is more luxurious than the Empire’s capital, more grand than the Holy Kingdom’s capital, and more developed than the Republic’s capital.
Yet the brighter a city’s light shines, the darker the shadow it casts beneath.
Valhalla harbored a sprawling slum more sinister and vast than anywhere else on the Continent.
In the gloomy streets of Valhalla’s slum—infamously known as the ‘Ant Nest’—a group clad in black robes moved through the shadows.
The men in black robes emanated such a sinister aura that even the Ant Nest’s residents, intoxicated on drugs and alcohol and fearless of the world, would flinch and turn away at the mere sight of them.
“Open it.”
“Yes, Calix Priest!”
Calix Priest’s subordinates ventured into the labyrinthine alleyways of the Ant Nest and pressed their palms against a blank wall.
—Whoooosh!
As black light flowed into the wall from three directions, a circular entrance materialized in the previously featureless surface.
“Sigh.”
Back at the hideout, Calix Priest stripped off his robe and exhaled a heavy breath.
‘Now, what do I do.’
To make the dead Candidate disappear as a ‘missing person,’ there were many places that needed attention.
‘First, I need to find someone who looks as similar as possible to that Candidate.’
The plan was simple.
A Candidate, unable to bear the academic stress and the professor’s persecution, had fled the Academy and run home.
To construct this narrative, I needed to find someone with an appearance as close as possible to the Candidate and establish an alibi that they had fled home.
‘First, I need to find out where he’s from.’
By his appearance, he seemed to be from the Republic.
Unlike five hundred years ago when the Republic’s people had just crossed over from the world called ‘Korea,’ time had blended their race considerably with the Continent’s inhabitants, making it impossible to judge hastily by appearance alone.
‘I need to finish this as quickly as possible before he finds out.’
Calix Priest bit his lip with an anxious expression.
“You’ve arrived, Calix Priest!”
“I heard that Husk’s contact was cut off….”
As he entered the hideout, his subordinates waiting inside rushed out toward him.
Thirty Demon Humans had emerged.
They were Demon Humans of the Demon God Church, carrying out the tasks necessary for the plan under Calix Priest’s command.
“All of you, quiet.”
Calix Priest issued a heavy command to his flustered subordinates and sat in a chair.
“Calix, what about this Candidate’s corpse….”
“Leave it in that corner. Chop Husk’s body into pieces and feed it to the stray dogs.”
“Y-yes, I’ll obey!”
Even for Demon Humans who served the Demon God, the cruel command to dismember a dead comrade’s corpse and feed it to strays left them stammering.
“By the way.”
Calix Priest’s eyes gleamed ominously.
“Who was supposed to go with Husk today to drive the ‘nail’?”
“That….”
The Demon Humans’ gazes converged on a single figure.
“Was it you?”
“I, well, that is… Calix.”
The Demon Human, his face drained of color, stumbled backward and bowed his head beneath Calix’s feet.
“I’m sorry! I swear this will never happen again!”
“Indeed, it won’t happen again.”
Calix’s lips curled into a smirk as he extended his hand toward the bowing Demon Human.
“I do not trust the living.”
“H-help!”
“The only ones I can trust are always.”
The dead.
“C-Calix! Please!”
Black light gathered before his outstretched palm.
Demonic energy coalesced into the shape of sharp thorns and shot forth like an arrow, piercing through the Demon Human’s skull.
“Chop up this corpse and feed it to them.”
“Yes, sir!”
The surrounding Demon Humans, their faces twisted in terror as they watched, dragged the corpse with its grotesquely pierced skull into the chamber.
“Sigh.”
Having snuffed out one subordinate’s life in an instant, Calix leaned back against his chair with an unbothered expression.
“How is the work progressing on the other ley lines?”
“I-it’s proceeding smoothly, sir.”
“There aren’t any fools wandering about alone conducting operations like that idiot, are there?”
“N-no, sir!”
His subordinates answered with visibly tense expressions.
“Tsk.”
Calix clicked his tongue, dissatisfied.
There were undoubtedly subordinates among them who unknowingly violated discipline.
He wanted nothing more than to hunt down every single one who broke the rules and execute them, but doing so would leave him short on personnel for the operations.
“Um… Priest.”
“What is it.”
“Then, until we fabricate an alibi for that Candidate, should we suspend the ley line operations for the time being?”
By tomorrow at the latest, the professor who issued the permit to the Candidate would surely notice one of them had vanished.
Until false evidence was created proving the Candidate had fled of his own accord rather than disappeared from the Outdoor Training Grounds, the risk to the operations was far too great.
“Hmm.”
Calix, who had paused to consider his subordinate’s words, shook his head with a grave expression.
“No. The operations will proceed as planned.”
“B-but!”
“The professor who sent the Candidate to the Outdoor Training Grounds won’t report it to the Academy just because contact was lost for a day or two.”
After all, the professor himself would bear responsibility for issuing the permit, so he would have no choice but to cover his own tracks.
‘At best, he’ll just search for it on his own.’
Of course, regardless of the outcome, the operational risk was definitely increasing.
“If the operation is delayed, the plan will be delayed.”
“But we still have a full year before the actual plan execution begins, don’t we?”
“You fool! Why do you think we’ve been preparing this operation for several years already?”
Calix clicked his tongue with a look of disdain.
“The task of gradually infusing ‘curses’ into the ley lines to construct a large-scale ritual is so complex that even he required such an extended preparation period.”
And above all else.
‘The moment word spreads that the plan has encountered a setback, I die.’
No matter what, this incident had to remain hidden.
“If you understand, quickly find someone with a face similar to that Candidate and bring him here.”
“Yes, understood.”
Demon Human bowed his head and approached the corner where the Candidate’s corpse had been left.
“Let’s see… what did this bastard’s face look like again?”
The situation had been so urgent earlier that there hadn’t been time to examine the Candidate’s face properly.
As I moved my steps toward the Candidate’s corpse left in the corner.
“…Huh?”
Gray ash swirling in the corner.
“What is this?”
Demon Human furrowed his brow and swept away the gray ash scattered across the floor with his foot.
And then.
Whoosh!
“…What?”
Along with a brilliant blue flash, Demon Human’s head rolled across the floor.
“So… that’s how it was.”
The gray-haired Candidate, whom I had believed to be dead with his heart pierced, rose to his feet.
“What, what is this?”
“This is impossible…!”
Not only the Demon Humans standing nearby, but even Calix stared at the rising Candidate with eyes wide in disbelief.
“He was… alive?”
No.
That couldn’t be right.
‘I clearly pierced his heart?’
Rising urgently from his chair to examine the Candidate, Calix saw that the chest that had been torn open by the thorns of magical energy had completely regenerated.
“What on earth is this…?”
Even Calix, who rarely showed emotion outwardly, could only stammer in shock.
“Didn’t you say you don’t trust the words of the living?”
Dale, the gray-haired Candidate who had risen from the corner, turned to face Calix and let out a soft laugh.
“From now on, don’t trust the words of the dead either.”
“…”
Calix’s expression twisted into a snarl.
“I don’t know what tricks you pulled, but did you really think you could escape this place alive?”
This hideout belonged to the Demon God Church, where thirty Demon Humans had gathered.
And he himself held the rank of Priest—a Demon Human of considerable standing.
Even an active hero of mediocre caliber would struggle against a Priest-ranked Demon Human, let alone a mere Candidate.
“Seems like you’re under a misunderstanding.”
“…A misunderstanding?”
Dale’s lips curled into a slight smirk as he tapped the blade in his hand against the floor—tap, tap.
“I’m not the one who needs to worry about escaping alive.”
The ones who should be worried.
“Are you.”
“…What?”
Calix’s face contorted with disbelief.
Dale paid him no mind, turning his head leisurely to survey the interior of the hideout.
Black nails the size of a fist scattered throughout the hideout.
‘They said they were channeling curses through the ley lines?’
And the real plan begins next year, they said.
“…Ha.”
Given this much information, failing to discern what ‘plan’ they spoke of or the identity of this ‘person’ they mentioned would be a disgrace to a regressor.
-It was a curse.
-…A curse? Who on earth cast it?
Suddenly.
A conversation I’d had with Iris in the past surfaced in my mind.
The entity that unleashed a curse across the entire Academy, stealing her sight, stripping away her title as the ‘Saint,’ and even claiming the life of a precious friend.
The reason she could no longer.
Laugh with that mischievous smile.
-The Archbishop of Illusions, Ashtaroth.
“Ha, haha.”
They say that when anger reaches its peak, laughter emerges instead.
“So it was you….”
I pulled a glass vial filled with blue liquid from my pocket and poured its contents into my mouth.
“It was you all along?”
Clang.
The empty glass vial shattered against the floor with a crystalline sound.
Solar Blade.
Sixth Form, Radiant Light.
Pure white luminescence flooded the chamber.

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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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