The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 236

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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 236. May Day (1)
After bidding farewell to Camelia, I returned to the Hero Academy with Elisha.
Had I unconsciously come to regard the Hero Academy as ‘home’?
As the School Gate drew near, the tension from my long journey melted away, and a drowsy fatigue spread through me.
“Then I’ll go report the incident details to the Headmaster.”
“Should I come with you?”
“No, it’s fine. Get some proper rest, Dale.”
As Elisha spoke those words and walked toward the School Gate, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.
“…Once I cross this gate, I must return to being ‘Professor’ rather than Elisha.”
“I know… I mean, yes, I understand.”
“Hehe. Didn’t I say once we cross the gate?”
Elisha approached with a faint smile.
She gently caressed my cheek, then tilted my chin slightly and pressed her lips to mine in a light kiss.
Compared to the kisses we usually shared, it was merely a gentle brush of lips.
Yet it seemed to be enough for her, as Elisha turned away with a satisfied expression.
“Go on, Dale.”
“Yes, Professor.”
Thus ended what could be called a brief yet lengthy journey to the Empire.
And beyond the School Gate awaited my return to ordinary life.
* * *
After parting with Professor Elisha, I headed to the Party House before returning to the Dormitory.
The Party House—entering it for the first time in a week… or rather, about ten days.
Click.
The moment I opened the door, I saw Berald shirtless, toweling himself dry.
“Kyaaaah!”
Muscles so engorged they seemed ready to burst to life at any moment, bronzed skin glistening with sweat, and nipples positioned on both sides of his chest making their bold statement—
The sheer visual terror assaulting my eyes drew an involuntary scream from me.
“Good grief, Berald! Where on earth have you been?!”
Berald, spotting me, came thundering over with heavy footsteps.
“No, stop! Don’t come any closer, you fool!”
“What?! You vanish without a word and show up ten days later, and you’re going to be cold to me? Come here, let Berald embrace you, brother!”
“Ugh!”
He’s heavy! He’s soaking wet! He stinks!
“I was so worried when you didn’t contact me at all, but I’m relieved you’re safe!”
“Gack, ack… s-save me…”
“No! Your face is turning purple! Did you get hurt somewhere?!”
“…No, you’re the one hurting me right now.”
Perhaps hearing the commotion below.
Sophia descended the staircase with a frown.
“Berald. Didn’t I tell you not to walk around outside half-naked?”
“Ah, my apologies. My clothes tore during training, and I had no choice in the matter.”
Berald offered an awkward smile and scratched his head.
“Come to think of it, my clothes have been tearing far too frequently lately. One tore before, and my senior made me a replacement, but….”
“It’s fine. I’ll make you another one.”
“Ah, no. Haven’t I already received more than five by now? I can’t keep imposing on my senior like this….”
“It’s nothing difficult, so don’t worry about it. Besides, where would you easily find training clothes that fit your body size?”
“Well, that’s true, but….”
Berald trailed off, tilting his head as if he didn’t understand.
“But Senior… may I ask what material you use to make the training clothes?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, it’s not that I’m ungrateful to my senior for making them, but no matter what, they seem to tear far too often….”
Berald’s expression grew sheepish as his words faded.
“I just make them from cheap fabric so you can simply discard them when they tear.”
“Hmm. For something like that, didn’t you also cast magic on them?”
“M-magic? W-what magic would I have cast on them?”
Sophia visibly flustered the moment magic was mentioned.
Berald’s eyes widened as he tilted his head.
“Huh? I definitely sensed something like Sophia Senior’s mana from the clothes….”
“I-it’s just a misunderstanding! I never cast any corrosion magic or anything like that to make the clothes tear easily!”
“…No, I didn’t say anything that specific.”
“Anyway! Don’t nitpick with someone who went to the trouble of making these for you—just wear them!”
“Ah, understood.”
Sophia let out a relieved sigh, brushing her chest (setting aside the question of whether there was anything to brush) as she exhaled with relief.
“….”
So she did cast corrosion magic on them.
‘I thought she came down awfully quickly.’
Within the Party House, the place where Sophia Senior primarily stayed was the magical laboratory on the 3rd Floor.
Even if there had been commotion on the 1st Floor, it seemed odd that she’d come down so quickly—it appeared she had another purpose (?) in mind.
“Ahem. Well, anyway.”
Sophia Senior shifted her gaze toward me and hastily changed the subject.
“I heard you went to the Empire with Professor Elisha on some business… why didn’t you contact us at all during that time?”
“There were some circumstances.”
During the investigation into the recent assassination attempt on Empress Camelia, all my communication artifacts had been confiscated, making it impossible to send any messages.
From the party members’ perspective, after leaving for the Empire with Professor Elisha, contact had suddenly been cut off for over a week, so they must have been quite worried.
“Well, I wasn’t too concerned after hearing from the Headmaster that nothing had happened to you or Professor Elisha….”
Sophia Senior let out a short sigh and shook her head.
“But the others must have been quite anxious.”
“That’s….”
Though I had anticipated this to some degree, hearing it directly from Sophia Senior’s lips made my heart feel heavy.
“Where are the other party members?”
“Lanez hasn’t come to the Party House for days, and Iris and Yurina….”
Click.
Before Sophia could finish her sentence, the door to the Party House swung open.
The ones who entered were Iris, Camilla Bediche, and Yurina wearing Yuren’s appearance.
“Huh?”
“…Dale?”
“D-Dale?”
The three women’s eyes widened dramatically.
In the silence that fell like time had stopped, Iris was the first to greet me.
…Though I wasn’t entirely sure if “greet” was the right word for it.
“You, you shameless bastard!!! Where the hell have you been gallivanting around the Empire without so much as a word?!”
Shameless bastard, she said.
I suppose that’s what one expects from a Saint—such archaic phrasing.
“Do you have any idea how worried I was?! I should—I’m going to—you damn—!”
“P-Please, Saint! Compose yourself!”
As a series of censoring beeps seemed to echo through my mind,
Camilla Bediche hastily clamped her hand over Iris’s mouth.
“Mmmph! Mmmmmph!!!”
Iris thrashed about, her legs kicking wildly as Camilla held her fast.
Her eyes blazed with fury, showing her anger hadn’t subsided in the slightest, but fortunately(?) Camilla’s firm grip prevented the commotion from escalating further.
“Are you alright? You’re not hurt anywhere?”
Yuren… no, Yurina approached me with an expression far calmer than Iris’s.
“Yeah. I had my reasons for not contacting you, but I’m not hurt.”
Besides, honestly, when you possessed a body that could regenerate perfectly even if pulverized at the cellular level, what did injuries matter?
‘Though it seems only I think that way.’
Yurina was the same, and so was Iris.
Even my other lovers, despite knowing I possessed an immortal body, always worried about my physical well-being first.
‘…Not that I dislike it.’
Rather, I was grateful.
It was proof they saw me as a human being, not as an undead creature that could be killed and resurrected.
“What about Professor Elisha? I heard she went with you….”
“The Professor is fine too. She’s reporting to the Headmaster right now.”
“Phew. Thank goodness.”
Yurina pressed a hand to her chest and exhaled a sigh of relief, clearly having suffered considerable worry during the period when the Professor and I were out of contact.
“I was really worried when you suddenly went silent.”
“I’m sorry.”
If I’d known they’d worry this much, I should have asked Camelia to let me write a letter or something.
Belated regret washed over me.
“It’s fine. I’m sure you had your reasons.”
Yurina shook her head and continued speaking.
“So, could you tell us what happened?”
“Of course.”
I had been planning to tell my party members everything about what occurred anyway.
“By the way, where’s Lanez….”
“We’ll call Lanez later. First, tell us what happened.”
“Mm…. Understood.”
I’d have to tell the same story twice, but it was a small price to pay.
Compared to the mental anguish I’d caused my party members, this minor inconvenience was nothing.
“Then, everyone gather in the lounge.”
* * *
The lounge on the second floor of the Party House.
I recounted everything that had happened to my party members, excluding Lanez.
“The Fallen Archbishop’s goal was… to prevent the Demon God’s resurrection?”
“And what was that about calling Dale a descendant of Destruction?”
Yurina and Iris, who had heard the story (thankfully she’d regained consciousness), furrowed their brows in confusion.
“I’m not entirely sure about that either.”
I still lacked sufficient information.
“In any case, you managed to prevent a war between the Empire and the Republic with all this, right?”
“Yes. Well, I’m not sure how the future will change from here on… but for now, that’s correct.”
“That’s a relief. If war had broken out….”
Sophia trailed off and glanced back at Berald.
She was from the Empire, and he was from the Republic.
Had war erupted between the two nations, their relationship would have become complicated.
“But you stopped the assassination plot pretty quickly, didn’t you? Why did you stay in the Empire for so long?”
“Ah, that’s because….”
I finished explaining what had happened with Camelia.
“Heeeh….”
Iris’s eyes narrowed.
She quickly rose from her seat and sat down to my right.
“The Empress Camelia asked you to become her consort?”
“Ah, yeah.”
“….”
Again?
Iris and Yurina shot me looks that seemed to say exactly that.
“No, no! I told you! I rejected that proposal!”
“Hmm. Really?”
Yurina rose from her seat and sat down to my left.
“But Dale.”
“Y-yes?”
“You said Elisha was also there when you rejected the Empress’s proposal, right?”
“…Why would that be?”
“Well, if I were Professor Elisha, I don’t think I could have just sat still, you know?”
“….”
Gulp.
A dry swallow traveled down my throat.
“Now that I think about it, you shared the same room with Professor Elisha the entire time you were being investigated, didn’t you?”
“Uh… w-well, that’s… technically true.”
“Hee. I see. So that’s how it was?”
Iris continued with a beautiful smile playing at her eyes.
“So Dale…”
“While we were losing sleep worrying about Dale, you were having a wonderful, cozy time with Professor Elisha?”
“….”
Mayday, mayday.

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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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