The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 250

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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 250. Bitter Cold (5)
A frigid silence descended upon the Frozen City.
“Ha.”
Seria touched her cheek where Lanez had struck her, letting out a soft, hollow laugh.
“Our daughter—when did your manners become so rough?”
“….”
“I’m sorry. It’s because Mother wasn’t by your side all this time, isn’t it?”
Lanez bit her lip hard, glaring at Seria.
“…Come to your senses, Mother.”
“Hmm? Come to my senses? Mother is perfectly fine right now~?”
“No.”
I shook my head firmly, recalling memories from long ago.
Memories now faded.
Faded and worn.
“You were never like this.”
Faded though they may be. Worn though they may be.
I remember. I recall.
The image of Mother smiling gently, patting my back—the warmth of her touch against my skin.
“I don’t know what made you this way….”
Tears traced down my cheeks, gathering at my chin.
“Please… please, come back… Mother.”
“….”
In that moment.
A flicker of light wavered in Seria’s vacant eyes.
But only for a moment.
Seria burst into hollow laughter, her eyes empty once more.
“Look here, Lanez.”
She spread her arms wide, smiling brightly.
“Mother is already back, isn’t she?”
“….”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“…Yes. That’s right.”
I nodded, my smile so fragile it seemed ready to shatter at any moment.
“I understand.”
The mother I remembered no longer existed.
That warmth from that day—I could never feel it again.
Now I knew.
I hadn’t wanted to know, but I did.
“I’m sorry, Mother.”
Lanez’s stigma blazed with brilliant light.
The howling blizzard swirled through the air, blooming into white snowflowers.
“My.”
Seria’s eyes widened in wonder as she gazed upon the beautiful snowflowers blossoming in the empty space.
“It seems… blood cannot lie after all.”
Lanez hadn’t even been taught how to wield power separately by anyone.
Watching Lanez wield a power so similar to the ‘Bitter Cold’ that she herself commanded, Seria couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.
“But.”
Seria slowly drew up her mana.
Pure white frost swirled around her as the center point.
“You still have a long way to go before you can catch up to this mother of yours.”
Crash, crash, crash, crack!
The colliding snowflowers and frost clashed violently.
The surrounding earth froze solid as a biting cold that seemed to cut through flesh itself swept across the area.
For an ordinary person, merely breathing in such bitter cold would freeze their lungs solid.
“Hah!”
Lanez moved first.
Lanez let out a sharp cry and stretched both arms toward Seria.
Hundreds of ice shards materialized from the snowflowers blooming in the air and shot toward Seria.
“Hmm.”
Seria’s eyes narrowed as she observed the cascade of ice shards.
Both of them wielded ‘cold’ in that sense—they were the same.
“So our daughter was born with divine blessing?”
The cold magic that Seria wielded was fundamentally different.
Unlike ordinary magic implemented through rigorous theory, mastery, and laws, the cold that Lanez used was closer to instinct.
“Is this making me a little jealous?”
Seria’s eyes turned fierce.
Just as a person doesn’t calculate every breath they take—they simply breathe.
Those born with divine blessing could use techniques that others spent lifetimes barely mastering, as naturally as breathing.
Whether Heroes or Demons, for her who had devoted her entire life to the magic of wielding cold, it was a talent she could not help but feel jealous of.
Of course, that being said.
Seria’s magic was not so simple that it could be surpassed by talent alone.
Crash, crash, crash, crack, spear!
“Kyaaah!”
The hundreds of ice shards that had been shot at Seria shattered into fragments.
The broken ice shards rained down upon Lanez’s body.
Transparent ice fragments dug into her flesh, staining red with blood.
“Lanez!”
I, who had been stepping back due to the aftereffects of using my Incarnation form, hurried toward Lanez.
Though my body hadn’t fully recovered to normal, I couldn’t leave Lanez alone to face an Archbishop-rank Demon—and one among the upper echelons at that, the ‘Archbishop of Bitter Cold’.
Just as I was about to step forward in front of Lanez with my sword drawn.
“…Dale is resting.”
Lanez pulled my hand back.
“Lanez?”
“Please.”
Lanez bit her lip firmly, her gaze fixed on Seria.
“This is something I have to do.”
“….”
Why was that?
Though my mind understood that I couldn’t let Lanez fight alone.
I found myself unable to stop her.
“…If it becomes dangerous, I’ll step in.”
“Hehe. Thanks, Dale.”
Lanez smiled brightly and walked toward Seria.
“Ugh….”
Merely meeting Mother’s eyes summoned the nightmares from sixteen years ago, my entire body trembling violently.
‘I can do this… No, I must do this.’
Yes.
For myself.
And for Mother too.
“My, my….”
Seria smiled deeply as she watched Lanez stand before her, legs quivering.
“My daughter has grown so much in the time I haven’t seen her?”
The daughter who could only cower and tremble in fear.
Had somehow become a true Hero, standing now to block her path.
“This might actually make Mother cry.”
“…Mother.”
Lanez clenched her fists tightly and drew a deep breath.
Whoooooosh!
A stigma blazing brilliantly.
Within the increasingly fierce blizzard, Lanez extended her hand.
“I’ll give you a chance to rest soon.”
Pure white snowflowers blooming in the void.
No—snowflowers, plural.
“Haa, haa!”
Dozens of snowflowers embroidering the sky.
Lanez exhaled roughly, sweeping her extended hand toward Seria.
“Bloom!”
Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash!
The snowflowers blooming in the void poured down upon Seria.
“Hmm. To give you rest, Lan… I appreciate the sentiment, but.”
Seria smiled softly and stretched both arms toward the cascading snowflakes.
“You’ve only just been revived, and you’re already tired? How disappointing.”
Crash!
Snowflakes and frost collided once more.
Unlike the first clash where I was pushed back with humiliating ease, this collision was so evenly matched that neither side could claim victory.
“…Oh?”
Seria’s expression shifted to surprise as she watched Lanez refuse to be easily overwhelmed.
“Just how powerful of a blessing did our daughter awaken?”
She had thought that with her own blessing, she could subdue Lanez without difficulty.
But the power Lanez was displaying now far exceeded her expectations.
“Haa, haa! If she’s my daughter… she has to be at least this strong, right?”
“Ahaha! Of course! That’s how my daughter should be!”
Seria laughed brightly and drew upon even more of her magical power.
“Ugh…!”
Lanez began to be pushed back gradually.
The power of the Bitter Cold blessing itself still remained vigorous.
‘If I draw upon more power here…’
I would exceed the limits of what I could control.
“Ugh…”
Lanez retreated step by step, her breath coming in pained gasps.
‘What do I do?’
If I drew upon more power, the Bitter Cold blessing might run wild again like before.
But without drawing upon more power, I couldn’t stand against Seria.
Crash!
“Kyaaaaaah!”
As the conflict raged on, the frost storm Seria created finally pierced through the dozens of snowflakes I had conjured and engulfed me.
The frost storm swept over my body.
A bitter cold that felt as though my very soul would freeze washed over me.
“Ah, ugh…”
Chatter, chatter, chatter.
Lanez hugged herself and trembled violently.
So cold.
As if my body were submerged in a bathtub filled with ice.
As if cold ice shards flowed through my veins.
Unbearably cold.
‘Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold.’
My thoughts grew sluggish.
As if time itself had frozen, everything in the world moved slowly.
“That’s enough, Lanez.”
Then.
The warmth of her shoulder beneath my touch.
‘Is it… over now?’
No.
Nothing had been resolved.
“Dale.”
Lanez straightened from her huddled posture.
Suppressing the desire to let her body melt into the warmth against her shoulder, she pressed forward.
Into the bitter cold, she took a resolute step.
“The incantation of courage… could you teach it to me?”
“What?”
At Lanez’s sudden proposal, I furrowed my brow.
Lanez turned to face me with a faint smile.
“You know, what you did back at the Training Ground.”
“Ah.”
Was she referring to that roleplay scenario from before?
“Please.”
….
Very well.
If that’s what Lanez needed right now.
“Lanez. There’s something I never told you.”
“…Yes?”
“When I went to the Empire before, the Empress actually confessed to me. She asked me to become her consort.”
“What?”
Lanez’s eyes widened in shock.
Dale had received a confession from the Empress.
She was hearing this for the first time.
“I’ve heard Camelia is beautiful, but seeing her in person exceeded the rumors.”
….
“That platinum hair like melted gold, those languid eyes—incredibly alluring.”
And her figure was something else entirely.
Even now, thinking about it… phew.
“Wait, Dale! Wasn’t that part of the roleplay scenario?”
“Imitation is the mother of creation, as they say.”
“So what you’re saying is…”
The light gradually faded from Lanez’s eyes.
“You’re telling me… you actually received a confession? From the Empress?”
“Yes.”
….
Grrrrgh!
A terrifying surge of magical power erupted from Lanez’s body.
“H-heh. So, so that’s… that wasn’t just… roleplay, was it?”
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
Lanez nervously gnawed at her fingernails.
Blood beaded between the torn nails.
“I… I didn’t even know that. Ah, haha.”
Her eyes had lost all focus.
Those vacant eyes of hers were stained with a darkness even deeper than Seria’s.
“I trusted you…”
Whoosh, whirrrrr!
A relentless blizzard engulfed the entire city.
“I trusted you, I trusted you, I trusted you, I trusted you, I trusted you…!!!”
Crack!
Rumble, rumble, CRASH!
Buildings that had barely endured for sixteen years in the frozen cold came crashing down in succession.
“You… two-faced scoundrel…!”
An explosive surge of power erupted from Lanez’s body.
“…”
Seria, watching this unfold, stared at me and Lanez with an expression of utter disbelief.
“What are you two doing right now?”
“What do you think? I’m casting a courage spell on your daughter.”
That’s right.
To anyone else, it might seem absurd.
But as you can see, it was a courage spell tailored exclusively for Lanez—and its effectiveness was undeniable.
“No, this won’t do. I have to, have to deal with Mother first… and then, then I need to p-punish Dale…”
“…”
But.
‘Did the effect end up being too strong?’
Something feels off about this.

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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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