The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 27

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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 27. Ant Nest (2)
“Two candies for Camilla!”
“Me too, me too!”
“Hmph! You idiots. I’m going for the upset! Three candies on that gray-haired guy!”
“What? That’s why you lose your snacks every time! You’ve got to play it safe here!”
“No way! Men always go for the upset!”
“Tsk. A kid who hasn’t even grown hair down there talking about being a man…”
“H-hey! Take that back right now!”
What had once been mere chaos in the Orphanage courtyard had transformed into a full-fledged gambling den.
The children had gathered in a tight circle around Camilla and me, their eyes gleaming with anticipation as they looked up at us.
“W-what in the world is this…?”
Camilla stood bewildered by this completely unexpected turn of events.
She turned to Iris for help, but Iris had already wedged herself among the children, actively fueling the excitement.
“I’m betting ten candies on Dale!”
“T-ten?!”
Hehehehe! The financial power of an adult really is on a different level…!”
The children gasped in shock at the whale (?) who had crashed their gambling game.
“…”
“…”
Camilla and I locked eyes.
A sigh.
A deep breath escaped from both our lips simultaneously.
“What is this…?”
“There’s no helping it, is there?”
Even if seven gods descended to earth, escaping this atmosphere would be impossible.
“Well, fine. I’ve been wanting to test myself against you anyway.”
Camilla pointed a crude wooden sword carved from a branch at me, her competitive spirit ablaze.
I chuckled softly and rose to my feet, grasping a wooden sword lying nearby.
“We’re not using magic, right?”
“Of course not.”
“…Understood.”
In a non-magical duel, the outcome of this match was already certain without needing to fight.
‘I’ll win.’
It wasn’t that I was dismissing Camilla’s skill.
Camilla was a candidate with such exceptional talent that she’d been nominated for the Sword of Holy Nation, and in pure swordplay without magic, she ranked among the top ten in the academy.
‘But.’
That was all.
No matter how gifted she was, there was no way she could defeat me without using magic.
I possessed enough arrogant certainty to make such a claim.
The gap between her and me right now was vast.
‘There was no other choice.’
Across thousands of years.
I never mastered my craft, but I never stopped walking forward.
No matter how distant the path ahead, I never looked back.
Lacking, insufficient, clumsy though I was.
I never released the blade I held in my hand.
“Let’s begin.”
Camilla Bediche announced the start of our match with those final words.
Whoosh!
She charged forward at a speed incomparable to when she’d sparred with the children.
Crack! Snap! Clatter-clatter-clatter!
The wooden swords collided with deafening force.
Even without channeling mana, a clash between stigma-bearers transcended human perception—their movements too swift for ordinary eyes to follow.
“Whoa, whoa-oh…!”
“Insane!”
“I can’t even see the blades!”
The children’s cheers continued as the sparring match raged on.
“Hah!”
The wooden sword cut through the air with savage ferocity.
True to the Sword of Holy Nation’s style, her blade work was honest and straightforward, yet possessed an exquisite precision that left no openings.
‘This is beyond my expectations. What is this?’
Her skill drew involuntary admiration from me.
No swordsmanship could better embody the phrase “devoted to fundamentals” than this.
There was no flashy deception to dazzle the eye, no elegant fluidity to entrance the soul.
Yet in each straightforward, unadorned strike, I could sense the blood and sweat she had poured into her blade with crystalline clarity.
‘But.’
Her blade was still far too light to withstand the weight of life embedded in mine.
Crack!
I deflected her overhead strike, then closed the distance and drove my shoulder into her.
“Ugh…!”
Camilla Bediche skidded backward, her feet dragging across the ground.
“You….”
She glared at me fiercely, breathing heavily.
“C-Camilla is losing!”
“See! I told you it was a reversal match!”
The children stirred with unexpected developments.
Camilla Bediche’s eyes trembled as she glanced back at them.
Then, a young girl watching the match spoke up, her eyes glistening.
“Sister… are you losing?”
“….”
Camilla steadied her ragged breathing and leveled her wooden sword at me once more.
“Win.”
Her voice was resolute, her gaze unwavering.
I grinned wickedly and taunted her by flicking my wooden sword.
“Haaaah!”
With a fierce battle cry, Camilla charged forward.
Her blade strikes, fiercer than before, came crashing down like a tempest.
And then.
“Kugh!”
Crack!
Camilla’s wooden sword flicked mine clean out of my hands.
“…Huh?”
Camilla’s eyes went wide.
“Waaaaaah!”
“Sister won!”
“No, no, noooo!”
“How about it, you doubters? Coming to your senses now?”
“Hand over the candy, the candy!”
The children erupted in cheers at Camilla’s victory, as if celebrating a festival.
“….”
Yet the hero of all that jubilation stood rigid, her lips pressed firmly shut, her face hardened as she gripped her wooden sword.
Watching her frozen expression, I clicked my tongue in frustration.
‘She saw through it. She knows I let her win.’
I had deliberately held back from the start, fighting her without full strength, but it seemed my effort was in vain.
‘But I can’t very well beat Camilla down in front of all these children.’
I may be a stranger visiting this place for the first time today, but to the children living in the Orphanage, Camilla was like a hero from a fairy tale.
A hero who must never be broken, never be defeated.
How could I possibly defeat such a person before their eyes?
“Now then, everyone—it’s almost lunchtime, so put those candies aside for now~.”
“Okay.”
“Yes~!”
“Hehe. Today’s lunch will be very special, so look forward to it!”
“Special, you say?”
“What did you bring, Sister Iris?”
At the mention of a special lunch, the children’s eyes sparkled like stars.
Iris strutted over with a proud expression, clearing her throat before approaching me.
“Dale, Dale. Could you cook the ramen we bought earlier?”
Ah.
So that was why we bought ramen before coming here.
“We’ll need a pretty large pot to feed everyone here.”
“Don’t worry about that! I have a large pot for stewing!”
“Okay.”
I’d given the children something pleasant to look at, delighting their eyes. Now it was time to delight their palates.
“I’ll prepare it wonderfully, so go rest.”
“No, I’d like to help too.”
“Is that so? Then open that packet over there and pour just the broth into this bowl for me.”
“Yes!”
Iris stepped forward eagerly to help, but truthfully, there wasn’t much to do besides opening the packet beforehand.
After all, it was instant food—just boil water, add the broth, add the noodles, and done.
“….”
“….”
While waiting for the water in the pot to boil.
A quiet silence settled over the kitchen.
“…Dale.”
It was Iris who broke the silence first.
“You mentioned earlier that you came from an orphanage, didn’t you?”
“Oh, yeah. Why?”
“….”
Iris hesitated for a moment, her lips moving slightly before she turned her head to gaze out the window.
Outside the window, the children were playing joyfully, unable to contain their excitement.
“Actually, before I became a ‘Saint,’ I was also raised in an orphanage.”
Iris gazed at the children with distant, nostalgic eyes, as if recalling the past.
“The person who raised me back then was Antonio Priest.”
“Ah.”
So that was the small connection that existed between us.
‘Now that I think about it, the rough language that sometimes comes from Iris’s mouth…’
It was likely because she had grown up in an orphanage as a child.
Children who had lost their parents typically learned coarse language as a means of protecting themselves.
“And when I turned ten… I realized that a special power dwelled within my eyes.”
“Is that the ‘Seven Eyes’ you showed me before?”
“Yes.”
The unmistakable mark of a ‘Saint’—blessed by the Seven Gods themselves.
“After that, my life changed completely. Instead of shabby clothes, I could wear priest robes made of fine fabric, and instead of a cold, cramped room, I could have a warm, spacious one. Of course… the price was that I had to abandon my ‘surname.'”
“…You abandoned your surname?”
“I originally had the surname ‘Flora.’ It was a name Antonio Priest gave me, taken from my late mother’s name.”
But.
“There is a rule that Saints, being ‘children of God,’ must not bear a separate surname.”
And so.
She abandoned her dead mother’s name and became a child of God.
“Even now, I wonder. If I didn’t have these eyes, what kind of life would I be living?”
There was an unmistakable bitterness lurking in Iris’s eyes as she spoke.
“That’s….”
“Hehe. Quite a luxurious thought, isn’t it? Thanks to these eyes, I obtained a peaceful life without any effort or hardship.”
Iris offered a self-deprecating smile.
“….”
Again, an awkward silence settled between us.
I turned to look at Iris and asked quietly.
“…Is it really okay to tell me something like that?”
That the Holy Nation’s saint had come from the Orphanage as an orphan.
If this fact were revealed, it was obvious that the title of “saint” would be tarnished.
“Because I trust you, Dale.”
A resolute answer, unmarred by even a hint of doubt.
“….”
How had she come to possess such unwavering faith in me?
I gazed at her with confused eyes.
Iris smiled awkwardly and scratched her head.
“Actually… I’m not entirely sure why myself. It’s a bit strange to say this now, but I’m not usually the type to trust others so easily.”
But.
“For some reason, when I see you, Dale… it feels like we’ve known each other for a very long time. How should I put it… if I borrow an old-fashioned expression, it feels as though we share a connection from a past life.”
“…!”
“Oh. You don’t need to make that face—I know it sounds absurd.”
Iris gave a playful smile and gently poked my cheek.
“Anyway, I thought it would be okay to tell you, so please don’t tell anyone else, alright?”
“Ah, yeah.”
I nodded my head like a broken doll.
“Well, the ramen is all done now, so I’ll go call the others!”
With a radiant smile, she dashed outside.
“….”
Left alone in the kitchen, I watched Iris through the window and clenched my fists tightly.
‘It hadn’t disappeared.’
The time I spent with her. The emotions we shared.
I had thought it all melted away like snowflakes touching skin.
‘It remained.’
Just as water droplets form where snowflakes melt.
Where memories had vanished, recollections had pooled and gathered.
“Dale~! Could you bring the pot out?”
Iris’s voice drifted in from outside the window.
I barely managed to compose the surging emotions within me as I picked up the pot and stepped outside.
* * *
“Th-This is ramen?”
“This is insane!”
“It’s so delicious!”
“Ugh… I’m jealous, Republic! We only ever eat grass and weeds!”
Just as I’d anticipated, the ramen was a massive hit among the children.
They scooped noodles from the pot into their bowls and devoured them with reckless abandon.
“Heh. I don’t see what’s so appealing about such junk food, making all this fuss….”
“Antonio Priest, why don’t you try some?”
Antonio Priest, who had been watching the children eat with obvious disapproval, picked up a few strands of noodles with his chopsticks, let out a small cough, and hastily scooped a generous portion into his own bowl.
Everyone was enjoying their lunch amid the cheerful clamor.
“….”
Only Camilla Bediche sat with a rigid expression, staring down at her empty bowl.
I carefully approached and sat beside her.
“Is it about what happened earlier?”
“…You.”
“I’m sorry. I had no choice with the children watching.”
For her—a warrior first and a Candidate Program member second—deliberately losing was perhaps the greatest humiliation imaginable.
“…No, it’s not your fault. It’s my own insufficient skill.”
Camilla Bediche shook her head, her expression clouded with self-reproach.
Offering her comfort like “No, you’re strong enough” would only be perceived as mockery.
‘In that case.’
I needed to take a harder approach here.
“So, you’re going to keep moping around just because you lost once?”
“That’s…!”
“Wow, I never thought the next Sword of Holy Nation would be this pathetic.”
“Ugh! Shut up!”
Camilla Bediche shot to her feet and pointed at me with the tip of her chopstick.
“Just you wait! Next time I’ll make sure you can’t even squeak!”
“Yeah. I’m looking forward to it.”
I chuckled as I watched her bristle indignantly.
“Oh, that’s right! Your duel with your sister and brother earlier was so cool!”
“Yeah, totally!”
“It was like watching heroes fight!”
The children’s eyes gleamed as they shouted, having noticed us together.
One mischievous-looking boy among them grinned as he looked at us both.
“By the way… don’t you two seem like a good match?”
“Huh? Really?”
“You saw it during the fight! Your teamwork was incredible!”
“Now that you mention it, I guess it did seem that way….”
“You two are actually dating, right? Aren’t you?”
The boy persisted relentlessly, determined to pair me and Camilla Bediche together.
“…Leo.”
“Huh? You think so too, Iris?”
“Hehe.”
Iris approached the boy called Leo and gently stroked his head.
“Come over here for a moment, would you?”
“What? Why?”
“Quickly.”
She led Leo away toward somewhere.
About five minutes must have passed.
“W-wait, now that I think about it, Camilla and my brother don’t seem like a good match at all!”
“But you just said they were a perfect match?”
“N-no! They’re not a match at all! If anything, I’d say Iris would be a much better match!”
Leo cried out, his face drained of all color.
I gazed at the boy, who was even shedding tears, and released a deep sigh.
‘…Iris.’
What on earth did you do to him?

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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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