The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 286

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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 286. Demon God Dale (3)
Thus, on the first night bound together under Camelia’s eager direction.
The morning after a night consumed by fervent heat and pleasure.
“….”
Upon opening my eyes, I found Camelia clutching the blankets to herself, her expression thoroughly deflated.
Despite having spent the long-awaited first night with Dale, the reason for her sullen demeanor was simple.
“…to treat me as though I were nothing more than a plaything. It seems I shall need to teach you proper decorum toward the Empress from the beginning.”
Camelia glared at me with her cheeks puffed out, her eyes brimming with displeasure.
“No.”
Speaking like that made it sound as though I’d done something terrible.
‘Though perhaps I was a bit rough…?’
Reflecting on it, I suppose my head did grow heated midway through, and I may have become somewhat vigorous.
“You clearly told me to leave everything to you….”
Watching Camelia trail off with a sulky expression, I swallowed a groan.
Initially, I had intended to remain still and follow her lead as she had suggested.
“If I’d left everything to Camelia, we wouldn’t have accomplished anything until daybreak.”
That’s right.
Contrary to her bold declaration that I should entrust everything to her, Camelia’s actions were so clumsy they nearly drew a smile from me.
It took her several minutes just to undress me, and once she finished, she froze with an expression of utter shock.
How could I possibly have simply watched and done nothing?
“Ugh…! W-well, what did you expect me to do!”
Camelia’s face flushed crimson as she pouted her lips.
Hugging her knees, she turned her head away sharply, then opened her mouth in a voice barely above a whisper.
“I… it was my f-first time, you understand.”
“….”
Why was our Empress so adorable, truly.
“Ahem.”
The heat I had barely managed to suppress began creeping back through my body, warming it once more.
I gently grasped Camelia’s shoulders as she sat with her head turned away in a pout, and carefully laid her back on the bed.
“Y-you…?”
“Then you’ll simply have to gain more experience.”
“….”
Camelia’s cheeks flushed an even deeper red.
“How cunning of you.”
“But you were the one who started this.”
“Hmph. You seem to have forgotten rather conveniently.”
“Is that so?”
Then I suppose I’ll have to remind you.
“Kyaaah! W-wait…!”
* * *
The second battle that began this way continued until the sun reached its zenith.
“Phew.”
After finishing my shower, I changed out of the patient gown and into my Candidate Program uniform.
“…Don’t tell me you’re planning to be discharged right away?”
“My body’s fully recovered, so there’s no need to stay hospitalized.”
“Hmm. Still, wouldn’t it be better to rest for a few more days?”
“Coming from the person who’s done the most to prevent me from resting…”
“Ugh… I, that is…!”
Interesting.
Does she let her guard down because I’m around?
I’m seeing expressions from her now that I couldn’t have imagined when we first met.
‘Though I find that gap rather endearing.’
Comparing the flustered Camelia fumbling about now to when I first met her in the Imperial Palace, a smile naturally spread across my face.
“…Why are you grinning like that?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Hmph. Your insolence remains unchanged, I see. Anyway…”
Camelia narrowed her eyes and rose from her seat.
She approached me slowly and carefully caressed my chest—more precisely, the area where the stigma was inscribed.
“By the way… the Demon God’s flames you absorbed back then—they still remain within the stigma, yes?”
“Yeah. It seems so.”
“There’s been no unusual activity?”
“Not so far.”
“….”
Camelia’s eyes grew distant and heavy.
“Are you worried?”
“How could I not be? There’s also what the Archbishop of Destruction said back then.”
“….”
A Demon God.
The worst and most terrible of divine beings.
Humanity’s enemy.
I had become such an existence.
“Don’t make that expression.”
Camelia’s hand, which had been caressing the stigma, now gently stroked my cheek.
“Just because the Demon God’s flames dwell within you doesn’t mean you are a Demon God, does it?”
“That’s…”
“A sword can kill people or save them. What matters more than what power one possesses is who wields that power.”
“….”
Who wields the power matters more.
Right.
Camelia’s words aren’t wrong either.
In a way, it’s closer to the truth.
But.
The world doesn’t always flow according to what’s right.
“By that logic, Demons are no different.”
“…No different?”
“The only distinction between Demons and Heroes is which god granted the stigma carved into their chest.”
Yet Heroes bearing the stigma of the Seven Gods became humanity’s saviors, while Demons bearing the Demon God’s stigma became humanity’s destroyers.
Determined solely by the power they possessed.
Their fates were completely reversed.
“Perhaps I too….”
“Hmph. You were worrying over something so trivial?”
Camelia scoffed dismissively.
“Demons were not rejected by humanity because they bore the Demon God’s stigma, but because they could not control the destructive impulses that came with bearing it.”
But.
“Are you not different?”
Dale had never succumbed to destructive impulses, committing meaningless slaughter, nor had he lost control of his power and gone berserk.
At least, not so far.
“Of course, there’s no guarantee that won’t change in the future. However… if the day comes when you lose control of your power and go berserk….”
Seven-colored light emanated softly from Camelia’s body.
“In the name of the Empress, I shall personally stop you.”
“…Camelia.”
If my power truly went berserk, her strength wouldn’t be enough to stop it—Camelia herself knew this well.
But.
Even so.
“Thank you.”
The embers of anxiety that had been burning fiercely and growing larger began to fade.
‘That’s right. Just because I possess the Demon God’s power doesn’t mean I’ve truly become a Demon God.’
If anything, I’ve possessed the Demon God’s power since before regression, when I accepted the Primordial Flame into my body.
Adding one more Primordial Flame to that changed nothing.
“However, others may not think as you do, so it would be wise to keep this fact hidden.”
“That’s true.”
If the world learned that I had absorbed all of the Demon God’s power, the situation would become far more complicated.
The fear and hatred toward the Demon God accumulated over centuries was immeasurably vast.
“I’m planning to tell only my Party members about this.”
“I think it would be better not to tell even your Party members….”
“It’s fine. I can trust my Party members.”
After all, my Party members already knew about my regression and that I possessed the Primordial Flame.
And more than anything.
“…There’s someone who said she’d beat me if I lied again.”
A faint smile crossed my face as I thought of Iris.
“Hmm. Still, I believe it would be better to keep it hidden… but I shall respect your choice.”
“In that case, I was thinking of heading to the Party House now….”
I extended my hand toward Camelia and asked.
“Want to come with me?”
Camelia nodded without hesitation and took my hand.
* * *
Upon arriving at the Party House, I recounted everything that had transpired in the Deepest Part of the Abyss to my party members.
“So… the Demon God wasn’t sealed—he was already dead?”
“That’s right. Beneath the Abyss, there was no Demon God, only the remnants left behind after his death.”
“And… Dale absorbed all of the Demon God’s remnants?”
“Yes.”
“….”
“….”
A sudden silence fell over the Party House.
My party members wore expressions of bewilderment at the sudden deluge of information, but soon they nodded in understanding.
“Well, that’s actually reassuring. Humanity’s greatest threat has essentially vanished.”
“In a sense, this is the best possible outcome.”
Elisha folded her arms and nodded thoughtfully.
“Hahaha! So, does that mean we should call you a god now, brother? Wow! To think one of my sworn siblings is a deity! My heart’s racing!”
Berald’s eyes sparkled as he spoke in an excited voice.
Sophia pinched his side mercilessly.
“Lower your voice. And when did you and Dale ever become sworn siblings?”
“Huh? There was that time when brother drank from the beer I was having.”
“…How does that make you sworn siblings?”
“Well, my saliva would’ve been in the beer, so our blood mixed, right? Oh, now that I think about it, I never asked what Dale’s blood type is! I heard that drinking the saliva of someone with a different blood type causes serious illness!”
“…Ah.”
Sophia let out a sigh, her expression filled with despair as she thought, ‘This is my fiancé?’
“…Hah.”
Camelia, who had been listening from a slight distance away from the party members, let out a hollow laugh.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Well… it’s just that everyone is accepting this fact far more calmly than I expected.”
She had spent two weeks—dozens, hundreds of times—deliberating and agonizing before finally deciding to accept that fact while Dale was unconscious.
Yet the party members, mere moments after hearing that Dale had absorbed the Demon God’s power, were already nodding and spouting vacant remarks like “Actually, that’s great.”
“Well… that’s….”
“Hmm. I suppose….”
“Because it’s Dale…?”
“Yes. That’s precisely it. Because it’s Dale.”
“If it’s Dale, he’ll be able to control the Demon God’s power in no time!”
Iris, Yuren, Elisha, and Lanez exchanged glances, their consensus clear: ‘Well, it’s Dale, so what could possibly go wrong?’
“….”
At their response, Camelia’s expression turned incredulous.
“Well, we’ve known Dale far longer than you have, Empress.”
“Let’s call it an inference based on experience.”
“If you see Dale often enough, you’ll come to understand as well.”
Iris, Elisha, and Yuren shrugged their shoulders with wry smiles.
Watching their composed expressions, Camelia felt her shoulders tremble slightly.
“Known Dale far longer than I have, you say….”
Why was it?
Though I had merely heard a simple fact, my chest ached as if pricked repeatedly by needles.
It took quite some time before I realized that unfamiliar emotion was jealousy.
‘So the day has come when I would feel jealous of someone else.’
Camelia shook my head and turned to look at Dale’s lovers.
“You said Iris was the first to become Dale’s lover?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And Dale told me you were lovers even in your past life… is that true?”
“That’s what he said. Though I have no memory of it.”
“Hmm. A bond that extends from a past life….”
Well, if it was a bond extending from a past life, what could I do about it?
“And I already knew about Elisha….”
Camelia’s gaze shifted toward Dale.
A woman with violet hair, hiding behind Dale’s back and watching me with cautious eyes.
For some reason, she was dressed as a maid.
“Don’t look at me with such frightened eyes. As I said before, just because I’ve become Dale’s lover doesn’t mean I deny your relationship with him.”
“R-really?”
“Hehe. If we’re ranking by seniority, you actually stand above me.”
“…!”
A rank higher than the Empress herself.
For Lanez, who just a year ago had been called a “witch” and scorned by the Candidates, it was a rise in status beyond imagination.
“Ugh. I, I can’t help but s-smile….”
Imagine if a junior who came under your command ruled an entire nation as Empress.
The exhilarating thrill that such power would bring would be indescribable.
Even Lanez’s obsessive fixation on Dale wavered for a moment.
“So I’ve become Dale’s fourth lover, then.”
Not just anyone, but the Empress herself becoming the fourth lover of a man who already had three partners.
Even thinking about it myself, the absurdity of the situation drew an involuntary laugh.
“…Huh?”
“Fourth…?”
“Oh, no, that’s not—”
“…?”
Camelia frowned as she watched the three bewildered women.
“Not another one? Don’t tell me you have yet another lover?”
“…”
Iris, Elisha, and Lanez all turned their gazes toward Yuren in male form.
“…Yuren? Yuren Helios isn’t a man?”
Surely not.
In that instant, a terrifying thought flashed through Camelia’s mind.
“D-Dale, you don’t mean…!”
Camelia turned to face Dale with an expression as though she were staring into the Abyss itself, her face drained of color.
“Well… it’s just….”
“Huff… I-it’s fine! There are many forms of love in this world, after all!”
“Everyone here has their circumstances….”
“I… I can accept it! All of you! Everything about you!”
“No.”
Please, just listen to what I’m saying.

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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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