The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 305

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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 305. Epilogue – Graduation (3)
One month later.
The white chapel built atop a serene hill near the Academy bustled with wedding preparations.
The chapel’s official name was the Blessing of Seven Gods.
It was the Seven Star Church’s chapel closest to Hero Academy, and thanks to its exquisitely beautiful architecture, it had become a popular venue for weddings.
A chapel standing upon a hill of such fairy-tale beauty.
The honored couple exchanging vows today were—
[Groom: Berald Ryu]
[Bride: Sophia Evergreen]
I gazed at the familiar names inscribed before the chapel and moved forward slowly.
Or rather, to be more precise.
I could only move slowly in my current state.
“Oh, Dale!”
Berald, spotting me, came rushing over in a flurry.
“Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve seen your face… huh?”
Berald’s expression hardened as he examined my face up close.
“Y-you’re alright, aren’t you? D-did the Primordial Flame go berserk again…?”
“No… that’s not it…”
“Then why on earth do you look like some withered, skeletal undead with nothing but skin and bones?!”
“….”
My gaze naturally drifted toward the women.
The sight of them hurrying into the Bride’s Waiting Room the moment they arrived at the wedding venue.
Unlike me, desiccated as a barren desert, they appeared as fresh and vibrant as newly bloomed spring flowers.
“…There was nothing… left.”
“W-with you looking so utterly tattered, saying there was nothing left doesn’t really help matters…”
“Well. Anyway, Berald.”
I splashed some water on my face to clear my mind and looked at Berald in his tuxedo.
“Congratulations on the wedding, my friend.”
“Ah.”
Berald let out a soft sigh, as if only now remembering what day this was.
“I can’t believe you’re getting married right after graduation.”
“Heh. That’s how it turned out.”
Berald’s lips curled into a smile.
“But this wedding could only happen today because of you, hyung.”
“What did I even do?”
What I’d done—or rather, what I’d endured—was nothing more than being locked in the Party House for an entire month, wrung dry by ravenous beasts.
“Sophia and I made a promise. If you hadn’t woken up by graduation, we would postpone the wedding indefinitely.”
“Huh? You made such a promise?”
“What meaning would a wedding have without you?”
Berald shrugged his shoulders.
“Truth be told, I’d half given up hope. But to have it happen exactly the day before graduation! Hehe, who else could I thank but you, hyung?”
“Quit your theatrics, you brat.”
“Anyway.”
Berald Ryu extended his hand.
“I’m glad you’re back, hyung.”
“Yeah. Congratulations on your marriage too.”
“Hehe. Well then, I’d better get going—I’m busy!”
“Go on.”
Berald Ryu shuffled off toward the other guests.
“Let me see then….”
I’d thought about poking my head into the Bride’s Waiting Room while I was at it.
“Kyaa! Sophia! You look so beautiful!”
“Wow, where did you get your hair done, unnie?”
“So, Sophia… you’re getting married before me… I, I can’t forgive you….”
“Ugh, everyone’s so loud. Ow! Lanez, what are you touching?”
“Yeah, it did look oddly bigger… so it was padding after all?”
“It’s, it’s not padding!”
“Then?”
“I… I grew, okay?”
“….”
“….”
“….”
Silence descended upon the waiting room.
“Ugh! You all don’t understand my feelings!”
Sophia Evergreen flared up in anger, glaring at the bourgeois(?) women surrounding her.
‘This isn’t really a place for me to be.’
I took a discreet peek into the Bride’s Waiting Room and quietly made my way to the Guest Seating.
Seated among the guests, I slowly surveyed those who had been invited to the wedding.
“Lucas Kane… should I end up getting married later than my own student?”
“C, cough! W, we should be more careful about marriage….”
“Shut up and book the venue already.”
Lucas Kane and Bianca.
“Julian… no, Juliet. So you were here.”
“Y, yeah. It’s been a while, Albert.”
“Juliet. I have something to tell you.”
“…What is it?”
“After learning your true identity, I’ve given it much thought… but honestly, whether you’re male or female, as long as you taste good, isn’t that what matters?”
“What.”
Juliet Kang and Albert.
“Sigh. Seeing those two, I suppose our student will need to find a partner soon….”
“I have devoted my soul to the Seven Gods and the Saint. I have no leisure to concern myself with trivial emotions such as romance.”
“…Or maybe you just can’t find a partner?”
“Tsk!”
Camilla and Johan.
“Sigh. I do hope Sophia manages that troublemaker well enough….”
“Why do you speak as though Sophia were your own daughter?”
“There is a saying that the relationship between professor and teaching assistant is much like that of parent and child.”
“…I’ve never heard such a thing in my life.”
Even Jade Bastian and Raonel.
“….”
A pristine white chapel standing upon a quiet hill.
The groom and bride dressed in their finest, seated and exchanging idle chatter with the guests, smiling.
Laughter drifting from here and there.
If one were to express the word ‘happiness’ in reality, would it feel precisely like this?
‘How much has changed.’
To the point where I wonder if the events of my past life were merely nightmares.
Everything had transformed.
‘The only thing that hasn’t changed is my academic standing, it seems.’
A quiet laugh escaped me without my realizing it.
I had reached a level where I could now crush even the Demon God with sheer power, and yet my school grades remained at the very bottom.
‘Well, I haven’t confirmed it’s the absolute bottom yet.’
I hadn’t been able to verify it properly due to being confined(?) for the past month.
Having slept for a full year and a half, I would almost certainly face grade retention.
“A year… or perhaps two years of retention.”
That would mean starting over from fourth year.
‘If I push a bit, I could graduate immediately.’
No matter what anyone says, I am a hero who saved humanity.
If I were to visit Raonel and ask for a diploma, he would surely grant it without hesitation.
‘But then again, there’s no real need to graduate in the first place.’
When one of my lovers is the Empress of the Empire itself, what need is there to worry about making a living?
Even if I were unable to act as a hero due to lacking a diploma, I have no fewer than five lovers to provide for me.
Each one of them so exceptional that they wield tremendous influence across the Continent.
‘Would that make me a complete kept man?’
For some reason, the thought of it bothered me.
Like a stain of soup splattered on a shirt, one might say.
Perhaps none of my lovers would object to me living off their support, but I found myself caring about it nonetheless.
“Graduation… graduation, then.”
After a moment of deliberation, I reached a decision.
‘Fine, I’ll just attend school for one more year.’
Part of me didn’t wish to become a kept man living off my lovers’ wealth, but what weighed more heavily was the lingering stigma of being ‘last in my class.’
I wanted to tear off that label myself—the one that had taught me the meaning of frustration and defeat for the first time in my life.
‘Honestly, what does it matter now whether I’m last or not?’
The one thing I hadn’t been able to change since reversing time.
Erasing the label of “last place” that remained like a stain on the future I had created with my own hands—that was the only way to completely sever my connection to my past life.
‘Since things have come to this, why not graduate as valedictorian?’
Valedictorian Dale Han.
I was grinning to myself, imagining a title I had never dared to dream of in my previous life.
“What are you thinking about to smile like that?”
My lover emerged from the Bride’s Waiting Room and approached where I sat in the Guest Seating.
“Nothing much.”
“Hmm, so you want to do it too, don’t you, Dale?”
“Huh? Do what?”
“Get married.”
“Oh.”
Marriage.
Of course I was planning to eventually.
‘But right now… it seems a bit risky.’
A gap of a year and a half, no less.
And if I were to marry my lover while they’re all excited from Berald and Sophia’s wedding—
‘I won’t be able to escape for just a month then.’
I’d already crossed the line between life and death countless times, and if I were to marry on top of that, my life would literally become one of being wrung dry, soul and all.
“I was actually thinking of starting to look for a venue soon.”
“D-do we really need to rush that much?”
“Hmm. But then again, is there any reason not to rush?”
“Well, there’s still a year left until graduation, so…”
Just as I was trying to use graduation as an excuse to postpone the wedding.
“Hmm? Graduation? Haven’t you already done that?”
Elisha tilted her head as if asking what I was talking about.
“What?”
What are you saying?
“Oh, I almost forgot to give you this.”
Elisha chuckled and pulled out a piece of paper from the handbag she’d brought.
“This is…”
“Your diploma, Dale.”
“W-wait! Wasn’t I supposed to repeat a year?”
“Well… normally you would have, since you were asleep for a year and a half, but I went to see the Chancellor separately and requested your diploma. Honestly, there’s nothing left for the Academy to teach you at your current level, is there?”
“That may be true, but…”
Wait.
Then what about my grades…?
“Oh, by the way, your graduation ranking was determined by your final comprehensive evaluation score.”
“….”
If my final comprehensive evaluation ranking is… surely not—
I hurriedly examined the diploma Elisha had given me.
[Diploma]
Name: Dale Han
Origin: Republic
Department: Warrior Department
Comprehensive Evaluation Ranking: 470 / 470
“With one student held back and Morris absent, I’m graduating 470th out of 470 total students.”
“…Ah.”
Slip.
The diploma in my hand fell to the floor.
“C-can’t I just… be held back?”
“Graduation processing is already complete, so being held back isn’t an option.”
“Then… what about re-enrollment?! If I start over from first year…!”
“Do you really think that makes any sense?”
“….”
So I’m going to… for the rest of my life…
“Congratulations on your graduation, Dale.”
“Congratulations on graduating.”
“Congratulations on graduating, Dale!”
“N-now that I’ve… g-graduated… c-can we get m-married right away?”
“Congratulations on your graduation, I say.”
Amidst the congratulations of my beloved ones.
I gazed down at my last-place diploma and muttered one final time.
“Damn it all.”
Last-place Hero Dale Han.
An ominous premonition filled my mind that this label would follow me for eternity.
-The End-

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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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