The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 62

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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 62. Midterm Evaluation (7)
A hushed silence settled over the Forest Clearing.
I stumbled backward, my expression pale as I spoke in urgent confusion.
“What kind of insane thing are you saying…?”
“Why? Do you dislike it?”
“It’s not a matter of liking or disliking, is it?!”
Elisha let out a soft laugh as she watched my flustered state.
“It was a joke, so don’t get so worked up.”
“….”
I stared at Elisha, whose expression was far too grave for me to dismiss it as mere jest, and my face twisted into one of utter disbelief.
‘What era are we living in? A professor making jokes like that to a Candidate?’
As I furrowed my brow and glared at her, she placed a hand over her heart with a faint smile.
“Well, jokes aside, it’s true that I have an interest in you, Dale. Both as a hero and as the opposite sex.”
“…Pardon?”
A direct confession out of nowhere?
“There’s no Academy rule forbidding a professor from taking an interest in a Candidate, is there?”
“No, well… I suppose not.”
“Before I’m a professor, I’m a woman too. I can’t help but be drawn to a male who catches my eye.”
“So… you’re saying right now…?”
My mind went blank under the barrage of these unexpected direct statements.
‘Elisha Baldwin has an interest in me?’
What kind of situation is this, exactly?
“…Isn’t this only the second time we’ve actually spoken to each other?”
And even that conversation hadn’t been particularly pleasant.
“Hmm? Does the number of meetings matter when a female is drawn to a male?”
“…At the very least, I don’t believe there was anything in our previous encounters that would have drawn your attention, Professor.”
Let me set aside the whole “female” and “male” terminology for now.
“You didn’t show me? Didn’t you show me on the very first day we met?”
“Are you referring to the sparring match with Vincent?”
Well, it’s certainly not common for a mere Candidate to overwhelm an instructor in a match.
But honestly, among thousands or tens of thousands of heroes, it wasn’t enough to capture the attention of the Scarlet-Eyed Spider, who ranked ninth.
‘Yuren alone would have easily overwhelmed Vincent.’
I didn’t even need to go that far.
Even Camilla could have held her own against Vincent in a fairly even match.
‘Vincent’s level isn’t really that exceptionally high, after all.’
The reason Vincent had displayed such overwhelming martial prowess at first was purely due to the level of his opponents.
How could Candidates barely scraping by with average grades possibly withstand the attacks of an instructor whose primary weapon was a swift blade?
“Hmm. Of course, there’s that too.”
“Is there something else, Professor?”
“Yes.”
Something else that might capture Elisha’s interest.
‘Surely not.’
Had my secret about the Primordial Flame been exposed?
“Heh. It seems you’re misunderstanding something.”
As I glared at her with suspicion, Elisha offered a faint smile.
“What captivated me most was Dale Candidate’s appearance.”
“…Excuse me?”
The unexpected answer left my mind blank.
Elisha reached up and gently caressed my cheek, then nodded with a satisfied expression.
“Yes, no matter how many times I look, it’s truly such a drab and melancholic face. I find it quite charming.”
“….”
What is this?
Is she picking a fight with me?
“Mm. Don’t stare at me like that.”
Elisha averted her gaze and let out a small cough.
Her cheeks flushed a deep crimson as she turned away.
“…Aren’t you… embarrassed?”
“No.”
What’s the point in feeling embarrassed now after calling someone drab and melancholic?
‘I can never tell what her true intentions are.’
I exhaled a deep sigh and shook my head slowly.
“Well, don’t worry about it. It’s merely curiosity ‘for now,’ after all.”
Elisha smiled faintly and pulled a cigarette from her pocket, placing it between her lips.
She gestured toward me with the cigarette dangling from her mouth.
“Light.”
“…I don’t carry a lighter with me.”
“Didn’t you use fire magic when facing that demon earlier?”
“That was….”
Using the Primordial Flame just to light a cigarette felt rather excessive, didn’t it?
“Hmm. I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Elisha pulled a lighter from her pocket and handed it to me.
“Light.”
“…Couldn’t you just light it yourself?”
“There’s nothing quite as special as a cigarette lit by a man I’ve taken a liking to.”
“….”
What kind of unreasonable woman is this?
“Sigh.”
I exhaled deeply and lit her cigarette with the lighter she’d given me.
Elisha inhaled deeply from the cigarette and nodded with satisfaction.
“Ahh. Wonderful.”
“…So how do you plan to conduct that investigation you mentioned earlier? Should I draw some blood for you?”
“No, never mind. There’s nothing we’d learn from it anyway.”
“….”
Then why did you say we needed additional investigation in the first place?
“Hehe. Isn’t it a wonderful excuse to lock lips with a man I’ve taken a fancy to? Being a special-appointment professor has its perks.”
“A truly admirable line of reasoning, Professor.”
“Your praise makes me a touch embarrassed.”
Elisha exhaled a long plume of smoke, her expression grave in a way that made it impossible to discern whether she was joking or sincere.
“But what on earth are those demons?”
“We’re still investigating that ourselves.”
Flick.
Elisha flicked away her spent cigarette butt and approached the corpse of the crocodile demon.
“The Test Zone is so vast that demons occasionally slip in from outside, but… an Eight-Rank demon entering is unprecedented in the entire five-hundred-year history of this place.”
“Which means….”
“Someone deliberately sent that demon here. That’s the only reasonable conclusion.”
Elisha examined the crocodile demon’s corpse with eyes that had grown distant and grave.
“Do you have any suspects in mind?”
“Hard to say. It’s only speculation at this point, but….”
Elisha dipped her fingertip into the blood pooling from the crocodile demon’s corpse and placed it on her tongue.
Her violet irises split vertically, revealing golden pupils within.
The ominous eye that manifested when she activated her blessing—the Blessing of Insight—gleamed with sharp intensity.
“Just as I thought. This isn’t a wild demon at all. It’s a thrall.”
“Like the Unicorn, you mean?”
“Precisely.”
Elisha nodded quietly and continued.
“There aren’t many beings capable of commanding a demon of this caliber.”
“….”
Hearing those words, a name immediately surfaced in my mind.
“The Archbishop of Beasts. Jackal.”
Elisha traced the scar that ran across the corner of her left eye, her voice heavy and somber.
‘Jackal.’
The Archbishop of Beasts, Jackal.
One of the Six Archbishops standing at the apex of Demon-kind, he was a formidable Demon who commanded thousands upon thousands of demons beneath his dominion.
‘It took nearly a war just to bring down that one.’
Nearly half of the over one thousand soldiers from the Three-Nation Allied Forces had been sacrificed before his demon legions and Jackal himself could finally be slain.
‘The hero who killed Jackal back then was definitely… Elisha Baldwin.’
Coincidence or fate?
I turned to look at Elisha and clicked my tongue softly.
In my previous life, she had participated in the war against Jackal, severed his life, and met her own end in that very place.
‘Though I never witnessed it directly.’
The Three-Nation Allied Forces formed and the war with Jackal broke out ten years after my graduation.
That would be approximately twelve years from now.
‘It was around the time I was just giving up my mercenary work and starting to form a party with Yuren and the others.’
At that time, our party was only just being formed, so we didn’t participate in the war directly.
As I continued my thoughts while recalling memories from my past life.
“Dale, Candidate—do you know anything about Jackal?”
“Huh? Ah… no, not really. I was just lost in thought for a moment.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Elisha stood with her arms crossed, her eyes dark and sunken as she gazed down at the corpse of the demonic beast.
“…Jackal.”
Her eyes gleamed fiercely as she spoke that name.
After staring at the demonic beast’s corpse for a while, Elisha turned her gaze toward me.
“I have a favor to ask of you, Dale.”
“What is it?”
“Could you keep this matter confidential, at least until the investigation is complete?”
“When you say confidential, how far does that extend…?”
“To everyone. I’d appreciate it if you kept it secret even from your assigned professor.”
“…Are you planning to cover up the incident entirely?”
At my surprised expression upon hearing that I shouldn’t even tell Lucas Kane, Elisha nodded heavily.
“If word of this incident spreads throughout the Academy, the culprit will flee again. Just like during the last Seal Festival.”
“….”
The mastermind behind the incident during the Seal Festival actually didn’t escape—he died by my hand.
But I couldn’t tell Elisha that fact now.
“Understood. I’ll keep this incident as a secret between you and me, Professor.”
“Oho. A secret between just the two of us—how thrilling.”
“No.”
“Hehe, just joking.”
“…You certainly do enjoy your jokes, don’t you?”
“Well, I’ve always had a humorous and witty personality, you see.”
“Ha. Where do you come up with such nonsense?”
The professor really is incorrigible.
“Well then, I’ll take this crocodile demonic beast’s corpse with me.”
“Yes.”
“By the way, are you alright? You don’t look well at all.”
“Well… to be honest, I’m not in the best condition.”
I was barely managing to stay upright, looking as though I could collapse at any moment.
“I feel bad for keeping you here. I’ll take care of all the demonic beasts in this area, so rest easy.”
“I appreciate that.”
I could handle being attacked in my sleep without much concern, but for Yuren, who was unconscious from mana exhaustion, it would be fatal.
Piiiiing!
Elisha snapped her fingers, and dozens of silver threads wrapped around the corpse of the crocodile demon.
She dragged the beast’s body away and vanished.
“Haah.”
I exhaled heavily, my body screaming in exhaustion, and leaned my back against the rock where I’d laid Yuren.
‘I really can’t take anymore.’
Without resisting the drowsiness that crashed over me, I slowly closed my eyes.
‘Wait… hold on.’
There was something I felt I’d forgotten….
* * *
“I will now announce the test results.”
Lucas Kane held the score sheet as he continued.
“Yuren from the Candidate Program achieved the bonus objective, so he ranks first regardless of points. Next is Morris from the Candidate Program with 182 points in second place… Camilla from the Candidate Program with 98 points in third place… Juliet from the Candidate Program with 47 points in fifty-seventh place… Albert from the Candidate Program with 24 points in one hundred thirty-sixth place… and.”
Lucas Kane’s gaze turned toward me.
“Dale from the Candidate Program with 0 points in two hundred fifty-third place.”
“….”
Damn it.
Dead last again?

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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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