The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 64

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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 64. Interlude (2) – The Spider’s Scar
A week had passed since I achieved the dubious honor of ranking 253rd out of 253 Warrior Department candidates.
By now, the fervent discussions about the midterm evaluation results that had set the Academy ablaze were gradually fading away.
I had been summoned by Professor Elisha and made my way to her office.
“You’ve arrived.”
As I entered the office, Professor Elisha, dressed in her usual immaculate black suit, greeted me with her legs crossed.
“What is this about, Professor?”
“The investigation results have come back.”
“…Investigation results, you say.”
She continued speaking while holding a thin cigarette between her fingers, her gaze fixed indifferently on a thick stack of documents.
“As expected, the crocodile beasts and wolf beasts that appeared at the test site were familiars of Jackal, the Beast Archbishop.”
“…Jackal.”
An Archbishop’s involvement.
It was the worst-case scenario among all the possibilities I had anticipated.
‘Whether the future has changed or I simply overlooked this in my past life, I’m not certain.’
One thing was certain.
An Archbishop-class Demon was scheming something within the Academy once again.
“Have you discovered what his objective is, Professor?”
In response to my question, Professor Elisha drew deeply on her cigarette and shook her head quietly.
“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure either. However… there was one peculiar beast that caught my attention.”
“A peculiar beast?”
So there was another beast besides the crocodile and wolf beasts?
“This one.”
Professor Elisha exhaled smoke and opened a drawer.
What emerged from the drawer was a grotesque creature bearing a resemblance to a leech.
In the center of its suction cup, designed for drawing blood, a single eye smaller than a fingernail blinked.
“This is….”
“A beast that was clinging to Yuren’s body.”
“It was clinging to Yuren’s body?”
That couldn’t be right.
I had personally erected a barrier around Yuren to repel beasts.
Of course, it was a barrier ineffective against beasts with numerous eyes, but this leech-like creature had only a single eye.
There was no way it could have penetrated the barrier and approached Yuren….
“Ah.”
A soft exclamation escaped between my lips.
‘Now that I think about it, the crocodile beast did shatter the barrier midway through.’
So while the barrier was being destroyed and my battle with the crocodile beast continued, this leech creature must have clung to Yuren’s body.
“….”
“Heh. It seems Candidate Dale has already figured it out.”
Professor Elisha narrowed her eyes and continued speaking.
“I have no concrete evidence, but I believe the Crocker Beast appeared suddenly and caused a rampage specifically to allow this leech-type Beast to approach Yuren Candidate. That was the true purpose.”
The Crocker Beast’s objective was to destroy the barrier I had created.
‘Now that I think about it, it destroyed the barrier the moment I was sent away.’
At the time, I thought it broke the barrier to approach Yuren, but considering it now, the Crocker Beast was at a level where it wouldn’t be affected by a ‘Beast-repelling barrier’ at all.
‘There was no reason for it to break the barrier in the first place.’
Yet the Crocker Beast destroyed the barrier enveloping Yuren’s body first.
As if breaking the barrier itself had been the objective from the start.
‘Wait. Then… was the reason the Crocker Beast didn’t appear in my past life because there was no barrier?’
Scattered puzzle pieces were clicking into place.
I continued my thoughts with narrowed eyes.
‘The wolf-type Beast that Jackal released existed in my past life too.’
Wasn’t that the first time I experienced death when that wolf Beast tore out my throat in my previous life?
‘In other words, Jackal released his summoned Beast inside the Test Site in my past life as well.’
Then what was Jackal’s reason for releasing the wolf Beast inside the Test Site?
‘He was trying to find where Yuren was.’
Beasts transformed from wolves inherently possess keen sense of smell and swift legs.
Combined with their pack-hunting nature, they could act with organization, making them optimized for ‘search and reconnaissance’.
‘In my past life, after finding Yuren, he must have attached this leech Beast at an opportune moment.’
But this time, a variable appeared.
A variable named Dale Han who suddenly emerged from nowhere and created a Beast-repelling barrier around Yuren.
‘That’s why he deployed the Crocker Beast, which wasn’t originally scheduled to appear.’
To destroy the barrier I had spread and allow the leech Beast to approach Yuren’s body.
“Ha.”
A low, hollow laugh escaped as I grasped the full picture of events.
‘What in the world is this leech Beast that he’s so desperate to attach it to Yuren?’
I examined the leech Beast writhing inside the glass bottle, but could discern nothing beyond the fact that it looked repulsive.
I glanced at Elisha, wondering if she might know something.
“I don’t know what abilities this leech Beast possesses.”
“Can’t you discern it even with your Blessing of Insight?”
“If my Blessing could unearth every secret in the world, I wouldn’t need to hide and investigate matters so covertly.”
Elisha let out a bitter smile and released a deep sigh.
“In any case, that’s all I’ve been able to discover.”
I managed to figure out that Jackal released the Beasts to attach the leech Beast to Yuren, but I ultimately couldn’t find the answer to the more crucial question: why did Jackal target Yuren in the first place?
“In the end, there were no clues substantial enough to track Jackal.”
“That seems to be the case.”
Elisha touched the scar running across her left eye with a somewhat bitter expression.
“Is that scar related to Jackal?”
“…Why would you think that?”
“Every time you speak about Jackal, you touch that scar.”
“Ha, you’re connecting me and Jackal based solely on that habit?”
Elisha stifled a hollow laugh, her expression one of utter disbelief.
I’d sensed there was some history between her and Jackal, though my awareness came from memories of my past life—something I saw no need to explain.
“….”
Elisha kept her lips sealed in silence for a moment before finally speaking in a hushed voice.
“…When I was young, I was born in a rural village tucked away in a remote corner of the Empire.”
Elisha placed a fresh cigarette between her lips and lit it with a soft click.
“A small village without even a name.”
Whoosh.
Pale smoke dispersed into the empty air.
“That peaceful village was destroyed without a trace one day—by the hand of a Demon Human.”
“….”
There was no need to ask who that ‘Demon Human’ was.
“He simply wanted to test the power of his newly subjugated demonic beast.”
The cigarette burned down.
A crimson spark glinted like a memory stained with blood.
“It took less than ten minutes to slaughter nearly a hundred villagers.”
Merely ten minutes.
Her entire life was trampled mercilessly.
Devastated beyond any possibility of recovery.
“I was fortunate enough to survive, somehow.”
She traced the scar near her left eye with a self-deprecating smile.
“…Though this hideous scar remained as a souvenir.”
“….”
“Heh. Don’t make such a serious face. It’s a common story, after all.”
Elisha shrugged with an air of indifference, her expression composed.
Suddenly, a memory from my past life flickered through my mind.
The tale of how Elisha Baldwin, the “Scarred Spider,” had slain Jackal, the Beast Archbishop, and died gloriously.
Beyond the story I’d heard so casually.
I could now envision the desolate life of a single woman.
‘A common story, she says….’
She wasn’t wrong.
People whose lives had been trampled by Demon Humans were scattered across every corner of the Continent.
There was no grand twist, no stirring narrative, no poignant ending to move one to tears.
It was tragedy without distinction.
Atrocity without grandeur.
A commonplace sorrow found anywhere in the world.
‘But.’
Commonness did not diminish the pain.
Ordinariness did not prevent the wound.
“Whoosh.”
Elisha sat with an indifferent expression, burning a cigarette.
Why did I do it?
Without thinking, I reached out toward her.
“What are you—”
“Stay still.”
Leaving Elisha’s bewildered expression behind, I carefully traced the scar that cut across her left eye.
“…Candidate Dale. Do you understand what you’re doing right now?”
Touching a professor’s body without permission.
It was disrespectful enough to warrant immediate disciplinary action.
I smirked as I watched Elisha glare at me fiercely.
“It’s beautiful.”
“…What?”
“You said earlier it was an unsightly scar. But looking at it now, it’s anything but unsightly—it actually suits your appearance perfectly.”
“….”
“How should I put it… a wild charm? That’s what I feel. Actually, without this scar, your expression might have looked a bit plain.”
“You….”
Elisha started to say something, then trailed off and bit her lip firmly.
“C-cough!”
She let out a flustered cough and turned her head sharply away.
Her earlobe, visible between strands of short black hair, had flushed crimson like an apple.
“Anyway… these days the candidates show no respect for professors whatsoever. The phrase ‘end times’ couldn’t be more fitting. Back in my day, we couldn’t even imagine touching a professor’s body. How dare you lay hands on someone as revered as a professor. And what? Beautiful? The scar suits me? Is that something a candidate should say to a professor? If you’re asking whether I was happy about it, I suppose I felt a tiny bit pleased, but that still doesn’t excuse this absolutely unacceptable—”
Elisha muttered under her breath, her voice growing quieter as she hung her head.
“Professor Elisha?”
“Eek!”
Elisha jolted up from her seat as if struck.
Her expression, usually as blank as stone, now radiated such vitality that it seemed impossible she was the same person.
“A-anyway! The investigation into Jackal will continue, so you assist as well, Candidate Dale!”
With that one-sided directive, Elisha bolted from the Professor’s Office as if fleeing.
“….”
Left alone in her office, I stubbed out the half-burned cigarette she’d left in the ashtray and leaned back against the chair.
“…Jackal.”
A thought crossed my mind—perhaps in this life, there were people I needed to look after beyond just my former comrades.
* * *
From a distance, it resembled a mountain made of fur moving about—a massive beast of extraordinary size.
An old man sat perched atop the creature, which possessed eleven eyes.
“Heh. This is quite pitiful, what to do about it….”
The old man gazed down at his palm, which bore intricate patterns, and let out a low sigh.
The patterns inscribed on his wrinkled palm were partially erased, as if the skin beneath had been stripped away.
“Tsk, tsk. And he was one I cherished too.”
The old man clicked his tongue in regret as he stared at the erased pattern.
Yet despite those words of affection, the old man’s gaze upon the erased mark was utterly indifferent—as if he were merely looking down at the corpse of an ant crushed beneath a passerby’s foot.
Whoooooosh!
The space near where the old man sat warped, and a young man with snow-white hair materialized.
As if invisible footholds existed in the empty air itself, the youth approached with leisurely steps, then bowed respectfully toward Jackal.
“So you were here.”
“Ah, you’ve come?”
“Yes, it’s been a while, Jackal.”
The white-haired youth smiled faintly and adjusted his golden monocle.
“How did the task I requested go?”
“Tsk tsk tsk. Who do you think I am? Of course it succeeded. Though… a troublesome matter has arisen.”
“A troublesome matter?”
“Crocker is dead.”
“Crocker?”
The white-haired youth searched his memory at Jackal’s words.
“Ah, you mean that crocodile beast, sir.”
“That’s right.”
“Haha. Your naming sense remains unchanged, I see.”
“Hmm? What’s wrong with Crocker’s name?”
Jackal stared ahead with genuinely clueless wide eyes, while the white-haired youth silently shrugged.
“In any case, an eighth-rank beast dying in the Candidate Program examination… did a professor intervene?”
“Hehe. How could mere candidates kill Crocker? It must have been the professor’s doing.”
“Then it’s likely Elisha Baldwin.”
“Yes, that cunning spider woman got her claws on my tail. What a mess.”
“Indeed, as you say, a troublesome situation has arisen.”
“Quite so.”
Jackal’s wrinkled forehead contorted as he clicked his tongue in disapproval.
“That child is truly pitiful… to have witnessed her parents torn apart and devoured alive before her eyes at such a young age.”
“…”
The white-haired youth frowned in displeasure as he watched Jackal click his tongue sympathetically.
“Let’s return to the main matter.”
“Ah yes, of course. Well… though this troublesome affair has emerged, I did uncover what you requested.”
Jackal released an unpleasant laugh like metal scraping, then rubbed the mark etched on his forearm with his fingertip.
As the mark faded, blood smeared onto his finger.
He licked the blood with his tongue and continued speaking.
“Just as you suspected, the divine mark that Yuren Helios possesses is not the mark of the ‘Sun God’—it’s the mark of the ‘Moon God.'”
“I see.”
The white-haired youth smiled while adjusting his golden monocle.
Jackal turned to face the white-haired youth and asked.
“But what significance does this hold? After all, even if one bears the mark of the ‘Moon God,’ that doesn’t prevent them from wielding the Sun Blade, does it?”
“Haha. Well, I wonder if that woman thinks the same way?”
The white-haired youth smiled meaningfully and shrugged his shoulders.
“Mephistopheles… what exactly are you planning to do?”
“Well, you’ll see soon enough.”
Mephistopheles, the Archbishop of Corruption, gazed toward the distant Helios Family Estate and smiled brilliantly.
“The moment the sun swallows the moon.”

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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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