The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 77

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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 77. Observation Class (3)
“Stop! Both of you, stop this instant, please!”
Yuren’s urgent cry pierced through the air, cutting through an atmosphere so tense it felt like a blade pressed against one’s throat.
“What in the world are you doing inside the Academy?!”
“…Tch.”
Rosanna’s eyes narrowed at Yuren’s sharp rebuke.
Recognizing that she had indeed overstepped, she released a deep sigh and nodded reluctantly.
“Fine, fine. Now let go of my arm, would you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ma’—!”
Rosanna’s expression twisted sharply, thick veins bulging across her forehead.
She had been about to say something cutting to me, but instead she merely clicked her tongue and turned away.
“Sigh. I suppose one cannot expect noble courtesy from a Republic bastard.”
“So noble courtesy means slapping your child across the face in front of everyone just because they’ve displeased you? I had no idea, truly.”
“You little—!”
At my blatant mockery, Rosanna’s eyes narrowed to slits.
She chewed her lips irritably for a moment, then her golden eyes suddenly gleamed as if struck by inspiration.
“Your name is Dale, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Where are your parents now?”
“….”
So this was the brilliant idea she’d come up with.
I stifled a hollow laugh and regarded her with an expression of utter bewilderment.
‘Is she really Yuren’s mother?’
While it’s true that blood relation doesn’t guarantee identical temperaments, this seemed to exceed all reasonable bounds.
‘Then again, Yuren is the unusual one here.’
The Helios Family—descendants of Reynald Helios, leader of the Five Great Heroes who sealed away the Demon God five hundred years ago, and hailed as the mightiest swordsman in human history.
The Helios Family, which once wielded such immense power that even the Empire’s emperor dared not act rashly toward them, had gradually begun their descent into decline, and there was no mystery as to why.
‘People intoxicated by past glory, blind to the precipice before their very eyes.’
There was even a famous metaphor coined by some wandering bard about the Helios Family.
‘The Family Blinded by the Sun,’ they called it.
Having known only Yuren among the Helios Family, I had dismissed it as mere gossip tinged with envy and jealousy toward the noble house.
But meeting Rosanna, I finally understood why such a mocking epithet had taken root.
“Not answering? I asked where your parents are.”
Rosanna pressed the question with a harsh edge to her voice.
Before I could respond, Yuren carefully opened her mouth.
“Mother, Dale is—”
“Yuren, you stay quiet. I’m not asking you, am I?”
Rosanna cut off Yuren’s words and glared at me.
I suppressed a smirk and answered her question.
“I’d actually like to know where my parents are right now.”
“…What?”
Rosanna’s eyes narrowed as if asking what nonsense I was spouting.
I revealed to her bewildered expression that I was from the Public Republic Orphanage.
“Ha.”
Rosanna’s gaze grew even more menacing.
“So you’re saying… a lowborn wretch without even parents dared to insult the Helios Family?”
“You should speak more carefully, ma’am. When exactly did I insult the Helios Family?”
All I’d done was call her ma’am.
“An uneducated fool who can’t even speak properly—how dare you talk back so clearly.”
“Yet someone as educated as you can’t seem to speak correctly either.”
“What, what did you say? You insolent…!”
“See? You really can’t speak properly.”
“Ugh!”
Rosanna’s face contorted, flushing crimson with rage.
She took a menacing step forward, her mana surging violently around her.
Just as the atmosphere that Yuren had calmed was growing tense again.
“Dale? What are you doing here?”
A shadow fell across us—a massive frame.
A man with a fierce, intimidating appearance, better described as a beast than a person, approached us.
“Professor Lucas Kane?”
“Ah, Candidate Yuren is here too. And you are….”
Lucas Kane’s gaze turned toward Rosanna.
Perhaps it was because of the title “Professor” that had come from Yuren’s lips.
Rosanna’s expression, which had been hysterically contorted just moments before, returned to its composed state in the blink of an eye.
“I am Rosanna Helios.”
She gracefully bowed her head while delicately lifting the hem of her dress.
“Ah, so you’re Candidate Yuren’s mother.”
“Yes. If you’re Professor Lucas Kane… you must be the third-year Warrior Department instructor, correct?”
“That’s right.”
Lucas Kane nodded and continued speaking.
“But what were you doing here? The assembly point for the observation class is over at the Plaza, not here.”
“I actually had something to tell you, so your timing is perfect.”
Rosanna approached Lucas Kane with a faint, bloodstained smile on her lips.
“Professor Lucas Kane, do you know this candidate named Dale?”
“Yes. He’s one of my candidates, so of course I do.”
“Is that so? How fortunate.”
Rosanna turned to look at me, her arms crossed elegantly.
“This lowborn wretch without parents dared to insult our family….”
“Hmm? No parents, you say?”
Lucas Kane tilted his head as if hearing this for the first time.
Rosanna was the one who found herself flustered by his reaction instead.
“What? But you clearly said you came from the Public Republic Orphanage yourself….”
“Ah yes, that’s true—I did come from the Public Republic Orphanage, but I had a foster father who took me in later.”
Lucas Kane grinned and draped an arm across my shoulder.
“I’m his father now.”
“…What?”
Rosanna stood there with her mouth agape, flustered and stammering.
Lucas Kane tightened his grip around my shoulder and turned to face me.
“Right, son?”
…
Watching Lucas Kane wink at me with one eye, I swallowed a hollow laugh internally.
‘So he heard our conversation.’
The timing of his intervention had been too convenient—he must have been eavesdropping on the exchange between Rosanna and me.
He’d been listening quietly, and when it seemed the situation might escalate, he’d stepped in.
‘The man really does have his nose in everyone’s business.’
Though I’m hardly one to talk, having inserted myself into my friend’s family matters.
“Yes, Father.”
I nodded with a straight face, and Rosanna’s expression crumpled instantly.
Whether my relationship with Lucas Kane was real or not, her position had become untenable.
She couldn’t openly criticize a Candidate in front of her when the Warrior Department professor himself was calling me his ‘son.’
“If my boy has been disrespectful, I apologize on his behalf.”
“Ah… yes.”
“He’s always been a bit crude, you see. Why else would he be at the bottom of his class?”
…
Lucas Kane laughed heartily, patting my back with a palm the size of a pot lid.
As Lucas Kane began disparaging me, Rosanna—now uncertain how to respond—glared at me with obvious displeasure in her eyes.
“Well then, it’s about time we started the observation class. Everyone, let’s head to the Classroom.”
Lucas Kane dragged me along by the shoulder toward the Classroom.
As I was being pulled along, I asked him in a low voice so Rosanna wouldn’t hear.
“Am I going too?”
“Of course you are.”
“But the observation class is only for Candidates whose parents are attending.”
“Your parent is here, isn’t he?”
Lucas Kane grinned and pointed to himself.
I looked at him with an expression of disbelief.
“You’re really going to keep running with this act?”
“Act? What act? Haven’t you heard that a teacher is like a second parent?”
…
I was grateful for Lucas Kane’s willingness to take on the role of my ‘parent.’
‘If this truth comes to light, it will damage Lucas Kane’s reputation.’
He isn’t just instructing me among the Candidate Program students.
There must be other candidates whose parents didn’t attend the observation class, yet if it became known that I alone received special treatment and was allowed to participate, it would tarnish Lucas Kane’s reputation.
‘Rumors would spread that he shows favoritism toward certain candidates.’
If that happened, it would be Lucas Kane who would suffer the consequences later.
“When did you start worrying so much about others, you brat?”
Perhaps sensing what I was thinking, Lucas Kane chuckled and ruffled my hair.
“That’s not concern for a parent, you cheeky little thing.”
“….”
At his words, I clamped my mouth shut firmly.
Why was this happening?
I thought I’d become incapable of feeling anything toward the concept of ‘parents’ after my previous life, yet in this moment, my chest felt heavy as if shrouded in dark clouds.
As if the slightest relaxation would let the rain pouring from those clouds stream down my cheeks.
“Such meddlesome concern….”
For that very reason.
I couldn’t accept Lucas Kane’s kindness.
‘And.’
I turned my head to look toward Yuren.
Standing behind Rosanna, moving quietly with each step, his expression was as pallid as that of a condemned man being led to the execution ground.
In this situation, having to attend the observation class separated from me (Yuren and I are in different class divisions) alongside his mother would be unbearable for him.
“Tsk. There’s no helping it then.”
There was only one way to separate Yuren from his mother while refusing Lucas Kane’s kindness.
“What do you mean there’s no helping it?”
“I’m sorry, Father.”
“Huh?”
I raised my finger and jabbed it sharply into Lucas Kane’s ribs.
“Cough! You, what are you doing right now?!”
The arm that had been firmly wrapped around my neck loosened.
I immediately spun around and bolted toward Yuren.
“D-Dale?”
I grabbed Yuren’s arm and pulled.
“Let’s go.”
“G-Go where…?”
“Where else would we go?”
Obviously to class.
Boom!
I pulled Yuren’s arm as I kicked off the ground.
Berald Combat Arts.
Wind Step.
My body felt weightless as if wings had sprouted from my back, and the surroundings blurred past at tremendous speed.
“Hey, you bastard! Where the hell are you going?!”
“Y-Yuren! What are you doing right now?”
Shouts echoed from behind us.
I brushed aside their cries and kicked my feet toward the Academy gates.
“D-Dale, wait! Just wait a moment!”
Yuren, being dragged along with his arm seized, cried out with urgency in his expression.
“Why? You don’t want to skip?”
“No, it’s just….”
Yuren trailed off and turned his head away.
The Academy’s silhouette, now quite distant, filled my vision.
‘Skipping class without permission.’
For someone who had maintained the top rank in his year for three consecutive years and lived with unparalleled diligence, this was an act of rebellion he could never have imagined.
“….”
The contorted face of his mother, glimpsed before we grew distant, flashed through my mind.
Thinking of the fury that would follow sent a chill down my spine.
“Do you want to go back?”
“….”
Why was that?
Without knowing why, I shook my head in response to his question.
“…No.”
I didn’t want to go back.
I wanted to savor this thrilling moment of rebellion, even if just a little longer.
“Alright then, let’s skip together.”
Dale grinned wickedly as he and Yuren climbed over the Academy Fence.

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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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