The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 85

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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 85. Interlude – Moonlight (1)
My mind swims in the tide of ascending joy.
Even sitting still, my lips curve upward in an involuntary smile.
My body feels weightless, as though floating above the clouds.
-I came to get you.
The moment I heard those words, my heart soared with such overwhelming happiness.
Questions arose—how did Dale discern that I was Yurina and not Yuren? How did he know I had undergone the stigma replacement procedure?—but they seemed trivial.
The joy that Dale had come to rescue me eclipsed all such petty doubts, washing them away like sand before the tide.
-You don’t need to shine anymore.
I had lived to become the sun.
I had lived to radiate brilliance.
Because I needed to atone for the sins I had committed.
Because I yearned to be loved by Mother again, as I once was.
I had to become ‘Yuren’.
But.
The sun that was ‘Yuren’ remained so distant, so blindingly luminous.
No matter how desperately I struggled, I could never reach it.
It was agonizing. The suffering was unbearable.
Wielding my blade until my palms bled, witnessing Mother’s cold gaze, enduring nightmares of my brother—all of it was torment.
The closer I drew toward becoming the sun, the deeper the darkness that consumed my existence.
Then Dale appeared in my life.
My first true friend.
My mentor, my savior.
My new sun.
‘I will no longer live to become Yuren.’
I shattered the chains that had bound me for eight long years.
I erased my fear of Mother, my guilt toward my brother.
To a coward who could never choose for herself, Dale taught me what courage truly meant.
‘Dale.’
Does he know how profoundly he has saved me?
Does he sense the emotions swelling within my heart, threatening to overflow?
I don’t know.
And perhaps it doesn’t matter.
I can show him, little by little, as time goes on.
‘From this day forward, I will live for Dale.’
I will dedicate everything to him, who has given me a new life.
If the moon can only shine because the sun exists.
‘Then Dale is my sun.’
At this realization, my smile becomes immutable.
An inexplicable vitality surges through my entire being, as though I had consumed a precious elixir of power.
“Ah, ugh. Ah.”
Clang.
The Corrupted Armored Being rose to its feet.
A puppet summoned by the man called Faust before he fled.
If I had received the stigma replacement ritual from him, would I have become a puppet like that?
‘No, I was already a puppet before that.’
Before I met Dale, I was no different from a puppet—just without the strings attached.
But.
‘Not anymore.’
I drew upon my mana while gripping my sword.
The stigma of the ‘Moon God’ carved into my left chest blazed with light.
Whoooooosh!
A golden aura enveloped the blade.
Gazing at that golden radiance—reminiscent of a brilliantly shining sun—I narrowed my eyes.
‘This wasn’t the color it used to be.’
The reason my aura was golden was simply because I had forcibly controlled my mana to mimic my brother’s color.
‘I don’t need to do that anymore.’
I stopped habitually restraining my mana and drew upon every ounce of power within me.
Shiiiiing!
With a sound like something shattering, the golden aura gradually transformed into silver.
A silver aura as cold and piercing as moonlight blazed fiercely along the blade.
“Hah.”
A tingling sensation coursed down my spine.
As if a blockage had suddenly cleared, a refreshing sensation spread throughout my entire body.
“…Ah.”
A soft gasp escaped between my lips.
Unknown information flooded my mind as if forgotten memories were surfacing.
‘This is….’
Divine Blessing.
The blessing of a god—something manifested only by an extremely rare few among heroes who had awakened their stigmas.
‘The Blessing of Moonlight.’
Information about the Blessing of Moonlight naturally flowed into my mind.
‘The more I think of someone precious, the more power it grants in return.’
I let out an involuntary laugh at the information flooding my consciousness.
I had heard that some blessings possessed rather peculiar characteristics.
But a blessing that granted more power the more one thought of another person?
‘There couldn’t be a blessing more suited to me than this.’
I glanced back at Dale with a faint smile.
Merely holding his image in my eyes caused a terrifying surge of mana to sweep through my body.
“Uuuaaahhh!!!”
The Corrupted Armored Being let out a ghastly shriek as it lunged toward me.
A vicious black aura blazed from the greatsword clutched in its hands.
Judging merely by the sheer volume of aura flowing along the blade, it wasn’t difficult to discern that this Corrupted Armored Being possessed tremendous power.
“Hah.”
I drew in a measured breath and gripped my sword.
For some reason, faced with that savagely burning black aura, I felt only contempt.
“Solar Blade Form Seven.”
A technique I knew only in theory, one I had never successfully executed until now.
The towering wall that stood before me, the realm that lay beyond it.
I stepped forward without hesitation toward that realm.
“Luminous Ring.”
A silver halo born from the blade’s edge.
The coldly gleaming silver ring enveloped the greatsword burning with black light.
Shhhhwack!
The aura-wrapped greatsword split cleanly in two, like tofu beneath a blade.
“Ah, wh—?”
I thrust my sword toward the Corrupted Armored Being, whose expression had turned vacant as it stared at the severed blade.
Crack!
My blade pierced through the black armor and impaled the creature’s heart.
* * *
Silver light illuminated the dim Underground Chamber.
I gazed at Yuren, enveloped in that silvery radiance, and let out a soft gasp of admiration.
“Huh.”
Yurina’s magical power had always been at an extraordinary level.
But the magical power I sensed from her now far exceeded that “extraordinary level.”
Without discovering some legendary elixir, there was only one explanation for such a sudden transformation.
‘Divine Blessing.’
Memories from my past life naturally surfaced in my mind.
Yuren was certainly humanity’s strongest swordsman, but that didn’t mean he possessed Divine Blessing.
Since Divine Blessing wasn’t something one could obtain through effort alone, it was hardly surprising that Yuren never awakened it in his previous life.
‘To suddenly awaken Divine Blessing like this?’
If so, then Yuren in the previous life didn’t lack Divine Blessing—he simply never manifested it despite possessing it.
‘…The future has changed, then.’
In the opposite direction from what I had feared.
“Dale….”
Yurina, who had felled the Corrupted Armored Being with a single strike, turned toward me with gleaming eyes.
As she took a step forward.
“Ah.”
Yurina suddenly swayed, as if about to collapse.
I quickly caught her in my arms.
“When you first awaken your divine protection, your body will be flooded with fatigue as it adapts to that power.”
“Ah, I see… But how did Dale know that….”
Yurina, who had been nestled in my arms, trailed off without finishing her sentence, her eyes gently closing.
“Sigh.”
I lifted the sleeping Yurina into my arms and carried her out of the Underground Chamber.
Though the magical bombardment had reduced the Helios Mansion to rubble, the estate was sprawling enough that several intact rooms remained.
I selected a room that appeared reasonably undamaged and opened the door.
“Eek, eeeek!”
A Maid who had been hiding in the room trembled with fright upon seeing me.
“I-I’ll do whatever you command, please, please spare me!”
“….”
I exhaled deeply while observing the Maid, her face drained of color, her hands clasped together in supplication.
‘Anyone hearing this would think I slaughtered everyone on my way here.’
Needless to say, I had killed no one while breaching the mansion.
“I’ll just use this bed for a moment.”
“Ah, yes. P-please, use it freely!”
The Maid sprang to her feet and bowed repeatedly.
I laid Yurina on the bed and placed the back of my hand against her forehead.
‘She has a fever.’
It seemed her entire body was generating heat as her physiology adapted to this new power.
“Forgive me, but could I ask you for one favor?”
“Yes, of course!”
“Could you bring me some cold water and a cloth?”
“Ah… yes, understood!”
The Maid dashed out of the room.
I pulled a chair beside the bed and sat down, watching Yurina quietly.
“Where is that arrogant Republic bastard right now?!”
She must have regained consciousness.
Rosanna’s voice rang out sharply through the Corridor.
Crash!
Rosanna kicked the door open and glared at me with fierce eyes.
“You…! What the hell are you doing right now?!”
“Can’t you see? I’m looking after your mother’s daughter.”
“You…!”
Rosanna strode toward me.
“How dare a Republic bastard lay hands on an Imperial noble family! Do you think this is the Hero Academy, some ‘neutral ground’? Mark my words. I’ll inform the Imperial Palace about this and make sure you pay….”
“Inform the Imperial Palace, you say.”
I rose to my feet with a slight smirk.
“What, what is it?”
As I stood, Rosanna flinched and took a step backward.
I approached her with a smirk spreading across my face.
“Tell them if you want to tell them.”
“Ha. Where do you get off spouting such arrogance? You think someone like you, no matter how strong, could possibly stand against the Imperial Court itself?”
“I couldn’t.”
Even with my recent meteoric rise in power, I alone could never contend with the Imperial Court.
But.
“Then can you handle it, ma’am?”
“Handle it? What do you—”
“You joined hands with the Demons and attempted to use the forbidden Stigma Replacement Technique. What do you think would happen to the Helios Family if the Imperial Court learned of this?”
“Wait, wait! Joined hands with the Demons? What do you mean—!”
“You saw a corpse in the Underground Chamber earlier, didn’t you? If that body is examined, demonic energy will be detected.”
“…!”
Rosanna’s face drained of all color as her mouth fell open in shock.
Even if one were to overlook the attempt to use the Stigma Replacement Technique, the revelation of her collusion with the Demons would spell the absolute end of the Helios Family.
Conspiracy with the Demons was a capital crime equivalent to treason against the state.
“I, I didn’t know he was a Demon!”
“Is that so? Well, if you insist on that, I’ll believe you.”
I leaned close to Rosanna’s ear, now ashen with dread, and whispered.
“Whether the Imperial Court believes you is another matter entirely.”
“Ugh…!”
Rosanna’s expression crumpled in despair.
“So, shall we go hand in hand to the Imperial Court?”
“….”
Rosanna hung her head in silence.
Her deliberation was lengthy, but for a noblewoman who valued her family’s honor above her own life, the choice was inevitable.
“…Very well. I shall let this matter rest undisclosed.”
She bit her lip and nodded reluctantly.
“Hmm.”
I gazed at Rosanna’s contorted face, my eyes narrowing with satisfaction.
‘Somehow this doesn’t feel like enough.’
Thinking of the suffering Yurina had endured because of Rosanna, I couldn’t bring myself to simply let this pass as though nothing had happened.
‘What could I do to utterly shatter this arrogant noblewoman’s pride?’
As I continued pondering such thoughts.
“Um… I’ve b-brought the water, ma’am.”
The Maid peeked her head through the partially open doorway.
“Ah.”
I looked at the Maid and felt a smirk spreading across my face.
* * *
Click.
The door opened carefully.
The delicate aroma of black tea wafted through the open doorway.
“Ugh….”
Rosanna entered the room carrying a tray, dressed in a maid’s uniform.
As if to prove that her bloodline truly did connect her to Yurina, Rosanna—despite being well past fifty—cut a dazzling figure in her maid’s attire.
“I’ve brought the black tea.”
“Brought?”
“I have brought it for you, sir.”
“Good, good. You must speak with proper courtesy.”
I leaned back leisurely in my chair and gestured to her with a casual wave.
“Why are you still standing in the doorway?”
“Ugh….”
A noblewoman of a prestigious Imperial family, reduced to serving a mere Candidate Program student in a maid’s dress.
It would have been more merciful to bite through her own tongue and perish.
“Let’s see. You’ve brought the tea, so next you can massage my shoulders a bit.”
“What, what did you say?”
Rosanna’s face went pale as her mouth fell open.
“How dare you, you insolent—!”
“How dare I? What did I tell you to call me earlier?”
“Ugh!”
Rosanna’s expression twisted in anguish.
“If you keep that up, I’ll summon every servant in this mansion.”
“No, please!”
To stand before the servants dressed like this.
That was something she absolutely could not bear.
“Then you understand, don’t you?”
I gazed at Rosanna with a slight smile playing at my lips.
With her head bowed and her lips trembling, Rosanna squeezed her eyes shut.
“I will massage your shoulders, Master… sir.”
Tears streamed down Rosanna’s face as it twisted with shame.
I let out a delighted laugh and turned my gaze toward the window.
Darkness had settled over the night sky.
Soft moonlight illuminated the Helios Family estate.

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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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