The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 92

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 92. An Ordinary Day (4)
The Festival, which had been brimming with cheers and laughter, fell silent as if ice water had been poured over it.
“H-Hero?”
“Why are you doing this?”
The villagers stumbled backward in confusion at Elisha’s sudden action.
Elisha paid them no mind, instead gripping Oliver’s collar with even greater force.
“H-Hieek!”
Oliver trembled violently, overwhelmed by the suffocating killing intent radiating from the Spider of Calamity.
“I-I only did as I was ordered!”
“…As you were ordered?”
Elisha’s expression twisted harshly.
As she scanned her surroundings with her violet eyes gleaming, a sound cut through the silence.
Clap, clap, clap.
Applause echoed across the Village Square, now shrouded in stillness.
“So you truly are the Spider of Calamity. I went to considerable effort to conceal my mana traces… but it was all for naught.”
“You…”
Elisha’s eyes gleamed with cold fury.
She glared at the man before her, grinding her teeth.
“Harris.”
The first witness to report the abduction of the villagers.
The man, whose neat appearance belied his rural origins, smiled broadly and nodded.
“However, it seems even that vaunted blessing of Insight is not infallible.”
He continued, his tone laced with bitter mockery.
“You failed to notice a Demon Human standing right before your eyes.”
Harris bowed toward Elisha like an actor on a theatrical stage.
“Allow me to reintroduce myself.”
Crack, squelch, squelch!
One side of Harris’s face swelled grotesquely, and bizarre tentacles erupted from his right eye, tearing through his flesh.
“I am Bishop Harris, the loyal servant of Jackal.”
“…You claim to be Harris?”
“Ah, of course my original name was not Harris. Since I now inhabit this human body as my host, you may call me Harris for convenience. After all, he and I have become ‘one’ now.”
Harris laughed shrilly, shrugging his shoulders.
Elisha bit her lip, her expression growing tense.
Not an ordinary Demon Human, but a variant strain—one that parasitized and controlled another’s body.
Such creatures bore no stigmata on the surface and emitted almost no mana, making them impossible to identify even with the blessing of Insight.
“What did you put in the cider?”
“Jackal’s blessing.”
“Stop spouting nonsense and answer properly.”
“It is not nonsense.”
Harris spread his arms wide, his expression consumed by madness.
“Shedding this pathetically weak human flesh and donning the body of a ‘beast’! What else could that be but a blessing?”
Acquiring the body of a beast, then.
I narrowed my eyes, staring down at the apple wine pooling across the floor.
‘A poison that transforms humans into Demons.’
In my previous life, during the war with the Demon Archbishop, I’d heard rumors that Jackal had transformed an entire city’s population into Demons and enslaved them as his subordinates.
‘So they were trying to feed this to us….’
The kidnapping incident that occurred in this village must have been a trap Jackal laid to capture us.
‘More precisely, he was targeting Elisha.’
I clicked my tongue softly while watching Bishop Harris, who hadn’t even glanced in my direction.
“You agree with that assessment, don’t you, Elisha?”
Bishop Harris flashed a radiant smile toward Elisha.
“I have no intention of indulging your trivial ideological games.”
“Is that so? What a pity.”
Elisha withdrew a thin silver thread and spread it across the floor, ready to strike at any moment.
“Where is Jackal right now?”
“Hehe. He is not here.”
“I see. That is unfortunate.”
Dozens of silver threads lying on the floor rose into the air.
“Die.”
Just before Elisha’s ‘web’ shot toward Bishop Harris.
“Ah, please don’t be so hasty. I still have much I wish to discuss with you, Elisha.”
“I doubt there’s anything left for us to talk about.”
“Hehe. Is that so? I wonder if the village residents feel the same way?”
Harris, his face twisted in a sinister smile, writhed the tentacles protruding from his visage.
At his utterly composed demeanor, Elisha’s eyes narrowed.
“…What do you mean by that?”
“The village people gladly accepted Jackal’s blessing—the one you so wastefully spilled on the floor, Elisha.”
“…!”
Elisha’s eyes widened in shock.
Turning my head urgently, I spotted empty apple wine bottles scattered across the tables.
“You monster…!”
Could it be that poison had been added to every bottle of apple wine the villagers drank?
“Hahaha. Not just the apple wine—we infused his blessing into all the food served at the Festival. Surely you wouldn’t want the children to feel left out simply because they’re not of drinking age, would you?”
“W-wait! What are you saying?!”
Oliver cried out, his face drained of all color.
“You promised that if I did as instructed, no harm would come to the villagers!”
“Yes, that was indeed our agreement. I remember it well.”
“Then why would you poison the food the villagers eat?!”
“Hmm?”
Bishop Harris tilted his head in confusion.
Tentacles writhed across his face as he turned to look at Oliver.
“Surely you’re not calling food blessed by that esteemed one ‘a terrible poison,’ are you?”
Szzzzzt!
Tentacles coiled around Oliver’s body.
“Aahhh!”
Oliver was dragged forward in an instant.
Bishop Harris narrowed his eyes as he pulled Oliver close to his face.
“Listen well. Accepting that esteemed one’s blessing is by no means ‘harmful’ to the villagers. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“Ah, ugh…”
“Come now, if you experience it firsthand, you’ll understand what I mean.”
Snap.
Bishop Harris flicked his fingers with a bright smile.
“Aaaahhhhh! P-please… save me…!”
Crack, crunch-crunch-crunch!
With a grotesque sound, Oliver’s entire body swelled hideously.
Red muscle sprouted like seedlings from torn skin.
Teeth sharp as awls and claws keen as blades.
“Grrgh, grrrrrrr.”
In the blink of an eye, Oliver had transformed into a demon beast, letting out a savage roar.
“How is it? Much better than being human, isn’t it?”
Bishop Harris shrugged as he gazed upon the transformed Oliver.
“Kyaaaaaahhh!”
“T-the village chief has become a d-demon beast!”
“W-what? What’s happening here?!”
The villagers descended into panic.
Bishop Harris, who had been watching the spectacle with a giggling laugh, shifted his gaze toward Elisha.
“Now do you understand the situation?”
“….”
Elisha’s eyes turned cold and sharp.
“A crude trick.”
“Is that so? Yet your eyes seem to be trembling quite noticeably for something so crude.”
The corners of Bishop Harris’s mouth rose.
“Doesn’t this remind you of the old days?”
“….”
“A small village with fewer than a hundred residents… demon beasts rampaging, the stench of blood and screams echoing through the streets.”
The past.
A terrible hell that a certain girl had to endure.
That hell was about to unfold before her eyes once more.
“So, what will you do now? If I merely snap my fingers here, all the villagers will receive Jackal’s ‘blessing.'”
“….”
Elisha bit her lip as she watched Bishop Harris raise his hand in a deliberate gesture.
No matter how swiftly I dispatched him, there was no way to kill him before his fingers even snapped.
Yet I could not surrender to this coercion and obey the Demon Human’s commands.
“H-Hero…”
“Ugh… Mom… Will I become a monster like that too?”
“Don’t worry! The heroes will surely save us!”
The villagers trembled uncontrollably, yet their eyes held a glimmer of hope as they gazed upon Elisha.
“…”
Elisha turned away from the villagers and took a resolute step toward Bishop Harris.
“I told you. It’s a trivial matter.”
“Hmm.”
“A small village like this vanishing at the hands of Demons is merely ‘commonplace.'”
As if it were nothing.
As if it meant nothing at all.
Elisha declared with unwavering resolve.
“Transform the villagers into Demons if you wish. I will slaughter every last one of you, including yourself.”
“Hmm.”
Was this not the reaction he expected?
Bishop Harris let out a low growl, his eyes narrowing.
“No, this won’t do!”
“Hero! Please don’t abandon us!”
“N-No, I don’t want this!”
Screams of terror echoed throughout the village.
“…”
Elisha did not spare a glance at the screaming villagers as she took another step toward Bishop Harris.
*Crunch.*
I bit my lip and clenched my fists until they shattered.
“It’s… commonplace.”
Yes.
Just like what I experienced decades ago.
Merely one of countless ordinary tragedies.
So I must not grieve.
Because it is commonplace.
Because it happens everywhere.
Because I am not special.
So I must not suffer.
It is not as though some messiah meant to save the world is dying.
Should these people transform into Demons and meet a miserable end today, no one in this world would care.
If one were to rank human lives by value, these villagers would be placed at the very bottom.
So I must not hesitate.
Killing Jackal’s lackey here and now would ultimately save more lives than struggling to rescue a bunch of nobodies.
It was efficient. It was rational.
So. So. So.
“I….”
Blood seeps from my bitten lips.
My clenched fists tremble violently.
Decades ago, on that day.
The memory of a girl wailing as she watched her village burn returns to me.
-Please, someone help us! Our… our village!!!
The hero that girl yearned for never appeared that day.
Today would be no different.
Just as I was about to drive my feet forward toward Bishop Harris, abandoning the screaming villagers behind me.
“There’s something I’ve never quite understood.”
A voice echoes softly in my ear.
“Does something hurt less if it happens to many people?”
“Dale….”
“If lots of others get hit, does it somehow hurt less?”
“Don’t be insolent.”
As I glare sharply at Dale, he smirks.
“The insolence is coming from you right now.”
“What?”
“You’re abandoning the villagers because you don’t have the ability, and you’re wrapping up killing one enemy like it’s some noble sacrifice—why are you being so dramatic about it?”
“You…!”
Elisha takes a step forward with a sharp expression.
[Listen carefully to what I’m about to say.]
Dale’s voice resonates in my mind.
I look at him in shock, and he places his index finger to his lips with a grin.
[I’m about to show you how to solve this ‘common problem’ right now.]

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————