The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 99

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

Chapter 99. Interlude – A Tangled Fate
Thanks to Iris’s healing magic, I was discharged from the Medical Facility faster than expected.
For the first time in ages, I found myself lounging on the sofa in Lucas Kane’s office, savoring a leisurely afternoon.
“What are you doing here?”
Lucas Kane, who had been flipping through documents with a rustling sound, shot me a fierce glare.
I shrugged while peeling a mandarin orange that sat in a box in the corner of the office—apparently a gift from Bianca.
“Can’t you see? I’m an enthusiastic Candidate who comes straight to the professor’s office after class to ask about things I don’t understand.”
“Here you go again, causing trouble the moment your suspension ends.”
Lucas Kane pressed his forehead as if his head ached, releasing a deep sigh.
“Why aren’t you at the Training Ground with Yuren today? You’ve been holed up there lately.”
“I’ve been banned from entering.”
“Banned?”
Lucas Kane tilted his head, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“Don’t tell me… you got into a fight with Yuren?”
“Excuse me?”
“Hehehehe. So you’re actually a spirited youth after all, despite acting so old-fashioned!”
“What are you talking about?”
Fight with Yuren? What fight?
Just yesterday, we were exchanging messages—asking if I was eating properly, reminding me to sleep early, the usual back-and-forth.
‘Though now that I think about it, it sounds less like friends talking and more like a mother nagging her spoiled child…’
Well, anyway.
Yurina had revoked my access to the Training Ground under the pretense that I needed rest, but we still kept in contact regularly.
“Phew~ When I was your age, I used to fight constantly with my friends…”
Lucas Kane suddenly drifted into reminiscence.
I suppressed a smirk and asked.
“What did you usually fight about?”
“Well, fights always start over trivial reasons that seem insignificant when you look back on them years later.”
“That’s true.”
“Like when a friend secretly ate a limited-edition bread from the Convenience Store.”
“That’s incredibly petty.”
I mean, we’re not kids in some neighborhood—who fights over something like that?
“There was also the time we fought over a female Candidate in our liberal arts class, arguing whether she was pretty or plain.”
“Interesting. By the way, what was that female Candidate’s name?”
“….”
“It was Bianca, wasn’t it?”
Everyone knows that Lucas Kane and Bianca are from the same cohort of Candidates.
“I-I was obviously on the ‘plain’ side, of course!”
“Sure, sure, if you say so.”
This man really is devoted, I’ll give him that.
I lifted the corners of my mouth in amusement and asked.
“By the way, how are things going with Professor Bianca these days?”
“I have no idea why you’d ask such a pointless question, but… well, we’ve both been busy lately, so we don’t keep in touch much. The 4th Year Candidates just finished their Hero Practicum a few days ago.”
Hero Practicum.
It was the first course students took upon entering their 4th year—a roughly two-month program where they were temporarily assigned to a Guild affiliated with the Academy to observe and learn from active heroes up close.
“Hero Practicum, huh….”
It wasn’t exactly a fond memory for me.
“Tsk. If those kids hadn’t been away on practicum, the beast incident during the Seal Festival would’ve been suppressed far more quickly.”
Lucas Kane clicked his tongue and flipped through another stack of documents piled high like a mountain.
Just as he said, if the 4th Year Candidates had been at the Academy during the Seal Festival, the beast incident caused by Ashtaroth would have been quelled much faster.
The current 4th Year Candidates had so many exceptional talents that people were calling them the greatest cohort in the Hero Academy’s 500-year history.
‘In fact, many of the heroes who would later become central figures in the war against the Demon God’s forces are among the current 4th Year Candidates.’
Meteor Spear Aaron Baek.
Noble Sword Bella Leonhardt.
Thunder Emperor Laios Ryu.
Grand Mage Sophia Evergreen, and so on.
This 4th Year cohort was where many of the future’s renowned heroes emerged from.
‘Of course, there’s another Candidate in the current 4th Year who would become the most famous in the future.’
The current 4th Year cohort had produced heroes too numerous to count on one’s fingers.
Among them was Senior Sophia, who would later become one of the Last Five Heroes alongside me, but there was another Candidate whose name was etched even more deeply into the minds of the Continent’s people than even Senior Sophia.
‘The Witch of Night, Raneez Malam.’
The being who once turned half the Continent into a Snowy Wasteland.
The most vicious Demon Human who accepted the Demon God’s blessing and slaughtered hundreds of millions of the Continent’s people.
And.
The woman who met her end at the hands of the ‘Immortal’ Dale Han.
‘Well, all I really did was sever the breath of a dying witch.’
It wasn’t I who had cornered the Witch of Night—it was my other comrades, including Yuren.
‘This time, I’ll need to act before she freezes half the Continent.’
Of course, I couldn’t go find and kill her right now.
There were too many eyes watching within the Academy to eliminate her, and if I provoked her carelessly, the ‘Witch’s Power’ sleeping within her might run rampant.
‘If that happened, the entire Academy would become a Snowy Wasteland.’
Recalling the pristine white wasteland I’d grown sick of seeing in my past life, I shook my head.
‘Regardless, I can’t make a move against Raneez right now.’
There was no need to rush.
It would be another fifteen years before she accepted the Demon God’s blessing and became the Witch of Night.
‘The person I need to meet first, before Raneez, is….’
A woman with red hair and a petite frame naturally came to mind.
Despite her cute appearance, she had a fierce and prickly personality, but in truth, she was more caring than anyone else and always looked out for her comrades.
Recalling her—the senior who taught me magic every night and struck my head with a staff taller than her own height whenever I made a mistake—I let a small smile play at the corners of my mouth.
“…I need to go meet Senior Sophia.”
“Huh? You’re going to meet who?”
“No.”
I shrugged and rose from the sofa.
“Professor, does that mean all the 4th Year Candidates are at the Academy right now?”
“Well, yes… but why suddenly ask about 4th Years?”
“Just something I thought of.”
I turned with a sly grin spreading across my face.
“Then I’ll be on my way.”
“Get out of here.”
Hearing Lucas Kane’s enthusiastic(?) dismissal, I stepped out of the Professor’s Office.
* * *
Within the Hero Academy, the “4th Year Candidates” received rather special treatment.
Since they would graduate within a year and begin their careers as active heroes, their curriculum consisted almost entirely of dangerous practical training and fieldwork—a far cry from their previous years.
Because of this, the building where 4th Year Candidates held their classes was located in a somewhat remote corner of the Academy, unlike the 1st through 3rd Year Classrooms clustered near the school’s center.
“It’s been a while.”
I gazed up at the building with its antiquated, storybook-like design and stepped inside the 4th Year Building.
As I walked down the spacious corridor, I spotted several familiar faces.
‘Ah, there’s Bertrand the Iron Wall and Keia the Blue Wildcat.’
Among the Candidates walking the halls were some who would go on to make quite a name for themselves in the future.
‘It’s true—this 4th Year class really is extraordinary.’
Of course.
Why else would they be called the greatest generation in the five-hundred-year history of the Hero Academy?
“Still…”
I furrowed my brow as I wandered through the expansive building.
‘Where do I find Sophia?’
I’d come here on impulse just to see her face, but I had no idea where she actually was.
‘4th Years should have assigned seating in their classrooms.’
Unlike 1st through 3rd Years, who had no assigned seats, 4th Years attended all their classes in the same classroom by division, so each Candidate had a designated seat.
‘The problem is, I don’t know which division Sophia is in.’
Typically, each year had six divisions—Classes A through F—and I had no idea which one she belonged to.
‘Besides, Sophia never talked much about her school days.’
I was resigned to checking all six divisions one by one when—
“Hm?”
In the distance, I spotted a woman with a familiar build.
Short crimson hair that barely covered the nape of her neck, a petite frame that could scarcely fill a palm.
A small, adorable figure that belied the fierce intensity in her eyes.
‘Sophia.’
I’d thought myself accustomed to these reunions after meeting Iris, Yuren, and Berald.
Yet seeing my comrade from my past life still made my heart swell.
“Ahem.”
I straightened my appearance and approached her, considering what to say first.
“Hello, Senior.”
“…You.”
As I approached and greeted her, Sophia’s gaze turned toward me.
“You’re Dale Han, a third-year Candidate, right?”
“Huh?”
Sophia recognized me without me even introducing myself.
I hadn’t expected her to know who I was, so I stared at her with a surprised expression.
“I didn’t realize you knew who I was.”
“Your name is quite famous even among the fourth-years.”
Sophia’s eyes turned cold as she glared at me.
“So, what is it?”
“Ah, if you don’t mind, Senior, I’d like to have a word with you….”
“I have nothing to say to someone working under that lunatic professor.”
Before I could finish speaking, Sophia walked past me.
‘That lunatic professor… could she be talking about Jade?’
The fact that I frequently visited Jade’s Research Laboratory had become quite a rumor among the Candidates.
‘Did Sophia dislike Jade?’
In my previous life, when Sophia and I were in the same Party, it was already after Jade had died, so I’d never heard anything related to him.
“Wait, Senior, there’s been a misunderstanding….”
“Didn’t I say I have nothing to discuss with you?”
Sophia glared at me fiercely.
“A third-year shouldn’t be loitering around the 4th Year Classroom. Get out.”
With that, she disappeared down the corridor with quick steps.
“…Sigh.”
I watched Sophia’s retreating figure and furrowed my brow.
‘I never expected meeting Jade would become a poison like this.’
I’d already known that the future was beginning to change, but I hadn’t anticipated that my relationship with Sophia would deteriorate in such a way.
‘I’ll have to visit Jade later and ask him what happened between them.’
With that thought, I was about to leave the 4th Year Building.
“Hm?”
A familiar silhouette in the distance.
“…Berald?”
What was he doing here?

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