The Last-Seat Hero Has Returned

22. So it was you? (3)

“Ah… ugh, ahh!”

The man groaned, his split lips forming a crushed sound.

I looked down at him with deeply sunken eyes, pressing the sword’s tip against the corner of his eye.

“Not going to answer?”

Then there’s no choice.

“First, let’s start with the most useless eye….”

“I-I’ll talk! I’ll talk, just please stop…!”

The man pleaded desperately, his voice trembling.

“Really? Then go ahead, spill it.”

“Um, well… about what you asked earlier… so….”

The man, as if trying to recall memories before the beating, bowed his head deeply and shivered.

And then.

-Wooong!

A black light emanated from his left chest.

“Wasn’t it about how I should kill you?!”

The man, who had been bowing, sprang up like a spring and crossed his arms.

In his hands, two sickles appeared.

As he spread his crossed arms like wings, the sickles, enveloped in black light, were swung fiercely.

“This guy must have been beaten so much that his memory got a bit fuzzy.”

Seeing the man charging at me with a face full of joy, as if he had found an opening, I smirked and took a step back.

From the beginning, ‘Pressure Point’ was a technique designed to easily subdue opponents with relatively low magic power.

I already knew that with my minuscule magic power, I couldn’t bind a demon for long.

‘But.’

Just because I can’t bind him for long doesn’t mean he’s an opponent I can’t handle.

“Alright, I’ll ask you again, so listen carefully this time?”

Sun Sword.

First Form, Initial Eclipse.

An upward slash rising from the blind spot.

The sword, weaving through the two fiercely swung sickles like a dance, slashed the man’s chest.

Flesh tore open, blood spurted out.

“Ah, ugh.”

The man, with a pale face, pressed his bleeding chest with both hands.

Clang.

The two sickles in the man’s hands rolled on the ground.

“Who, who are you…?”

“I said I’m the one asking questions, didn’t I?”

Crunch!

I roughly stomped on the fallen man’s knee.

The scream that burst out echoed loudly in the cave.

“What was a demon doing here?”

“Ah, ugh….”

“Let’s see… where did you say was the most useless again?”

“I, I was just following orders!”

“Whose?”

“That is….”

The man turned his head slightly to the side, as if avoiding my gaze.

With a nervous expression, he bit his lips repeatedly, trying to say something.

“Ah… ka-huk! Guh, kuh!”

Suddenly, the man clutched his chest roughly, expressing his pain.

His eyes, wide open, were bloodshot, and the veins, grotesquely protruding like tree roots, climbed up his neck and began to cover his face.

“This is….”

Did they place a restriction to prevent information from leaking?

I urgently reached out to the man, who was trembling as if electrocuted, with foam at his mouth.

“Tsk.”

The man’s pupils had already lost all signs of life.

In fact, I had considered the possibility of a restriction being placed on him from the moment I subdued him.

‘It was a high-level restriction.’

Most restrictions are triggered by uttering specific words or performing certain actions.

However, the restriction placed on this man was a high-level one that immediately cut off his breath the moment he had the ‘will’ to divulge information.

“Who are these people?”

Judging by his earlier mention of ‘priest,’ it seemed certain that he was part of the Demon Cult.

But the Demon Cult itself had so many factions and operated in a cell structure, making it impossible to know exactly which faction he belonged to.

“Hmm.”

First, I picked up the black nail-like object the man had.

‘It seems to be something that affects the ley lines.’

This cave was a place where the ley lines flowed thickly enough for the Seven Star Grass, imbued with magic, to grow in clusters.

Seeing him drive the nail into the stone wall and pour in magic earlier, I could guess that it was something meant to affect the ley lines.

“But I don’t know exactly what effect it has.”

I wondered if this nail was the reason the seal of the Demon God weakened in my previous life.

‘No, that’s not it.’

If driving this small nail into the wall was enough to weaken the seal of the demon, the seal would have been broken long ago.

Even if there were dozens or hundreds of these black nails, it would be the same.

The seal of the demon was not something that could be weakened just by slightly affecting the earth’s veins.

‘Then what is it?’

I continued to ponder, but no clear answer emerged.

‘Let’s try to find more clues for now.’

As I reached out towards the corpse of the man sprawled on the floor.

– Thud, thud.

Footsteps faintly echoed from afar.

I stopped my hand reaching towards the man and spread my magical power throughout my body to activate my senses.

‘Three… no, four?’

It wasn’t difficult to figure out who the owners of the footsteps were.

‘It must be the ones who gave orders to this guy.’

They were probably coming this way to check the situation since the man’s return was delayed.

“Hmm.”

The four approaching this way were not the entire group of demons that had infiltrated the school.

‘There must be more.’

I still didn’t know their purpose for infiltrating the school, but if they were bold enough to infiltrate a school teeming with heroes, they wouldn’t be a small faction of demons.

‘Even if I subdue them, I won’t be able to get any information due to the prohibition.’

I needed to find another way to track down the faction of the demon cult.

“So, what should I do…”

As I continued to think, my eyes caught sight of the two scythes lying on the floor.

An idea flashed through my mind the moment I saw the scythes.

“Aha.”

So there was a way?

“Let’s see, first…”

I beheaded the demon who had collapsed and died after vomiting blood with my sword.

‘With this, they won’t think he died due to the prohibition.’

I grinned and picked up the scythes lying on the floor.

And then…

Thunk.

Without hesitation, he drove the sickle into my abdomen.

* * *

“How long has it been since we lost contact with Husk?”

Four men clad in black robes.

The man with blood-red hair at the forefront turned his head.

A hideous burn scar covered his entire left cheek.

His deeply sunken eyes gleamed with a chilling, blood-red light that made one shudder just by looking at them.

“Th-thirty minutes, sir.”

“Thirty minutes, you say.”

The man with blood-red hair furrowed his brows slightly.

“I distinctly remember saying that the task of driving the ‘nail’ should be done by at least two people.”

“S-sorry, Priest Calix!”

The three men behind the one called ‘Priest Calix’ bowed their heads in fear.

Calix glanced at his subordinates with cold, dead eyes, then clicked his tongue and turned his head.

“…We’ll deal with the punishment later.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

For now, finding the missing subordinate was the priority.

“Lead the way.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

Calix and his subordinates, while remaining vigilant, quickly made their way deeper into the cave.

What they saw when they reached the location where they were supposed to drive the ‘nail’ was…

“Ah… ugh, p-please… save me… please….”

A cadet lay on the ground, bleeding from his abdomen, and Husk’s decapitated body lay dead beside him.

“Why is a cadet here at this hour…?”

Calix frowned and looked back at his subordinates. One of the three men answered urgently.

“T-today was supposed to be a day without any outdoor training!”

“Hmm.”

That means the cadet must have obtained a special entry permit from the professor.

“This is troublesome.”

It wasn’t difficult to guess what had happened in this cave just by looking at the current situation.

‘That cadet must have discovered the Husk after getting the professor’s permission to enter the outdoor training ground.’

And after a fierce battle, the Husk was decapitated and killed, and the cadet suffered a fatal wound as his stomach was slashed by the Husk’s scythe.

“Tsk, pathetic fool.”

Calix clicked his tongue in disdain as he looked down at the Husk’s corpse lying on the ground.

Even if he was the lowest-ranking monk, losing to a mere hero cadet who wasn’t even a formal hero?

From the perspective of a demon who had received the blessing of the demon god like the Husk, it was an intolerable disgrace.

‘The plan is messed up.’

Calix frowned as if he had a headache.

The plan, which had been proceeding secretly to avoid the outdoor training schedule, was shaken by the intrusion of an unknown cadet.

‘If he finds out about this…’

Calix closed his eyes tightly and trembled.

‘No matter what, I must hide it.’

If the fact that the plan had gone awry reached his ears, the Husk’s corpse lying on the ground might become his own.

“By the way… what should we do with that cadet? If we leave him like that, he’ll die from excessive bleeding soon.”

The demon asked, looking down at the cadet who was gasping as if he would stop breathing at any moment.

Calix, as if there was no need to think, gave a firm order in a resolute voice.

“Kill him.”

“What? But!”

If the fact that the cadet had died reached the school, the ‘professors’ would surely take action.

“Rather, how about treating him and then silencing him before sending him back?”

“Silencing?”

A bitter sneer appeared on Calix’s lips.

Treat the unknown cadet, then silence him through appropriate threats and persuasion before sending him back to the school, huh.

‘If it goes as planned, that would be the best way.’

But.

“I don’t trust the living.”

Calix’s fingertip pointed at the fallen cadet.

Woo-woo-woo-woong!

A black light emanated from his left chest and gathered into the shape of a black awl.

And then.

Thunk!

In the blink of an eye, a black spike pierced through the cadet’s heart.

“Ugh… Gah!”

The gray-haired cadet died with a final groan.

“Dispose of it.”

“Yes, sir!”

The minions, terrified by Calix’s ruthless hand, quickly shouldered the cadet’s corpse, which had a pierced heart.

Calix clicked his tongue as he looked back at his subordinates carrying the corpse and turned away.

“If you want to survive in this world, remember this. Never trust the living.”

The only thing you can trust is always.

“The dead.”

Calix spoke in a cold voice and headed towards the hideout.