The Last-Seat Hero Has Returned

3. A Reason to Live (2)

Reynald Hero School.

The great five heroes who sealed the demon 500 years ago.

Among them, the leader of the party and the legendary swordsman, Reynald Helios, personally established the school. It was an educational institution that gathered 18-year-old youths who had awakened the ‘Stigmata’ with the blessings of the seven gods and turned them into proper heroes through four years of education.

A hero is an individual so important that each one can influence the national power of a country.

In the Empire, the Holy Kingdom, and the Republic, which currently divide the continent into three parts, they would admit anyone who had awakened the Stigmata into the school without question, in order to secure even one more excellent hero.

Naturally, problems arose.

When youths from different countries, statuses, and backgrounds were crammed into a narrow school, conflicts were inevitable.

Eventually, after discussions among various heroes and the three nations, Reynald Hero School was declared a completely ‘neutral zone.’

In other words.

“At least within the school grounds, no discrimination between countries or statuses is allowed.”

“…So?”

“No matter how much of a saint Iris is in the Holy Kingdom, here she is just another candidate.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“A month is too long. Let’s reduce it to about four days.”

“You…!”

Professor Lucas, who had been quietly listening, grabbed the back of his neck.

“You were originally suspended for a week!”

“Yes, I was.”

“But now you cause trouble during your suspension and ask to reduce it to four days?”

“When negotiating, you should always start high, shouldn’t you?”

“Who in their right mind causes trouble and then asks to reduce their suspension? And what? Negotiation? Negotiation? Do you think you are in a position to negotiate with me?”

Professor Lucas glared at me with an incredulous expression.

I smirked and nodded slightly.

“Professor Bianca’s birthday is coming up, right?”

Professor Bianca, in charge of the Department of Magic.

She was a female professor rumored to have a bad relationship with Professor Lucas.

“…Why are you bringing up Professor Bianca’s birthday all of a sudden?”

But I know.

That wild beast-like Professor Lucas secretly has a crush on Professor Bianca.

“Wouldn’t you like to know what kind of gift Professor Bianca would like?”

“Hah. Why should I know something like that?”

“Is that so? That’s a shame. If she received that as a birthday present, even someone she usually had a bad relationship with might see her a little differently.”

“…….”

I could see Professor Lucas’s eyes faintly trembling.

Creak.

I pushed my chair back and stood up.

“Well… But it seems like you’re not particularly interested, so there’s nothing I can do. Since I’ve committed a sin, I’ll quietly accept my punishment.”

I bowed my head politely and turned to walk out of the professor’s office.

“…Wait.”

I heard Professor Lucas’s voice.

I turned around with a faint smile.

“What is it?”

“There is a condition for reducing your suspension period.”

“If it’s something Professor Bianca likes….”

“No, not that.”

Professor Lucas continued, his sharp eyes seeming to pierce through me.

“Participate in the combat training class tomorrow and win. That’s the condition.”

“Hmm. Who’s my opponent?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

A sudden and unexpected proposal for a duel.

It wasn’t hard to guess why Professor Lucas made such a proposal.

‘No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.’

It was a sudden ambush, but to be struck by the fist of a cadet who had just woken up and to be sent flying disgracefully, despite being called the ‘bloodthirsty hound’.

Camilla Bedice, who was ranked high among the cadets and was even mentioned as the next sword of the Holy Kingdom, was subdued without even drawing her sword.

It was something that even an ordinary cadet would find hard to believe, and yet it was accomplished by the lowest-ranked cadet, so it was only natural to want to see it for oneself.

“Alright.”

“…You seem confident.”

“It’s just a sparring match, so there’s no reason to worry, is there?”

“Hmm.”

Professor Lucas crossed his arms, swallowing a low hum.

Was he wondering what this guy had eaten wrong to change so much in just one day?

If so, it was unfortunate, but it was difficult to answer.

Because even I didn’t know why I had returned.

“Then I’ll be going now.”

“Wait.”

“Do you have something more to say?”

“Ahem! Ahem!”

When I turned my head to look at Professor Lucas, he kept clearing his throat unnecessarily and cautiously opened his mouth.

“So, what is that thing that Professor Bianca would like?”

“……”

As expected.

Despite his appearance, he was a romantic at heart.

* * *

The next day.

When I opened my eyes in the morning, I lay in bed for a while, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“It doesn’t seem like it was the life flashing before my eyes before death…”

Had the time spent wandering the continent alone in pursuit of the primordial fire been too long?

I still couldn’t believe that I had returned.

“Sigh.”

I got out of bed, washed my face lightly, and looked at the wet mirror.

Dark gray hair like the ashes left after a fire, and green eyes.

It was a face I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Your face hasn’t changed at all.”

Since awakening the blessing of resurrection, it was natural that aging had also stopped.

Staring blankly at the mirror, I soon changed into my cadet uniform and headed to school.

The uniform, which clung tightly to my body, still felt somewhat awkward.

Like the new life that had been given to me.

* * *

“Ha, are you really telling me to spar with that guy?”

A cadet with curly blue hair and a delicate appearance frowned in displeasure.

Felix Ordman.

He was in the same warrior department as me, and a third-year cadet ranked within the top 100.

“Do you have a problem?”

“No, it’s not that, but….”

Felix, who had been whining incessantly, cowered under Professor Lucas’s stern gaze.

“Ha. Fine.”

Felix sighed deeply and picked up a wooden training sword.

“Hey, idiot. Hurry up and pick up your sword so we can finish this quickly.”

Felix glared at me with irritated eyes.

He hadn’t seen me knock out Professor Lucas or subdue Camilla with his own eyes during yesterday’s ‘practical combat training,’ as he was in a different class.

Still, given how much of a hot topic it had become, he must have heard about what happened yesterday, yet he didn’t seem particularly wary of me.

Well, it’s understandable.

Who would easily believe that a perennial loser suddenly knocked out the renowned Professor Lucas with a single punch or subdued the next Holy Kingdom’s sword with one hand?

“Hey, did you hear what Dale did yesterday?”

“Oh, that? Isn’t it just a rumor?”

“No! I saw it with my own eyes!”

Cadets who had gathered to watch my sparring with Felix looked on with interest.

‘Feels like I’m a monkey in a zoo.’

I looked around at the cadets who had gathered and forced a bitter smile.

In my previous life, I had never received such intense attention during my four years as a cadet.

‘Well, I did attract some attention back then too.’

But it wasn’t the kind of intense attention I was getting now; it was a cold, icy kind of attention.

“Whew.”

With a low sigh, I gripped the wooden sword.

The feel of the training wooden sword, which I held for the first time in what felt like thousands of years, wasn’t too bad.

It felt like touching a nostalgic toy from my childhood after a long time.

“During this duel, the use of magic is prohibited.”

“Ha, do you think I can’t beat that guy without magic?”

Felix let out a hollow laugh as if he couldn’t believe it.

Magic.

Also known as the breath of the gods, it was a power that only heroes who had awakened their stigmas could wield.

“Isn’t it fortunate? You don’t have any magic to prohibit anyway.”

Felix looked at me with a gaze full of mockery, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

Just as he said.

The magic I possessed was less than ten percent of the average magic of the cadets.

‘Having little magic has always been my chronic problem.’

Back when I was a mercenary, I was nicknamed ‘Rabbit Han’ because my magic would deplete as quickly as a rabbit’s droppings.

I swallowed a bitter smile, recalling all the humiliation and hardships I had endured due to my lack of magic.

‘So, what now?’

I tapped the floor with the end of the training wooden sword, lost in thought.

Yesterday, I was so out of my mind that I acted recklessly without thinking ahead.

But now it’s different.

I have a reason to live.

‘Then I must decide how to live.’

I tapped the floor with the end of the wooden sword, lost in thought.

“Hey, come at me.”

All my life.

I had lived chasing after others.

Walking while only looking at their backs.

“Come at me, can’t you hear me, you b*stard?”

The lowest-ranked hero, Dale Han.

Once a label was attached, it continued to follow me.

After a long period as a mercenary, I had honed my skills and was eventually chosen as one of the ‘Last Five Heroes,’ humanity’s final hope.

“Ha, look at this b*stard. Are you scared? Huh? Are you scared?”

I was always busy chasing after others.

The paths they walked.

The footprints they left behind.

I just ran, panting, trying to catch up somehow.

“Fine, if you don’t come, I’ll go, you b*stard.”

And at the end of that path.

In the end, I was the only one left.

Alone, by myself.

I cried out loud on the cold snowfield where no one else remained.

“Die, you idiot!!!”

Never once did I lead anyone.

Never once did I reach out to anyone.

That’s how I lived.

That was the life ‘Dale Han’ had lived until now.

-Tak.

I lightly deflected Felix’s fiercely swung sword.

My stepping foot was the right foot.

Pivoting on my right foot, I spun around and swung the wooden sword I held from below to above.

Sun Sword.

First Form, Initial Eclipse.

Kwaaang!

With a roar that was hard to believe came from a wooden sword, Felix’s body was violently flung away and rolled on the ground.

“Ugh, ugh, uweeek!”

Felix, who was rolling on the ground, clutched his stomach, which had been hit directly, and vomited.

I tapped the ground with the end of my long wooden sword and opened my mouth.

“What are you doing? You said you’d come first? Not coming?”

Then there’s no choice.

“I’ll go.”

Now.

I will no longer live like that.