The Last-Seat Hero Has Returned

34. Last Words (3)

Crunch. Crack. Snap!

A chilling sound of bones breaking.

In an instant, the vendor’s swollen body transformed into a hideous monster.

“Mr. Dale! This is not the time to be ordering chicken skewers!”

“I know.”

With Iris’s urgent scream, I quickly distanced myself from the vendor.

‘What is this.’

No matter how you looked at it, it was an abnormal situation.

As I furrowed my brows and expanded my senses.

‘Magic?’

A sticky, unpleasant energy emanated from the vendor-turned-monster’s body.

Through the torn clothes, I could see the black mark of a demon burning.

‘Why is a demon inside the school…?’

No.

Should I really call that a ‘Demon’?

It is true that a human with the stigmata of a demon should be called a demon, but the current appearance of that demon was closer to a beast.

‘Beastification phenomenon.’

The end of a human who has received the stigmata of a demon.

It was a phenomenon where the body undergoes mutation when the demonic energy explodes because the power of the stigmata cannot be controlled.

‘Why is this happening now when the demon is sealed and this phenomenon rarely occurs…?’

The beastification phenomenon was closely related to the stigmata of the demon.

Since the demon’s seal has not yet been broken, the stigmata of the demon cannot exert its full power, so incidents that could be called ‘rampages’ rarely occur.

Even so, if the beastification phenomenon has occurred.

‘Someone intentionally caused the rampage.’

I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the merchant who had turned into a beast.

“Rrrrgh!”

The merchant, who could no longer speak human words, let out a phlegm-filled roar and charged at the street stall sign.

“Watch out, Dale!”

“Yes, it is dangerous.”

Not for me.

“For him.”

Barreld Martial Arts.

Sky Flip.

“Rrrrgh… Ugh!”

I grabbed the arm of the charging merchant and twisted it.

The grotesquely swollen body of the merchant slammed headfirst into the ground.

Boom!

Dust rose thickly.

I picked up a skewer that had fallen at my feet and threw it at the back of the fallen merchant’s head.

Swish! Crack!

The wooden skewer, imbued with magic, pierced through the merchant’s head and stuck into the ground.

“D-Dale, this is…?”

“A demon.”

To be precise, it was a ‘demon.’

But in the current situation, that wasn’t a particularly important fact.

“Wh-why is there a demon at the school?”

“I don’t know. But….”

Before the words could even be finished.

Boom! Crash!

Roaaar!

“Ahhh!”

“What, what is this?!”

“A monster, a monster has appeared!”

The once peaceful festival grounds were instantly filled with screams and roars.

“Damn it.”

As expected, the number of monsters appearing at the school wasn’t just one.

Monsters rampaging and roaring.

People who had been enjoying the festival scattered in all directions, engulfed in horrific chaos.

Even though it was a hero school, some cadets grabbed weapons and fought back against the rampaging monsters, but that only made the chaos worse.

Bang! Fwoosh!

“Hey! How can you use fire magic here, you lunatic?”

“Damn it! This is all I can use, what do you want me to do?”

“Hurry! Someone bring a sword! I left mine in the dormitory!”

Half-baked sense of justice always leads to sorrowful results.

The cadets, who had left their weapons in the dormitory and had been drinking since early morning because of the festival, couldn’t properly respond to the sudden attack.

“Get out of the way, you drunks!”

“You’re in the way!”

Of course, there were some cadets who fought back fiercely against the rampaging monsters even under such adverse conditions, but it wasn’t enough to quell the chaos shaking the entire school.

“R-run away!”

“Ahhh!”

People in panic instinctively headed for the school gate to escape.

As if targeting the fleeing people, the monsters rushed towards the gate.

“Mr. Dale! Th-there are children at the gate…!”

“Camilla went with them, so it should be fine.”

But it wasn’t right to expect Camilla alone to protect the children in this chaos.

“Let’s head to the main gate and join Camilla.”

“Yes!”

I headed towards the school gate with Iris.

“Uwaaah!”

“Ca, Camilla sister!”

“Everyone, calm down!”

“Ugh! Where did these monsters come from…!”

As we approached the gate, we saw children crying and Father Antonio desperately trying to control them, while Camilla was swinging her sword against the approaching monsters.

“Camilla!”

“Ah, Iris…! No, Saintess!”

Camilla’s face brightened as she spotted the approaching Iris.

“Rrrrgh!”

A monster’s arm swung towards Camilla, aiming for that moment.

The grotesquely swollen flesh swung at Camilla like a mace.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Camilla dodged the monster’s arm with a nimble movement and raised her sword to cut it.

Slash.

The severed arm of the monster rolled on the ground.

“Graaah!”

The monster, whose arm had been cut off, screamed and retreated for a moment.

But the surrounding monsters, smelling the thick scent of blood, rushed in.

Not towards Camilla, but towards the terrified children.

“No, stop!”

As Camilla turned in panic.

“Leave this to me!”

Iris stepped forward and chanted a prayer.

“O seven gods, shine your merciful light upon your children!”

Her eyes, now turned rainbow-colored, focused on the approaching monsters.

With a cross drawn from top to bottom.

“Protection of the Seven Stars!”

Wooong!

A white curtain, tens of meters high, enveloped Iris and the children, spreading out in a circle.

“Graaah!”

The flesh of the monsters touching the curtain sizzled and burned, emitting acrid smoke.

The monsters hesitated and backed away from the curtain.

“Grrr.”

The monsters, giving up on entering the curtain, turned their heads, searching for their next prey.

“Who are you looking for like that?”

As I approached, the monsters’ gazes focused on me.

As if they had found their next prey, the monsters let out fierce roars and charged at me.

I let out a small laugh and drew my sword.

“De, Dale! It’s dangerous!”

“Brother, come inside quickly!”

The children inside the curtain shouted urgently as they saw me.

I shrugged my shoulders and took a step towards the monsters instead.

“Grrrr!”

“Karrrk, Kaaak!”

“Guaaah!”

The monsters let out ferocious roars and charged at me from all directions.

Camilla urgently moved closer to me, pointing her sword at the monsters.

“Ugh! I’ll take care of this side! You take the other side…!”

“No need for that.”

“What?”

Before Camilla could frown and turn to look at me.

I kicked off the ground towards the charging monsters.

“Grrrk… Gah!”

I climbed onto the arm of a wildly swinging monster and drove my sword into its crown.

“One down.”

Twisting the sword embedded in the crown of his head, he pulls it out and slashes at the beast charging from the side.

He spins around and kicks the jaw of the beast attacking from behind with a back kick.

Crack!

With the sound of its jaw shattering, the beast collapses like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Three.”

Kicking off the falling beast, he leaps high and attacks the beasts.

‘My body feels light.’

Is it because his magical power has nearly tripled compared to a few weeks ago?

His body feels as light as if he had wings on his back.

“Five, six, seven.”

I twisted my lips into a fierce grin and slaughtered the beasts like a wolf among a flock of sheep.

It took barely a minute for all the dozen or so beasts to become cold corpses.

“Wow, wow.”

“That’s… that’s amazing.”

The children, who had been watching the massacre of the beasts from inside the barrier, let out low exclamations.

“…What are you?”

Camilla also gaped as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“There’s no time to be surprised, is there?”

There were still crowds of people trying to escape and a horde of beasts chasing them at the main gate.

Not knowing how long Iris’s ‘barrier’ would hold, they had to get out of there as soon as possible.

“Here! Over here! Evacuate this way!”

At that moment.

From afar, Professor Morpheus could be seen running urgently.

“Don’t go towards the main gate, come to the annex cafeteria! We’ve set up a temporary shelter there!”

It seemed the professors had joined forces to create a safe zone.

I turned to Iris and said,

“Let’s go to the cafeteria.”

“Ah, yes!”

As Iris was gathering the children and heading towards Professor Morpheus,

“No, we can’t! Leo hasn’t come yet!”

A child shouted with a desperate expression.

Hearing that, I turned to look at the children and saw that Leo was nowhere to be seen.

“Weren’t you with him?”

“Ah, he said he was going to the bathroom earlier, but then suddenly monsters appeared….”

“…Damn it.”

Even the nearest bathroom was quite a distance from here.

“I’ll go.”

“I-I’ll go with you!”

“No. Iris, you take the children and follow Professor Morpheus.”

In this situation, moving as a group would only be more of a hindrance.

“But….”

“I’ll be fine, so don’t worry. Camilla, take care of Iris and the children.”

“…Got it.”

Camilla nodded with a heavy expression.

After sending Iris and Camilla towards Professor Morpheus, I quickly ran towards the bathroom.

“B-Brother!”

Should I say it was a stroke of luck in misfortune?

When I arrived at the bathroom, squeezing out all my magical power, Leo, who was hiding in the corner, saw me and ran out.

“Sniff…! S-suddenly, monsters just…!”

“Calm down and get a grip.”

“W-what about the others?”

“Iris and Camilla took them to a safe place.”

“Ah….”

Leo’s expression brightened considerably at the news that the other children were safe.

“Let’s go to the dining hall. The professors will protect us there.”

“O-okay!”

With that, Leo and I headed towards the dining hall in the annex.

“Raaah!”

There, Professor Lucas, emitting a red aura from his entire body, was fiercely fighting off the approaching beasts.

Behind Lucas, Professors Bianca and Jade, along with several other professors, were also battling the beasts.

“Professor!”

“Dale! You’re safe!”

Professor Lucas, who had found me, approached while smashing the head of a charging beast with an axe.

“I’m fine. But where is Professor Morpheus?”

“Professor Morpheus?”

“Yes, Professor Morpheus should have come here with Iris and the kids.”

From noble mtl dot com

“…What are you talking about?”

Professor Lucas frowned and shook his head.

“Professor Morpheus has never been here.”

“…What?”

Never been here?

“I don’t know what he’s doing in this situation, but he hasn’t shown his face since earlier.”

“……”

Beasts are rampaging inside the school, and he hasn’t shown his face?

The man in charge of the sealing ceremony?

“…Wait.”

Suddenly.

A memory flashed through my mind.

-Anyway, I’m so busy preparing for the sealing ceremony these days that I don’t have time to pay attention to anything else.

-Oh, come to think of it, you were in charge of the sealing ceremony this time.

-Yes. From issuing permits to the merchants to scheduling the events… Oh, it’s killing me.

It was Professor Morpheus who issued the permits to the merchants who came to the sealing ceremony.

And.

The ‘merchants’ who entered the school that way became beasts and created the current chaos.

“Damn it.”

I gritted my teeth and stomped my foot roughly.

‘It was you.’

Archbishop of Dreams, Ashtaroth.