The Last Place Hero's Return

The central plaza in front of the Hero Academy’s main building normally bustled with cadets, but that plaza now lay shrouded in a deep, desolate silence brought on by the school break, so quiet it almost felt eerie. In the awkward stretch of silence, I frowned slightly as I looked at Empress Camellia, who was still caressing my cheek. She had just said that I was the only hero she trusted. Being trusted by none other than the Empress herself was undeniably an incredible honor, but I wasn’t happy about it.

“I don’t remember ever doing anything to earn that level of trust from you, Your Majesty,” I said.

At most, I had beaten the Archbishop of Madness and uncovered that the Church of Eternity had infiltrated the imperial palace, suppressed the Church and the Apostles of Ruin hiding in the secret passage, absorbed and erased the Primordial Ember that could nullify the Blessing of the Seven Stars, dismantled an assassination plot that had been years in the making, and stayed by her side to comfort her after she was betrayed by a trusted subordinate.

Wait? Did I really do that much? I was surprised too.

Camellia stared at me. “You saved my life, and yet you say you don’t remember earning my trust. What, exactly, do you think one must do to gain it?”

“Well, I mean... Things just turned out that way. Any other hero would’ve done the same.”

Camellia let out a chuckle. “Oh? Is that so? Do you truly believe that any other hero would have acted exactly as you did?”

“Well, whether they could or couldn’t would depend on their abilities.”

“I am asking under the assumption that they could.”

I nodded without hesitation. “In that case, yes. I think they would’ve acted just like me.”

“And what grounds do you have for that belief?”

“Because they’re heroes.”

Whether the person in danger was an empress or not, if someone was about to die right in front of me, and I had the ability to save them, then saving them was the natural thing to do. That wasn’t something worth boasting about or holding up as an achievement.

I wasn’t seeking a grand mission to protect the world. I didn’t need a noble creed about saving all of humanity. If someone within reach needed help, then extending a hand to them alone was enough to qualify someone as a hero.

“That is precisely why,” she replied.

“Huh?”

With a faint smile, she continued to stroke my cheek. “The reason I trust you is not that you saved my life, but that you are a hero.”

I still had no idea what she meant.

With a shrug, Camellia playfully withdrew her hand from my cheek. “Hehe. Don’t think too deeply about it.”

Heeding her advice, I changed the topic. “Let’s set that aside. To be clear, what you’re asking is that I find the traitor among the Masters, correct?”

“Indeed.”

“And naturally, Your Majesty, you would be excluded from suspicion.”

Marianne, Johan, Headmaster Ryu, and Khalid—one of them was secretly colluding with the Church of Eternity.

“If necessary, you may suspect me as well,” she replied.

“You, Your Majesty?”

The very person requesting that I find the traitor couldn’t possibly be the traitor herself, unless that was some high-level psychological maneuver like making the first move to avoid suspicion. Still, while I possessed no concrete proof, I didn’t believe Camellia was the traitor.

It seemed she had read my thoughts from my expression. She asked, “Is it because I brought this up first?”

“No.” The reason I trusted Camellia was surprisingly simple. “Because I trust you too, Your Majesty.”

Camellia’s eyes widened. The answer had clearly caught her off guard. The composed, unflappable empress was gone. She fumbled over her words, visibly flustered. “W-what? Y-you... do?”

Setting aside trust, the likelihood of Camellia being connected to the Church of Eternity was extremely low anyway. If she had truly been colluding with them, why would the Church have needed to sneak into the imperial palace like rats, even borrowing Mephisto’s power?

Marianne and Johan being traitors also didn’t seem likely. Before anything else, they were devout followers of the Seven Stars. It was hard to believe they would join hands with the Church of Eternity, an obviously heretical sect.

The same was the case with Headmaster Ryu. If he had been colluding with the Church of Eternity, there was no way he would have granted me the unprecedented position of “Special Operations Cadet” and tasked me with tracking them down. Of course, like Camellia, that could also be an elaborate attempt to deceive me, but from Headmaster Ryu’s perspective, there was no reason to go to such lengths for someone like me, whose true power he didn’t know about.

“Right now, the most suspicious one is Khalid Han,” I said.

The only one left was the man regarded as inferior even among the Masters and a figure belonging to the profession most despised by heroes. Moreover, rather than him being the most suspicious one, realistically, no one else could be colluding with the Church of Eternity.

“I believe so as well,” Camellia replied.

“Then hasn’t the traitor’s identity basically already been decided?”

Camellia shook her head. “No. Khalid being the traitor is nothing more than circumstantial suspicion.”

“That’s... true.”

Without definitive physical evidence, it was impossible to conclusively label him a traitor.

“For that reason, there is something I would like to ask of you,” she said.

“You want me to dig into Khalid?”

“We cannot simply tail him and wait, not knowing when he might make contact with the Church of Eternity. Your vacation will end soon as well.”

“Then what exactly do you want me to do?”

“An attack.”

My eyes widened. “What?”

“I want you to attack him and obtain some of his blood, even if it’s only a single drop.”

“What are you talking about?”

Attacking Khalid out of the blue and collecting his blood? What possible connection could there be between obtaining his blood and proving that he was colluding with the Church of Eternity?

Camellia looked at me. “Do you know what kind of power the Prophet of Eternity possesses?”

“To some extent.”

His powers were along the lines of reviving the dead, greatly extending a person’s lifespan, and rapidly healing wounds. The true nature of the Prophet of Eternity’s power was still unclear, but one thing was certain: it directly affected a person’s life itself.

“While examining the bodies of the Church’s members who were killed in the imperial palace, we discovered that a certain power was present within everyone’s blood.”

“‘Present within everyone’s blood’ means...”

“Most likely, the ‘blessing’ possessed by their Prophet.”

A power capable of resurrecting the dead and granting centuries of life would naturally be a Blessing, not ordinary magic.

Camellia reached into her clothes and pulled out a dagger no larger than her palm. “Here. A spell has been engraved onto the blade of this dagger. If it comes into contact with a specific ‘blessing,’ its color will change.”

“When you say a specific blessing, you mean the Prophet of Eternity’s blessing?”

Camellia nodded. “Precisely. We do not know exactly what blessing the Prophet of Eternity possesses, but since all of his followers share traces of his power...”

I finished her sentence for her. “If Khalid is connected to the Church of Eternity, the blade will change color the moment it touches his blood.”

Only now I fully understood why Camellia had suddenly told me to attack Khalid and why she had no choice but to entrust this task to me. Apart from other Masters, not many heroes could injure a Master at all.

If Camellia acted personally, the matter could be resolved easily. However, in case Khalid turned out not to be the traitor, it would fracture the relationships among the Masters. With the announcement of the Tri-Nation Alliance just around the corner, that was something she desperately wanted to avoid.

But she couldn’t just sit back and do nothing either. Once the possibility of a traitor among the Masters had surfaced, she had to confirm whether one truly existed. And she had to do it as quickly as possible, before the alliance was formally announced. Thus, the solution she came up with was an attack. It was the fastest method and the one most certain to secure proof.

I nodded and accepted the dagger from Camellia. “Understood.”

“The moment blood stains the blade, the magic will activate, and the blade will turn blue.”

“Yes.”

“And...” Camellia hesitated for a moment, trailing off, before suddenly gripping my hand tightly. “Be careful. He may be called the Last Seat Master, but he is still a Master.”

Her grip tightened as concern filled her expression. A faint tremor traveled through our clasped hands. Compared to the Camellia I had first met, the woman standing before me now felt almost unrecognizable.

She’s genuinely worried. To think that the Empress herself would show such concern. At this point, hasn’t she practically become a different person?

I remembered her words. “I was flustered by emotions I’d never experienced before. It may sound like an excuse, but even now, I still regret what I did.”

Was what she had said back then truly sincere? Thinking that way, I could understand, if only a little, why Camellia had lashed out so harshly at Elisha back then. No matter how absolute her authority as empress was, or perhaps because of it, she likely had few opportunities to confront unfamiliar emotions.

Seeing Camellia trembling ever so slightly, I unconsciously let out a chuckle. How should I put it, hmm. She’s kind of cute.

Imagining Laneige frothing at the mouth and charging at me if she heard that thought, I nodded. “You don’t need to worry. I’ll just get the blood and retreat immediately.”

That was something I could manage, even if my opponent were Camellia herself, not Khalid.

“Ahem. Very well.” Only then did Camellia seem to realize she was still holding my hand. She hurriedly released it, coughing awkwardly.

“And if you return after faithfully completing my mission.” Camellia continued, a relaxed smile forming at her lips, “I shall grant you a ‘reward’ of your own.”