The Last Place Hero's Return

At an alleyway in Valhalla City, I frowned as I watched Khalid tilt his sword at me. I had thought that I had concealed my presence pretty well while tailing him, yet he had found me out this easily. Indeed, even if he was called the Last Seat Master, he was a Master. Letting out a short sigh, I tightened my grip on my dagger. At this point, a head-on fight was unavoidable.

“Heh heh! Good! That’s more like it!” Grinning broadly, Khalid gripped the sword formed from stone fragments. “Now then!”

Boom!

He suddenly stomped down hard. “Let’s have ourselves a lively little dance!”

Khalid charged me. He was unbelievably fast for someone who had been drunk and vomiting just moments ago. The sword of stone shards became a streak of light, cleaving through the air.

I raised my dagger and blocked the strike. Despite his sword being formed from nothing more than fragments of rubble, the impact was vicious, the shock racing up my arm and rattling me from head to toe. Khalid’s strength overpowered me, slamming me into the wall behind me.

I ground my teeth and narrowed my eyes, slowly drawing up the power of the Primordial Flame. Along with the sound of flesh searing, ferocious mana boiled within me. Fighting while keeping the Ashen Flames sealed inside meant I couldn’t even use half of their true power, but I had no choice. I couldn’t let the Ashen Flames leak out. From the standpoint of hiding my identity, the Ashen Flames were far too conspicuous.

Khalid closed the distance in an instant and swung his sword. “Heh, what’s with the deep thinking?”

Without hesitation, I reached out toward the ferociously sweeping blade. Berald Combat Style: Blade Breaker!

With a mana-reinforced hand, I caught the blade as if snatching it out of the air and crushed it. The stone fragments shattered and scattered in all directions. I slipped between the flying debris and slammed my shoulder into Khalid.

Flung backward like a kicked pebble, Khalid groaned. Even so, he twisted himself in the air and landed lightly on his feet. His eyes sparkled with interest. “Oho! So, you weren’t tailing a Master for nothing after all, hm?”

Nodding in satisfaction, he slowly raised his hand. “Alright then, let’s see you block this as well!”

Khalid’s soul stigmata flared with a deep green light. Hundreds of petals formed in midair, every one of them turning into sword energy made of aura. Clenching the air, he swung his arm down as if wielding an invisible sword. “Scatter!”

The hundreds of petals poured down like a blizzard. It was a technique reminiscent of the Full Bloom Laneige had shown before. Of course, in terms of raw destructive power, the snowflakes Laneige created had been far more devastating.

I gasped inwardly as I looked at the petals raining down. At first glance, they seemed to be falling at random, but each petal was subtly moving to cut off my escape routes. Was he controlling every single one of those? Controlling even a single sword energy at range was no easy feat, yet he had split it into hundreds and was manipulating each one individually. At that moment, I understood why Khalid had earned the title of Master despite being a mercenary, the most looked-down-upon profession among heroes.

The Falling Petal Sword, huh. I can’t block this without using the Ashen Flames. That’s fine. If I can’t block it, then I’ll just take it.

I kicked off the ground and charged straight into the storm of petals. Whenever a petal grazed my flesh, it split open, blood bursting forth. I had only taken a single step, yet my body was being shredded, soaked in blood. But watching the petals tear into me, I curled my lips into a grin.

Just as I had thought, he was not trying to kill me. Before striking any vital points, the petals would subtly veer away. Though, even if he were trying to kill me, I wouldn’t really mind.

I sprinted straight through the falling petals. Perhaps he hadn’t expected such a brain-dead charge. Khalid stumbled backward, his face filled with shock. “What the...?”

Chasing him down as he retreated, I dove into his blind spot and swung the dagger in a reverse grip.

“Not so fast!” Khalid shouted.

He stomped hard. The petals that had fallen to the ground all shot upward at once, slamming into me. They exploded the moment they made contact. Caught in the blast, I was hurled dozens of meters into the air and slammed into the ground and rolled, bloodied.

Khalid looked down at me lying on the ground, wearing a stunned expression. “You. Are you completely insane? Do you want to die?”

He probably thought I was crazy. Despite not having spare lives to burn, I had charged straight into a storm of sword aura with nothing but my body. It was madness, like sprinting at full speed along a single rope stretched between two sheer cliffs. Of course, that was because he did not know my Blessing.

With my lips tightly sealed, I staggered as I forced myself upright. Even though Khalid had deliberately avoided my vital points, the price of charging straight through the storm of cascading sword aura petals was anything but light. Blood poured endlessly from the wounds that had shredded my entire body. They were injuries severe enough that it wouldn’t have been strange for my Blessing of Resurrection to trigger on the spot.

However, I had succeeded too. Though it had only grazed his skin, I had stained Khalid’s blood onto the dagger Camellia had given me. As if sensing the contact with blood, the magic circle engraved along the blade flared to life. Then, the color of the blade, which could be said to be the very purpose of this ambush, revealed itself.

Huh, it’s the same?

The dagger’s edge, supposed to turn blue in response to the power of the Prophet of Eternity, remained a clear, untainted silver, just as it had been. It could only mean one thing. Khalid hadn’t received the Prophet of Eternity’s power. Frowning, I stared down at the dagger gleaming silver in my hand.

Watching me study the blade, Khalid let out a chuckle. “Hm. I see. That was your objective, was it? Smearing my blood onto that dagger? So? Did you get the answer you were looking for?”

I stayed silent.

“Judging by that look in your eyes, I’d say you didn’t.” His shoulders shook as he broke into a low, raspy laugh. “But more importantly, are you all right?”

Raising a hand, he gestured toward my face. “That mask of yours looks like it’s about to break.”

Perhaps the attack had grazed it when I forced my way through the sword aura petals earlier. Almost the instant Khalid finished speaking, the white half-mask on my face split cleanly in two and tumbled across the ground. It was a good thing I had prepared insurance in advance.

As I stared at the mask rolling across the floor, letting out a silent sigh of relief, Khalid suddenly said, “Hm? You had said your name was Dale, right? Has your face always looked like that?”

I spun toward Khalid, eyes wide with shock. “How did you recognize me?”

With Jules’s help, my disguise had been flawless. Even I would have had trouble recognizing myself.

“Hm. To be honest, I realized it was you the moment I saw you wearing the mask. At first, I almost mistook you for someone else, though.”

I was speechless.

“Heh. Curious how I knew?” Grinning, Khalid tapped the bridge of his nose. “Your smell.”

“My smell?”

“Yes. You have a very familiar scent. Hmm, how should I put it... Ah, yes. You smell like old wood.”

“Old wood?” Frowning, I tugged my collar up to my nose, but all I could smell was the metallic stench of blood.

“Hahaha! Not an actual smell, just the impression. Don’t concern yourself over it.”

I clicked my tongue. Not only had I failed to identify the traitor, but my identity had also been exposed. This was bad. Really bad. It was a failure, a complete, undeniable failure, one that left no room for excuses.

Khalid continued, “From the way you moved, heh, I can roughly guess who put you up to this.”

Just as I was seriously considering whether I should kill him to silence him, he added, “Don’t glare at an old man with such murderous eyes. I have a pretty good idea why you attacked me in the middle of the night, you know.”

“You do?”

“You’re looking for the lackeys of the Prophet of Eternity, aren’t you?”

A hollow laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it. “So, the drunken act was just a smokescreen after all.”

To think everything had been exposed so completely, piece by piece.

“Heh heh! No, I really am a drunk. I just happened to get a bit lucky, that’s all.”

“Lucky?”

“Yes. Because our objectives happen to align perfectly.”

“What?”

“I’m hunting him too. The Prophet of Eternity... Care to talk for a bit?”

I was surprised by his words. After taking a moment, I realized I needed to hear this out in more detail. “Fine.”

Khalid stepped out of the alley, craning his neck and looking around. “Now then, let’s see... Tsk. Looks like all the taverns are closed.”

“This doesn’t sound like a conversation for drinking,” I replied firmly.

“Heh heh. On the contrary, it’s exactly the kind of talk that’s hard to have without alcohol. Ah, wait here a moment.”

He disappeared into a nearby convenience shop that operated twenty-four hours a day, then came back out carrying two bottles of liquor. He popped one bottle open and handed it to me. “Here. Have a drink.”

I let out a short sigh and took it from him. After we clinked our bottles together, Khalid drank as if he were a castaway who had just found an oasis in the desert.

“Ahh, that hits the spot!” he exclaimed.

“Let’s continue from earlier. Why are you chasing the Prophet of Eternity, Khalid?”

“Heh heh. No need to rush me.” Wiping the liquor from his lips with his sleeve, Khalid let out a deep sigh. “Your guess, and the Empress’s, was half right and half wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“I may not be one of the Prophet of Eternity’s lackeys, but it’s not as if I have no connection to him either.”

“You’ve met the Prophet of Eternity before?”

“Met him, you ask? Heh. If you ask whether I’ve met him, then yes, I have.”

“Where did you meet him?”

“At the orphanage where I lived as a child.”

“What?”

“He was my father, no less.”

Wait. What did he just say? Then that would mean...

“Heh. That’s right.” Khalid drained the remaining liquor in his bottle in one go. “I am the son of the Prophet of Eternity.”