The Lowest-Ranked Hero Has Returned

[Translator - Night]

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Chapter 221: The Seven Stars Festival (7)

"Multiple... lives?"

Seto clutched at his stomach, pierced by a sword, frowning in disbelief.

Multiple lives?

What kind of nonsense was that?

‘This isn’t regeneration.’

His entire body had been shattered into pieces barely the size of two fingers, yet it had returned to normal.

Even if he had downed an entire bottle of the Holy Kingdom’s elixirs, such a thing would’ve been impossible.

Thus, it wasn’t regeneration but resurrection.

Not a miracle where someone on the brink of death narrowly survived, but a corpse—long dead—rising from the grave.

And not just rising, but returning as if nothing had ever happened.

"What... in the world…? Aaaagh!"

Fwoooosh!

Flames of ash ignited, consuming Seto’s body.

"I won the game, so I get to ask the questions, right?"

"Ugh! You… you bastard—Aaaargh!"

Approaching the fallen Seto, I grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him into the air.

"Gah… Ack!"

Seto’s small frame dangled, his legs swinging helplessly in the air as he let out pained groans.

"You said earlier that you knew something about the Eternal Order."

"Ugh…"

"Don’t even think about moving. Unless you want to be reduced to ashes."

Fwoooosh!

The gray flames coiled around Seto’s body, causing his face to turn pale as he bit his lips.

"You… are you really a Candidate? No, before that, are you even human?"

"I’m both a Candidate and human."

At least compared to someone gathering unrelated people just for the sake of causing a bombing…

"The Eternal Order—what are they?"

"Hah… I don’t know much about who they are."

"Is that so?"

Fwoooosh!

The flames around Seto flickered menacingly.

"But I do know this—Mephisto’s secretly working with them."

"…Go on."

Good.

"I don’t know what Mephisto’s ultimate goal is in dealing with those mysterious folks, but I do know where they’re gathering."

"Where?"

A smirk spread across Seto’s lips as he answered.

"The Imperial Palace."

On this vast continent, there was only one place that could be referred to as The Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Palace of the Empire.

Among the three great nations dominating the continent, the Empire was the undisputed strongest.

And reigning over the Empire was the current ruler, the first-ranked hero in the rankings—

Empress Camellia Padsha.

It was where she resided.

Empress Camellia…

The moment her name crossed my mind, a memory from my past life surfaced.

An incident that had plunged the previously peaceful continent into the abyss of war.

The Camellia Assassination Incident.

The current top-ranked hero.

Praised as the Avatar of the Seven Gods for her innate blessing and overwhelming presence.

She was discovered dead, without a single sign of resistance, one fateful morning.

Speculations ran rampant about her death.

Some said she had taken her own life.

Others argued she had been poisoned.

Still others believed it was the work of demons.

But no matter the theories, the culprit was never found.

The Empire, suddenly bereft of its leader, began to falter overnight.

That incident led to the complete breakdown of relations between the three nations, which had been relatively stable until then.

The War between the Empire and the Republic.

The Empire, consumed by grief and anger, lashed out.

The Republic, seizing the chaos as an opportunity, revealed its ambition to devour the Empire.

Their war turned countless heroes into casualties on the battlefield.

Although the assassination incident is still more than five years away…

Given how the Archbishop of Beasts had attacked recently, I couldn’t fully trust the information from my past life anymore.

The future had already been twisted beyond prediction.

"…Why did they go to the Imperial Palace?"

"Beats me. I really don’t know."

"Is that so?"

Fwoooosh!

The flames flared once again.

"No! I swear I don’t know!"

Seto flailed desperately, his face pale with terror.

Judging from the desperation in his expression, he didn’t seem to be lying.

This is probably as much information as I’ll get for now.

The true identity of the Beast Gang was revealed to be the group called the Eternal Order.

And they, along with Mephisto, were headed for the Imperial Palace.

The questions only seem to multiply…

Still, it wasn’t a bad haul.

At least I wouldn’t have to waste another day scouring Valhalla City aimlessly for the Beast Gang.

Now then.

I turned my gaze back to Seto, trembling as the ash-gray flames wrapped around him.

Was the so-called “Archbishop of Madness” always like this?

Sure, no one is completely unafraid of death.

But for someone bearing the title Madness, his behavior seemed almost too pathetic.

"So… you’ve asked everything you wanted, right?"

"Yeah."

Seto, his voice trembling, asked cautiously.

I nodded and raised the flames, ready to finish it.

"But you know… didn’t you forget something?"

The terror-stricken Seto suddenly grinned widely.

"…Forget what?"

"The bomb! Did you forget about the bomb?"

Seto burst into laughter, his eyes gleaming with delight.

"Ha ha ha! Even if I die, I must see it explode!!!"

"……."

Well.

I suppose that explains it.

"So, pretending to be scared was all part of the act?"

"Of course! Do you have any idea how scared I was that you’d kill me right away?"

Grinning broadly, Seto stomped his foot.

Sssssssss!

The moment Seto moved, the flames coiling around him burned his body mercilessly.

"Aaaagh! Hot! Hot! Hot! It’s so hot!"

Even as his body burned, Seto leaped into the air, cackling like a madman.

"Ahahahahahaha!"

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

What could be so amusing?

Seto turned to me with a radiant smile.

“To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed in you.”

“…Disappointed?”

“Yes! I thought you were a true ‘hero’!”

Seto formed his hand into the shape of a gun and aimed it at his own head.

“Do you remember the game we played before? Back then, you pulled the trigger on yourself five times to protect your comrades!”

Clasping his hands together as if reminiscing about that day, Seto continued.

“I thought to myself then, ‘Ah, I’ve finally met a real hero!’ The kind who sacrifices themselves for others, caring nothing for their own life, even in the face of death.”

But.

“The reason you could pull the trigger back then wasn’t because you were a real hero.”

It was because you had the power to resurrect after death, so pulling the trigger didn’t matter to you.

“You’re just one of those ordinary, run-of-the-mill fakes.”

Someone with multiple lives, pretending to be noble but ultimately revealing their ugly, self-serving nature.

“And as proof…”

Seto glanced around the bustling central square.

The square was filled with candidates who had gathered, smiling brightly in anticipation of the fireworks.

“You pointed your sword at me instead of saving those people.”

Seto grinned at me with his lips stretched wide, his eyes piercing.

“Dale, you can come back to life if you die, right?”

But let me ask you this.

“Even if you have more than one life, do you think others do too?”

Spreading his arms wide, he beamed brightly.

“Now then! It’s time for the fireworks!!!”

With a burst of laughter—

“Boom!!!”

A massive explosion was supposed to rock the central square.

“…Huh?”

But it didn’t happen.

“What… What the hell? Why didn’t it go off?”

Seto turned his head frantically, his face riddled with confusion.

Watching him, I let out a small chuckle.

At that moment—

Ding.

An alert sounded from my Hero Watch.

[Candidate Dale, all bombs in the central square have been located and disarmed.]

“Thank you.”

[We’ll send backup right away.]

“No need. It’s almost over here.”

After ending the call, I casually began walking toward the dumbfounded Seto.

“…How?”

Seto blinked, failing to grasp the situation.

“You couldn’t have tracked the bombs with the Blessing of Insight.”

“That’s right.”

Under ‘normal’ circumstances, anyway.

“What did you do?”

“Do you know that the Blessing of Insight is amplified when you ingest someone’s bodily fluids?”

“…Bodily fluids?”

“Yes, like… your ‘blood,’ for instance.”

I pointed at the blood flowing through Seto’s body.

“W-Wait! When did you get a chance to drink my blood?!”

“Don’t you remember? When my sword grazed your side earlier.”@@novelbin@@

“……!”

Seto’s eyes widened as he quickly looked down at his side.

Earlier, near the start of the fight, my sword had grazed him and disappeared into the distance.

“I didn’t try to save the people in the central square because I didn’t need to.”

“You…”

“And what did you say? I could pull the trigger because I could come back to life?”

I scoffed as I grabbed Seto’s head with one hand.

“Have you ever died and come back to life?”

“……”

“Of course not.”

I began channeling magic into the hand gripping Seto’s head.

“Do you want to try?”

“…What are—”

“There’s a type of mental magic that lets you share memories.”

Though it doesn’t allow you to forcibly retrieve someone else’s memories, it lets you share fragments of your own.

And right now, fragments were more than enough.

“W-Wait a second—!”

Before Seto could react, a flood of alien memories poured into his mind.

“Ah.”

Memories of his head being severed.

His limbs crushed.

His eyes gouged out while he was still alive.

His jaw torn off.

His body split from crown to groin.

His insides spilling from a torn side.

Breaking bones, splitting flesh, gushing blood.

And—

“Uh, ah.”

The endless cycle of dying.

And being brought back to life.

“Aaaaaaaargh!!!!!”

Seto clutched his head, trembling violently as if having a seizure.

Watching him convulse, I grinned.

“Well? What do you think?”

Could you pull the trigger?

[Translator - Night]

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