The Last-Seat Hero Has Returned

21. Was it you? (2)

“You want me to get it myself?”

With a questioning look, I gazed at Professor Jade, who nodded calmly.

“Yes. Since we know where the Seven Star Grass imbued with magic mainly grows, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.”

“Where does it mainly grow?”

“Here.”

At the tip of Professor Jade’s finger was a dust ball rolling around the floor of the laboratory.

Well, it obviously doesn’t mean it grows in this trash heap of a lab.

“…The school, you mean?”

“Yes. You probably won’t find a place on the entire continent where you can easily obtain Seven Star Grass imbued with magic like here.”

Even if you searched the entire continent, there wouldn’t be a place where you could easily obtain Seven Star Grass imbued with magic like here.

I had a vague idea why.

“Is it because of the seal?”

“Hoho.”

Professor Jade’s eyes sparkled with interest.

“For someone who got the lowest score in the first-year history class, you know quite a bit.”

“Why did you look up my first-year grades?”

“Shouldn’t I know the academic performance of a candidate who might become my assistant after graduation?”

“No.”

I’m not joining your lab.

“Hehe. Well, anyway. That’s an answer worth about 80 out of 100 points. It’s not exactly because of the seal, but because of the ley lines connected to the seal.”

“…Ley lines?”

Come to think of it, I remembered hearing about it from Senior Sophia before.

Underneath the Hero School, there are ley lines filled with an enormous amount of magic.

“Since we’re at it, let me explain briefly.”

Professor Jade continued, looking somewhat excited.

“500 years ago, the five great heroes succeeded in sealing the Demon God after a fierce battle.”

“Is this suddenly a history lesson?”

“Just listen.”

Professor Jade continued the lesson(?) firmly.

“After sealing the Demon God, Reynaldo established this ‘Hero School’ right above it.”

It was something I learned in the first-year history class.

“Do you know why Reynald established a school in such a perilous land?”

“Wasn’t it to create a sort of fortress? To guard the seal of the Demon God.”

Despite the tremendous opposition at the time, historians have differing opinions on why Reynald established a school on the land where the Demon God was sealed.

The prevailing theory accepted today is that the school was built to gather heroes from all over the continent to prevent the demons from approaching the seal.

‘And that’s exactly what happened.’

Initially, many countries opposed sending promising hero candidates to the land where the Demon God was sealed.

But when Reynald threatened that no one could act as a ‘hero’ without graduating from this school and obtaining an official certificate, they had no choice but to send their candidates to the school.

‘Now, 500 years later, no one really cares anymore.’

There are even heroes who don’t know that the Demon God is sealed beneath the hero school unless they take a history class.

Of course.

‘…Soon, they won’t be able to ignore it even if they want to.’

The fact that the seal of the Demon God is gradually weakening.

Not many know this, except for me, who has experienced the future.

“A fortress… That was certainly one of the reasons.”

“Are there other reasons?”

“Do you remember the ley lines I mentioned earlier? Reynald… Ah, to be precise, my ancestor, the ‘Great Sage’ Julius Bastian, connected the ley lines to the seal to make the seal of the Demon God even stronger.”

“Connected the seal and the ley lines?”

“Yes.”

Professor Jade stroked his white beard and continued.

“To put it metaphorically, it’s like connecting chains of ley lines to the lock of the seal to tightly bind the Demon God.”

“Hmm… That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”

“Of course. This is a record passed down only in the Bastian family.”

Ah.

That’s why I hadn’t heard of it in my previous life.

“Anyway, this school is a kind of gigantic sealing tool designed to gather the power of those ley lines.”

The school itself is a gigantic sealing tool.

‘If that’s the case, the reason the seal of the Demon God weakened in my previous life…’

It’s likely related to this school.

‘Now I have one more reason to stay at this school.’

I had no intention of leaving the school before graduation anyway, as I wanted to reunite with my old comrades.

In addition, the task of finding out why the seal of the demon has weakened was added.

‘For now, this isn’t something I can find out immediately.’

For now, it is right to prioritize what I can do.

“So, because of the influence of the ley lines, the Seven Star Grass imbued with magic grows abundantly around here, is that correct?”

“Exactly.”

Professor Jade nodded with a somewhat proud smile.

He picked up the coffee cup on the table, took a sip, and chuckled.

“Being here like this reminds me of the old days when I used to teach.”

Professor Jade looked up at the ceiling of the laboratory with a somewhat wistful gaze.

He used to be a professor who diligently taught cadets, but after the incident two years ago, he no longer taught them.

‘The disciple killer, huh.’

Still, having worked with Professor Jade for a few days, I couldn’t easily understand why he had such a grim nickname.

‘He has a quirky personality, but he’s definitely not someone who would kill his disciples.’

I was curious about his past.

‘But that’s not important right now.’

There were too many things to do at the moment.

“Well, anyway. If you can just bring back the Seven Star Grass imbued with magic, I can complete the stigma enhancer.”

“But if you know where it grows, why don’t you go get it yourself, Professor…?”

“Hoho. Are you telling this old man to go pick the grass himself?”

“……”

Old man, huh.

‘If we count by how long we’ve lived, I’ve lived several times longer than you, old man.’

Of course, I couldn’t say that out loud.

The shamelessness of gulping down a huge research fund of 1 million gold and then asking me to gather the materials myself made my neck feel hot.

“Hoho. And if I go to pick the Seven Star Grass myself, there could be problems with the Holy Kingdom.”

“What kind of problems… Ah.”

Professor Jade is an authority on stigma research, which is forbidden in the Holy Kingdom.

‘But if such a professor were to go around collecting the national flower of the Holy Kingdom?’

There would inevitably be problems.

“Alright. I understand.”

Time was precious, but it seemed there was no other way.

“Click-click. I’ll send the location via Hero Watch, so you should be able to find it around here.”

The location sent was the outdoor training ground where we had recently conducted a beast tracking class.

“…Isn’t the outdoor training ground off-limits outside of class?”

“That part can be authorized for research purposes.”

“Hmm. Understood. Let’s head out immediately.”

There were mountains of other tasks to do as well.

‘What can you do.’

The young(?) one, who still had wet behind the ears, couldn’t move, so I had to move myself.

* * *

“According to the map, it should be somewhere around here….”

Following the map displayed on the Hero Watch, we moved for several hours.

As expected of the forest, the sun began to set faster than usual, and darkness gradually descended.

‘If it gets any later, we’ll have to camp here.’

Though I was used to camping to the point of being sick of it, I didn’t want to sleep on the dirt without Iris.

“We need to find it quickly… huh?”

At that moment.

A crack in the rocks, just big enough for a person to squeeze through, appeared between the thick bushes.

I could feel a faint magical energy leaking through the crack.

‘Is it here?’

Tilting my head, I squeezed through the crack and found a surprisingly spacious cave.

“Let’s see.”

As I heightened my senses and looked around.

I saw a few white flowers growing between the pointed stalactites.

‘Chilseongcho.’

I picked one of the Chilseongcho growing between the stalactites and felt the magical energy contained within.

“At least we avoided camping.”

I grinned and put the Chilseongcho growing between the stalactites into my bag.

After roughly picking all the visible Chilseongcho and stuffing them into my bag, I managed to gather about two handfuls of flowers.

If there are this many Seven Star Herbs, there shouldn’t be any problem in making the stigma enhancer.

‘Just in case, let’s look for more.’

The entrance was narrow, but the inside of the cave was quite spacious, so I hadn’t explored it all yet.

As I followed the winding path deeper into the cave.

“……?”

A faint light was seeping out from afar.

‘A light?’

Why is there a light here?

“……”

I moved slowly towards the source of the light, keeping my footsteps silent.

‘…That is.’

The source of the light deep inside the cave was a portable lantern often used for exploration.

And the fact that there was a portable lantern here meant.

‘Someone else is here.’

Is there someone else at the outdoor training ground besides me at this hour?

‘I thought there was no outdoor training scheduled for today.’

That was information I had confirmed in advance when I received the permit through Professor Jade.

‘Without a permit, no one can enter, so it can’t be a cadet.’

And it was unlikely that a professor would be out at the outdoor training ground alone at this hour.

‘If it’s neither a professor nor a cadet.’

Who on earth would be in this inconspicuous cave at this late hour?

“……”

Holding my breath, I hid behind a stalactite.

“Damn it… They always make me do these menial tasks, only me.”

I heard someone grumbling inside the cave.

A man with black hair wearing a shabby robe.

Judging by his appearance, he was well over thirty, so he wasn’t a cadet.

“Ugh. If only I were a priest, I wouldn’t have to do these chores….”

The man grumbled as he drove a black nail, shaped like a stake, into one side of the cave wall.

And then.

-Wooong!

A black aura flowed from the man’s left chest, traveling along the black nail embedded in the wall and seeping into the cave wall.

A black aura that exuded a sinister, sticky unpleasantness.

It wasn’t hard to recognize what it was.

‘Magic.’

The energy of Ma (魔), which could only be used by those blessed by the demon god and bearing his stigmata.

The fact that this nameless man possessed magic proved only one thing.

A demon (魔人).

A being that, along with demonic beasts, posed the greatest threat to humanity and was the top priority for heroes to hunt down.

An enemy of humanity that could not be negotiated with, nor should be.

‘Why is a demon here?’

Though I couldn’t guess the reason.

‘Well, I can just ask directly.’

I focused my magic on my legs and lowered my stance.

And then.

Leap.

“Hey, damn it… Why is it taking so long today… Grr!”

In an instant, I approached the demon from behind and gathered magic in my fingers, stabbing the back of his neck.

The demon’s body stiffened and then collapsed like a scarecrow.

Acupuncture.

A technique I learned from Berald in the past, which paralyzed the body by stabbing the meridians where magic flowed.

“What the…! Who, who are you!”

“You don’t need to know who I am. Just answer my questions. What is your purpose for sneaking into the school?”

“Ugh! Why can’t I move my body…”

“Well, yeah. I didn’t expect you to answer willingly.”

I painfully learned in my past life that demons were tight-lipped.

“First, a hit.”

I grabbed the fallen demon’s hair, lifted it, and mercilessly slapped his cheek.

Smack!

The sound of leather cracking like a whip made Main’s face snap around.

“Ugh! Wait, just a moment!”

“I know, I know, you little brat. There’s no way you’d open your mouth for this much.”

“No! Wait….”

“Two strikes.”

Crack! Crack! Crack!

As the clear sound echoed, Main’s face gradually swelled to the point where his original features were nearly unrecognizable.

Had it been about thirty strikes, perhaps?

“Ah… ugh.”

“Wow, you’re tough. Still not talking?”

“Ugh, uh, ah…!”

Main shook his head frantically, blood trickling from his broken teeth.

“There’s no helping it.”

If hands won’t do, then a blade must suffice.

Swish.

I drew my sword, bringing the tip close to the man’s face.

“Two eyes, two ears, one nose, one mouth. The only things I need from you are one ear and one mouth….”

I pulled the man’s head closer, grinning brightly.

“What do you need?”