The Lowest-Ranked Hero Has Returned
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
"Whew."
Elisha leaned her back against a hard rock, a cigarette in her mouth.
KRAAAAAAH—.
In the distance, the roar of a demonic beast, presumed to be a Behemoth, echoed.
"It’s started."
The battle between the king of the demonic beasts ruling the Abyss and her cherished student.
"Student...."
She shook her head with a bitter expression.
She hadn’t even taught him much, so what kind of student was he?
Snap.
Elisha lightly flicked her fingers.
Dale had strictly warned her not to enter the domain for at least three days.
"But I can’t just sit here idly and wait."
If her role was to rescue Dale, she at least needed to know what was happening.
Whrrr.
A thin strand of spider silk slipped from her fingertips, crawling like a snake on the ground toward the Behemoth’s domain.
The vibrations in the air through the silk carried the demonic beast’s distant growls more clearly.
If she activated the "Insight’s Blessing" as well...
'That monster must be the Behemoth.'
In her mind, the overall outline and appearance of the Behemoth began to form.
A demonic beast with the head of a bull, a demon's horns, and a dragon's tail.
Its head had twelve eyes gleaming with ominous light.
'A Twelve-Eyed demonic beast.'
She had seen Ten-Eyed demonic beasts before, but never anything beyond that.
'A demonic beast only recorded during the Demon War 500 years ago.'
Elisha swallowed dryly and clenched her fist.
Even a Ten-Eyed demonic beast was nearly impossible to face unless one was a high-ranking warrior, a "Ranker."
And here was a demonic beast with not just one but two additional eyes.
Given that a demonic beast’s strength exponentially increased with more eyes, Dale’s warning that only someone on par with a high-ranking archbishop could face it seemed accurate.
'Is Dale really fighting such a monster?'
She gritted her teeth, biting down hard on the cigarette between her lips.
No matter how strong Dale was, even he must know that it would be impossible to defeat a demonic beast that not even an archbishop could handle.
And yet, he had entered the Behemoth’s domain for one reason only.
"...An extreme situation."
Dale had said that he needed to push himself into an extreme situation to awaken the "Primordial Flame" within him.
He had convinced her that he needed power to fight against future invasions by beings like the Archbishop of Madness.
'But still.'
Even so.
"Did it really have to go this far...?"
Crack! Thud! Crunch!
The sickening sounds traveled through the spider silk—blood splattering, flesh being torn apart, bones shattering.
Imagining the pain Dale must be enduring sent a shiver down her spine.
"...Dale, my student."
Though she wanted to scold him for his reckless self-sacrifice, she couldn’t bring herself to do so when she considered his "past life."
The horrors he had endured in that previous existence were beyond what even she could fully comprehend after hearing all his stories.
'I hope you get the result you’re after.'
All she could do now was pray that he would be rewarded for his brutal self-torment.
Elisha extinguished her half-smoked cigarette and sat down.
The battle inside the domain continued to relay back to her through the spider silk.
KRAAAAAAH!
The Behemoth roared fiercely.
Crack! Smash! Thud!
Despite his body being crushed repeatedly, Dale kept getting back up.
'At first, he held out somewhat...'
The moment the flames enveloping Dale’s body were extinguished, the tide of battle shifted drastically against him.
Dale’s attacks left only scratches, while the Behemoth’s blows tore his body apart piece by piece.
"Three days like this...."
Dale had casually said it would last three days.
But three days was by no means a short time.
Especially when every minute and second was a deadly fight for survival.
"......."
Elisha closed her eyes and pulled out another cigarette from her pocket, placing it between her lips.
Click.
The tip of the cigarette glowed red.
One day passed.
Hack! Cough! Aaargh!
Dale’s screams of agony echoed through the spider silk.
The battle was still one-sided, with Dale dying and reviving repeatedly, every ten seconds or so.
The Behemoth, showing no signs of fatigue, relentlessly focused on killing Dale over and over.
Two days passed.
Rumble!
At this point, the Behemoth began to show signs of weariness, its movements sluggish and its breathing heavy.
But being a demonic beast driven by sheer instinct for destruction and slaughter, its assault on Dale, who had been killed and resurrected countless times, showed no sign of stopping.
Over and over, the carnage continued.
Dale stood up again, gripping his sword.
Three days passed.
The Behemoth’s movements had noticeably slowed compared to the beginning.
Its breath was labored, and the number of small wounds on its black skin had far exceeded a thousand.
A battle that transcended ferocity and bordered on the tragic.
Even as it bled profusely, the Behemoth barely continued its fight against Dale.
"...I can’t even tell which of them is truly in an extreme situation anymore."
Elisha chuckled bitterly under her breath.
Dale had said he was putting himself in an extreme situation by fighting the Behemoth, but now, three days later, it seemed like the Behemoth was the one in a dire situation.
But.
That was only how things appeared "on the surface."
"Cadet Dale...."
It is conveyed.
I can feel it.
Through a thread thinner than a strand of hair.
The distant death Dale must be experiencing, the endless pain, the bottomless despair.
“...You can stop now.”
Humans cry like children even when they stub their pinky toe on the door frame.
Even agents of the state, who undergo rigorous training to withstand pain, carry poison in their mouths, worried that they might break under torture.
“Haven’t you done enough by now?”
But Dale didn’t even have that final escape.
He had faced too many deaths, endured pain beyond measure, and life refused to end.
That was the life Dale Han, the hero, had lived.
“Send the signal quickly...!”
For the past three days, she had waited without a wink of sleep for Dale’s rescue signal, but there hadn’t been any sign of it yet.
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
“...Damn it!”
Professor Elisha bit her lip anxiously, spitting out a curse.
Who would have thought she’d be so anxious over just one cadet?
Just a few months ago, she could never have imagined such a thing.
‘Dale.’
At first, it was simple curiosity.
She was intrigued by the cadet who had taken down a teaching assistant she valued with a single stroke.
When she looked into him with her Blessing of Insight, she saw a mysterious, immense power residing within the cadet.
That’s when she felt an interest.
Not many women could avoid feeling attracted to a young man with such a bright future.
On top of that, his appearance was pleasing, and his personality wasn’t bad either.
Yeah.
That was all.
He wasn’t worth giving away to someone else, but it was too much trouble to make an effort to have him herself.
That was what ‘Dale Han’ meant to her.
But then.
“You’re pretty, you know?”
“What?”
“Earlier, you said your scar was hideous. But looking at it now, it doesn’t seem hideous at all. In fact, it suits your appearance quite well.”
Seeing him being cheeky, yet considerate, stirred her heart just a little.
Just... enough to think that maybe putting in some effort wouldn’t be so bad.
And then.
“Listen to me carefully.”
That day.
“I’ll tell you how to solve this ‘common occurrence’ from now on.”
As she looked at him, who had extended his hand to her when she had given up on everything, a different thought came to her.
She wanted to have him, wanted to be by his side.
Yes.
To put it bluntly, and very directly:
She had fallen for him.
Elisha Baldwin, ranked 9th among the world’s heroes, known as the “All-Seeing Spider,” had fallen for a mere cadet who hadn’t even graduated yet.
“Damn it.”
Professor Elisha peeled herself away from the rock she had been leaning on.
She could no longer just stand here, waiting for Dale’s rescue signal.
‘I’m going to save Cadet Dale.’
She stepped into the domain of Behemoth.
The moment she entered the domain, the quality of the air changed, as if she had entered another world.
The thick scent of blood assaulted her nose.
“Ugh....”
She covered her nose and quickened her pace towards where Dale and Behemoth were still engaged in battle.
The ashen fog that blanketed the area.
It was the smoke that billowed out whenever Dale’s “Blessing of Revival” activated.
‘For the smoke to cover this entire area....’
That meant Dale had died countless times.
Professor Elisha bit her lip and quickened her steps even more.
‘Quickly.’
The thought that she might have to face a Twelve-Eyed demonic beast herself was no longer even in her mind.
The only thought that filled her was that she had to save Dale from this endless cycle of death.
As she ventured further into the thickening ashen fog.
Fwoooosh!
Beyond the ashen mist, fierce flames flickered.
“That....”
She had seen Dale create “fire” many times before, but the flames blazing within the ashen mist now were on a whole different level.
It was as if the flames could consume the world.
It was the primordial fire that had once burned the Tree of Creation in a distant past, now flickering amid the ashen fog.
“Cadet Dale! Cadet Dale, where are you?”
Professor Elisha pushed through the smoke, running toward the source of the flames.
When she arrived at the scene.
“...Ha.”
There stood Dale, engulfed in ashen flames, and the enormous corpse of the demonic beast sprawled before him.
“Cadet Dale, you....”
“I told you to wait for my signal before coming in, didn’t I?”
Dale turned toward Professor Elisha and let out a faint laugh.
With a stiff expression, Professor Elisha looked down at the corpse of the demonic beast lying in front of Dale.
It looked like it had been crushed, as if trampled by a giant’s foot.
The King of the demonic beasts that ruled over the Abyss had been beaten so thoroughly that it was now unrecognizable.
“...This.”
To compare it to something, it looked like a fly swatted flat with the palm of a hand.
“Hah.”
Professor Elisha let out a disbelieving chuckle.
How could someone create a corpse like this with a sword or fist?
And not just any corpse, but one of a massive demonic beast over 15 meters tall.
“Did Cadet Dale do this...?”
“Who else would’ve done it, if not me?”
Dale shrugged his shoulders as he walked toward her.
The flames that had been wrapping around him slowly died down, and the ashen mist began to disperse.
And then another shocking sight was revealed.
Dale was completely naked, not a single thread on his body.
“C-Cadet Dale....”
Gulp.
Professor Elisha swallowed dryly as her eyes slowly drifted downward.
As the ashen mist dispersed... another fearsome demonic beast was revealed.
Professor Elisha’s cheeks flushed red.
“Ahem! Th-That’s concerning.”
“Excuse me? What is?”
“If I were to spend the night with you, Cadet Dale... I’d have to contend with
that
monstrous thing, wouldn’t I?”
Dale stared at Professor Elisha with a look that said, “What are you talking about?”
Then his eyes suddenly widened in realization.
“Oh, crap! What the hell!”
Dale looked down at his completely naked body and screamed.
“Clothes! Do you have clothes anywhere? Even a scrap of fabric....”
Click. Click.
“Why are you taking pictures now?!”
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]

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