The Last-Seat Hero Has Returned

81

“So, before it’s too late, I wanted to tell you this.”

“What is it?”

“Mr. Dale.”

Yurina turned towards me and smiled brightly.

“Please take good care of my brother from now on.”

The moonlight shone down on her.

“As a precious friend… as a reliable colleague… please stay by his side.”

Yurina slowly stood up.

“Well then, I’ll be going now. If I stay out too long, my brother will scold me.”

With that, Yurina bowed her head politely.

“…I was so happy to meet you, Mr. Dale.”

With those final words, Yurina turned and walked away.

“…….”

Left alone in the backyard.

I thought of the ‘Yurina Helios’ I had just met.

“Yurina Helios….”

Yuren’s younger sister.

The world believed she died in an accident eight years ago, but in reality, she had been alive and well all this time.

She heard about me from Yuren and was so curious that she begged her brother to call me out at this late hour.

“Sigh.”

I let out a deep sigh and rubbed my forehead.

“Yuren, you b*stard.”

You really can’t lie for shit.

Though he tried hard not to be caught, he could not deceive my eyes, which had shared ten years of life and death with him in a past life.

‘Even so, the very fact that Yurina is here makes no sense.’

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the rumor of Yurina Helios’s accidental death eight years ago was a fabrication by the family.

Would Rozanna Helios, who had gone to such lengths to conceal the existence of the ‘Lunar God’s Stigmata’ by faking her daughter’s death, suddenly bring Yurina to school?

Especially on a day when the most heroes gather for a special observation class.

‘Yuren must know this fact as well.’

Yet, Yuren put on a clumsy act in front of me, pretending to be Yurina.

‘Why?’

Two possibilities sprang to mind immediately.

He either thought it wouldn’t matter if he was caught, or—

‘Or the situation was so urgent that he couldn’t afford to care.’

I furrowed my brow and sighed.

No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t figure out why Yuren had to rush in front of me disguised as ‘Yurina.’

“By the way…”

I recalled the image of Yurina from last night.

Beautiful silver hair, as if woven from moonlight.

Skin as white as snowflakes, and a face that seemed sculpted with meticulous care by a delicate artist.

Though Yuren’s true form was already remarkable, even considering that, it was an astonishing disguise.

“Where on earth did that guy learn such skills?”

It wasn’t the clumsy cross-dressing like what Juliet had done.

This was a full-on transformation, altering skeletal structure, chest size, hair color, and even voice.

It was something that could only be achieved with specialized magical tools, likely used by state agents or spies from major guilds.

‘Setting aside where he got such tools…’

What I couldn’t comprehend most was why Yuren would go to the extent of using such professional magical tools to disguise himself as his deceased sister.

“A mere hobby… can’t be.”

For a moment, Juliet’s face flashed in my mind, but I shook my head, dismissing that possibility.

‘He never had such a hobby in our past life.’

In ten years of partying together, I had never once seen Yuren in women’s clothing.

And who would use such specialized magical tools just for a hobby?

“Professional disguise tools, huh…?”

At that moment.

A question flickered in my mind.

“Uh, wait a second.”

A jolt like lightning coursed down my spine.

I pressed my forehead, retracing the memories of last night.

“Magical artifact… where was I wearing it?”

If it was a magical artifact capable of altering the very structure of the body, it couldn’t be something small like a ring or earrings.

Right.

No matter how expensive the magic stone, it had to be at least the size of a ‘pendant’ to function properly.

But.

“I clearly… wasn’t wearing anything yesterday, was I?”

At the time, I hadn’t even had the chance to look properly, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the silver-haired beauty, Yuren.

As I slowly pieced together the memories, I realized that Yuren had ‘no magical artifact on her body at all.’

‘But that doesn’t mean Yuren could use a polymorph-like transformation spell.’

Yuren had a natural talent for swords, but when it came to magic, her abilities were so dismal that I was better than her.

It was a certainty, backed by the testimony of Senior Sophia, who had taught both Yuren and me magic.

“So, wait, does that mean… the Yuren I saw last night was the real one?”

No.

That couldn’t be.

The Yurina I met last night had all the traits of the ‘Yuren’ I knew.

Even if they were siblings by blood, it was impossible for their subtle gestures, speech patterns, and habits to be completely identical.

“What on earth is going on…?”

My mind was a tangled mess.

Suddenly, a memory flashed through my head of the time I went to the bathhouse with Yuren.

– What’s that pendant?

– Huh? This, this? It’s… my sister’s keepsake.

Yuren, with an awkward smile, had clutched the pendant around her neck as if to hide it.

If what Yuren was wearing at that time was a disguise-type magical artifact, then it all made sense—

“No, no, no. What do you mean it makes sense?”

If that were the case, it would mean Yuren was actually a woman, and had been pretending to be a man all along using a disguise-type magical artifact.

“Yuren could not have been a woman.”

Ten years.

A full decade.

No matter how much Yuren had a tendency to build walls around himself, could it really be that after ten years together, I never confirmed whether he was a man or not?

During battles when clothes were torn, in moments when we had to squeeze into tight spaces to sleep, or when he sustained severe injuries and I had to strip him to pour potions over his wounds—there were countless instances where I confirmed that Yuren was, indeed, a ‘man.’

“…Back then, he wasn’t wearing any kind of disguise magic.”

True.

The ‘keepsake of his sister’ that Yuren wore around his neck was something I had never seen when I formed a party with him ten years later.

‘So, Yuren was originally a woman and then became a man somewhere along the way.’

I let out a scoff, shaking my head.

From woman to man.

That couldn’t possibly be true…

—I am a direct descendant of the Helios family, and I bear the ‘mark of the Moon God.’

From noble mtl dot com

Suddenly, a memory from last night flickered through my mind.

Yurina… no, Yuren’s chest, revealed as he opened his shirt, bore the ‘mark of the Moon God.’

And the Yuren I knew for sure.

He had the ‘mark of the Sun God’ etched on his left breast.

“…….”

I hurriedly kicked open the door and rushed toward Professor Jade’s research room.

Bang!

As I roughly opened the door to the lab, I saw Professor Jade, his head resting on the desk, asleep.

“Umm? What’s the matter, my friend?”

Professor Jade blinked groggily awake.

“Mark exchange technique.”

“Eh?”

“Do you have any research materials on mark exchange techniques?”

“Well, I do have some, but….”

“Show me.”

“What’s this about… Hmm. Just wait a moment.”

As Professor Jade looked into my eyes, he hesitated, then began rummaging through the drawers of his lab.

I quickly scanned the thick research materials he handed me.

‘Stigma Replacement Technique.’

Once, I had briefly studied this technique to rid myself of the ‘Blessing of Resurrection.’

Of course, it was a nearly obsolete technique, so there was little information left, and after learning that simply changing the stigma wouldn’t erase the ‘Blessing’ that had already awakened, I lost interest.

“The primary side effects of the Stigma Replacement Technique are memory loss and physical changes…”

As I read the contents of the research material, I bit my lip.

“Professor, this physical change… could it possibly include a change in gender?”

“Usually, one would die from seizures before that happens… but theoretically, it’s entirely possible.”

Professor Jade stroked his beard as he continued.

“Especially if the stigma being transplanted is strong, the likelihood increases.”

“…….”

“But why the sudden curiosity about that?”

Without answering his question, I ground my teeth.

Yuren, who had built a strange ‘wall’ even with party members who were like family.

Yuren, who always insisted on a personal tent, even when booking accommodations.

Yuren, who blushed red in the bathhouse with Berald, covering his body with a towel.

Yuren, who stared blankly at the women’s clothing section when we skipped class to go to Valhalla City.

The identities of Yurina and Helios.

The swapped stigma.

Sun and moon.

The scattered puzzle pieces clicked together.

‘It wasn’t Yuren… it was Yurina.’

Now I could understand.

Why Yuren had been reluctant to share stories of his past in his previous life.

Why I felt an inexplicable distance from him.

‘It had changed.’

From the moon to the sun.

Yurina’s stigma had been replaced along the way.

Born with the blessing of the moon god etched upon her heart, she had become a ‘sun’ by someone’s hand.

‘When did it change?’

For now, I confirmed yesterday that Yurina bears the mark of the Moon God.

And now, about twelve years later, the one who would become my party member possesses the mark of the Sun God.

‘The range is too wide.’

How on earth am I supposed to figure out exactly when Yurina’s mark changed during those twelve years?

“Haah.”

A deep sigh slipped through my lips.

‘First, I need to talk to Yuren… no, Unira.’

After thanking Professor Jade for lending me the research materials, I headed toward Yurina’s dormitory.

I knocked on the door of the dormitory, which gleamed in comparison to my shabby one.

“Yuren! Come out for a moment!”

Bang bang bang.

Even with my rough knocking, there was no response.

I tried sending a message through my Hero Watch, and even attempted a call, but all I got back was that she was unavailable.

‘It’s not even time for classes to start yet. Where could she be?’

I frowned as I checked the time on my Hero Watch.

“…No way.”

With a stiffened face, I scrolled up through the message history on my Hero Watch.

– Dale, can we meet for a moment?

Last night.

Out of the blue, a message from Yurina asking to meet.

A sense of foreboding crawled up my spine, spreading through my entire body.

“Damn it!”

I rushed to the place, arriving at Professor Lucas’s office.

Bang!

I burst through the office door, approaching Professor Lucas, who looked at me with a bewildered expression.

“Where is Yuren right now?”

“Yuren? If it’s Yuren, she got a pass this morning saying she had an urgent matter at home and went out.”

“…….”

I bit my lip at Professor Lucas’s response.

“…Professor.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Which direction is the fastest warp gate to the Helios family from here?”