The Lowest-Ranked Hero Has Returned

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Chapter 55: Interlude – Boys' Talk

In Yuren Helios’ private training hall.

Originally, I had planned to borrow money from my dear friend, Juliet, to apply for a private training hall.

However, due to a minor misunderstanding (?) with Iris, the whole plan ended up falling through.

That said, continuing my personal training in the public training hall, where I’d become like a monkey in a zoo the moment I stepped in, was also difficult.

While pondering the issue, I came up with the idea of sharing the private training hall of another one of my friends, Yuren Helios.

When I proposed sharing his private hall, Yuren readily agreed, nodding without hesitation, and immediately added my name to the list of authorized users.

Since then, I have spent much more time training with him in his private hall, beyond just the two sessions a week I usually spent teaching him swordsmanship.

“Ha! Yeah, this is the life!”

After a session of sword training in the top-notch facilities and equipment of the training hall, I gulped down a cold sports drink.

“Did something good happen?”

Yuren approached, wiping the sweat off with a towel.

“Not really, nothing special.”

“Hmm. You’ve been in a great mood all day though. Actually, it’s not just today; you’ve been smiling non-stop for the past few days.”

“Hehe, really?”

Ha, this is tricky.

It’s hard to hide it, no matter how hard I try.

“Well, something good did happen.”

I recalled the outing with Iris a few days ago on the weekend.

Watching a movie, having a meal, taking a walk.

Of course, napping on the park bench with my head on her lap was delightful, but...

‘The most memorable moment, though, was when...’

I remembered when Iris, mistaking my relationship with Juliet, passionately declared she wouldn’t give me up and kissed me.

The sweet peach scent and the soft touch of her lips gave me indescribable happiness.

‘Well, to be fair, it wasn’t exactly a romantic kiss.’

But still, who cares?

What mattered was that we kissed.

That, too, with my lover from a past life whom I had longed for, for hundreds, even thousands of years.

‘Sure, I had to tweak Juliet’s preferences a bit to clear up the misunderstanding, but...’

I trust my soul friend Juliet will understand my situation.

“So, what good thing happened?”

Yuren asked, pulling out a can of sports drink from the fridge.

“Ah, nothing much... just a little something.”

“‘Nothing much,’ huh? You seemed pretty distracted during training earlier, too.”

“Ahem.”

Hearing it from someone else made me feel oddly embarrassed.

“So, what happened?”

“Well... I guess you could say things progressed a bit with someone I like.”

“…W-what?”

Yuren’s eyes widened in shock.

“Someone you like?! You, Dale?!”

“Why? Is that really so shocking?”

I tilted my head, looking at him as he trembled in disbelief.

‘What’s with this guy?’

In a school full of young men and women (though technically my real age makes it hard to call myself “young”), relationships blossoming among cadets wasn’t rare at all.

There was even a cadet who once said, “If you can’t get into a relationship during your four years at Hero Academy, you’re either an idiot or impotent,” in rather crude terms.

Oh, and the cadet who said that disappeared one day, never to be heard from again—a somewhat heartwarming ending, I guess.

Anyway, the news that a friend had someone they liked shouldn’t be enough to make someone open their eyes wide in disbelief.

“Tell me more. What exactly happened?”

Yuren approached, eyes fierce, his pupils dilated, his breath heavy, and faint traces of golden mana leaking out.

It was easy to tell he was extremely agitated.

“What, are you interested in other people’s love lives just because you’re a guy too?”

I chuckled, looking at Yuren as he came closer.

“By the way, you could easily be in a relationship too, if you wanted to. You’re popular enough.”

“Shut up and tell me your story. Who’s the person you like?”

Oh boy, scary.

Well, I guess it's natural.

People who normally claim they’d never get into a relationship are usually the ones who get the most worked up when their friends do.

“Iris.”

“Iris? You mean... the Saintess of the Holy Kingdom?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“……”

Yuren drained his drink as if his throat was parched, then pulled another can from the fridge.

“Huh, I knew you and the Saintess were in the same 'Combat Training' class, but I never imagined it would be like that.”

“Well, how many people could imagine it?”

“So... are you two dating now?”

Yuren asked, his voice filled with some kind of nervous tension.

“No, not yet.”

“R-really?”

Suddenly, Yuren’s face brightened.

With a much more relaxed expression, he continued.

“But the Saintess... as a ‘friend,’ I’d advise you not to get your hopes up too high.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, think about it. She’s not just anyone; she’s the Saintess. The daughter of the gods, blessed by the Seven! It wouldn’t be easy to get involved with someone like her.”

Yuren spoke calmly, as if trying to convince me.

Of course, his argument meant nothing to me, having already been her lover in a past life.

“Just because she’s the Saintess doesn’t mean she can’t have a romantic relationship, right? Most Seven-Star Church priests have lovers or spouses.”

“But the Saintess is different!”

“She’s not different, man. What, is she not human?”

“That’s…”

Yuren bit his lip, seemingly unable to find a rebuttal.

“…Fine. If that’s what you think, then I can’t stop you.”

He clenched his teeth, his fists trembling with frustration.

“So, what exactly happened between you and the Saintess?”

“Well… we ended up kissing, somehow.”

“W-what?! Y-you kissed her?!”

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Yuren jumped up in shock, his reaction even more extreme than before.

‘Seriously, what’s with all this fuss over a kiss? It’s not like we’re teenagers.’

Watching Yuren tremble as I chuckled, I suddenly recalled a memory from my past life.

‘Now that I think about it, Yuren never even held hands with a girl in his past life, did he?’

Despite being pursued by all sorts of famous beauties from across the continent—whether it was the Empire’s princess, the Republic’s famous actress, or the Holy Kingdom’s nuns—he didn’t spare any of them a glance.

‘There were even rumors going around that Yuren liked men.’

There was a funny incident, too.

The Archbishop of Desire, Lactasia, tried to use her beauty to seduce Yuren but was brutally defeated.

This incident shook the entire continent since Lactasia had swayed hundreds of heroes to betray humanity and side with the demons with just her beauty.

"Even back in his cadet days, he was just as clueless about women."

I chuckled, watching Yuren’s fists tremble with rage.

“Well, it was kind of an accident.”

“Hahaha. Really? So, uh… you just briefly touched lips, right?”

“No, she slipped her tongue in.”

“T-tongue?! She used her tongue?!”

Crack! Ssssss!

The can in Yuren’s hand crumpled pitifully.

“Haha. I see… so she used her tongue….”

For some reason, golden mana surged around Yuren’s body, threatening to explode.

“Ah, well, I heard that kissing between men and women is just a casual greeting nowadays, right? I’ve even seen people at noble parties in the Empire greet each other with kisses.”

“Ah… yeah. Right.”

Even though I was sure no one at any noble party was shoving their tongue into another person’s mouth as a greeting.

“So, nothing else happened besides the kiss, right? Right?”

“Well, if I had to be honest, there was one more thing…”

“…What else?”

“Um… no, never mind. I shouldn’t say.”

After a moment of contemplation, I shook my head.

“Dale.”

At that moment, Yuren approached me with a bright (but somewhat terrifying) smile and placed his hand on my shoulder.

“We’re ‘friends,’ right? Friends shouldn’t hide things from each other.”

“Well, it’s hard to answer this because I want to be considerate of Iris’s reputation…”

“Speak. Now.”

I could feel the strong grip of his hand tightening on my shoulder.

I looked at Yuren, whose eyes burned with fiery intensity, and suppressed a laugh.

‘He was just like this in our past life too.’

Whenever I’d exchange even a few words with other women, Yuren would find out like a ghost and ask what we’d talked about, prying into whether any of them had shown interest in me.

‘This guy acts all refined and proper, but he’s actually very interested in women’s affairs.’

Well, they say that when men gather, the conversation is about women nine out of ten times.

And since Yuren was at that prime age, it made sense for him to be sensitive to this topic.

‘In that case, maybe I should indulge him and share a bit of the story?’

I began recalling the events from that day in the park with Iris and opened my mouth.

“Last weekend, Iris and I went to the park together.”

“Y-yeah?”

“We were sitting on a bench taking a break when Iris gave me a lap pillow.”

“…A lap pillow?”

A sigh of relief escaped Yuren’s lips.

“Oh, I see. You were just telling me about the lap pillow.”

“While I was resting on her lap, she suddenly asked if I wanted to touch her chest.”

“……”

Yuren’s face hardened instantly.

“S-so… did you touch it?”

“At first, I was going to refuse, but then Iris grabbed my hand and put it on her chest.”

“I see… so you touched it…”

“I knew they were big, but feeling them in my hand was something else…”

“Enough.”

“Huh?”

Yuren, with his head hung low, slowly walked to the training room wall and grabbed one of the swords hanging there.

Not a wooden practice sword, but a real one with a sharp, gleaming blade.

“Dale, I think you’ve rested enough. How about we spar?”

“Nah, I’m good today. I used up all my mana during practice earlier—”

Vwooom!

Golden aura surged violently along the blade Yuren held.

“Pick up your sword, Dale.”

If you don’t…

“You might actually die today.”

Yuren smiled brightly as he swung his sword without hesitation.

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