SSS-Knight in a Hero World

"Excuse me?"

Undeterred, Ferris continued. "Your blessing's too easy to abuse in fights, it makes you weaker overall," he explained.

Hearing Ferris's words, Lionheart's temper flared, his voice rising. "So you're telling me to stop using it? That's like asking me to lose my limbs and still keep fighting—

"If you're nothing without your blessing," Ferris cut in coldly, "then you shouldn't have it."

. . .

Lionheart stopped to think about what he just said to Ferris. He quickly realized that his excuse of losing a limb was quite pathetic in front of Ferris, and so he lowered himself.

I didn't know he was this emotionally weak... Ferris felt a little bad that he pressed him down like that.

"Look, I'm just telling you to not use your blessing every single time," he said clearly, then leaned against the table with his elbow. "Ending the fight the same way every time will eventually make you boring and predictable. I'm sure you get what I'm trying to say."

Lionheart became weary. "I get what you mean but I don't understand—

"Let's do a hypothetical. What if I'm not really Ferris, and I'm actually a villain in disguise.

And my goal is to kill Queen Elizabeth."

Suddenly, Lionheart detected massive amounts of killing intent from Ferris. A clear mix of wrath, greed, and lust emanated from him like a distinct odor.

Lionheart tried to lock eyes with Ferris but he was already gone in a blink of an eye. Everything happened so fast that Lionheart's chest had only just begun to beat.

Tap.

Almost instantly, Lionheart felt a sudden tap on his shoulder. For some reason, his body felt like it was paralyzed from the top down in that mere moment.

"You just died. I'll give you a score of 0 out of 10," Ferris said, tapping Lionheart's shoulder a few more times.

"Not only did you not listen to what I said, but you also fell for such an obvious bait and instinctively used your blessing."

Ferris held his breath, allowing Lionheart to slowly take in everything that had just happened.

While waiting, Ferris carefully analyzed Lionheart's physical body.

A great build, and a capacity to learn. Ferris observed and felt Lionheart's muscles.

He'd make for a model knight, or a hero.

Silver hair and a sharp expression. I'm sure he could sway anyone easily.

Now that I mention that... Do hero rankings consider popularity aside from power?

Ferris instinctively hardened his grip when he thought about how he would fare in the popularity department.

Will my face affect my salary, oh no...

No!

Shaking the thoughts off, he felt it had probably been long enough for Lionheart to think things through.

And so, Ferris went right back to his serious demeanor.

"That's what I meant by not relying on your blessing too much.

What if you faced a villain like me, someone who could shut off every emotion when attacking?"

Ferris released his grip on Lionheart's shoulder and stepped back.

"In my opinion, it won't be long before you're nothing more than an ant before Miss Elizabeth. In fact, it'll happen so fast you won't even notice.

And that's why boring people never achieve great results."

After saying what he wanted to say, Ferris slowly walked towards the exit.

Halt.

However, he stopped just right in front of the exit.

Ferris froze for a while before returning to the table, grabbing the whole wine bottle filled with milk, and darting off.

But of course, he paid his respects to the bartender just before leaving.

. . .

. . .

. . .

There was a cold silence that filled the room, drowning even the sizzling grill and the fragrant smell.

Before long, Lionheart turned to the bartender with a dejected expression. "...Do you know how old he is? That Ferris."

Ignoring the grill, the bartender gave off a thoughtful look as he rubbed his chin. "Hmm... I'd say early 20s give or take."

Hearing the bartender's statement, Lionheart wanted to hear it as a lie but he just couldn't, as his mind began to convince itself he was becoming older.

A young star was already leagues above him. That was what started to plague his mind.

"Am I old?" Lionheart pointed at his own chest.

"You're fairly handsome, don't worry."

"..."

Outside the tent, Ferris planned on returning to Fixer's house and perhaps finding a new set of clothes.

On the way, there was something up in his head.

Was I too harsh? What would Yaromech think?

He remembered that Yaromech was more easygoing in his teachings, so his reaction to Ferris's remark might be negative.

But Alaric was the opposite. In fact, it was possible that he would encourage even harsher words!

Let's just hope that I'll never take in a student...

***

After the night passed and it was morning, Ferris got up from his bed in Fixer's house and immediately searched for her.

Obviously since he was in her house, finding her was as easy as entering another room.

Surprisingly she was still repairing various things, but only this time it was for the heroes' sake, so she didn't complain much.

Wanting to thank her from before, Ferris approached her space but was stopped.

"There's no need to thank me. Now go away, you stink."

Ferris paused mid-step, he didn't want to piss off his healer any more than that.

"I can't clean myself here now, can't I?" he explained.

When Fixer heard that she became confused. "The villains forced me to fix the showers here a long time ago, so go there," she answered, stopping whatever she was doing.

Before Ferris could leave, Fixer suddenly remembered something and stopped Ferris once more.

"Queen wants to see you at 7, don't bother asking me what for."

She wants to see me? Ferris wanted to thank Fixer but he stopped himself. So instead he politely nodded and left the room.

Checking his phone, he noticed that it was exactly 6 in the morning.

There was plenty of time to find those working showers, and plenty more to eat.

Finding the shower was an easy one, because this place was a waterpark after all. Better yet, there was a surplus of "abandoned clothes and towels" that were available for everyone.

I should thank Miss Elizabeth for this, she probably did all the managing work just for me to leech from it... Ferris smiled, shaking his head as he decided that the designer clothes were his for the taking.

Given the desperate situation they were in, they might be given leniency regarding the taking of abandoned property around the city, and so, his knight's creed remained unbroken.

After tying his new pair of "abandoned" shoes and taking the price tag off it, Ferris set off to the tents around Fixer's house, in hopes of finding himself a meal.

But there was a major issue.

The line is...

Very long!

Ferris reluctantly fell in line with the other civilians and heroes.

While waiting, he went into deep thought. Even if registered heroes are being taken here, Miss Elizabeth is still in control...

But that doesn't really surprise me—

"Ferris."

A voice interrupted his thoughts, it was Lionheart and on his hips was...

A sword?

. . .

A drop of sweat formed on his cheek. Were my words that strong?

I'm a little flattered.

"Why are you falling in line? We can provide you a meal inside Miss Elizabeth's tent."

Ferris calmly nodded and followed Lionheart, however there was something different going on inside his head.

This must be what they call a VIP treatment.

His excitement of a meal clouded his sense of time and before he knew it he was already inside Miss Elizabeth's tent.

As expected, there weren't any other people aside from Elizabeth who was sitting in a chair and...

Asmadeas.

She was in another set of gothic clothes but that didn't deter Ferris in any way.

More importantly, he couldn't tell what was going on inside her mind because of her strange expression.

"Why did you want to meet me?" Ferris opened up.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and remained silent for a terrifying length of 10 seconds.

But Ferris was a patient knight so he wasn't disturbed unlike Lionheart. Asmadeas seemed fine too.

Eventually she said something. "With the help of the civilians who used to live here, we made you a map that leads to the museum."

She handed Ferris a scrolled map.

That's it? Ferris doubted, and his doubts were proven right when Elizabeth continued speaking.

"Be careful this time, we can't contact each other anymore."

"Why not?" Ferris asked, it was clearly about the translucent quill and paper.

"...I was the first to arrive here to save you, but that meant abandoning my group. The girl that had the quill and paper blessing died from an ambush," Elizabeth informed.

Without the blessing user, their blessings will naturally die with them as well.

Ferris remained composed, but he was unsure of Elizabeth's condition.

Her voice was shaking a little. He thought, worried that this could effect her performance.

"That'll be all, and also," Elizabeth said, then signaled Asmadeas.

The gothic lady smiled and grabbed a small steel container nearby, before walking toward Ferris and handing it over.

A pack of food? Ferris smelled the scent of culinary.

Grabbing the container, Asmadeas suddenly grabbed Ferris's wrist and pulled him close to her.

"It's fine if Judas stays here, don't worry," she whispered.