[Amelia] The Level Zero Chapter 181 (Patreon)

I had only been gone for a day. I left Wolfwater for Astral literally yesterday morning. I didn’t expect much to happen while I was gone— in fact, my intention with this two-day break was to give my employees a brief reprieve.

Arthur, Harlan, and even Noele— not Jax— had done a lot to help me over the last few weeks. I was grateful to them for all they did for me. They had been working overtime to help Bucky’s Out of this World Restaurant succeed.

And Noele wasn’t even my employee. She was my apprentice.

But now, I swept my gaze over my restaurant with wide eyes. Bucky, Garron, and Noele were all injured to varying degrees. I didn’t know what could have happened while I was gone. My first thought was that Jax had gone rogue— that he had attacked them to provoke me for whatever reason.

However, Arthur immediately explained what happened to me. I blinked a few times as he recounted what happened shortly after I left. I took a seat as I rubbed my temples when he finished.

“Nicholas the Noble Knight, huh?” I muttered under my breath. “Way to embody the literal opposite of your Title. What an asshole.”

And that was an understatement. I shook my head as I looked Arthur up and down.

“So your powers returned,” I said simply.

The former Lich King hesitated. He glanced towards the kitchen— Harlan wasn’t here. So Arthur was free to talk as transparently as he wished.

“They… did.” He nodded slowly. He looked incredibly uncomfortable knowing that. Averting his gaze, he asked, “Should I—”

“You shouldn’t be worried,” I cut him off, knowing what he was going to ask. “The Voidgod isn’t going to possess you again. Not after I already kicked your ass.”

Arthur pursed his lips. “R-right.”

“And with your powers, you were able to defeat Nicholas and his goons?” I said with a raised brow.

But the former Lich King shook his head. And it was Garron who spoke up. The Steel Tank was badly injured, covered in bandages, however he still rose to his feet as he spoke.

“It wasn’t Arthur, nor was it me.”

“Was it Bucky?” I asked, looking towards the injured chicken.

She piped up at her name. But then she shook her head when she saw my expectant look.

“Who was it then?” I frowned.

Garron looked towards the back of the room. There, lay Noele.

“It was her,” he said softly.

And I blinked. I took a step forward as I saw the state she was in. Her eyes were closed, and she was slumped over a table. Her clothes were drenched in dried blood, but she didn’t move. There was a hole in her shirt— right where her heart was. I bit my lower lip as I inched closer towards her.

“Noele…?” I asked apprehensively. I glanced towards Garron and Arthur. “Is she—”

And the blonde girl jerked up, blinking a few times. “Wha— huh?”

I watched as she wiped the drool from her cheeks. She rubbed her eyes, staring at me with a squint.

“Amelia? You’re back?” she said drowsily.

“And you’re alive,” I observed, raising a brow.

“Oh, sorry.” Noele took herself in. “I was taking a nap.”

“I noticed,” I said flatly.

She scratched the back of her head as she rose to her feet. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re back. We’ve all been waiting for you. We were attacked—”

“I heard,” I interrupted her. “Three S-ranks attacked you. And they were all touched by the Void.”

Noele took in a deep breath for a moment, like she was recalling something. But then she shook her head. “Yeah. We were in trouble for a while. But we managed to pull through.”

I stared at her. I looked at the state she was in. Then I glanced towards Garron and Bucky. They all looked tired. Even Arthur, who wasn’t injured, looked very exhausted. I gritted my teeth seeing how hurt my friends were.

“I’m annoyed that I didn't sense them. I should have noticed them. But…” I raised my head, taking in a deep breath. “They must’ve been so weak, I couldn’t even sense them.”

Noele rolled her eyes. “Alright, don’t just insult all of us like that.”

“I’m being serious,” I scoffed.

“And my ego is hurt,” she replied, shaking her head.

I crossed my arms, but didn’t argue any further. I glanced back vaguely towards the exit of the restaurant. “Did Jax not help out?”

Noele shrugged. “He arrived too late. But apparently, he took out Sienna while he was on the way to help out.”

“Sienna’s the chick with the bow, right? That must’ve been something…” I couldn’t imagine how outclassed she had to have been going up against Jax. He might’ve been an annoying pest to me, but he was one of the strongest people in all of Vacuos.

Even if she had been Void-blessed, I highly doubted that she could have been able to defeat him.

“Well, I’m glad it was all resolved without anyone getting hurt—” I caught myself as I stared at all my injured friends. They stared back at me flatly. I corrected myself, “...without anyone dying.”

Noele sank back into her chair. “We’re all alive, somehow. But I think we need to be more vigilant. We were unprepared for this, so we nearly died. Next time around, we can’t let our guard down.”

“Who do you think is behind this attack anyways?” I asked as I pulled out a seat. “Why were they even targeting you?”

“I don’t know. But I have my guesses.” She drew her lips into a thin line as she lowered her gaze. “It was probably the Sect of the Abyssal Thorns.”

“Those assholes? Again? What makes you so sure?” I frowned.

“I already had a target painted on my back after killing Odell. That was why Zevya came after me, remember?” Noele sighed as she leant forward in her chair. “That’s the only explanation. Why else would three Void-touched individuals come after me if not for what I’ve done?”

“That’s true.” I placed a hand on my chin, before my eyes narrowed. “But that means even more of those assholes are going to keep coming after you now.”

The blonde girl nodded exasperatedly. “They will, and I’m not looking forward to that.”

I gritted my teeth. That was going to be a pain in the ass to deal with. I didn’t want any harm to befall Noele. She was my apprentice and my friend. I needed to find a way to ensure that something like this didn’t happen again while I was gone.

I could help Noele out with the Lich King because I was vaguely made aware of what was going on beforehand. Also— the Lich king was magnitudes stronger than those three S-ranks. But for circumstances like these where those going after my friends were too weak for me to notice but strong enough to be a danger to them, I needed some safety measures in place.

“Well, I’ll figure that out later…” I murmured as I shook my head. “For now, the Sect of the Abyssal Thorns won’t be a problem since I’m here.”

“That was how our day went,” Noele said with a shrug. She turned to me with a curious look. “I hope your trip to Astral went better.”

I nodded and took a step back. “Oh, yeah. It went great. I managed to hire a new [Chef] for the restaurant.”

“You did?” Arthur blinked.

“Bawk bawk?” Bucky immediately perked up at that— probably because of the allure of more people to serve her food.

I gestured towards the woman I had lain in a chair at the front of the restaurant. “That’s right— this is Edlyn, and she’s a Level 47 [Royal Chef].”

Noele stared as Garron pursed his lips. Everyone in the room exchanged a glance, before the blonde girl finally spoke up.

“Amelia… that lady is unconscious.”

“Oh, I know,” I replied simply. “And her name is Edlyn.”

In response, the blonde girl could only sigh.

Author's Notes:

Hey all! I'm very excited to announce that I'm finally going to be launching a paperback and hardcover version of Salvos, my other popular series! And I'm going to be launching it as a Kickstarter! Even if you're not interested in backing it, I'd really appreciate it if you checked out the pre-release and follow it as it will support me in the Kickstarter algorithm! Seriously, you don't even need to do anything. As long as you have a Kickstarter account and click follow, it'll help me a ton!

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