Amelia the Level Zero Hero

Chapter 176

In Wolfwater, Noele the Noble Spellsword defeated Nicholas the Noble Knight in a hard-fought battle. She nearly died, but she emerged triumphant in the end. And as she wondered about the mystery as to why these Void-empowered individuals were coming after her…

Amelia was cooking.

—--

It was expected, really. I knew that the offer I had been given was too good to be true. But I took it, because I thought I could maybe bring back some help for Arthur and Harlan while expanding my business.

However, I didn’t expect that I would be dragged all the way to the Capital of the Astrad Kingdom to be brought into the war. I refused to partake in this mess. Sure, I was strong enough to put a halt to it— Noele had criticized me for my inaction before.

Perhaps she was right. The Kingdom of Kal was probably the one in the wrong for invading the Astrad Kingdom. But war was no simple matter. And if I was going to go out of my way to deal with this, then I had no excuse for neglecting… everything else.

After all, why only intervene in this war, and not the other wars that were happening all across Vacuos? And why stop only at intervening in wars between nations? Why didn’t I stop [Bandits] from terrorizing cities? Why didn’t I stop criminals and thieves from robbing houses?

It was a slippery slope that could only be stopped by me. I was the only one who could set my boundaries. But I didn’t want to act hypocritically, nor did I want to do things based on how I felt that day. So I had decided that I was only going to intervene with what I could see.

And that was why I was ignoring King Jalen as he pleaded with me to help out.

“Please,” he begged as he banged on the doorway. But I could barely even hear his muffled voice. “If you have any heart, you would—”

“Sorry, can’t hear you over the fire!” I called back to him.

I swept my gaze over the empty kitchen. I had kicked everyone else out. They tried to stop me. A few [Knights of the Astral Order] had tried to apprehend me. But I kicked them out with everyone else. Now, I was alone. And I continued to turn the wok over the stove as I made fried rice. I came here to Astral to cook.

So that was what I was going to do.

—--

Edlyn could barely process what just happened. She hadn’t been working at the Astra Palace for long— she had only just become a [Royal Chef] a year and a half ago. But she had never seen anything like this before.

…and she doubted anyone had ever seen anything like this before either.

Firstly, she watched a random brown-haired girl storm into the kitchen. That was not unusual in itself. Random nobles would often get mad about their dinners, and they would come into the kitchen screaming and demanding to reprimand the [Chef] who cooked for them.

No— what was unusual was what came next. King Jalen and the [Knights of the Astral Order] came rushing down the hallway, giving chase to the brown-haired girl. They pleaded with her. They begged for her to listen to them. They called out her name. But she ignored them.

At first, Edlyn was impressed by the brown-haired girl. Even though the King of the Astrad Kingdom was shouting, “Ms Amelia, please wait!”... Amelia didn’t care.

The [Royal Chef] admired the sheer audacity for doing such a thing. After all, that was King Jalen— no one disobeyed him!

But what Edlyn witnessed next immediately changed her opinions. Captain Jordan Cel of the [Knights of the Astral Order] moved to apprehend the brown-haired girl. He was infamous for his immense brute strength, despite lacking the elegance his colleagues often had. He should have been able to grab Amelia with one finger and drag her out of the kitchen.

And yet, she literally waved a hand dismissively in his direction, and a gust of wind sent him flying out!

Edlyn couldn’t believe her eyes. She barely even processed what happened. It was like her mind refused to accept that was reality. But she was forced to believe it when a group of other [Knights] shouted in outrage and tried to seize her. They were dismissed just as easily as their Captain.

After that, Amelia locked herself in the kitchen, leaving King Jalen, the [Knights of the Astral Order], and Edlyn utterly flabbergasted. The only ones who didn’t seem taken aback by what just happened were Sir Rowland Donovan and Sir Wyn Stefard. They both just sighed and shook their heads, muttering under their breaths.

Now, Edlyn was no longer amazed by the audacity of Amelia. In fact, she was more amazed by King Jalen’s audacity for even still trying to get the brown-haired girl out of the kitchen after what just happened. But more than anything, the [Royal Chef] was terrified of what she witnessed.

“Just… what was that power?” Edlyn asked as she trembled where she stood.

She wanted to get out of there— she wanted to run down the hallway and leave the Astra Palace for good. Unfortunately, she stood there indecisively debating whether it was worth running away before King Jalen turned to her.

“Edlyn!” he exclaimed, and she flinched.

“Y-yes?” the [Royal Chef] squeaked as she straightened, forgetting to address him by his Title.

Not that it mattered, since no one seemed to notice it. They were all preoccupied with trying to find a way to break Amelia out of the kitchen.

Jalen shook his head as he gestured at the lock door. “Do you know if there are any side entrances into the kitchen? Any secret passages, perhaps?”

“Secret passages?” Edlyn blinked. She wanted to question why that would even be necessary. It was so ridiculous. But she stopped herself from quipping back at him because he was quite literally the King of the Astrad Kingdom. “I… I don’t believe so, your majesty.”

He clicked his tongue in response. Spinning around, he turned to Sir Rowland Donovan who was standing off to the side.

“Sir Rowland, do you believe you’d be able to break through this doorway?” Jalen gestured at the entrance to the kitchen.

It was a set of ornate stone doors. They were quite heavy to even close, so they were usually kept open. The [Knight]-Captain studied it before shaking his head.

“They are enchanted with quite a powerful protection spell. Perhaps I could break my way through… but are you sure you want us to do that?” Rowland raised a brow.

King Jalen blinked. And it was Wyn who began to explain.

“We brought Amelia here to the Astra Palace because we believe she could be an asset to us in the war,” the [Knight]-lieutenant said, clearing his throat. He eyed Jordan Cel with a sidelong glance. “I think it would be in our best interest to not act in a manner that could aggravate her any further.”

“That is… true.” Jalen pursed his lips.

And Wyn continued, “Especially if we want to recruit her to our cause— we should do our best to placate her. Appease her. And maybe she would listen to our request.”

Jordan Cel rose to his feet, rubbing the side of his head. He scowled as he heard the [Knight]-lieutenant’s request. It looked like he was about to protest, but Rowland Donovan spoke first.

“I agree with your assessment, Sir Wyn,” the older [Knight]-Captain said, crossing his arms. “Perhaps it may be quite hypocritical for us to say this— considering that we deceived her into coming here— but I believe that there is a far more tactful and graceful way to approach this. After all, we do not want to upset what could be the only SSS-ranked individual in the world.”

SSS-ranked…? Edlyn’s eyes crossed when she heard that. There was no way that was true. It was said that even in the times of old, when dragons still ruled the world, there were only a handful of individuals who ever reached such levels of power.

And yet, somehow, this random brown-haired girl was allegedly at that level? It was inconceivable. But that was the only explanation for her immense power. Edlyn didn’t want to believe it, however she could see it.

Unfortunately, Jordan Cel was still skeptical. “SSS-ranked? Ridiculous! You bring this random girl from some random village back to our palace, and now you’re telling us to placate her even though she has committed these heinous crimes against our King? Do you have no shame, Sir Rowland, Sir Wyn?”

“I do very much have the dignity to admit when I am wrong,” Wyn replied sharply. “I was dubious of Amelia’s strength at first too. But after witnessing what she has done, I can only say that she is at least as strong as an Elder Dragon. After all, she defeated Jax the Forsaken Archer with only a single blow.”

“What?” Jordan’s eyes went wide at that.

A few of the listening [Knights] and guardsmen gasped. Some sputtered in outrage, while others backed away in fear. Edlyn’s head just spun as she stood there. She didn’t even want to run away anymore. She just wanted to lie down and fall asleep— hope that this was all a strange dream.

“Are you absolutely certain of this, Sir Wyn, Sir Rowland?” King Jalen finally spoke up, meeting the gazes of both [Knights].

The two of them exchanged a glance, before nodding at the same time.

“Of course.”

“Yes, my liege.”

Jalen lowered his head and tapped a finger on his chin. “I see.”

For a moment, there was a long silence that hung over the room. Edlyn could only hear the muffled sound of cooking coming from the kitchen. Finally, the King of the Astrad Kingdom took a stepped back and nodded.

“Very well.”

“You can’t be serious, my liege!” Captain Jordan Cel protested, eyes growing wide.

But Jalen ignored him, instead turning to Wyn Stefard. “What do you propose we do then? How do you suggest we convince Amelia to aid us in this war?”

Wyn exchanged a glance with his Captain. They locked gazes, before nodding at each other. Edlyn watched as the [Knight]-lieutenant swept his gaze over the room and cleared his throat.

“There is only one thing we can do,” Wyn said in a low voice.

King Jalen leant forward, listening intently to every word. Even Edlyn was drawn forward by curiosity, wondering what could such a monster be placated by. And the [Knight]-lieutenant finished.

“We eat her food.”

That made everyone in the room pause. Jalen blinked, and Jordan tripped as he was getting back to his feet. Edlyn gaped in disbelief, barely even working her jaw.

“Uh, what?” she asked, utterly befuddled.

But before either Wyn Stefard or Rowland Donovan could explain themselves, the door to the kitchen flew open. A powerful aroma emerged from the double doorway, followed by a trail of gray smoke. All heads in the room turned to face the brown-haired girl as she stepped out.

She was wearing an apron, and she was actually wearing Edlyn’s spare [Royal Chef] hat that signified seniority amongst all the other [Chefs] in the kitchen. But Edlyn was not focused on that— instead, her gaze was fixed on the large bowl Amelia was carrying, steaming and wafting with a delicious scent.

“What is that?” the [Royal Chef] asked, round-eyed.

And Amelia just answered simply as she showed her cooking to the entire room. “Here you go— shrimp fried rice.”

King Jalen, Sir Wyn, Sir Rowland, Sir Jordan, and the rest of those gathered just stared at what she cooked for a long moment, taking it in. And slowly, Amelia drew back as she spoke flatly,

“And please don’t make any stupid jokes about how a shrimp managed to fry this rice. Now, let’s eat.”