SSS-Knight in a Hero World

Tailor patted Zaku's shoulder and looked at the white platinum haired woman who was one of his client.

"It's been a while Miss Queen, I'm sure you've met my little brother before."

Elizabeth nodded and quickly greeted the two before observing the person of interest.

At first glance, Zaku didn't look strong, nor did his presence trigger her instincts.

She then had a quick glance towards Asmadeas, who was doing the same but with a scrutinizing eye.

My sister wouldn't even gaze at a stranger. This means there's something about Zaku.

Elizabeth turned her gaze to Lionheart, he had some doubt in his eyes in front of the young man, but soon questioned it once Tailor made a quick reference to Ferris.

"He asked me to recommend my brother for training, I thought it was weird at first but I felt that I owed that person a favor" Tailor nudged Zaku to step forward and introduce himself, but Zaku wasn't so keen.

In fact, Zaku only agreed, on the pretext that training might give him a better chance at protecting his siblings.

Lionheart overlooked his doubts and said, "We'll just have a spar, I'll need to test him first if he wants to train under me."

Opening the door and entering the small training room with a soft mat in the middle, Lionheart began explaining the rules.

"First thing, no holding back.

Second, attacks to the head or crotch are banned.

Third, you may win by subduing the opponent, or getting them to surrender. Understood?" Lionheart walked to the other side of the mat but when he turned around, he saw Zaku's empty face. "Did you hear what I just said?"

"Ah, yeah, yeah I did," the young man replied, "Are we doing this unarmed?"

Lionheart nodded.

"Yes, if you're truly Tailor's brother, then I expect great technique, after all.

I've fought Mister Tailor long before, a shame you weren't there when he was a registered hero."

Tailor rubbed his cheeks in embarrassment, "oh please, I'm a bit out of touch now anyways." He laughed.

Lionheart took his stance and announced the start of the match.

However he remained defensive and waited for Zaku's move.

A line of thoughts went through his mind, if this young man was recommended by Ferris, then surely Zaku must be strong despite their appearance.

But, that idea seemed to fade away as he continued to watch Zaku.

The young man's stance wasn't good at all, maybe even worse than an amateur's.

His foot placement was so terrible, that a small gust would blow him over, there was a complete lack of balance.

Not to mention, he looked rather unsure of himself like it was his first time in a street fight.

Despite the evidence, Lionheart clung on to Ferris' part in this spar, and assumed that the young man was simply playing mind games with him.

. . .

Only then, did his palm squishing Zaku's face with a death grip, was enough to convince him that Zaku was totally weak.

"Mpf! I give up." Zaku patted Lionheart's massive hand.

Lionheart imagined the scene of him beating up an innocent child in front of Elizabeth, which prompted him to retreat immediately.

He then looked at Elizabeth, and shook his head before looking at Tailor, "I'm sorry, I don't think he's cut out for this kind of job, but if you insist, I suggest that you hire him a personal fitness trainer since...

That's what he's lacking."

For a moment, Tailor sighed in relief, he was happy that Ferris might've been too optimistic with his suggestion.

Before Tailor could say a word, Zaku cut his line off.

"Wait." Zaku stood back up. "Let's do it with weapons, I'm better at weapons."

Before Lionheart would outright refuse such a request, Asmadeas suddenly encouraged the idea.

"I agree, it's only fair." She smiled at Lionheart.

Lionheart almost sighed, "alright then, let's use these training swords."

He pointed at a rack of training swords, Lionheart had only ordered them around a week ago, but they were already worn out thanks to him forcing all of his subordinates to train with swords.

Lionheart selected a new one for himself.

As for Zaku, he deliberately chose the most worn out piece of sword and held onto it by the blade.

This time, as the two walked to the ends of the mat, Lionheart wanted to go easy on the young man so that the spar wouldn't be so one sided.

But the moment Lionheart announced the start, his iris was already face to face with the tip of the worn out wooden sword.

Wooosh!

A gust of wind knocked and fluttered Lionheart's silver hair followed by an overwhelming pressure of murder.

If he hadn't instinctively activated his paralyzing blessing, then perhaps Lionheart would've considered becoming a pirate.

Originally, Lionheart wanted to address Zaku's emotion as the sin of lust but he found that statement unfit for the guests watching.

Instead he opted for a more obvious statement, "did you seriously just try to kill me?" He laughed for a bit.

Zaku pursed his lips. "Um, I think I'm stuck or something." He shivered slightly, trying to keep his frozen position in place.

In that moment, Lionheart's eyes widened, he hasn't deactivated his blessing, and yet, the young man in front of him could still speak normally.

Upon deactivation, Zaku fell face first with a thud and released his grip on the sword.

The murderous pressure disappeared near instantly soon after.

Lionheart sighed before looking at the two sisters for approval which he received with both of their nods and affirmation.

It was clear that Zaku had a rather powerful and strange blessing at his disposal.

Even Tailor was a bit horrified by the sudden burst of power his younger brother displayed.

But, Lionheart was quick to acknowledge that Zaku was being hard carried by this powerful and strange blessing. He was suddenly reminded of a few words said by a particular fellow.

People who rely too much on their blessing's strongest aspect were boring to fight.

After finalizing some details and plans, Tailor reluctantly allowed his brother to train under the banner of the Elizabeth Foundation.

The two brothers left soon after the deal was made, leaving the two sisters and one bodyguard all alone in the training room.

Asmadeas walked over towards the sword Zaku held, and inspected the shattered handle. "So it turns out that the small fish I saw back then was actually a deadly shark."

At this time, Lionheart suddenly bowed a bit in shame. "Even though I saw him back during the examination incident, he caught me off guard. I'm sorry, I'll correct my shortcomings." he apologized to the two people he's supposed to be protecting.

Elizabeth wasn't bothered by this and added, "speaking of the examination incident, my father just sent me a gift." She looked at her phone and read a message that came from her father.

"A gift?!" Asmadeas exclaimed, "I don't think I received one..." She vented her jealousy. "There's always a favorite child, it seems... I was born to suffer as your whipping gal..."

"I'll share it, don't worry." Elizabeth relieved her sister's emotions.

The three returned to the upper floors of the building and entered the floor belonging to Elizabeth's daily life, it was practically an entire floor dedicated to her living space.

By then, they saw a silver food trolley that had a cloche at the top, it was in the middle of her living room that looked over the cityscape.

As a professional guard, Lionheart approached the food trolley and lifted the cloche to inspect the contents.

Raising his eyebrow towards a strawberry-like drink, he looked at Elizabeth with a confused expression.

Asmadeas covered her mouth, "I thought it was strawberry at first, but the more I look at it, the more it looks like intestines. Bleh!" She looked over the drink, noticing that it had bubbles sizzling towards the surface like a soda.

Elizabeth walked over and had a similar thought, "That makes sense, it came from the egg the foundation procured in the middle of City 23."

"Isn't that the place where we all got stuck, it feels like a distant memory now." Asmadeas said, "and what do you mean by egg?"

Elizabeth opened her phone and read the message sent by her father, it contained some findings and pictures.

One of the pictures depicted a massive egg with a soft yet rocky texture, it was in the middle of a massive crater that used to house a grand museum.

There was a gaping hole in the middle of the shell, and there were a mix of strange liquids flowing out of it.

"Apparently, this was the power source of City 23's barrier, it's unknown how it got destroyed." Elizabeth relayed the message to her sister in a concise manner.

Asmadeas nudged close to her sister and saw the pictures, "it's a big egg, but to think it can power a barrier that can cover the main city of City 23,

even high ranking heroes can't break through."

Elizabeth swiped to another photo, it depicted the "city" from a high vantage point, from that view it looked like an ordinary abandoned city. "It's not that they couldn't break through, it looks like the barrier had an illusion effect that hid its purpose for years."

"There's also evidence of multiple barrier structures like these, scattered around the villain controlled cities,

It's like their safe area for recruiting new members, or their own population centers."

"I find it hard to believe that the one they used to disrupt the hero examination was one of the smaller ones." Elizabeth eventually closed her phone in order to gather her thoughts on the matter.

"That still doesn't answer whatever that is," Asmadeas pointed at the mysterious drink. "So what, is it the yolk of that big egg?"

Elizabeth shook her head, "No, it's the concentrated essence extract of a dragon in its fetus stage.

Apparently, drinking it improves your essence—

"Fetus?!" Asmadeas exclaimed in horror, Lionheart had a similar response but he couldn't put it into words.