SSS-Knight in a Hero World-Chapter 122: Unfamiliarity

Because of the amount of meals they ordered, they ate rather slowly to digest everything. For Ferris, this meant actually digesting the food physically, and for Magpie, this meant mentally digesting the strange flavors she tasted.

After almost an hour of eating and silence, the two sat before each other’s empty plates and yet, not one of them had the need to speak.

...Shit, I’m so damn full.

I feel like vomiting. Ferris held back the mental urge to regurgitate and at the same time, he observed Magpie’s expressionless face and her much cleaner set of plates.

He still couldn’t believe that she somehow stuffed that entire buffet without blinking. How terrifying.

I really don’t want to stand up yet... Ferris thought as he looked at Magpie with sorry eyes. "Can we keep sitting here for a few minutes?"

Magpie nodded and said with a distant voice, "Of course."

To distract himself from his surging stomach, he finally reached out to his phone to check his contacts.

But before he could even grab it, there was a wave of familiar essence that was followed right after by the chime of the restaurant’s front door.

With his increased connection to essence, Ferris began the habit of remembering the familiar essence of the people he met, especially the important ones.

It was akin to a dog’s remembrance of scents, as such, people have their own kind of essence they emit passively from their body.

Of course, since Ferris had just started this habit, the familiar essence he sensed still felt rather unfamiliar, but he was sure it was one of the many people that he placed in high regard.

His seat faced away from the entrance. Because of that, he wasn’t able to directly confirm anything.

Before he was about to look behind him, another scent emerged, this time he knew exactly who it was.

The old man? Ferris immediately held back the idea of turning around.

There’s another presence beside him that I know. Ferris wondered.

He said he’d take his daughter out for a meal together, this must be it then. But how am I familiar with the presence near him?

Ferris retreated his hand from his phone, and sat quietly.

There was no way he’d turn, unless he wanted to deal with the fact that he’d have to converse with that old man.

He could already imagine himself being the center of attention.

This is the kind young man who helped me yesterday!

This is my beautiful daughter, please treat each other nicely!

Ferris shook his head.

He was content with eavesdropping.

But Magpie seemed to be more curious as she noticed the shift in Ferris’ body language and the movement of his eyes.

With that knowledge, she started to tilt her body to look at what gained Ferris’ sudden anxiety.

"Miss Magpie," Ferris said to catch her attention. "Look at me instead."

Magpie strangely twitched her face but it seemed as if her logic to flex the correct facial muscle broke down as she eventually reset her face to its expressionless state.

Ferris sighed inwardly. The way you walk perfectly is like an elf, it really catches everyone’s gaze, not to mention your looks!

It’s risky enough for me to continue sitting here, but between that and my stomach...

Ferris sighed again and prepared to listen closely.

Mediman settled himself down carefully, allowing his daughter to watch over him.

"Oh dear... I sometimes regret marrying so late."

"Now then, what should we order?" he asked.

"I’m not sure."

! That voice is? Ferris almost turned around in instinct.

It’s Fixer, isn’t it? Ferris remembered and became even more curious and shocked.

He continued listening to the two. Meanwhile, Magpie was finishing paying the meal with one of the workers, using her Dame’s personal bank card.

The old man shook his head and chuckled. "If you can’t choose, then I’ll pick the most expensive one."

Immediately, Fixer raised her eyebrows. "Wait, on second thought I’ll pick this one!—

"There’s no need, a young man gave me some much needed cash for this occasion."

Ferris moved slightly.

The old man continued, "So let’s not hold back."

His daughter suddenly had a scared expression. "Don’t tell me, after you retired, you started begging?"

"Absolutely not!" the man refuted.

Ferris wasn’t sure how he would react to that.

He continued on listening as his stomach gradually digested the food enough that he no longer had the urge to regurgitate.

The two went on and on, even during their meal.

After almost a dozen minutes of doing nothing, there was one important piece of knowledge he received from his eavesdropping.

Fixer managed to land a job at the Elizabeth Foundation? Ferris wasn’t surprised.

Her blessing was rather unique in its own way, and she was bound to be busy with all the people escaping to Elizabeth’s group for protection.

With that importance placed on her, there was a likely chance that Fixer met Elizabeth in person, and somehow managed to catch her attention.

How lucky for her! Ferris wondered how much she would be paid and wondered how important the hundred dollars he gave away was now at.

. . .

"Let’s go." Ferris discreetly stood up and left the area with Magpie.

They caught a morning cab to the metro station, paying with Prin’s bank card.

After that, Magpie bought two first class tickets for the high-speed rail line, paying with Prin’s bank card.

While waiting, Ferris grabbed himself a refreshment for the ride... paying with Prin’s bank card.

Since Henosis was a supercontinent, the need for reliable transport between the vast distances of the cities was rather high.

And so, that need gave birth to a perfect, supercontinent spanning web of a rail network that moved billions around Henosis every day.

This is my first time riding first class... Connections are the key to living, unlike Fixer, I’m connected with an S-class hero! Ferris smiled, looking at the window outside that started to move.

He then looked around the car.

Looks like there’s no one here in this first-class car other than the two of us, how convenient.

With the peace and quiet he now had, he opened his phone and went straight to the Hero Association’s website.

There, he saw a red dot near his mail, it meant that the commissioner responded already.

Ferris tapped it and saw the notification.

[Accepted]

There was also a new contact, Marie Trenst.

Ferris breathed a sigh of relief and carefully read the message sent by her.

[Thank you for accepting this commission!]

[Here’s a document for your information]

Ferris downloaded the attached file but continued on reading.

[Also, another person has accepted the commission, it’ll only be the three of us for this trip]

[Unless there’s any delays, I would like us to begin early tomorrow morning.]

Only three of us?

Well, at least I don’t have to deal with a large group of people.

It was better to have a small coordinated group than an uncoordinated army.

And even if there were supposed to be more, he doubted that Marie had the funds for it, especially when he got accepted so easily.

Even still, Ferris found it worrying for only two people to come but after a brief train of thought.

Hmm... no, it’s not like we’re diving into the depths of the world to discover that serpent, the only issue we would encounter are dangerous wildlife.

Worst case scenario, an aberrant appears out of nowhere. Ferris eased the tension in his thoughts.

He could only wonder who that other person is.

"Hmph." Ferris suddenly scoffed and smiled. I’ll be damned if I meet another person I know.

After that, he opened the attachment and read the file. He skimmed the document about three times then scanned it one last time.

It was composed of a detailed rundown of the entire trip and location and the purpose of the trip.

Marie’s a 4th-year university student that’s currently working on her thesis to enter her master’s in essence study.

And she intends to "discover" new knowledge by entering inside an abandoned research facility.

Isn’t this plagiarizing? Theft even? Ferris chuckled, then thought. I didn’t go to university... most of the topics here are way out of my league.

Ferris read the title of her research over and over again.

[The conceptual effects of essence in the surrounding environment.]

I’m not sure if I’m right, but this is pretty experimental.

Ferris turned to Magpie who was sitting silently beside him. "What do you think about this?"

He handed her his phone and followed up.

"Her research, I mean."

It took her exactly one scroll and five seconds to come up with a reply. "The validity of this research is solely dependent on the results of the trip."

Magpie turned to Ferris and said with a cold tone, "And there is no evidence of pure essence affecting the environment in any form of way without human intervention."

She paused suddenly, and continued delving into the topic inside her head before continuing.

"Marie does not have any existing research to support her idea, this is all experimental"

"I recommend switching topics, if Marie wants to have a chance at obtaining her master’s degree"

How harsh... "Thank you."

He took his phone back and stuffed it back inside his pocket.

Frankly, even I don’t know how pure essence affects the environment, to me, it’s always ’just there existing and waiting to be used’

And I’ve been a Layer 1 knight!

Ferris thought about some examples he now knew.

If I’m not mistaken, the people or the general public don’t know how aberrants come to be.

The dreamer told me aberrants come from negative human emotion.

That information alone was quite a shocker to anyone, but the important thing about it was that humans were the ones that caused the birth of aberrants.

Would pure essence by itself suddenly manifest an aberrant from thin air?

For the first time in a long time, Ferris found himself lacking in his essence knowledge.

It makes me feel like I reached the 1st layer by cheating my way through... Ferris made a self-deprecating thought.

This world may have essence, but is it still the same essence I’m familiar with?

It might be more different than I imagined it to be.

Ferris spent the majority of his time thinking about that idea instead of meditating in the quiet bullet train.