Amelia the Level Zero Hero

Edlyn woke up as she heard a loud banging coming from outside her room. She raised her head with a groan, covering her ears. A throbbing headache assailed her, only to be exacerbated by the hammering coming from the common room of the restaurant. Her eyes slammed shut as she tried to drown out the noise.

But it was all to no avail. She lay there, her head buried underneath her pillow as she waited for the banging to die down. What felt like an hour passed, and the banging continued, so she rose to her feet.

“What happened?” Edlyn asked as she rubbed her temples. She tried to recall the events of everything that happened before she passed out. Because she knew that she must have passed out.

If she had been taking a nap, she certainly wouldn’t have felt nearly this terrible. And considering that she was around Amelia, it was very likely that something ridiculous had happened, causing the [Royal Chef] to fall unconscious.

“Not that it’d be the first time…” Edlyn muttered to herself.

She closed her eyes. Even as the banging continued in the background. Edlyn focused on her thoughts. The last thing she remembered was being frightened to near-death by the outpouring of baby bastion bees, but that shouldn’t have been enough to shock her to unconsciousness.

While she hated to admit it, she was starting to acclimate to Amelia’s insane antics. The idea of such a thing happening never crossed Edlyn’s mind when she first arrived in Wolfwater. To even suggest she might not be going insane from her time working for Amelia would have been asinine back then.

But that was no longer true now. The [Royal Chef] had grown numb to the insanities— the ridiculous feats were no longer as ridiculous after seeing them a few dozen times. And while she found herself being surprised whenever she encountered a famous or high-leveled individual hanging around the restaurant, it was no longer as big of a deal anymore.

Knowing this, Edlyn understood something else must have happened. She rubbed her temples as she tried to recall what it was.

“The bastion bees had left… and I resumed my cooking…” Her mind raced, showing brief flashes of thoughts and memories to her. “And then there was a loud sound, before I looked outside—”

She scrunched her brows, and deep lines of wrinkles formed on her forehead. The muffled sounds of hammering continued as she sat there in thought. And then her eyes snapped wide open.

“And there was a dragon…?”

Edlyn couldn’t even believe the words that were leaving her mouth. She almost thought that her memories were lying to her— like she had been dreaming, and was conflating reality with what she saw in her sleep. But that wasn’t the case.

It was real. She had truly seen a dragon right outside of the restaurant. Her fingers trembled, remembering the image she had seen before she passed out.

“I’m not still dreaming, am I?” she asked as she pinched her cheeks.

And as she was trying to wake herself up, the door to her room swung open. Edlyn blinked and saw Harlan standing there with a tray in his hands. The two of them stared at each other. The former was in the middle of pinching her cheeks, while the latter almost spilled the contents of the tray.

“Am I interrupting something?” Harlan asked as he steadied himself. “Sorry if I am.”

Edlyn quickly rose to her feet and raised her hands. “Oh, no! Not at all! I was just… uh—”

She was interrupted by another loud bang, which made her flinch. Even Harlan glanced over his shoulder too at that.

“...I was just getting frustrated with the loud noise,” Edlyn finally said.

And Harlan set the tray down as he shook his head apologetically. “That’s Amelia’s doing. I told her to keep it down, but it’s hard for her to be quiet with how fast she’s getting things done.”

“Getting what done?” The [Royal Chef] raised a brow, before looking up at her co-worker. “And why are you so… calm? What happened to that dragon? Or did I dream that all up?”

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She asked the last question with a hint of hope in her voice. Truth be told, she didn’t quite understand why she was so shaken by the appearance of a dragon. But it felt like it was almost too ridiculous to be true. After all, there wasn’t supposed to be any dragons around anymore, as far as she knew.

And the fact that one suddenly spontaneously appeared out of nowhere— it was like her entire world was being flipped upside down even more than it was before. At this rate, she was going to be told that the World System was actually evil, or something as ridiculous as that.

Harlan scratched his cheeks, hearing her question. “Well, unfortunately, that wasn’t a dream of yours. Unless I happen to be in one of your dreams. In which case, can you dream me up a few thousand gold coins?”

He grinned at her, and she gave him a blank stare. Harlan quickly cleared his throat.

“Bad joke, right. Well, sorry to say, but that entire ordeal with the dragon did happen.”

“You can’t be serious, right?” Edlyn’s shoulders sagged. She felt her headache begin to return as the banging continued.

However, Harlan wasn’t done. “However, thanks to the dragon… there have been a few changes to our restaurant that’s going to make us a lot more busy now.”

“A few changes?” She narrowed her eyes, and he ushered her to follow him.

He exited her room and led her towards the common room of the restaurant. Frowning, she followed after him as the hammering grew louder. They made their way through the kitchen until they reached the doorway leading out to the bar.

“Don’t faint, please,” he said, glancing back at her pleadingly.

Edlyn pursed her lips, certain that wasn’t a good sign. But she braced herself for what it could be. “I’ll try.”

She gave him an unconfident response. Harlan scratched the back of his head as he stepped out into the common room.

“Well, I’ll catch you if you do,” he attempted another joke.

This time, Edlyn gave him a small chuckle. Mostly because she was certain that she was going to pass out again by whatever it was out there, and she really needed him to catch her.

“Behold,” he said as she stepped forward. The banging grew louder, no longer muffled by the walls of the building. “Our newly-expanded common room, thanks to the dragon.”

Edlyn’s eyes grew wide at what she saw as she exited the kitchen.

A hundred tables. Hundreds more chairs. A ceiling that rose up a hundred feet. Edlyn’s head felt like spinning as she swept her gaze over the length of the room. It looked nothing like what she had last seen. It was massive. It was like the size of a small stadium. And it was clearly the result of magic.

And while she was left in complete shock by the sudden change to the restaurant, for the first time since she arrived in Wolfwater, she was also amazed. So she couldn’t even suppress the gasp that left her mouth.

“Woah…”

—--

Redecorating took more time than I thought it would take. But after a few hours, I was finished. The common room of Bucky’s Out of this World Restaurant was fully refurbished. I had added a lot of new tables and chairs— although, the cost was rather evident for anyone who was looking for the nearby trees.

Fortunately, I had already gotten permission from the town watch of Wolfwater to cut down all those trees, so if anyone was going to be missing them, they were going to have to lodge a complaint to Lucas, not me.

While I was a little bit annoyed by that entire argument I had with Grat-ra’zun, I was glad it happened, because I wouldn’t have been able to upgrade my restaurant without his help. Now, I was able to host more customers.

I sighed as I placed my hands on my hips, pleased with the expanded common room. But as I stared at this scene, I couldn’t help but worry a little bit. I couldn’t help but hear the Elder Dragon’s words echoing in my mind.

Was it fear of what Kallistus Kal would do? No— I didn’t think he would ever pose a threat to me or anyone I cared about. I also doubted that he was after my life, considering he had never once acted against me before. I was pretty sure both Grat-ra’zun and Evan were misinformed in some way.

Rather, I was afraid of something else. Something more personal to me.

And it was the fact that the Elder Dragon said it was my destiny— my fate— to be a hero. Even if I didn’t want to be a hero, even if I strove to be something else, I was still going to have to save the world.

Just that thought alone sent a shudder down my spine. After all, it went against my very goal. The reason why I had decided to settle down in Vacuos was not to save it again, but to live a peaceful life. And while I had succeeded so far, just thinking that I was going to have to be a hero again… it frustrated me.

Because I was going to have to become a hero again. And again. And again. And again.

I was going to have to save the world an infinite number of times, for as long as I lived. And that was a condemnation, to me, as terrible as being thrust back into the Fractured Realm without my strength.

It would mean that everything I did right now was meaningless.

I gritted my teeth at the thought, before shaking my head. Whether or not what Grat-ra’zun told me was ture… I didn’t know. But for now, I could still focus on building my restaurant. And that was what I was going to do.

To live a peaceful life for myself, and no one else.

…or so I hoped.

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