Amelia the Level Zero Hero

Edlyn knew it was a bad idea. She told herself it was a horrible idea, right before she agreed to it. But she couldn’t help herself. She had to accept Amelia’s offer. And for the first time ever, her actions weren’t driven out of fear.

It simply had been so long since she had last seen her family. And the idea of seeing them again was what drove her to accept Amelia’s offer.

So Edlyn gave Amelia the rough directions back to her hometown. It wasn’t really a small village— in fact, it was bigger than the current size of Wolfwater, although that might change soon. The [Royal Chef] came from humble beginnings: a town called Eastshade.

As its name suggested, it was located to the east of the Astrad Kingdom. Which, fortunately, meant that it had mostly escaped unscathed from the war thus far. However, it wasn’t located at the far east, so it could be roped into the conflict at any moment. After all, that was exactly what happened to Windrip, even though it was supposed to be far from the border with the Kingdom of Kal.

Regardless, Edlyn knew that her hometown was far from Wolfwater. So ordinarily, it would take half a month’s trip at the very least to visit her family. Even from the Capital City of Astral, it would take a week to get there. So she never had much of an opportunity to see her parents again. Because she would need to take a whole month off just to visit them.

And taking time off would have hampered her chances of becoming the head [Royal Chef] when she first started working at the Astra Palace. Originally, she had thought that she’d be able to see her family again once she achieved her dream position, sending her coins back to her hometown every month. However, she soon learned that once she became the head [Royal Chef], her workload only doubled.

It became even more difficult for Edlyn to ever have time off— to ever see her family. It had been years since she last saw anyone from her family. And that was because they had visited her, not because she had visited them.

Perhaps there was no reason for her to even see them again right now. But she truly cared about her family. She cared about her parents who had supported her, helping her get to where she was— so she could achieve her dreams. They were the reason why she had even accepted this position to work in Amelia’s restaurant.

If it were up to Edlyn, she would’ve remained working as the head [Royal Chef] for the Astra Palace for another year before quitting. But it wasn’t up to her.

King Jalen of the Astrad Kingdom himself had requested that Edlyn work for Amelia— for the sake of their nation as a whole, to covertly win Amelia’s trust and convince her to stop Kallistus Kal.

It was no secret that Edlyn was terrified of Amelia. The [Royal Chef] never tried to be discreet about it. So she especially wouldn’t have ever wanted to work at Amelia’s restaurant. And yet, she chose to suck up to this suffering because of what King Jalen told her.

That the Astrad Kingdom would be destroyed.

There were other things that Jalen had offered Edlyn— money, status, and power. But the most compelling reason for Edlyn to have taken up this job was to protect her family. Because if the Astrad Kingdom was destroyed, then her family would suffer.

Edlyn had essentially been sacrificing herself for the sake of her family by giving herself as an employee to Amelia. At the very least, if it wasn’t considered to be a sacrifice, it wasn’t a fun experience. There were many insane things that happened on a day-to-day basis that almost seemed to break the [Royal Chef]’s mind— like dragons falling from the sky, or monsters running wild.

With each and every insane event that happened, Edlyn grew more convinced that there was something wrong with Amelia. That was why Edlyn was terrified of her employer. But now, Amelia was trying to convince the [Royal Chef] that there was nothing to be afraid of.

That was why Amelia gave Edlyn this offer.

It seemed like a nice offer. A generous chance to regularly see Edlyn’s family again. And now, as Edlyn made her way back towards her hometown, flying through the sky, her opinion of Amelia—

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Remained exactly the same.

Edlyn screamed as they flew through the air. She was certain that Amelia only gave Edlyn this opportunity just to traumatize her once again.

“Stop screaming already,” Amelia said as they leapt over the clouds. “You’ve woken up, screamed, and passed out like three times in a row now.”

“How can I stop myself from screaming?” Edlyn shouted, before closing her eyes. “You said we’d go slow—”

“This is slow!”

“It isn’t… urk!”

“Don’t throw up on me!”

And the two women continued to make their way through the Astrad Kingdom, heading for Eastshade.

—--

Eventually, after Edlyn threw up three more times, and passed out once more, the two of them arrived at Eastshade.

The [Royal Chef] jolted awake as she saw the sun rising overhead. As Amelia said, she was traveling slowly, so it took many long hours for them to finally make it here. Even still, the trip had been far too nauseating for Edlyn.

But when she woke up and saw the illuminated outline of her hometown up ahead, she couldn’t help but forget any feeling of sickness she previously felt. Her breath was caught in her throat, and she just stared at the familiar houses— at the streets that were starting to fill with life.

“We’re here,” Amelia said as she glanced back at Edlyn. “At least, I think this is the place. I didn’t go in the wrong direction, right?”

Edlyn shook her head as they began to descend from above the clouds. “No. This is it.”

A small smile began to spread across the [Royal Chef]’s lips.

“This is my home.”

—--

I decided to land right outside of Easthaven so as to not draw any attention to either myself or Edlyn. From what I saw while I was still flying above the town, I knew that it was much bigger than Wolfwater— at least twice the size and population.

But Easthaven was not a city. While there were quite a few travelers and merchants making their way into the town this early in the morning, it wasn’t bustling with activity like Whiteridge of Windrip did as soon as the sun began to rise. But it was still quite crowded.

So I had to land at a secluded spot, and set Edlyn down. The [Royal Chef] took a few minutes before she could stand on steady feet. When she did, we made our way towards the nearest road, then started walking into town.

“We’re really here…” Edlyn whispered as we entered the town.

Strangely enough, unlike most cities I have been to, there wasn’t a retinue of guards surrounding the town. There weren’t even walls protecting the settlement. It was built like a village in that regard, except it was much larger.

I was assuming that the reason for the lack of security was due to the location. The surrounding landscape seemed mostly safe— no giant mountains or dense forests— and there were plenty of larger cities nearby.

So there was no entrance fee or anything necessary for us to enter the town. We simply strode through the streets as Edlyn ogled at everything significant we passed by.

“Is that Mr Smith’s Cafe? I remember working here part-time when I was twelve… and that’s Madam Wezley’s Restaurant!” Edlyn gasped as she saw a fancy-looking shop. “It’s changed so much since I was last here…”

I couldn’t blame her for wanting to revisit all her old childhood spots. But considering that I had no context for anything she was talking about, I found it all pretty boring. Still, I saw the way her eyes lit up and smiled at her.

“So what do you think?” I said as I crossed my arms.

Blinking, Edlyn turned to face me. “What do I think about what?”

“About my offer.” I waved a hand dismissively. “You’ll be able to come here whenever you want during the weekends.”

“That’s—” Edlyn pursed her lips.

She knew that there was no catch to my offer. I was giving it to her to be nice, and she was aware of that. But she shook her head as she placed a hand on her stomach.

“I’m not sure if I’d like to go through that trip every single week…”

I wanted to roll my eyes at that. But I stopped myself. Instead, I gestured at her to lead the way. “Well, let’s go see your family, then see how you feel.”

“Right.” Edlyn nodded.

And the two of us continued to slowly make our way through Easthaven. Until—

We arrived at a pile of rubble. Edlyn’s eyes widened as she stared at the remains of what had once been a house lying at the side of the road.

“What—” She dropped to her knees as I pursed my lips. “What happened to my home?”

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