Chương 79: Chapter : 79

"But," Naomi continued, ignoring his joke completely. Her voice grew louder and more passionate.

"Princess Iris was right about you. You have the spirit of a true knight. You have a courageous heart that cannot be taught. You have the raw instinct to protect others, even at the cost of your own life." Ken's smile faltered just a tiny bit. He didn't like where this speech was going. The energy in the room was shifting in a very alarming, very exhausting direction.

"Uh, boss lady?" Ken asked nervously, holding his good hand up.

"What are you talking about?" Naomi stepped closer to the bed. She slammed her fist against her own chest, right over her heart, in a perfect, formal knight's salute.

"I refuse to let your courageous spirit go to waste!" Naomi announced proudly, her green eyes burning with an intense, terrifying fire.

"You saved my life today, Ken Eliot. And I am going to repay that debt. I am not going to let you walk onto another battlefield as a helpless target!"

"Wait, wait, wait," Ken stammered, his eyes going wide. His heart actually started to beat a little faster.

"I am perfectly fine being a helpless target! I enjoy hiding behind rocks! It is my passion!" Naomi ignored his protests completely. She was fully in her own world now. She was a knight who had just found a noble cause, and nothing was going to stop her.

"I am going to fix you," Naomi declared, pointing a highly motivated finger right at his nose.

"I am going to build your stamina. I am going to teach you footwork. I am going to show you how to throw a proper punch. Because starting tomorrow morning, I am personally taking charge of your combat training!" The words hit Ken like a massive, dropping boulder.

"Combat training?!" Ken yelped, his voice cracking loudly. He scrambled backward against his pillows.

"But I am injured! Look at these bandages! The doctor says I need at least six months of pure bed rest and a strict diet of potato chips to recover!"

"Sayma used her best healing magic on you," Naomi said with a fierce, excited grin.

"You will be completely healed by tomorrow. We will start bright and early. Five in the morning, out in the courtyard. Do not be late, farm boy. We have a lot of work to do." Naomi gave him one last, proud nod, completely energized by her new mission in life. She spun around on her heel and marched out of the bedroom, slamming the heavy wooden door shut behind her. The room fell completely silent again. Ken sat alone in his bed. He stared blankly at the closed wooden door. His mouth was hanging wide open.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Internally, the lazy, goofy smile he wore all day completely and totally shattered into a million pieces. He had just tried to use a classic, cheesy anime speech to make himself look like a harmless, lucky fool. He thought it would get him out of trouble. He thought it would buy him endless sympathy and lazy days.

Instead, his fake hero speech had just earned him hours and hours of exhausting, sweaty, high-intensity physical labor with the strictest, angriest, fastest girl in the entire 13th Unit. He was going to have to run laps. He was going to have to do push-ups. He was going to have to wake up at five in the morning on purpose. It was his absolute, undeniable, ultimate worst nightmare.

Ken let out a long, miserable wail and flopped backward, pulling his thin blanket all the way over his head to hide from the cruel, unfair universe.

"I hate being the hero," Ken muffled into his mattress, realizing that his peaceful, slacker life was officially over.

Ken Eliot sat at the long wooden table in the estate's kitchen, happily stuffing his face with a large bowl of sugary cereal. He had his left arm resting in a bright white sling. His shoulder was actually completely, one hundred percent healed, but Ken knew a golden opportunity when he saw one. By wearing the sling and occasionally letting out a fake, dramatic groan of pain, he had successfully dodged Naomi's threat of a five-in-the-morning workout. It was mid-morning now.

The day after the crazy fight at the Doom Tower felt totally different. The heavy, suffocating tension that used to hang over the 13th Unit was completely gone. Naomi walked into the kitchen carrying a stack of clean plates. Normally, if she saw Ken slouching in a chair with his shirt untucked, she would start yelling at him immediately. Instead, she just walked over, set the plates down, and tossed a clean napkin right at his face.

"Wipe your chin, Ken," Naomi said. Her voice was bossy, but there was no real anger in it. In fact, there was a tiny, almost invisible smile on her lips.

"You have milk dripping down your neck. You look like a messy toddler." Ken caught the napkin and wiped his face, giving her a bright, goofy grin.

"Thanks, boss lady! Hey, my injured shoulder is acting up again. It feels very weak. Do you think you could pour me another bowl of cereal? For medical reasons, of course." Naomi rolled her green eyes and let out a long sigh, but she actually reached over and grabbed the cereal box.

"You are pushing your luck, farm boy. I know Sayma healed you perfectly last night. But since you took a hit for me yesterday, I will give you exactly one free pass." She poured the cereal into his bowl.

"But tomorrow, the sling comes off, and you are running laps."

"You are so cruel to the injured," Ken complained, happily digging back into his food. Sayma walked into the kitchen a moment later, pushing her thick glasses up the bridge of her nose. She looked incredibly relaxed, wearing a comfortable sweater instead of her dark combat uniform. Behind her, Laxmi and Zinia were laughing about a joke Laxmi had just made. Ken watched them. It was a nice change of pace. They had survived their first deadly mission together, and the ice between them had finally melted.

They didn't look at him like he was a useless piece of garbage anymore. They looked at him like he was just the annoying, funny little brother of the group.

"Hey, Sayma," Ken called out, waving his spoon in the air.

"I have a serious question. Why is my bedroom the only one that feels like it hasn't been cleaned since the Stone Age? I am pretty sure a family of fuzzy spiders moved into my closet last night. Does everyone live in dusty rooms around here?" Sayma chuckled softly, shaking her head.

"No, Ken. The estate is old and crumbling, yes, but we clean our own quarters. If your room is dusty, it is because you haven't picked up a broom since you arrived."