It felt like rusty gears trying to spin. Ferris crookedly raised his head to see the victim of his behavior.
Her face twitched a little, but she tried to keep her composure in check.
"A... alright?" the young lady said before returning to her home.
The noise of the door shutting felt like a spear stabbing right through his chest.
. . .
Someone kill me!
That night, Ferris questioned his duties and honor as a knight.
Unable to forget the cringe, he decided to take a longer route back to his coffin-sized apartment.
All of the chivalry that was engrained into his soul—was it all for nothing?
Was he now a creep? Since it was a house in the upper streets, it definitely had security cameras.
Did she report me to the authorities? Ferris's eyes quaked in fear.
The Knight's Creed.
If a knight is punished, he or she must accept it.
"No, no, no," he muttered under his breath, she gave me a hundred... But that was before I damned kneeled!
Ferris started praying, "God, keep me safe for all of eternity in your warm embrace—
Siren.
A loud hum echoed throughout the city, causing his senses to go on alert.
Bzzt~ bzzt~
Beep~
He panicked for a second before realizing reality.
Ferris grabbed his phone from his pocket and felt the burst of vibrations.
This is called an alarm that also uses vibration.
But why do I get the feeling that I'm in danger? My senses aren't being triggered, so why?
Taking out the phone, he brought it to his face and found out that it was automatically opened.
It continued buzzing, but there was no notification bar in his lock screen.
But suddenly...
An alert message popped up.
[Villain: Clayman]
[Disaster level: Dragon]]
[Spotted approximately 26 minutes ago near your area. Please evacuate to the nearest city shelter and await further instructions.]
He tried swiping away the message, but it didn't disappear, nor could he close his phone.
His instincts kicked in and he began running. Is the cause of this fear from Ferris?
But he quickly countered the fear with some mental suppression from his training as a knight.
A knight must never know fear.
Regardless, his running was the right decision. He immediately booked it to the shelter. After all...
Villains are categorized into four groups called disaster levels.
Imp: threat to a large group of people.
Ogre: threat to a large population within a city.
Demon: threat to an entire city and its population.
Dragon: threat to multiple cities.
A dragon? Here all of a sudden? Has God labeled my soul as a creep? Ferris almost cried, but he kept on running, eventually calming himself down to the point where he could properly use his essence to boost his stamina and speed.
Despite his out-of-shape body, he was still 21 years old—still far from his prime.
I died at 31... In addition to this second life, would I be considered 51?
Ferris twitched.
No, I'm still 31... I'm not an old man like Yaromech.
As if to bury his insecurities, he picked up his speed to sprinting levels.
The shelter was a dozen city blocks away, so he had a good distance to cover on foot.
Now that he'd been running for so long, Ferris noticed that his body had quite the large pool of stamina and endurance. With that, he didn't need to pour as much essence as he originally thought.
After a while, Ferris noticed other people rushing to the shelter.
So many... Is that—?
Noticing an old man struggling to keep up with the rest of the crowd, Ferris switched his direction at a moment's notice.
Thud.
"!!!" Ferris furrowed his brows as a civilian bumped into the old man, causing the old man to fall down as the culprit kept on running. How insolent!
Ferris moved in to help.
"Stay still..." Ferris dotted his eyes around and saw a spacious flatbed trolley. "Wait here."
Ferris rushed to the trolley and helped the old man sit on the surface. After that, he began pushing at a steady pace toward the shelter.
The old man relaxed himself. "Whew, are you a hero, young man?"
. . .
Technically, my profession is a knight, but. Ferris steadied his breath while pushing "planning to."
The old man simply nodded and looked forward.
. . .
After a couple of seconds into the run, he spotted a pregnant lady in the distance. She boarded.
Then another old man and a woman boarded.
Then a civilian with crutches.
And a few more...
Nevermind, I might need to use more essence than I thought. Ferris worriedly chuckled.
After a few minutes of struggle, they made it safely inside the shelter.
Ferris quickly realized it wasn't an ordinary shelter. It was a massive open area below an equally massive dome.
The people he helped said their thanks and disembarked to other places—except the old man.
After noticing a small hospital tent set up nearby, he pushed the old man there. "This senior fell down," he notified.
The old man said his thanks and was promptly taken away by a team.
Ferris sighed and looked around. It was indeed a very large area with no seating arrangements or other furniture other than tents set up around the area. It was a completely flat space made up of large white tiles.
To not block the medical team with their work, he went to another space near the entrance and sat on the floor.
From the start of the alarms and sirens till arriving inside the shelter, he spent a total of 10 minutes, and yet he didn't see the villain that caused this sudden evacuation.
A false alarm? Ferris thought. But this villain was a disaster-level Dragon.
It would be considered a blessing if it was indeed a false alarm.
Clayman...
Digging through his memories, he tried finding what that name meant, what the name looked like, and most importantly, what blessing the villain held.
"Hey!" someone shouted.
His thoughts were interrupted by a man's call to his family.
"I'm so sorry! Papa was at overtime. I couldn't be with you!" the father screamed as he hugged his family.
Ferris watched the sight and looked around. This shelter is packed... Could this shelter really protect us?
The father continued and reassured, "We're safe now! This new shelter model made by the Hero Association can even take on a magnitude 9 earthquake!"
[All entrances will now be sealed. Please refrain from panicking and await further instructions.]
[I repeat: All entrances will...
After around a minute, he felt a noticeable change in air pressure as the airtight doors sealed them from the outside.
The only noises he heard were the never-ending sounds of people talking.
During the whole scenario, his heart was beating heavily in case of an unexpected scenario, but...
There's no longer a need for that. We should be completely safe—
BOOM!
The wall in front of him bursted into tiny debris and dust.
At the exact same time, Ferris immediately sensed a large presence of essence.
Since his new body just got to the 9th layer, his physical detection for essence signature was a bit weak, but his experience made up for the drawback.
A 2nd layer?! No, it might be a 1st layer!
After the dust ceased, he noticed a large crowd gathering near the opening in the dome shelter. Although he was surprised that they would be stupid enough to gather there.
He too was curious.
Ferris pushed through the crowd and eventually made his way to the front.
There were multiple heroes in various costumes in front of the villain.
So that's Clayman... He observed the imposing presence of the villain.
A 12-foot-tall humanoid-shaped being. He had a lean but muscular build that was perfect for speed and heavy strikes.
There was no skin—he was covered by what looked to be a carbon fiber shell that wrapped around his naked body like a skin-tight suit.
Clayman did not have a visible face. There was no mouth, and his eyes were replaced with a smooth crater.
That was Clayman. And his blessing is...
Claybody.
Other than that, Ferris was now definitely sure. There's no doubt about it. He's at least near the 1st layer or at the level of a 2nd layer knight, but...
I sense no bloodlust... What does he want? He creased his eyes to inspect the villain.
It wasn't in a combat stance, and he seemed relaxed, even.
While analyzing, a person that looked to be out of breath crept up behind him and squeezed himself to the front of the crowd.
The man caught his breath and began commentating as if he were an announcer. "It's Clayman! The dragon-level villain who disappeared a year ago after fighting the S-rank hero Magi-Magi-Magika! He's also fought many heroes and has a high loss rate, giving him the nickname the Sole loser Dragon!—
"Hey! I can hear you, you tubby pig!" Clayman pointed at the man in anger. Even without a face, everyone could tell that he was kinda pissed at the insult. "It's not nice to give someone mean nicknames like that!"
Since the man was right next to Ferris, it felt as if Clayman himself was pointing at him, and yet...
There was still no bloodlust.