When Eric came out of the small forest, his face was full of exhaustion. It could be seen that he had done a very intense multi-course exercise.
Even though Eric had obtained such a powerful physique, his physical strength would still be exhausted under the premise that he had not fully developed and trained.
After leaving the small forest, Eric walked straight to Isami's curry house in the central district of Khaos Island.
"Give me a set meal."
Eric opened the door of Isami's curry house. His eyes were focused on Isami, and his tone was a little tired.
"Okay~"
Isami squinted her eyes at Eric, and a smile appeared on her face.
"I haven't been here for a long time!"
Isami started to pour some gravy and heat the soup. It was still early, so Eric was the only one in the restaurant.
"I'm busy with work; being a member of an evil organisation is not exactly easy," Eric said casually, but a bit of sarcasm could be sensed in his tone.
"Oh! That's why you appear exhausted!" With a blink of her eyes, Isami said to Eric.
"I'm not in good health." Eric's tone was a little indifferent.
"Oh?" Isami immediately stopped mixing the soup, narrowed her eyes, and looked at Eric deeply.
Then she smiled again and said, "Today I will give you a big meal. Consider it my treat!"
"How can I accept this?" Eric was stunned. He had seen many strange things, but he had never encountered such a thing as being treated by the shop owner.
"It's okay, you are not in good health, so you should eat more!" Mild-mannerly the woman waved her hand and did not care at all.
Just like this, Isami chatted with Eric for more than ten minutes, and the hot meal was ready.
"Your order is ready!" She brought the steaming hot curry to Eric and urged, "Eat slowly. Don't get scalded."
"Thank you." Eric nodded to Isami.
Eric looked at the steam rising from the food, and while his plate was full of juicy meat and colourful gravy garnished by spring onions, the smell was strangely intoxicating and romantic.
Eating a good meal after intense training is rather good—or better than what he initially expected. While thinking, Eric realised that sometimes he should simply let himself loose.
As Eric was about to eat, he remembered the famous line uttered by the Japanese before eating, and since he was eating a Japanese meal, he decided to follow that custom.
"Itadakimasu." (I am going to receive the lives of animals and plants for my own life.)
"Miss-Isami, please prepare four sets of meals for us. The usual!" The voice came in first, followed by a series of detailed footsteps.
Eric was too preoccupied with eating to notice his surroundings, but if he had heard that voice, he would have cursed his bad luck to no end, but it was too late.
At this time, the door was pulled open.
A teenager with blonde hair was followed by a younger girl with similar coloured hair to the older one.
However, following them was another pair of females.
The first one was a sensual-looking black-haired woman appearing in her twenties, who wore a kimono that barely covered her private parts, especially her chest, which literally appeared to ooze out of her clothing. But that wasn't the main show; the woman had a pair of long tails and cat-like ears at the top of her head.
The second one was a silver-haired female, a tall and slender woman with a relatively large bust; she was wearing a plain white t-shirt, with black leggings and a black overcoat, and she looked like an edge lord descended out of nowhere.
The group of four settled at one of the tables that were near Eric.
Finally, Eric, who was lost in his food, felt a powerful demonic presence as well as the equally or even more domineering presence of a dragon.
Out of instinct, he slightly tilted his eyes to see the newcomers.
When he finally saw him, he nearly choked the shit out of him and immediately retracted his gaze.
He recognised three people in the group, the first two being Arthur and Le Fay, whom he had already met.
The third is the busty catwoman; how could he not recognise one of the main characters of the series? She was none other than Kuroka.
While the last female with silver hair was releasing the strangely astronomical presence of demonic and draconic power,
Wait a minute, silver hair. Purple eyes. powerful demonic power. immense Draconic aura. Hanging with Arthur, Le Fay, and Kuroka.
This only sums up one name in his mind.
Vali Lucifer!!!???
And he is a she!?
???
What is going on?
What's next, God is a female? Lucifer is a female?
Silently calming his rapidly beating heart, he reassured himself that all he has to do is avoid them; they still haven't noticed him.
So no need to panic, right?
Do not look!
Just do not look there, no matter what.
Eric silently stood up and was about to leave, but before that, he left the money in the tray.
As he was moving, the door was suddenly opened as more customers entered the shop; however, due to the crowd, a man slightly grazed Eric as he moved through the crowd.
which caused his hoodie to come off.
"Sorry, dude, my bad," the man said apologetically as he moved off.
Motherf-
"Eric, is that you?" A loud voice interrupted Eric as a hand was firmly planted on his shoulder.
Eric's face broke into a bitter smile, and for a brief moment, he thought his luck could easily rival a certain Archer's shitty luck.
After hearing the voice, Eric slowly turned his head.
His face was slightly pale, and his drooping eyelids looked extremely tired.
"Arthur, it's you! What a coincidence!" Eric said with a hesitant smile.
"What a coincidence, I was just talking about you with my other teammates, and to think I'd meet you here," Arthur exclaimed a little too excitedly.
"Come here," Arthur said as he dragged Eric to their place and gave him a place to sit, which happens to be the one near Kuroka.
He could sense a curious eye glancing over him from his side, but he completely ignored it.
"Are you okay, Eric? You seem tired," Arthur worriedly asked his friend; though he was aware of Eric's condition, this appeared to be worse than usual.
"It's nothing; I was just a bit tired after some training, but it seems my body is still too weak for such a burden," Eric said with droopy eyes, showing his Oscar-deserving skills in acting.
"Is there anything I could do to help you? Please tell me."
Arthur's face was grave. He knew very well that Eric was not in good health since he was so young.
However, Eric wasn't always like that; in fact, it was an illness indirectly caused by his family, and Arthur feels very self-conscious about this.
Eric's weak constitution is a side effect of the forceful awakening of his sacred gear, as when your body isn't ready to take up the burden of wielding a sacred gear, then the gear itself compensates by sapping the life force of its wielder.
Arthur feels responsible for his friend's condition.
"It's okay; I just need to adjust it. Thank you for your concern!" Eric forced a smile, while Arthur gravely nodded.
"Mr. Eric, we are friends, right? So please tell us if you have troubles, and we will try our best to help you." This time, Le Fay spoke with both determination and concern, though it sounded more funny considering her bubbly voice.
While the three were conversing, both Kuroka and the other girl remained silent. Kuroka has her eyes peeled on Eric completely, while the silver-haired girl did not pay any attention at all and keeps her eyes closed all the time.
"Well anyways, these two are my teammates; the black-haired one is Kuroka, a youkai, and she is Vali, the current white dragon empress and host of the Longinus divine dividing. And he is Eric Kingsley, a friend and a descendant of the greatest Knight of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot."
"I am Kuroka; nice to meet you, nya~," the black-haired woman said in a sultry voice as she greeted him with a smile.
"Vali," the albino woman said monotonously; for a brief moment, her amethyst eyes locked on him and she gave him a nod before closing her eyes.
"Nice to meet you," Eric said modestly to both of them.
"Say Eric-Kun, Arthur-Kun said you were weak, but you seem pretty strong, nya," Kuroka inquired, her eyes wide with confusion.
"Hmph, you smell strong," Vali adds as an afterthought.
"She's right nya, I can sense a powerful life force flowing through you, though it is very thin even by human standards, strangely its density is too high," Kuroka quipped, causing Eric's smile to break a bit.
Of course, someone like Kuroka would easily notice that while being this close to him.
"Eric, are you hiding something from me?"
Arthur, who was hearing this conversation, narrowed his eyes at Eric.
"You can trust us, Mr. Eric. My brother was very worried about you since we met last time; he was holding back while going into the medical division and checking you out," Le Fay said.
"*Sigh* It's nothing."
"If it is so, what do you have to say about what Kuroka said? But it's okay, it's your secret; I won't force you."
Arthur questioned him seriously but was a bit saddened by the fact that his friend didn't trust him enough.
Eric looked at Arthur; he could feel that Arthur was genuinely worried for him, and this made him a bit reluctant to turn him away like this.
"Well, my physical condition is a little feeble, but that doesn't mean I'm completely weak; in fact, I've made some progress in curing my illness, and both my body and my power have begun to recover."
"I hid this matter because this place is a disaster of trouble; don't get me wrong here, Arthur, I was merely protecting myself."
"I apologise for lying to you."
Eric said with a sad and apologetic face.
While he bowed his head a bit towards Arthur to show his sincerity.
While internally he sighed, since the ball is out, he can't back off at this point.
The only thing he could do is bite the blade head-on, so he cooked up a story with half-truths and half-lies.
It seems chaos itself came looking for him this time, and that is the destiny of a strong person, mob or not.
A/N: Updates will be slowed down I will try to post two chapters every week, since I am trying to focus on my other fic "A Dragon God's Hero."