The bartender hesitated for a moment, taking his chance to get any information he could from Zipperman from insight alone.
Such as him ordering milk instead of alcohol.
Zipperman wasn't here to get drunk.
"Cold milk." The bartender created the liquid with his blessing and set it in front of Zipperman.
Zipperman clutched the glass, his fingers whitening around it but instead of drinking, he hurled it past the bartender's head, the glass shattering against the shelves behind him.
The bartender didn't flinch. Though the act was something unexpected, his composure never cracked.
As long as Lilith's curse was active, Zipperman is psychologically blocked from harming the bartender.
"Tell me where Judas went off to." Zipperman synchronized his 10 fingers to tap on the counter in a wave like motion.
The bartender sighed. "I don't know who that person is."
Zzzzzzzz!
From his fingers, multiple zippers appeared and spread across the bar counter, engulfing it like a spider's web.
Simultaneously, all the zippers opened up widely before disappearing, the result destroying the entire furniture.
Still, the bartender remained unaffected by a meaningless act of destruction.
Zipperman crossed his legs and arms. "I heard they were here, where are they. And where's that swordsman?"
The bartender shook his head. "Don't know."
"You don't know?" Zipper stood up and stared at the bartender with a dead set of eyes. "I don't think you've yet to understand what your place here is. Servant."
The bartender laughed. "I know that very well, I also know that you can't do anything to me."
. . .
"You're right, I can't overcome the curse that wench placed on me." Zipperman stood up then bent down before slowly dragging his finger across the floor.
"As a hired proctor, the villain clan won't let me interfere too much inside this city."
A zipper appeared underneath his fingertips, and he placed his hand deep inside of it before pulling something out.
"But that only applies to the residents here. However, just like Judas..."
The bartender slightly raised his brows and froze in place.
A young girl came out of the zipper. She was definitely conscious, however, she was completely motionless as if she were dead.
But what was most strange were the flowers blooming all over her body. However, it didn't seem to be hers, it wasn't her blessing.
Rather, it felt as if it was sucking the life out of her body, maybe leaving her only a few weeks or even days left to live.
"This girl is under our jurisdiction." Zipperman calmly placed his hand on the girl's neck. "Now... Will you tell me where the two went?"
A typical tactic.
If the bartender refused, the girl would die. If the bartender accepted, then the girl would get to live for a bit more.
Both are equally tragic.
A person with a good heart will let the girl live a bit longer.
However, a person with a dark heart would let the girl suffer longer.
Zipperman held his hand steady around the girl's neck. He watched as the bartender stared at him with wrathful eyes.
. . .
The bartender accepted. "...I will,"
"Very good." Zipperman released his grip, allowing the girl to fall back into the zipper pit he created. Then he sat down on the stool again.
It was unknown what would happen to the girl, but the bartender could only act as if he'd done the right thing. After a brief pause, he lifted his finger and pointed in a certain direction.
"They went that way. Along with Miss Evening."
"Her?" Zipperman froze, genuine shock spreading across his face.
Even the bartender was a little surprised by Zipperman's strange reaction.
Miss Evening came to this city around a week ago, and during that timeframe she had already built a persona of being a crazy woman that likes to shoot people.
Rumors say that she hasn't even slain a single hero, but there have been many accounts of her shooting other villains for reasons that aren't sufficient to pull a trigger.
But what made her make Zipperman react in such a way?
"Why, is there something wrong?" The bartender said.
Zipperman rubbed his chin and remained silent for quite a while before speaking.
"I guess it's fine for you to know this but,
Evening is... a perceptive person," he said, before turning his back on the bartender and walked away.
A perceptive person—that was not something the bartender could ever glimpse inside Miss Evening's psyche.
He was deeply troubled. Not only had he snitched on the two heroes. He had unknowingly helped draw Evening closer to the young men.
"Will they be alright?" he muttered, though no answer would come.
***
Fixer pushed all three of them outside.
"We're finished, now you three should leave!" Fixer threw Ferris's sword back and shut the door in front of them.
Ferris unsheathed his sword to see that it was completely spotless, even the edges became sharper and harder than before.
He recalled how Fixer "fixed" his sword by simply hitting it with a hammer in random ways as if she was playing a whack-a-mole machine.
If a dwarf in his old world could see how she fixed it, they would instantly go mad and insane.
I didn't even get the chance to say thank you. Ferris sighed, knowing that he broke one of the knight's creeds.
Ferris closed his eyes and focused on strengthening his heart with his essence to increase blood production in order to make up for the loss of blood caused by his now healed injury.
Essence reserve in exchange for blood, it was a fair trade.
But Ferris didn't plan on continuing his plans.
There was no point in wrecking havoc in the waterpark, Elizabeth's army could easily slaughter the party-going villains.
Instead, Ferris redirected his attention to the museum, where the source that was powering the crimson clouds was present.
There's no need in staying here any longer, I should meet up with Elizabeth and continue there.
Ferris turned towards Miss Evening and did the less formal way of showing gratitude as a knight. "Thank you, Miss Evening."
Will she recognize it? That was Ferris's goal, to see if Evening would react to a greeting that came from their original world.
"Oh gosh! This gentleman is courting little'ol me?" Evening clasped her chin and cheeks with both of her palms, her face reddening
Is she serious? Ferris lampooned, but perhaps that may have been a facade.
She might've recognized it but chose not to speak about it.
This woman was too dangerous and unpredictable, she might've even posed a greater danger compared to Zipperman.
So it's best to leave her as quickly as possible!
"We'll take our leave now," Ferris said, retreating from his bow.
But before he could turn around and leave.
"Hold on now," Evening chuckled, "it's rude to leave a lady willy-nilly."
The air stood still, Ferris's body instinctively reacted by having its hair stand up.
. . .
Bang!
Clang!
Ferris raised his sword and blocked the bullet, using its flat side.
The reverberations that came from his sword transmitted to his arms the moment the squashed bullet fell.
His body was definitely shocked, quite literally and figuratively. But that shock only applied to his physical body.
In the end, his mind wasn't surprised by this build-up.
There was no reason for Evening to help someone without a good reason, even knights weren't exempt from this.
Was the repair a fluke? No... Ferris worried for his sword but it was holding strong thanks to Fixer, his sword essence was also helping a lot with holding the shape.
If I hadn't anticipated for a microsecond longer, I wouldn't be standing here.
Ferris noticed that there was not a follow-up shot, so he took his chance to speak up.
"Are you betraying us?" Ferris asked.
Miss Evening smiled and retreated her wrist to point her gun at the sky.
But that did not mean she planned on stopping the fight, as she pulled another gun from her other holster and pointed that to the ground.
"Not exactly~," Evening hummed "I just figured I'd give ya a fair shot and let that honor of yours stay pristine"
Ferris scoffed. "Honor? What do you know about me?"
Her emerald eyes glinted as she curled her lips into a dangerous smile.
"Enough to know you're a dead man walkin'...
Knight Errant."