Chapter 239: This Has to Be a Lie... An SSS Rank Hero Invited an F Rank?!

Johnn stopped right in front of her, the smell of roasted dragon essence wafting off his armor.

"Look, I know I said I was full back there, but lifting that oversized bat across three provinces is a different kind of workout. I’m starving! Come eat with me. My treat! Whatever the best place in this district is, let’s go. I’m paying!"

The silence that followed was deafening. Behind the counter, the receptionist stood frozen, her face turning a vibrant, mottled shade of red. The ink pen in her hand snapped with a sharp crack.

She had just been told he couldn’t eat for a week, and here he was, practically begging the "jobless F rank" to go to dinner. Her glare toward Maddy’s back was sharp enough to draw blood.

"THAT... B*TCH!"

Maddy didn’t blink. She didn’t even turn her head. She kept her eyes fixed on the empty wooden slats of the F rank quest board, her posture as rigid and cold as a statue. To her, Johnn wasn’t a Hero; he was a loud, tactical liability that was currently blowing her cover.

She ignored him entirely, her silence a sharp rebuff that made the surrounding adventurers gasp.

Johnn, undeterred by the cold shoulder, stepped up beside her and followed her gaze to the board. He blinked, his golden brows furrowing in confusion.

"Wait a minute," Johnn muttered, scratching the back of his head. "Where are the F rank quests? Did the guild stop taking low level requests? What happened to the board?"

A veteran adventurer standing nearby, eager to get into the Hero’s good graces, stepped forward and pointed toward Maddy.

"It wasn’t the guild, Sir Johnn," the man explained with a shake of his head. "It was her. That girl! She’s cleared the entire tier. Every missing cat, every clogged sewer, every delivery. She did the work of an entire battalion of rookies in just a few days. There’s literally nothing left for her to do."

Johnn’s jaw dropped. He looked at the empty board, then back at the small, hooded woman who had treated him like a ghost. A wide, genuine grin, one without the practiced polish, spread across his face. He let out a low whistle of pure admiration.

"The whole board? In a few days?"

Johnn let out a bark of laughter, clapping his gauntleted hands together.

"Incredible! I thought I was the only one around here with a real work ethic! You’re a powerhouse! No wonder the locals are singing your praises. Efficiency like that... that’s Hero level stuff right there!"

The receptionist looked like she was about to have a literal meltdown, her eyes darting between Johnn’s impressed face and Maddy’s silent, unmoving form.

For the first time, the sheer, unrelenting weight of Johnn’s positivity cracked Maddy’s composure. To her, this wasn’t a triumph; it was a logistical disaster. She was stuck in a foreign nation with no income, no rank progression, and a dead child’s spirit in her shadow, and this golden boy was treating it like a game.

Maddy whirled around, her hood falling back just enough to show the fierce, panicked spark in her eyes. She shouted, her voice cutting through the cheers of the crowd:

"Stop it! Just—shut up!"

Johnn blinked, his grin faltering in confusion.

"This isn’t something to praise, you idiot! I’m not a ’powerhouse,’ I’m jobless! I have no rank, no party, and now I have no way to pay for a room or even a meal because I worked too fast! This is a mess, not a victory!"

Without waiting for his response, she shoved past him, her cloak swirling around her. She needed air. She needed to get away from the suffocating light of his "heroism" and the venomous stares of the staff.

Johnn stood frozen, his hand still raised in a half-finished gesture of praise. The guild went silent as the "Hero" actually looked stung. For a second, the guilt on his face was visible—he hadn’t realized that his "cover" was actually a cage for her.

"Wait! Maddy!" he called out, his voice suddenly losing its boisterous edge.

She didn’t stop. She was halfway to the door when his voice boomed again, but this time, it wasn’t a shout of ego—it was an epiphany.

"If the rank is the problem... then let’s fix it! Why don’t we become partners? Right now!"

Maddy’s boots skidded against the stone floor. She stopped dead in her tracks, her back still turned to him.

"If we’re a party, my rank covers the requirements!"

Johnn shouted, his excitement returning tenfold as he realized the logic.

"You can take any quest on that board—D, C, A even the S ranks! You won’t be jobless anymore, and especially... You’ll be with me!"

The guild hall plunged into a silence so absolute you could hear the flickering of the torches. Every adventurer, from the grizzled veterans to the wide eyed recruits, stood frozen.

"The Hero... is inviting a partner?" someone whispered, the words carrying like a shockwave.

The receptionist’s reaction was the most violent. Her hands slammed onto the wooden counter with a resounding crack, her mouth hanging open so wide it looked like her jaw might unhinge. Her eyes practically popped out of her skull in sheer, unadulterated shock.

"Did he just...?" she gasped, her voice failing her. "Invite that PEASANT!?"

The shockwave rippled through the guild. A seasoned adventurer nearby nearly dropped his tankard, his face twisting into a mask of bafflement.

"He declined the Promethean A-Rank Party!" the man barked, gesturing wildly. "He even turned down a personal request from the SSS Rank Monster Hunter last week! And he’s asking her?! An F Rank?!"

Maddy felt a vein throb in her temple. This was exactly what she had fought so hard to avoid. She wanted to be a shadow, a whisper, a ghost in the machine of this city.

Now, Johnn had turned a spotlight on her that was bright enough to burn. He hadn’t just offered her a job; he had offered her a seat on a throne she didn’t want, in front of an audience that was already starting to murmur with envy and disbelief.