Back from his great victory, Ken is suddenly the toast of the town, as everyone in the market crowds around him. Needless to say he’s not used to this kind of adulation, but you can’t say his heroic deeds didn’t justify it! The way he managed to cancel out Black Knight’s magic also means she asks for him specifically as a condition of providing useful demon intel.
Suzune accompanies Ken, both to protect him—or at least be his meat shield, a line delivered perfectly—but Black Knight, back in her armor, is still in rough shape, since she bore the full brunt of his punches in battle. Ken goes into her cell to heal her, which means first melting away parts of her suit so he can make physical contact. Turns out she’s never felt anyone’s warm touch before, so Ken has a profound effect on her.
Speaking of punches, Rose doesn’t waste any time advancing Ken’s training to the next level: learning how to dodge her E. Honda-like supersonic punches. The ones he can’t dodge, he has to absorb, and her first one, in which she’s going easy on him, sends him flying and knocks him out to the point he comes to thinking he had a nightmare … only it’s reality.
Ken vents about his three days of fresh hell to the Black Knight (or BK), who is both clearly happy he’s there spending time with her and somewhat confused the man who defeated her so completely in battle is now just hanging out with her. I love this dynamic, and BK herself (again, voiced by Aoi Yuuki and sounding a lot like Maomao) is a total cutie.
It’s just like our kind best boy Ken to reach out to those he thinks are having trouble, even his ostensible enemy. Because she’s a demon, it felt a little foreboding when the king summoned Rose and we didn’t hear what about, and Ken even thought about the possibility of BK being executed. Turns out, Rose wants to reform BK into an “upright demon” and a member of the Rescue Team. That’s awesome, especially since BK totally has a crush on Ken!
Ken is informed by Rose that he, Suzune, and Kazuki (who is basically married to Celia now) are going to be dispatched to neighboring nations in order to deliver missives as key parts of a campaign to build alliances against the demons.
While in town buying some supplies, smiling at some smitten young lady fans of his, and bumping into Suzune, he spots the fox girl who showed him a bad future he was able to prevent. She doesn’t seem that miffed about being run up on and lifted into the air. In fact, she’d been meaning to speak to him about paying her back by saving her mother.
