A group of royal scions from Royal Ren had gathered at an empty facility inside a safe zone. They also had their lackeys with them.
A young man, who seemed to look like Rodrick Renar, was acting as the leader of the group. His name was Cedrick Renar and he was one of the top contenders in the royal race.
Cedrick paced around while others in the group surrounded him. After some time, he spoke in a frustrated tone.
"This bastard... Eren Idril.
I had heard he was sheltering that bastard cousin of ours. And now he has also taken away my chance of getting close to Crimson Ghost.
This is at a time when I have the largest number of pieces of the royal puzzle among all of us. It is infuriating how I have allowed one man to interfere with my plans for this long."
Cedrick Renar's tone contained a suppressed rage that was directed toward Eren.
***
The royal scion had already started hating Eren even before he met him because he was sheltering Rodrick.
Cedrick wouldn't make the same mistake as Rehaal by targeting Rodrick as long as he was in the city of White Raven. Being a royal, he knew more about royal conspiracies than the average person. They certainly exist. However, they are often used to cover something really straightforward.
For Cedrick, it was clear that Eren had a hand to play in eliminating Rehaal. Of course, he also considered the possibility that Eren was backed by someone from the royal court from the shadows.
Rodrick also was now in possession of a substantial amount of pieces of the royal puzzle after Rehaal's death. Even Rehaal's pieces had somehow been collected by Rodrick using some unknown means.
Rodrick was becoming the dark horse in the race to win the royal succession. Thus, the real contenders in the royal race started seeing Rodrick as an obstacle in their path that they couldn't eliminate.
All of this could be linked to Eren's protection of Rodrick.
As if this was not enough, Eren had also wooed Altashia. The latter was a peerless ranker and an exceptional beauty. But she had something even more valuable for someone like Cedrick– her connection to the Crimson Ghost.
Altashia was always approached by royal scions for this reason when she was in the Royal Ren. For these contenders, she was an attractive chess piece as a means of getting closer to the Crimson Ghost.
All the royal scions' wishes to get close to such a valuable girl went up in smoke when Altair approved Eren. They saw how "endearingly" Altair treated Eren and couldn't help but be jealous of him.
Of course, the butcher wouldn't use the term endearing when it came to his interaction with Altair. But that perspective did not matter to royal scions who had nothing but thoughts of royal succession filling their empty heads.
They also saw how Altashia came to greet Eren just before he stepped into the entrance of the Sansara World. It confirmed one thing for all the wanna-be potential suitors of Altashia– she was smitten with Eren and there was nothing they could do to change that.
There was one more thing that all the royal scions refused to admit. They had all felt Eren's presence when he stood up against Altair. They all felt threatened by his soul sense overpowering their consciousness. That feeling subconsciously manifested itself as a form of newfound hate.
***
Cedrick suddenly turned towards a certain ranker within his group and asked.
"Morty, you must have met Eren, right? Your house Derringer is co-owning the city of White Raven. What can you tell me about him that the usual reports can't?"
Morty Derringer suddenly found himself being stared at by all the gathered rankers when Cedrick threw a metaphorical spotlight at him. He felt a bit awkward suddenly getting all the attention to himself in such a tense environment. He gulped empty air before speaking in a careful tone.
"I… I don't know much about him, your highness Cedrick. Basically... I introduced him to my clan and he took it from there.
Still, I'll tell you what my house says about him. Eren Idril… he… he is a very dangerous man."
Cedrick stopped pacing around when he heard Morty's words. He narrowed his eyes at Morty before speaking in a commanding tone.
"Explain."
Morty pondered for a bit and collected his thoughts. He took a long breath before speaking again.
"House Derringer was once approached by Demonmir not too long ago when the city of White Raven was still in its early stages. He had offered us a tremendous amount of leeway in conducting our business in the city if and when he replaced Master Levine's faction.
Demonmir's only condition was to cut ties with Eren. My House approached Grandmaster Lin Karr after that to make him use his Seer array. We only wanted to find out if betraying Eren would work in our favor or not.
Grandmaster Lin Karr couldn't find anything related to Eren for some reason. But guess what he suggested to House Derringer?"
Morty finished speaking and pursed his lips. He could remember his first meeting with Eren like it was yesterday. The butcher had made a deep impression on Morty. If possible, he wouldn't want to stand in opposition to Eren, no matter the rewards of doing so.
Cedrick didn't want to push Morty's buttons for no reason. He nodded at him before speaking in a determined tone.
"Even if Eren has the backing of rankers working in the shadows, he has come here all alone. And his powers are restricted by the Sansara World's laws. Inside this world, he is as defenseless as he can be.
I'm not sure about getting close to Altashia. I believe that ship has sailed.
However, eliminating Eren would poke holes in the tripartite alliance between House Derringer, House Montmorency, and that bastard's guild. This will ultimately get us closer to freely targeting Rodrick again.
I suggest we kill Eren here to get our hands on the pieces of the royal puzzle Rodrick has in his possession. It would only take a few months to achieve this goal. My royal brothers and sisters, we will distribute those pieces equally among ourselves when we eliminate Rodrick from the race forever.
Let's find Eren and butcher him up. We can't let one man stop us from getting what we want after all."
AN: Morty Derringer was first introduced in chapter 462.
