"Yeah. About that. I got held up by some work."
Eren said as he looked Jason in the eyes. The latter was staring daggers at him. So the butcher chuckled before throwing his words back at him.
"Don't look at me like that. I know it is unfair to you. I really do.
But you'd have to forgive me for being cautious. I'm only doing this for my own survival. I hope you can understand."
Lightning struck and Eren got behind Jason. His kick caused Jason to fly straight toward Ivor. The Duke's son ended up lying with his face flat on the ground in front of a kneeling Ivor.
"Here. Finish him."
Eren knew that Arthur would try to investigate his son's death when the word got out. Therefore, Jason needed to be killed at Ivor's hands.
Ivor took out his dagger from storage and looked at the stunned-looking Jason who was suffering from Eren's mana invasion as well as the debuff placed on him through fatal injuries.
"You know Eren, truth has a weird way of revealing itself. Someday... they are bound to know."
Ivor sighed as he understood his role in Jason's killing. He drove his dagger into Jason's brain by puncturing the epiglottis and severing the carotid artery. By doing so, he guaranteed him a quick death.
Jason's demon soul fragment was forced to slumber from the get-go. So it couldn't react to his perilous condition at all. It was released from Jason's body after his death before disappearing from the land of Anfang.
Eren had thought of digesting Jason for his demon soul fragment. But he decided to put his selfishness aside. After all, the goal behind killing Jason was to distract Arthur from the existence of Osan Woods' Butcher. Therefore, he needed to leave Jason's body intact.
The dead bodies of the participants, if they hadn't been destroyed, would eventually disappear and be sent to a special morgue. They would be well preserved there and could be claimed by the participants' families or friends after the event's completion.
Eren took a sigh of relief when Ivor killed Jason for good. He knew what Ivor was talking about. After taking a deep breath, he replied.
"You don't understand it yet, Ivor. People, in general, are more complex than you think. They don't necessarily go out of their way to find something that's against their beliefs based on previous versions of the truth.
Some surface-level truths become so uncomfortable to hear after some time that the supposed truth-seekers just stop digging. They want to create a bubble of comfort around themselves after establishing a certain mindset for themselves.
These people ignore the truth that comes to light later on.
They end up living with the surface-level truth they found for themselves because the truth that's hiding deep beneath it doesn't match their current agenda anymore. The rigidity of a mindsetâ€" to put it simply.
This rigidity of a mindset is no joke. People that are suffering from it would go out there and start defending the truth they had found long ago. This is when they know it's not the whole truth anymore. And then they start targeting people who have an open mindset about any form of truth. This may or may not be in line with the truth they have come to possess.
Therefore, no matter what happens from now on, you will always be labeled as the Osan Woods' Butcher by the masses. Even if I come out and declare myself the real butcher, they'll only label me as a lunatic before moving on.
The moral of the story is... that tag will forever stay with you. There's nothing any of us can do to change it. So we might as well strengthen the lies even further."
Eren looked up and stared blankly at the evening sky for a bit. Before adding more, he looked at the orange clouds passing over the region.
"Who I'm concerned about are the people in the shadows and those in power. They would fight to protect the lie I had crafted just to save their faces. But their wrath will know no bounds if they ever come to know about what I have done."
Eren smirked as he thought of how he had played with the establishment so far. He felt that there were no cultist or rogue rankers alive in recent years that were as successful as him in alluding to the authorities.
"Then again... I shouldn't worry too much either. Playing safe is crucial but gaining strength is even more so."
Ivor sighed after hearing Eren's point of view. He ended up agreeing with him.
The close combat expert decided to close the kill site. He had received a lot of Karma points after killing Jason. Jason had leveled up exceptionally well. So slaying him was bound to bring Ivor good fortune.
Ivor immediately brought a few healing Perks with his recent earnings and fixed himself up before getting up. He stretched his arms a bit before asking Eren.
"Did you meet Cedrick?"
Eren nodded casually before responding.
"I did. Let's just say that they won't be able to participate in any more events after this one."
Ivor sighed when he heard Eren speak. Ivor's team was with Cedrick's group. Since Eren had killed them all, he was bound to get kicked out of the competition in the next purge.
Eren knew what he was thinking about. He chuckled before continuing.
"You are technically graduated with distinction even if you get kicked out at this point. Isn't that what you wanted all along?
More importantly, what's with that weird name?"
Eren had bought a simple Perk that would allow him to read the names of the participants above their heads when he was within a few feet of them. He could see the name Bert Chu floating above Ivor's head in spectral form, which Ivor entered into the Sansara interface.
Eren then narrowed his eyes at the spectral name as if he was trying to connect the dots.
"Wait a damn minute...
Bert Chu? Bert.... Chu...
The butcher!"
Eren started laughing when he decoded Ivor's name.
"Keke. I never knew you had such a self-deprecating, dark sense of humor."
