"Ho… hold down! Who is the Osan Woods Butcher here?"
Ivor shouted and started looking at everybody. Then he started looking in the void as if trying to see someone that could be hidden. The more he learned about the incident from Eliza's mouth the more his heartbeat kept on increasing.
"It's Eren, little eel. He almost fooled an entire kingdom of yours with his performance. Get on with the program already."
Eliza said to Ivor in a reprimanding tone. Then she pondered a bit while looking at Eren and said in a casual tone:
"I was once a Novice ranker too, Eren. So I can understand how cunning and smart you'd have to be to pull off what you did."
'Heh! I wasn't even a Novice by then.'
Eren thought to himself in the deepest part of his psyche. But he didn't interrupt and let Eliza continue
"Let me tell you one thing. I regret trusting Arthur. And I regret that Reen got away instead of being sent to me the way she was supposed to be.
I'll be blunt here. I may end up killing you in the future. Although highly unlikely, you may end up backstabbing me too. But I'm glad it was you that took Reen away instead of some half-assed ranker.
Reen represents my clan's genius in the field of genes and mana-related studies after all. I would have killed you without worrying about the consequences if you didn't impress me with your performance on the tower's first floor.
I won't let my clan's legacy be used by some dim-witted nobody."
Eren had a stoic expression on his face as he heard Eliza's blatant way of saying things. He also realized that the Sage ranker was being serious about everything she said. He didn't try to reassure her that he wouldn't betray her. Instead, he just nodded before speaking up:
"So what did Arthur do next?"
Eliza smiled and started walking towards the place the giant's skull was at. She summoned her bone-made throne next and sat on it leisurely before continuing:
"Arthur couldn't track you down. So he used some external help. An unusual one at that. I believe he must have found someone who could use a Seer array.
The ranker that helped him is either a genius or crazy to use a Seer array. It comes with a lot of repercussions. Some are out there. While the others take some time to manifest. It might be that I've underestimated the dedication of today's rankers or that they are straight-up stupid.
anyway, Arthur got what he paid for. A few clues regarding Osan Woods' Butcher. Or at least he thought he did."
Eliza said and propped her head on her palm using her folded right arm– its elbow placed on the throne's armrest. She then looked at Eren while mischievously asking him:
"What do you think those clues were, Eren?"
Eren caressed Reen's back to soothe her and pondered for a bit. Then he looked at Ivor before saying:
"Whatever the clues are, they made Ivor be seen in a very bad light. I'm guessing the clues were regarding the commonalities we shared?"
Clap! Clap!
Eliza broke her stance to lightly clap towards Eren before continuing:
"Yeah. Here's what Arthur told me had found from some ranker named Garvin Karr. The first was that the Osan Woods' Butcher was a young male in his teens. The second was that he had a lightning-element affinity.
Then there was another peculiar thing this Garvin fellow found out about the Osan Woods Butcher. That he had an active time-element artefact on him.
Another was the fact that he was using beastly transformation powers to raise his body stats. Then there was circumstantial evidence. Like the butcher had been established as a close combat expert who uses daggers or similar weapons due to the way he killed in Osan woods.
Arthur had told me that he made some inquiries in your academy. And easily found out that this little eel was very handy with his weapons. He liked cutting people up.
He was apt for a butcher's profile that was made for you.
Eren, guess who, apart from you, had all those conditions met for him? Fufufu!"
'No way! Ivor Osan!'
Eren thought and looked at Ivor with a lot of surprise and a bit of pity in his eyes.
'Maybe I did pass him some of my bad luck by beating him in the ranking war and now. Should I… beat him some more?'
Eren had a wild thought. But he still couldn't believe he was let off the hook and Ivor taking all the heat for him just like that. He let go of Reen and walked up to Ivor. he raised his downed head by grabbing him by his hair and asked Eliza:
"But why did Arthur and his lackeys didn't apprehend Ivor outside and check if he had Reen or not? Why did they send the guy here?"
Ivor was speechless at that time with a blank look on his face. By now he had realized that he was in deep shit. Plus, only now did he register what Eren calling the young woman sitting on the throne meant.
She was a Sage ranker. And he had called her a bitch. He wondered how he was still alive. Eren's beatings were the least of his worries now.
"Well, Arthur had told me all the details and consulted me. I had predicted Reen's natural abilities and told him he shouldn't approach Osan Woods' Butcher carelessly. First of all, Reen would have the ability to merge with his body. Second, she might commit something terrible if her master gets harmed or gets captured.
We also had to make sure that a demon beast like her doesn't come out in the open and all her powers are not known by the populace. The safest easy to apprehend Reen was to make the Osan Woods' Butcher come here.
That's why I told Arthur that he just needs to make sure that the butcher gets sent into the Purgatory and I'd handle the rest. He agreed with me and arranged everything."
'That… makes sense.'
The real butcher nodded while looking at the blank expressions of the fake butcher. He pondered a bit before asking another doubt he had:
"Still, Sage Eliza, I can say for sure that there might have been a lot of discrepancies in declaring Ivor as the OWB. How did they look past them?"
