Eren started walking to the apothecary while smoking his Sativa stick. He had been told by the herbalist that the residual smoke might immediately put the mortals to sleep if they were standing close to him.
Novice rankers might also get affected by the passive smoking of the Stellar Sativa, but they needed to stay within a close range from Eren for a certain time for that to happen.
That's why Eren chose a relatively less populated route for his return. He could hear people were a bit on edge everywhere. They were discussing the latest official news that had been announced all over the kingdom.
Eren used his Ace rank senses to listen to mortals talking at the far end of an alley. He stood at a side and kept on smoking as he listened to the group of four men and a woman.
"Did you hear about Ivor Osan? That brat was the Osan Woods butcher! You might not know but that kid was messed up from the moment he was born.
His elder brother Isaac was no different either. Did you hear about Rotohons?"
A lady in her mid 30s asked the group of men who were listening to her like she was their most trusted source of insider news. Eren figured the lady must be working in the inner circle of city administration as he smoked his Sativa stick.
"Hm? You mean Rick Rotohon? The guy who was allegedly looking to change the ownership of the city of Osan to himself? I heard Isen and Rick could never see eye to eye. What about him?"
One of the men in the group seemed more informed than his peers. The lady nodded at the guy's question and responded:
"That's him alright. Now that Isen is not here and the city head's position is empty, he has all the reason to make his presence grander than ever before. He has come up with some dirt on Isen and his family.
Rick says Isen's grandson was not stable from the moment he was born. He had started r*ping young boys of unknown backgrounds before killing them. Rick says he has been sheltering one such victim who managed to survive at the last moment.
Rick also claims that Isen knew about these things but did nothing and protected his grandson instead. He even suppressed many such incidents. They say Isaac also tortured his younger brother. But there are not many details about it."
The group of men who listened to the lady's revelation opened their eyes wide in surprise that Isen, who they had thought of as just a nasty politician, was in fact much worse than they had thought. One of the men sighed and voiced his opinion:
"Then it's no wonder Ivor turned out to be the butcher. He must have killed his brother to take revenge on him for all of his transgressions against him. This is all just messed up. We can only wish that all of the Osans just get purged so that the city of Osan gets to have a new start."
The group kept on talking but Eren wasn't listening anymore. The information he had gained along with the information given by Nina finally created a complete picture for him to understand why Ivor turned out to be the way he was– a brother-hating ball of arrogance.
Eren realized that Ivor's edgelord persona was his defense mechanism to cope up with the abuse he might have been subjected to some years ago by Isaac. The butcher also had another thought as he started connecting the dots.
'So that's why Isaac was so fixated on taking me with him. Heh! The guy was trying to make me another of his victims without any repercussions. Too bad I whooped his ass instead of the other way around."
Eren started creating a clear picture about Ivor and his past as he thought of many different things at once. The Sativa stick was aiding him in his deductions.
'Hm. That also explains the reason why a stubborn edgelord guy like Ivor would yeild to my interrogation as soon as I scared him by taking my hand near his groin.
The guy is scarred by sexual abuse and his edgelord persona is just a facade. His thought process ir his personality won't change until he thinks he becomes strong enough to rise above his helpless self. Marching ahead in his ranking journey gives him the mental satisfaction because of that.
Ivor is nothing but a victim of his circumstances. A talented victim nonetheless.'
Eren concluded Ivor's profile in his head as he walked towards the apothecary while taking out another of his smokes and using it. He had his vices. He had just controlled his intake to make them not affect him as strived to be a better version of his past self.
He laughed to himself as he looked at the Sativa stick in his hands and had another thought in his head:
'It's not like I'm better than him. The guy is at least trying to fight hard against his circumstances. Meanwhile, I'm just looking for ways to make them work for me.
We have two different mindsets. We are victims of two different circumstances. But unlike me, the guy's will to march ahead in his ranking journey is untainted by all the experiences he had collected.
Ivor's experiences, good and bad, had shaped him to be the person he is. He is still fighting the odds placed against him. When met with the choice of being on the run or becoming a cultist, the time he took to come to a logical decision was applaudable. Not a lot of teens in his position could have done that. I couldn't have done that if it was my previous self.'
Eren stood just the outside of apothecary's gates and inhaled the last puff of his stick before thinking to himself:
'Meanwhile, my circumstances broke me. I'm trying to get my lost pieces back but they just keep on breaking some more. *sigh.
All hope is not lost though. There's a way as long as there's life.
Maybe we both would rise above our circumstances and give this wretched world our flying fucks.'
Eren concluded his self intervention and smiled. He threw the butt of his sativa stick on the ground and extinguished the residual fire with his shoes before entering his house. Unknown by the fact that he was being monitored by a certain military group using its top-of-the-line surveillance artifacts.
The group went away as soon as Eren entered his house. They didn't want to upset the "C-Rank" healer living with Eren after all. The butcher on the other hand found himself alone in the room and rubbed his hands in excitement. Aunt Nina had gone outside for some work. It was time for him to prepare for his date.
AN: Wanted to describe Ivor's circumstances and the actual reason behind why Isaac did what he did way earlier. But the progression of the ongoing plot didn't allow us to take a peek into the past.
Thankfully, Eren's return to the city of Osan enabled us to get a glimpse of our edgelord's mindset. It also provides us with a different point of view on the same scene that had happened way earlier in VEH's storyline.
Just as Eren has said, Ivor has the potential to rise above his circumstances one day! ;)
