Time of dusk.
A region covered in an untamed wilderness not far away from the city of Osan.
The full moon peeked through the passing clouds. It was asserting its dominance amid countless glowing balls of lights. Despite the warm season, the night was much colder than expected.
"Kelmar, are you sure the kid will take this route? Maybe this was a dumb idea. We can call this off, you know."
Clinton Claho asked his buddy and confidante while staking out a certain route on top of a big tree's upper branch. Meanwhile, he kept in touch with others scattered around the area who were doing the same as him- keeping their eyes on the road.
Clinton Claho was the same person who had obstructed Eren on his way to the city of Osan and demanded an absurd amount of "entry fee" from him. A huge part of him wanted to get back at Eren just for the sake of curbing his anger toward all the students coming from institutions like LA. Kelmar and a few other members of his squad had the same mindset. Others had accompanied this off-the-books operation as a form of brotherhood.
But there was a part of him that was telling him there was something off about the guy. That's why at the very last minute, he suggested to his buddy that they should call off their operation on Eren.
Kelmar snorted his nose at Claho's plans to back out of their plan. He replied to his squad leader in a berating voice.
"Damn it, Claho. You are our leader so you better act like one. You didn't say this the whole time we were tailing the guy. Now that our plan is about to come to fruition, do you want to waste away all our efforts? And for what? Just because the guy has a C-Rank backer?"
Claho shook his head before replying.
"Don't underestimate a C-Rank in their absence. Even if that woman is just a healer, she might get us in trouble with any potential connections she might have.
Plus, now that I think about it, that entire scene wasn't such a big deal. No need to off the guy just because he gave us fewer Extols."
Claho suddenly started making sense, which wasn't something bloodthirsty Kelmar wanted to hear. The vice-captain responded to his captain patiently.
"You are talking about the repercussions that might happen if and when we are found out. We have done a lot of under-the-table deals and killed a bunch of rankers just because they looked at us funny. How many times were we questioned?"
Remember that everything has been done to ensure that nothing can be traced back to us. So no matter what we do here, that C-Rank entity won't have a clue. Hehe! There's no need to get nervous dealing with Ace rankers when we have all our trump cards.
Plus, we received all these toys to play with. But there are no cultists that have the balls to mess with us. All these toys would just disappear if we didn't use them. We might as well seek out the target ourselves to do field practice, don't you agree?
Plus, we might spare him after playing with him a bit. We are planning to keep our identities hidden anyway. Let him think that the bandits did him dirty. Hehehe!"
Claho had come to realize that his egocentric and pointless revenge had turned into a way for some of his soldiers to vent out their stress. Kelmar was their on-field leader and was actively involved in the operation.
Claho wanted to prevent them more than ever. But then he thought that maybe they should proceed with the plan as they had planned. Otherwise, his reputation would take a hit in the eyes of his squad members. He finally discarded the idea of retreating.
'Maybe Kelmar is right. This isn't our first time doing 'target practise' for fun and it won't be the last. The kid might be talented. But so what? He can not win against a squad of rankers, especially since we have our tools to take care of him.
Hehe! Maybe I was getting cold feet for nothing. Now I kind of want to see the despair in the kid's eyes when he sees he has no way out. I want to crush his smugness. I'll spare him only when he begs for his life. But not before breaking his limbs.'
Claho self-motivated himself and resumed looking at the off-road path. This was the path they had made sure Eren would take with the rest of their team members who would join them after their target had been surrounded. They were currently following him from a distance using artefacts– ensuring Eren doesn't get suspicious about their setup.
They finally heard from their sentries placed in the distance that someone was traversing through the path they had their eyes locked on. Everyone started looking at each other and contacting one another via voice communication. This was the show-time.
**************************
"Something feels off."
Eren said to himself as he continued riding on his colt towards the city of Osan. He just had to travel for about five more hours and he'd be home. But for some reason, he had an inkling that he was being followed and watched upon.
The butcher spread his mana sense around in all directions and found nothing except a few mana beasts that couldn't hurt him. But this information made him more alert to his surroundings than ever before.
'Give me a minute.'
Layla said suddenly. And a minute she took before responding further.
'Hmm. I just used a potion to confirm. Somebody is indeed following you. But they are using artefacts and potions at the same time to suppress their presence to its bare minimum.
Layla talked to Eren via their voice communication through ID storage. She was in her pendent abode. She had been busy with a lot of activities while inside the pendant these days. Plus, Eren's activities with Nina had made sure that she would stay away from him while he was in the city of Osan. but she had followed him to the city of Laurel.
The news of a few odd events had reached Eren's ears when he was heading to the city of Osan from the city of Laurel. This was after settling his affairs with Agatha. This was the reason he was traveling at night.
But now he wondered whether that was a wise decision.
