"Why were you so ready to sign a slave contract, Tuan?"
Eren asked after removing his mask and hood. Tuan had willingly signed his slave contract with Eren, giving him the assurance he needed to come out in the open in front of him.
"How… how should I address you?"
Tuan asked after gulping down the healing potion Eren had provided him. The latter shrugged his shoulders before responding.
"Just Eren would be fine."
Tuan nodded before replying.
"Well, I have some unfinished business in the duchy of Lehan. I would like to eventually move there when I'm successful and fulfil my promise to a certain someone."
Eren looked at Tuan thoughtfully before nodding. He wasn't interested in Tuan's personal life anyway.
Eren was doing a solo recon on Tuan and came across his wife's affair by accident. He couldn't have been able to target Tuan if he had stayed in the city during the tournament's season. So he hatched a plan.
The reason Eren told Tuan about his wife's affair was so that the latter could confront her. Then he tipped the wife's lover too, forcing them to make a move and flee from the city with haste.
The situation unfolded just the way Eren wanted it to. At first, Eren was planning to kill Tuan using his Sin of Wrath ability, taking all his attainments in the fire element for himself. But he changed his mind a few days ago when he saw and heard what the guy could do.
Furthermore, Alephee had informed him about his soul's status after his talk with Layla had finished. That allowed him to accept the guy as one of the rankers he could count on.
'So you have a soft spot for people who were wronged by women. Never knew you could still surprise me with your behaviour.'
This time it was Layla who said this. She was busy with her tasks inside her pendant abode as well.
Eren ignored the young witch for her witty remarks like always and addressed Tuan.
"Alright. Did the Titus tournament give you any identification tag to confirm your identity as Tuan Aag?"
Tuan nodded unhesitantly before bringing out a coin that had runic engravings. It would project his name spectrally when he imbued it with his mana. He explained the same to his new boss before adding up.
"Eren, if the prize money is of importance to you, I can participate and try to win for you anyway. Money was never my centre of gravity all my life. I only wanted it because…"
Tuan looked at the dead body of his wife that was placed not too far away from him. He felt as if a dagger had pierced his heart before the weapon got twisted inside of him. But his brain found pure joy in seeing her dead. The fact that Eren had killed the guy who had cucked him made him look at Eren in a favouring light.
"You are only capable of reaching the semi-finals of the tournament, Tuan. You can't win it with your current skills. I'm not belittling you. I don't have complete confidence in winning the tournament. At least not easily anyway. And you've seen the difference between us firsthand.
Sigh! But yes, we could certainly use the money."
Eren said in a low-energy voice and brought out his smoke. Contrary to what Tuan thought of him, Eren was worn out by the battle too even though he didn't look like it. The fact that he had to fight and kill Tista's runaway lover also added to his exhaustion. He could only keep up and handle everything because of Layla's potions.
Eren was about to light it up with his fire-element mana. But then Tuan did it for him by executing a mini Fire Fall at the tip of his index finger.
Eren took a drag out of his smoke before adding on.
"Don't worry about the tournament. Leave it to me. You need to leave the city of Arangar and join my assistant Agatha. She is short on helping hands. Listen to her commands.
I know you wouldn't be much help with managerial work. But I want you to lessen her burden in any way you can. You'll find her here."
Eren handed Tuan an array disk that contained basic information about Agatha and the White Raven guild. With this, the butcher had gained another member for his guild as well as a helper for his helper.
"By the way, Tuan. How many Extols do you have on you?"
Tuan was taken aback by Eren's question. But he answered truthfully anyway.
"About 3000 Extols, give or take."
'With his newly acquired deep pockets, this man doesn't care about money. And he also doesn't hesitate in lending me some. I already like this guy.'
Eren thought to himself and nodded at Tuan before making his demand.
"*Cough. Give me about 2000 Extols, Tuan. I'll return them to you in a while with interest."
The butcher felt awkward asking for money from his now-henchman. But he needed it to carry his next set of plans. Plus, the fact that he was as financially broke as Sienna was from the inside didn't help him.
It wasn't in Tuan's nature to judge a person by how much money they had anyway. For better or worse, he didn't care about it as long as his daily necessities were met. In this way, he was totally anti-Eren.
Tuan handed Eren the Extols he needed along with his identity token. He then started cleaning the battle scene like the butcher had told him to. He would then head out in Agatha's direction once he was done with his current task.
Eren had left the place as soon as he was done with settling his affairs in the region. He only needed to return to the city of Arangar after two weeks, when the last round of the tournament was scheduled.
The butcher was working overtime clearing his hit list.
*************************
"Come on… why are you shy now, Jasmine?
You told me you'd like to do it in the Badlands, didn't you? Well, we are in the Badlands darling. Danger everywhere. Hehe! Doesn't it give you a new form of high?"
Sidro Zas was trying to force his way with a cute girl that dangerously resembled Altashia by her facial features. They were in the Badlands, not far from the border. The region was less dangerous than Sid was making it out to be.
The moonlight of the full moon peeked through the dense vegetation and made its way to the ground. Sid had found a suitable spot for his "Badlands adventure" with the girl he had randomly met and instantly hit it off with.
The girl was also an Ace ranker. Although she had just broken through, her rank was enough for anyone to assume that she was capable of adventuring outside like this.
Jasmine told Sid that she wanted him to take her to the Badlands where there was a chance of monsters appearing. Sid used his army privilege and sneaked her into the region just so that he could get lucky with the girl he just met.
The girl appeared distressed at first. But if one looked carefully, they would find that she was handling him masterfully. She also looked like she was waiting for someone.
"You did a good job, Sylphie. Here's your reward."
A shadow appeared out of nowhere not far from where the duo was. Sid could not process or understand what was going on and how the shadow came so near him without him noticing. While he was at it, the same shadow threw a pouch containing 1000 Extols at the girl.
"Your work is done. Now get the fuck out."
Eren coldly said to Sylphie. Sylphie understood that it was only meant as a warning to her despite his rudeness.
"Pleasure doing business with you, kind sir."
Sylphie responded and bowed a bit to Eren. Then she returned to her gorgeous elven appearance, no longer bearing Altashia's features.
"Wait… what?"
"Bye-bye.!"
Slyphie didn't explain anything to her victim. She waved at Sidro before disappearing from her spot. The guy with the erect penis was left with the butcher who was here to kill him.
Unlike Tuan, Eren preferred killing a snake like Sid thousand times over. He wasn't willing to absolve himself from butchering his team's berserker. Some problems needed to be uprooted from their base before they fester and turn bigger.
AN: VEH punches in 500 chapters with this upload. I thank all my readers and the support they have shown towards this niche project of ours.
I'm grateful to all of you for being with Eren. He may not be the coolest main character you have read about. He may have his moments of weakness. But our boy has tried to stay true to all his aspirations, however right or wrong they might be in anyone's eyes.
Things are about to get interesting. This milestone also serves as a starting point for Eren to kick things up to the next gear. He will now grow at a speed that didn't seem possible previously. We better keep up.
That's about it. Cheers! ;)
