"Look here, old man. Don't forget that you are still my subordinate. No matter how low my position has gotten inside the clan, I'm still well above you. Did you forget that?"
Sienna spoke in an angry tone and looked at Regan hatefully. Her aura was turning darker while she was processing a range of emotions in her head.
"Look. Things are not as bad as you think they are."
'They are terrible,' Regan said in his head. But let the girl continue her speech.
"You don't understand the deeper meaning behind the actions of these old foggies like I do. Yes, I may have acted out of impulse on some occasions. And it is indeed true that Gramps is angry at me.
However, I am the only ranker from the main branch to have a semblance of talent in potioning in my generation. As such, my position is not as easily replaceable.
You know what Gramps had sent me here to watch a real-life battle?"
Regan didn't have to answer the question. He knew it would be answered by Sienna herself.
"He wants me here because of your target– Eren Ilijah Idril. Gramps Sebastian wants me to see Eren's struggle to survive the onslaught of such a huge joint force up and close. The guy is from LA. He was in the same class as I was back then.
That's why Gramps wants me to draw a comparison in my head. A guy with no background achieves so much in such a short time. And now many organizations have come together to kill him and share equal responsibility. And then he wants me to think about where I stand in front of him.
Pfft! Such outdated views. He doesn't understand that he shouldn't compare me to the likes of him. A cockroach that learns to fly is still a cockroach."
Regan was reminded that Eren was Sienna's batchmate in LA by her. He had tucked that fact in the back of his mind while he was on the mission. In the new history of the kingdom, it didn't make sense that someone of such a young age and without a background could accomplish something of such magnitude.
He couldn't help asking Sienna about their target.
"Sienna, do you remember what Eren was like? Did you two meet at the academy? Did he always have plans to visit the Nightshade dutchy?"
Sienna was a bit surprised by Regan's question. The guy wanted to know about his potential victim before killing him. She chuckled at first. But then she pondered a bit before replying.
"I remember this boy named Eren. He was very inconspicuous when we were in the academy. You want to know if he showed his potential in LA, don't you? The answer would be a strict no.
I remember he tried to push Ken toward that damned elf for some reason. He was friends with Ken and would talk about the two as if they were already married.
I bet he was the reason why things couldn't work out between me and Ken."
Sienna started cursing Eren in her mind after that. Mostly because she was looking for someone to blame for why things didn't work out her way. And she finally found her excuse.
Sienna then became excited to watch Eren's downfall with her own eyes. The idea of an exceptional achiever from her generation being destroyed by her clan somehow pleased her.
She started gloating at him even before they came face to face. Subconsciously, she felt that she had an irreconcilable hatred for him. As if her subconscious had access to memories and insights she was disconnected from.
Sienna suppressed in her subconscious the fear she felt toward Eren. Just like her unexplainable hatred, she couldn't pinpoint the reason behind her unfounded fear of him.
Nevertheless, Sienna was happy that Eren would get destroyed by the joint forces in front of her eyes. She also wished for Ken and all the other promising students in her academic batch to meet the same fate.
Regan could only sigh after listening to Sienna and watching her facial expressions. It was clear that the girl had become a mental case.
The things she said made sense on some level. But that didn't change the fact that Sebastian was looking for her replacement.
Sienna was Sebastian's project-in-the-making for a very long time. She had been provided with the highest quality resources and care from the moment she stepped on the path to becoming a ranker. She demonstrated a promise to lead her clan with her wits. But if she didn't even have those with her, there were no other redeeming qualities Sebastian could count on.
The rankers from House Slughorn that were standing behind the two kept quiet as Sienna and her handler had their talk. They would only come into action when Eren shows up.
***
Another zone serves as an ambush point outside the city of New Beginnings.
Escalon guild forces and Demonmir's faction forces were working in tandem.
At this point, all the groups that were part of Eren's ambush plan had come to know that Eren had come out of the Moonlight Death Forest and left the city. This was the most crucial moment for the ambush, as it was about to start.
"Expert Oslo, what if he decides to use his demon beast?"
Shalen asked Oslo in a curious tone. She was playing with a runic dagger in her hand.
Shalen had scored well in Minerva's Utopia. She had participated in the test of Bravery and became the first rank holder in the test because of her exceptional fortitude and performance.
The blonde-haired assassin had received a lot of rare and precious rewards from Utopia as a result. She broke through the Adept rank quickly using those resources on her, raising her value in the Escalon guild even more.
===
AN: Shalen Craft was first introduced in chapter 658. She participated in the Test of Bravery inside Minerva's Utopia in chapter 707.
Oslo was introduced in chapter 722.
