"What are you planning to do with him? You told me to spare him. Surely, you have a plan."
Alephee asked Eren in an inquisitive tone. He scratched his chin before saying matter-of-factly.
"This shit between me and these guys should stay between us. It'll only trouble me and my city more if I let it spill over. So I'm planning to paint a picture of a royal conspiracy. We already have the right colors. We just need someone to bring them here."
Eren said casually as he thought of Krista, Rupen, and Lambert. He then used an artifact to contact Agatha then and there. After a bit of flirtatious talk and some work-related stuff, he asked her if there was someone available at the guild who could bring the handicapped and rune-bound members of Edinburgh's secret force here.
Agatha asked Will Evaan to do the job. Although he was from Levine's camp, he had gotten used to handling things for the White Raven guild. The guy agreed immediately.
Eren's plan was simple. Paint the whole thing as a fight between two royal scions using the kingdom's secret forces as their goons. Naturally, the groups that created the ambush teams wouldn't believe the royal conspiracies at first, even if they had allowed Rehaal to take part. But they wouldn't come out in the open to call Eren's royal conspiracy out.
Eren wasn't sure about the plan when he started crafting it after meeting with Shalen Craft. But now that he had Meera as his live undead, it was easier to pull off. If he played his cards right, even the organizations involved in the ambush would start assuming that Eren got away because of the fight between two royal scions.
The loopholes in the conspiracy would be filled by the conspiracy itself. He had seen that happen with the Osan Woods' Butcher case. He believed that the more loopholes, the more mysterious the royal conspiracy would be.
Alephee understood Eren's plans as soon as he asked Will to bring them to Krista and company. They were simply kept alive without any working limbs attached to their bodies. The crime scene Eren had created at his ambush site would serve as their final resting place.
Eren would let Meera kill the three secret force members using her weapon. Their runic marks will register her as the killer. The butcher would just muddy the waters more by killing Rehaal in the most brutal way possible.
It was already made clear by Rehaal that royal scions would use the kingdom's secret forces for their own gains. Eren would portray Krista and the company as hired help, just like Meera was for Rehaal.
Eren was planning to include Sienna in the royal conspiracy as well, creating a mess for House Slughorn. He would then kill her at a different place to finally be done with her.
"Eren Idril, listen to me. If you spare me, I'll never bother you again. I'll also grant you…"
Rehaal was slowly catching up with what Eren had in his mind. Eren was aiming to use Rehaal as a tool to create a royal conspiracy around him. He knew that it would work better than he cared to admit. Because that's how cutthroat the contest among royal scions was.
"Meera, do it."
Eren didn't pay much attention to Rehaal after he was done preparing for the conspiracy. He let his first living undead finish his job for him.
Swoosh. Zoom. Chop.
Rehaal's head was severed from his torso by Meera's sword. Coincidentally, Rehaal also had a curse mark on his body that would kill his attacker right away as long as he was C-Rank or below. The curse mark would also record the assailant's mana signature, letting the royal house know who killed him.
Meera's mana signature was recorded in the curse mark on Rehaal's chest, which was only visible in the form of a runic tattoo. It spread forth a unique mana pulse and destroyed Meera's heart right away using a mysterious spell.
Eren and Alephee both looked at each other and chuckled when they felt Meera's heart being destroyed. As Meera was now a living undead, she didn't even flinch when her heart was destroyed. Upon Eren's orders, she drank Ice Fairy's Kiss and restored it right away.
Now that the curse mark was removed, Rehaal's body was safe to approach. Eren got near it and accessed his ID stone right away. As a royal scion, Rehaal was bound to have his personal stash of riches on him. Eren wasn't disappointed by his assumption as it turned out to be true.
"Sweet. This should cover my rent for the caravan as well as the efforts I had to put in to come out of it and finish this job."
Eren took all the Extols Rehaal had on him in his storage along with his other resources. He destroyed the ones Alephee told him not to take. Just when he was about to be done with discarding the random things Rehaal had on himself, he found a few pieces of a chipped sword that looked special.
"Hm? What are these?"
Eren mumbled to himself as he levitated the pieces of the chipped sword around him. It took him a while to figure out what they were.
"Are these the pieces of the royal puzzle? The ones Rodrick was looking for?"
Alephee pondered a bit and scanned them with her soul sense before confirming Eren's suspicions.
"Yes. You don't have any use for them though. The sword is a transcendent weapon, no doubt. But you will need all of the pieces to make it whole. And I don't think you should be looking for royal scions to hunt just for the sake of this sword."
Eren shook his head in denial before making Alephee understand what he was thinking about.
"I don't intend to use the weapon myself. But I also won't leave these pieces here. I'd rather give them to Rodrick and make him owe me some more.
Hehe. That bastard would know we had a hand to play in Rehaal's death. But I don't think he would resist the urge to have these pieces for himself."
AN: Krista, Rupen, and Lambert get taken as hostages in chapter 825. Will Evaan was first mentioned in chapter 657. The pieces of the royal puzzle were first mentioned in chapter 776.
