"Hahahaha!"
Sienna started laughing when she heard Eren talk with Alephee. After staring at them viciously, she threatened them.
"You are thinking of finishing me off just because I was part of the ambush team? So what if we tried to kill you? So what if I was part of the ambush team?
Eren, get this thing in your fucking head that some people are meant to suppress others and some are meant to be suppressed. That's just the way the world works. You may not like the world we live in because you are destined to be subjugated. But that doesn't exempt you from following the rules of the world.
You don't need me to tell you the price you'd have to pay for disobedience. Especially when so many forces are standing against you as a united front."
Eren listened to all of Sienna's threats peacefully. He listened to them like he had all the time in the world. One could tell that he was savoring this moment. He sighed before getting close to Sienna. He walked around her with his palms facing his back before speaking to her.
"You know, Sienna. I always thought that it was my fault for getting infatuated with you in my… let's say past life. I thought it was because of me that I was head over heels for you at that time. If I had just avoided you completely and stuck to my lane, things would have been much different for me in my past life. I am not saying that I would have been a very successful person. But I am sure that things would have turned out fine for me.
More often than not, victims themselves indulge in the act of victim-blaming. They just can't avoid getting sucked down the rabbit hole of 'what ifs' and 'could haves.' I was no different back then."
Sienna was caught off guard when she heard Eren was infatuated with her. She didn't know that their rare meeting in LA would cause Eren to have feelings for her. Of course, she didn't know that Eren was talking about his past timeline. She just assumed herself to be special and decided to use Eren's 'supposed' feelings to her advantage.
"Eren… you… you should have told me this sooner. The thing is… I also.."
Eren shook his head in denial and slammed her shut by controlling the woodland creature embracing her from behind. The summoned creature used her green vines as a gag to shut Sienna's mouth.
"You don't need to say anything, Sienna. Your job is to listen. This is not for you. It's for me."
Eren took out another Sativa Stick from his storage and lit it up. He kept on walking in circles with Sienna at the center. Releasing the first drag through his nostrils, he continued.
"Heh! If I had learned nothing from my past, seeing you in front of me would have still invoked a sense of anger in me. If I was as much of a failure as I had been in my past life, those memories would have kept on scarring my consciousness day by day. And this meeting would have been a complete revenge story.
It would have been sad for me to finish you off if I was the same old Eren. Because no matter what, those memories would stay with me for as long as I was alive.
But that's not the case anymore. I managed to change the perspective of looking at those memories. I wouldn't want them to be forgotten in my mind anymore. Things from the past put a smile on my face now. Because I have achieved a semblance of success by using them as my driving force."
'This guy has lost it. If only someone from the ambush team was left alive and came to rescue me…'
Sienna thought to herself and tried to break free from the woodland creature's embrace. She also tried to cast her spell using various means but those attempts were unsuccessful as well.
She had tried contacting Regan and her team using a voice communication channel. However, the dead response informed her that they had already been killed by Eren.
Eren ignored Sienna's futile attempts to escape and continued.
"Fate is a fickle mistress, Sienna. She was never with me in my past timeline. And I don't think she extends any favors to me in this life either. But I have come to cherish something much more profound than fate. And I learned to trust it over any form of luck or destiny.
I trust the process now.
The waiting one has to undergo to reap the rewards of their efforts is worth it to me. I embrace the uncertainty of getting those rewards. And lastly, I enjoy the act of becoming.
Because when nothing is uncertain for me, that's when anything becomes possible for me. Who gives a flying fuck that I had a poor start? That I was a broken man who had a lot of baggage behind my back. That I had reached rock bottom. So much so that the only way for me to proceed forward was to climb out of the abyss from the other side."
Eren released another cloud of white smoke that was filling his lungs and found himself relaxing. For some reason, he felt like this was the most satisfying Sativa Stick he had had in months.
Eren took out Diceros Left and Right from his storage when he was done smoking. He started handling his weapon set using both his hands. The weapons danced around the butcher like they had a mind of their own. As Sienna stood motionless not too far away, the punching daggers cut through the air and caused ripples of mana that felt threatening to her.
While he continued to walk around Sienna, Eren enjoyed handling his weapons. If his previous mentor Marla was here, she would have been shocked by how far Eren had come in mastering the katars.
Sienna was starting to get terrified by how Eren was behaving. She had come to realize that the guy didn't fear her clan. Despite so many powerful forces against him, he did not care if he was their common enemy. As if he was waiting for them to attack him with all they got.
