"Hahaha. You are as feisty as always, Aunt Nina."
Eren chuckled as he steadied himself in the air. Nina and Amory had to look up to stare at the butcher. Nina smiled before responding.
"Hehe. And you are as horny as always, little rat."
Eren raised his eyebrows and scrunched his nose in dissatisfaction as he asked.
"Heh! Why is that a bad thing?"
Nina looked at him playfully as she replied.
"When did I say it was a bad thing?"
"Hmm. But your actions don't match your intentions, Miss Contradiction Incarnate."
Nina was taken aback by Eren's way of referring to her. The latter had forgotten that he used to call her by that name only in his head. The healer then got a bit serious before answering him in a serious voice with a bit of hesitation.
"Well… we are kinda under duress. My guild…"
Nina looked at Amory after she said. The latter made his intentions known that he was okay with Nina sharing information about the guild with Eren. This is because everybody in the kingdom will come to know about it eventually. But the old man told Nina that she should brief him after they got out of Monster Canyon.
"I'll tell you later, Erni."
Nina said and looked around herself. The butcher had asked Ror to get out of the zone after reaching the place. He wouldn't enter the zone meant for B-Rankers on his own.
He had taken help from Baran and his team of orcs before approaching Nina all on his own. Thus, Eren told Baran and Ror to meet each other to discuss the next set of plans arranged for them.
Nina did not know that Monster Canyon and the Badlands as a whole were relatively safer places for the butcher than inside Edinburgh. Inside the Badlands, Eren was creating a dominion for himself that was strengthening itself with each passing day.
Unaware of the mysterious pies Eren had dipped his fingers in, Nina grew worried about Eren's safety. She looked at him keenly before speaking in a grim tone.
"I wasn't expecting to be greeted like this by you. Especially here in the Badlands when we were supposed to hunt for a Monster Overlord. Let's get out of here, Erni. You really shouldn't be here. I wouldn't be able to protect you properly if we were attacked by a monster horde or…"
Nina was about to say something to Eren. But all of a sudden, his eyes opened wide in shock as she sensed his ranking status.
"Wait… When did you enter the solid stage of the Adept rank?"
Eren knew that Nina would be surprised once again because of his status. So he cackled like a baby hyena before responding.
"Kekeke. Did you notice it just now? A few days back."
Eren said and landed in front of Nina once again with his Wind-Fire Wings still dispersing into thin air behind him. He shrugged his shoulders and walked a bit toward Nina before speaking in a carefree voice.
"It's no big deal. Expert rank is just around the corner. And with a bit of effort from my side, I'll catch up with you soon."
Eren said as if he had never bothered to increase his ranking status through traditional methods. Which was kind of true. He had indeed put in more effort than anyone else in his generation. But they were not concentrating on doing particular things. Instead, he had diversified his areas of expertise.
Eren seldom practiced his ranking techniques after his breakthrough into the Adept rank. Most of his ranking progress was dependent on the peculiarity of his ranking technique as well as the "supplements" he had found along the way. Devouring those "supplements" regularly provided him with spectacular gains.
To someone who was not aware of the butcher's regular schedule, it looked like he had invested all his efforts into progressing further in his rank. Still, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the butcher had achieved something amazing.
Nina was impressed with Eren's progress as well. But she decided to be critical of him instead of praising him just for fun's sake.
"Ha. There he is! Bragging about his progress as usual. You play such a down-to-earth character in front of others. Why do you feel the need to be boastful in front of me?"
Nina's question had Eren stumped in his speech. She thought he was bragging when he was speaking the truth. He pursed his lips and stopped when he was only an inch away from Nina. He placed both his hands on her cheeks and cupped her face before speaking up.
"That…. That's a very good question, Aunt Nina. Hmm. I don't know how to answer that."
The warmth of Eren's palms could be felt on her face. He scratched the tip of her nose and played with her earlobes. The latter also wrapped her arms around his neck and spoke playfully.
"Hehe. Not that I'm complaining. I like you more when you are this confident."
Eren and Nina argued back and forth as if they were the only two people in the vicinity. They were about to kiss each other when they heard a cough so severe that it felt like someone was about to die.
The old man Amory was annoyed by their apparent failure to recognize that he was also present at the scene. He coughed like a mortal on his deathbed before addressing Nina.
"Lass, who is this distinguished young man?"
Eren and Nina both looked at Amory as if they had both registered his presence for the first time. The old man could understand this coming from Eren. But he wasn't expecting Nina to act the same way when she had helped him so much. It was as if she had stopped being a member of Healers' Nirvana when she was with Eren.
Nina bit her tongue when she realized her mistake. She got away from Eren's embrace and cleared her throat for no apparent reason before introducing Eren to Amory.
"This is Eren Idril I used to talk about, Uncle Amory. Umm… let's get out of the Badlands, shall we? That Ogre has run away and the place will only get more dangerous if we try to follow him any further."
"But…"
Amory tried to say something to Nina. But the latter cut him off right away.
"Think about Eren, uncle Amory. He is not meant to be in this zone at all."
