Eren always knew that there were liable to be repercussions for assimilating Healers' Nirvana into his guild.
He wasn't kidding when he painted a grim picture for Jiana saying there were consequences to taking over her guild. He hadn't said that just to get a favorable deal for himself.
The butcher knew how cultist organizations worked. After all, he was in business with some of them. So he wasn't surprised when he heard that the remaining members of the Midnight Moon along with some others were planning to attack White Raven city itself. It was their way of sending a message.
Eren felt that dealing with cultists was a lot more problematic than dealing with well-established forces or entities. Because he didn't know how to target them. The cultists didn't have fixed assets under their names. So he couldn't hold them accountable for anything.
This was the reason why Eren dealt with cultists by hiring other cultists. Still, the fact that he had taken over Healers' Nirvana could not be hidden. So he was expecting Midnight Moon and its allies to bear their fangs at him anyway.
Eren smirked to himself when he got the heads-up from Shandil. He was glad that he had prepared Shandil to be a living undead with a false lifehood infused into him. The butcher could use the royal elf as a beacon to get all the royal scions acting behind the cultist organizations before killing them in an ambush.
He made a straightforward plan in a few seconds before addressing Shandil.
"Shandil, you will call Shalana and all the other royal scions from Layos that you can find. Bring them together so we can kill them all in one go."
Eren decided to kill all the royal scions of Layos he could get his hands on. It was so that the ones who survived Eren's ambush plan wouldn't have sufficient force or influence to target him or his city.
Ivor stopped playing with his daggers and looked at Eren as if he was expecting him to say something like that. Only he could talk about killing a bunch of royal scions from the enemy kingdom like he was chopping veggies. He doubted even Edinburgh royalty would take such bold steps even after getting their hands on the royal elves within their borders.
Ivor smirked before using a runic whetstone to sharpen his daggers. He once belonged to a family that was supposed to care about the citizens of Edinburgh. But he didn't have these responsibilities anymore.
Eren's plan to keep his guild out of trouble was going to intensify the enmity between the two kingdoms. But that didn't stop Eren from prioritizing his interests. Next, he glanced at Kirin before adding more.
"Kirin darling, take Shandil with you and figure out a plan to target all the cultists in one go. Kaalmaahen is busy handling his tribe. And I don't think Agatha would be able to spare you any rankers from the guild to carry out this mission.
So you'd have to look for someone else. Get in touch with Baran and form a strike team with him.
Money won't be an issue. Use whatever means you have to sneak the monsters within the kingdom's territories and target all the cultists who have decided to target us. I'll also ask Sirius to hunt down some of the high-ranking entities that can't be handled by you.
Stay low-key but let the killings make a splash. Let them know White Raven City knows how to protect itself in a way they couldn't have imagined."
Eren asked Kirin to strike at his incoming enemies first before they strike him. She had already proved her mettle by leading the charge against an entire Ogre tribe along with its leader. So he knew she could handle this task just as effortlessly.
Orc Lord Baran was Eren's Orc general that was in charge of his monster army stationed in the Badlands. Eren decided to sneak some of the monsters inside Edinburgh to use them against the cultists.
Kirin nodded at Eren's decision. She liked the fact that he could count on her for things like this. Just as she had done the last time, she decided to do stellar work on this job as well.
Eren then looked at Layla before asking her.
"What will you do now that you have been freed from Oliver's constant pursuits? Enter the city of Lancelot?"
Layla stopped writing in her journal and paused before looking up. She looked at the flames of the campfire dancing over the half-burnt logs as she spoke.
"Yes. I have completed my part of the preparations. I didn't want that wretched Oliver to follow me there. So I avoided going to the city for a long time. But the time has come.
Oliver is dead. Master Eliza's preparations are almost finished as well. And Arthur is busy with his secluded ranking practice. Even if he comes out of his seclusion, he will be busy stabilizing his breakthrough into the Grandmaster rank.
We have nothing to stop us from starting the Lazarus project.
I'm just waiting for you. When will you join me?"
Eren finished his dinner and looked at the star-studded night sky. He smiled when he heard Layla's question. Instead of answering her right away, he instead asked a question to Ivor.
"Thinking of Jason?"
Oliver's mention of Jason with his dying breath had irked Ivor. Jason was the guy who Ivor had counted on in his academy days. And the same guy had betrayed him and lured him into Purgatory.
"If only he wasn't Arthur's son…"
Ivor would have liked to get even with Jason for betraying him. But he knew that thinking about targeting Jason and doing it were two different things. Jason was Arthur's bastard son. The guy was also very talented.
Jason had gotten into Royal Renar when Arthur's artificial demon beast project didn't yield him the result he wanted. He was supposed to take Ivor with him. Due to a twist of fate, the two ended up on a different spectrum of life.
Jason got to enjoy all the top-notch ranking resources after he exited Purgatory. Ivor on the other hand was branded as the Osan Woods' Butcher. He was forced to live the life of a cultist– living nomadically and off the grid most of the time.
"There's a way, Ivor. Hehe. How about you graduate with me just for the heck of it?"
