“Hmm! So they know Osan Woods’ Butcher or someone related to him has entered the LA grounds!
What should I do now?”
Eren had realized that he was in big trouble from peeking into Julie’s memories. She had been told a little amount of information by Lin Karr who himself was only privy to the information he had received from his superior till now.
The butcher knew there was no loose end from his side. His carefulness knew no bounds when it came to his survival. But no matter how full-proof the execution of each of his actions was, there existed various specialists in the ranking journey who could predict and even prophesize something or the other about a certain event that might have happened or will happen in the future.
The only thing he could do was to prepare himself in advance. That’s why the butcher was so keen on keeping tabs on Lin’s team. He knew that since that group has already been dragged into this mess, they’ll be made aware of the updates whether they liked to listen to or not.
‘But how can this information benefit me? What can I do in advance?’
The wheels inside Eren’s head started churning. He thought of various possibilities and probabilities. In the end, he concluded that, since they had included the ‘accomplice of the butcher’ part, they were not sure about him being here in LA.
That could also mean Julie was given a limited amount of information. And they might have already confirmed through some means that the butcher was in fact on LA grounds. They could just be trying to figure out its identity.
‘I still have some leeway. I need to come up with a simple yet effective plan to get out of this mess. This Osan Woods’ incident just keeps on getting in my way, damn it. When will I be free from this hunt?
No. I’m thinking this in the wrong way. I only want the hunt to end from my end when I should be thinking about how it should end from their end.
For a hunt to end, someone has to serve and die as prey.
I need a decoy.’
Eren’s eyes shone with ethereal radiance after coming to this point. The figures hiding in the shadows were looking for the butcher because they hadn’t found him yet. He needed to give them their butcher for them to stop looking any further.
Thanks to the information he had right now, Eren could put forward another performance while ensuring his safety.
**************
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
Somewhere within the dense forest on LA grounds, a group of students could be seen partaking in practise battles. This group was none other than Eren’s party. He had returned to his dorm room, gotten fresh and summoned his team members to practise with them.
Currently, Eren was seen practising with Steve. He had told the latter to be vocal about his spell executions. And Steve was only following his orders.
Steve’s new spell needed him to control the surrounding mana with the help of auditory mana fluctuations. That’s why he was shouting. Thanks to the berserker class, it would not hinder his battle performance either.
Eren had suggested the change of spell to Steve a few days ago when he had consulted the latter about his incompatibility with his previously practised spell. The spell Steve was practising now, named Kulak, required him to shout his heart out while imbuing mana in his vocal cords.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
“Stop, stop, stop! Steve, I think you need to practise your control over imbuing mana in your vocal cords. Your output is not standardized so it is making things difficult for you. Maybe you should stop the spell practise and get back to the basics.
Sometimes having the ability to cast spells is not enough. You also need exceptional expertise in casting them to make them a go-to tool in your arsenal. Practise your basics as I’ve told you.”
Eren seemed the sole boss of his entire team. He would oversee the practise matches among his teammates from time to time and guide them in various fields. Steve was just another of his pet projects to raise an exceptional berserker that he couldn’t become in his previous life.
But it was not like he didn’t have problems:
“Will you fight me now? Why are you hesitating like a shy little girl?”
Renita pestered him to have a duel with her again. The butcher had a hard time handling this little lady.
First, her battle style didn’t have many flaws. And second, her moves and spells were related to the ranger class which he didn’t know much about. So he couldn’t give her much guidance.
Without that guidance acting as leverage, Eren couldn’t tame this fierce vixen who was the most cunning amongst her peers of the same age. She tried to bait him with an apt choice of words, or at least so she thought. Alas, Eren wasn’t to be underestimated:
“Stop treating me like a little kid or a man insecure about his masculinity. Do you think being called a shy girl is insulting to me? I love shy little girls. They are..”
“Eren, my bro. You should stop doing any more damage to your image. Otherwise, these girls will see you as a pedo.”
The butcher wanted to continue but was interrupted by Jake with an awkward smile on his face.
‘This little vixen had set a trap within a trap for me.’
Only then did Eren realize that even knowing about the bait wasn’t enough sometimes. You needed to come up with an appropriate response to dodge it completely.
“Hehehe! So you like little girls. Why don’t we have a duel then? And I promise this news stays with our team. Otherwise, who knows? News on the campus travels fast and travels wide, you know.”
Eren didn’t know whether to smile or laugh at this. Pedo? Pfft! If these guys knew he had been sleeping with women much older than his current age, what would they think about him?
But suddenly he was reminded of the Recluse R*pist incident from his past life and his expressions turned cold. Because even that incident was focused on tarnishing his image.
Even when Renita was only making fun of him to have her way, the way with which she chose to do it irked him thoroughly.
“I’d suggest that you keep your silly pranks to yourself, little lady. You wanted a duel, right? You’ll get one. But that won’t be because you baited me into it. 500 Merps, for one duel. That’s my charge to guide you. Pay up now or come again after earning the amount to have your wish fulfilled.
Now tell me, are you willing to pay that amount? If yes, we’ll have that duel right now!”
The scrooge made use of his newly introduced way to earn Merps to pressurize Renita. Only he was supposed to manipulate these young guns. Not the other way around.