Some of Eren’s emotions that he thought were long dead showed signs of their existence in his heart. But he shook his head before smiling mirthlessly:
‘Well, some injuries can’t be seen with eyes.
The usual remedies stop working on those injuries because they turn into scars that stay forever with you, no matter what you do.’
‘Eren, try to trust your friends more. And I can become your confidante if you have some stories that you don’t want to share with everybody.’
Eren’s eyes met Renita’s and the latter’s heartbeat increased. The mini staring contest only lasted for a few moments. Eren flashed a genuine grin at the ranger and said out aloud without using the audio channel.
“Renita, some stories are written more for the writer than they are for the readers.
That being said, you have earned my trust with your actions today. And it is difficult for me to trust somebody. I don’t know about being my “confidante”, but let’s become friends first that are more than just teammates and rivals.
We’ll think about sailing the boat when we are on the shore.”
Renita also smiled after she heard Eren’s statements. She was expecting the recluse Eren to act again.
Perhaps her act to follow Eren in his plans despite there being no advantage for her in doing so had enabled her to get close to him, even if just a little. Any progress was better than no progress for her.
“Friends then!”
Renita said while flashing a grin. Eren returned that with a mild smile of his own before replying:
“Friends.”
“If you two lovebirds are done talking, can we ask you to get treated first? Before you go get a room with those injuries and worsen them.”
Said one of the caretakers while smiling at the seeming couple. Eren’s jelly legs found some strength in them after he saw the lady caretaker looking at them with mischief while teasing them. He let go of using Renita as his support and somehow stood on his own.
Renita too straightened up her clothes and hairdo for no apparent reason before saying to Eren:
Get treated Eren. you need it. I’m mostly fine so a consumable potion should do the trick.”
Saying that Renita snatched the potion vial from the caretaker’s hands and walked out of the battle ring in a hurry. Eren stayed there with the caretaker to get treated with her healing spells.
But he wasn’t the only one who was getting healed. Ron walked up to him while he was being treated. The berserker wasn’t completely fine. But he was trying his best to get the answers he needed from a certain wretched person.
“Eren Idril, Dino had told me that you were a cunning, manipulative, son of a bitch. But I didn’t listen to him and got on board with your plan. We did everything by your rules. Yet you backstabbed us.
Why?”
Asked Ron with his menacing gaze. Eren had already expected a question like this. So he just shrugged his shoulders and replied nonchalantly:
“I think you are stretching it when you say I betrayed you. I wanted to catch the mage off guard. She would have bombarded me before I could get close to her. Plus, I was running out of mana after dealing with two rankers back to back.
I saw the mage had left an opening in her defence when she was concentrating on you guys. I saw my chance and took it.”
Said Eren and shifted his body a little to allow for the caretaker’s healing spell to treat the blistering injury he had received on his back. His behaviour irked Ron even more.
“Who are you trying to fool? I would have believed you if it wasn’t for the condition you had placed earlier in our alliance contract.
But looking at things now, you must have pre-planned this. At least have the guts to admit that you had planned to screw us from the beginning.”
Eren returned Ron’s sharp gaze with his cold eyes before replying:
“You know why I don’t have to answer you? It’s because I and Renita have carried you guys in this match. You couldn’t do shit to Roody’s Wreckers. And things would have been uglier had I not used MY battle pass.
Tell me one thing before you accuse me of anything. What did you guys do in this match? What is your contribution? Holding the opponents off so I could do your work for you? Is that it?”
Eren purposely used his mana imbued voice to reply to Ron’s accusation. This was to make others realize the importance of his and Renita’s presence in the match.
He knew his actions could be interpreted in a completely different way with the use of the right words. A trick he had been underestimating almost all of his adult life.
Ron was tongue-tied after he heard Eren’s rebuttal. He had no answer to Eren’s accusations, same as Eren had no answer to his. But the difference between the two was Eren was the one with the closing argument.
“This is not over yet, remember this Eren Idril. And you don’t need me to tell you that our alliance is over.”
Ron started walking to Dino who was still getting treated. He had regained his consciousness but was in no condition to stand up yet.
“Hold up, Ron. You are forgetting something.”
Said Eren after he got up from his seated position. He dusted off what remained of his trousers and continued
“Our alliance stays intact until all our team members fight in the respective squads we have divided them into at least once. You can only break the alliance after that. This is one of the clauses of the alliance contract.”
Ron froze in his tracks after he heard Eren’s words. He regretted not listening to loudmouth Dino’s pestering.
Ron should have read the terms and conditions of the alliance contract carefully before signing over it. Now his negligence was going to bite him back in the ass.