“Wait… you mother***… Err… I mean Eren. just wait. I… I am ready to sign the slave contract.”
Dino finally decided to follow Ron’s example.
Eren made an exaggerated face of surprise before telling the meathead:
“Whatever happened to your dignity, my friend? I thought you were going to die for your honour and glory. And I was kinda beginning to respect your choice for that, you know.”
Dino’s pale face finally had some colour as it got to read from Eren’s remark. He wanted to speak and he raised his hands to do so, but just couldn’t find the right words to put his side in the best light.
Then Dino just dropped his head down in shame and regret. He had thought that death was easier than serving this wretched man who was all sorts of trouble. But he needed company in his final endeavour. A company he was expecting from Ron.
Dino had been following Ron all his life since childhood. And his two betrayals in a row did hurt him a bit. But he had already known about this side of his friend.
Ron was someone who would do anything and everything for his friends, except for dying. And Dino was still grateful to the guy for him to provide for his family.
Plus, Ron had his reasons to survive and achieve the things he wanted to do. And Dino respected him for that.
“I… I’m willing to sign the slave contract. Just don’t expect me to grovel to your feet now.”
Said Dino and clenched his fists tightly. Eren wanted to point out that grovelling to one’s feet wasn’t so different from signing the slave contract. But he spared the guy from another verbal abuse and threw another slave contract towards him.
Both the berserkers read the contracts carefully with grim expressions. Any breach in the contract was going to result in the implosion of their mana core, including actively or passively seeking help to breach the contract.
But they had no choice. The array would have an active timer. And it was ticking. Both of them were sure Eren wouldn’t wait long enough and take care of them along with the two beasts if they took up too much time.
Ron was the first to sign the slave contract with his blood getting used as ink, imbued in his mana signature. Dino followed in his footsteps soon after.
Eren retrieved the contract scrolls from the dual berserkers and rechecked the contents as well as the imprints of Ron and Dino on their respective contracts.
He did the same actions as the dual berserkers to imprint the contract as the owner. But he commanded Reen to sign the contract for him by using her mana and mana signature for imprint.
Eren did this to make sure that Dino and Ron stay loyal to him without him getting directly involved. Plus, a high-ranked entity getting in contract with low-ranked entities would always make it difficult for the latter to breach the contract.
Dino and Ron could feel some faint connection with Eren. But they felt like there was some interference. As if it was Eren and wasn’t him at the same time. But they just chalked it under as their first time being slaves to anybody.
Eren had warned them that the slavery they were willing to undertake had no expiry date. They were going to have to stay as his slave or die to get free from their statuses.
But the butcher assured the dual berserkers that most of their daily lifestyles would remain unaffected. And he’d only summon them when he needs them. They could act like usual if and when there was no summon or order from him.
And like this, Eren obtained two more slaves. This time, two illegal ones. He couldn’t make use of the dual berserkers openly. And their slavery statuses needed to be kept hidden for their as well as his sake.
But now Eren could manage the dual berserkers to do a few things without getting his hands dirty. He never wanted to kill the dual berserkers. Just scare them into submission.
Of course, Eren was still not content with the past life experiences he had with dual berserkers. He was going to make them suffer the consequences of that some more.
But he had now come to realize that these two guys were just looking after their interests. And he was just in their way. So they used him to cater to the benefits they could get by being friendly with Sienna.
If the dual-berserkers could make use of him for their reasons, Eren could return the favour to them in the same manner. Plus, killing them would complicate his status with the academy. Even if he takes all the precautions and nothing gets traced back to him, the cynic in Eren believed that “prevention is better than cure.”
Eren controlled the arrays with their controllers and allowed Dino and Ron to get out of their traps. Now only the mana beasts were confined to their respective arrays.
“What are you going to do with them?”
Ron asked while standing behind Eren’s back, on his right side. They were now at an ample distance away from the spot of the two arrays.
Dino was standing on Eren’s left. Eren didn’t need to look behind to answer the guy. He just shrugged his shoulders and said nonchalantly:
“Why, kill them of course. The array can only stay active for so much time.”
Saying this, Eren imbued his mana into the two controls by grabbing them both in each of his hands and willing them to detonate the arrays using his mana sense.
There was no sound. But an unmistakably dominant wave of C-Rank mana spread over the surrounding area.
Two lightning element C-Rank arrays had been detonated!
===================
AN: Our bodacious babe Marla is back on our book cover, boys! No more Krampus torture. (Although the image kinda highlighted “vile evil hiding under the veil” in a better manner, imao)
