Ron tried to discourage Eren from putting them in dangerous situations by giving him a grim possibility. And he considered the worst in his owner and came up with shallow deterrence.
“Haha! No need to nudge me in the “so-called” right direction, Ron. In case you forgot, I’m smarter than you. At least related to these things. You being my slaves now is proof of that.
I’ll give you a hint to ease your mind. I want your help in dealing with a certain girl. It’s not risky. And it should not put you in someone’s crosshairs as long as you are careful.”
Eren folded his hands after he said that. Something about dealing with a girl caught Dino’s attention at last as his ears twitched in response to it. He couldn’t help ask his owner about the girl:
“Who are we talking about?”
Eren saw the glint in Dino’s eyes and smiled before shaking his head. He understood that the guy wanted to partake in his self-serving fantasies while not feeling any guilt in his consciousness.
“Don’t overimagine stuff, Dino. Thinking isn’t your forte anyway. And if I tell you the name of that girl now, forget about doing anything to her. You would be so shit-scared, your balls would retract inside you from their sack.”
Dino and Ron both looked at each other after they heard that. Dino wanted Ron to come up with a possibility with his “big brain moves”. Ron didn’t disappoint his childhood friend. He came up with a possible name after employing the theory of Elimination by Aspects.
“Sienna Slughorn!”
Ron said that as soon as he compared the various female rankers Eren knew in LA. The butcher was right. The berserker’s balls struggled to stay in their sack after he heard his hunch being spoken out loud.
Eren, in his own twisted belief, thought that it was poetic justice itself if the same guys who had helped Sienna plot his downfall in the past timeline worked under him to do the same against her at his behest.
The butcher couldn’t extend the same courtesy to Sienna that he had offered to dual berserkers. Nothing was off-limits when it came to punishing her.
She was the root cause behind most of his sufferings after all. The others who had helped her only served her as her pawns. So Eren was willing to learn from his enemies and take the page from their books while he catered to his interests.
Eren was going to make sure that Sienna falls into an even deeper pit than he had found himself in his previous life. But that was difficult for him to pull off alone because of her background.
Eren kept quiet for some time after hearing Ron’s spot-on prediction. A few moments had to pass before he replied with stoic expressions and a serious tone.
“Ron, your intelligence would save you from most dangers, provided you don’t act too smart for your good.”
Said Eren. He was suddenly reminded of Ralph from the Osan Woods after witnessing Ron’s thought process. He couldn’t help asking the guy about the same.
“Ron, are you, by any chance, related to the guy named Ralph who I heard had been killed the Osan Woods Butcher?”
Ron was confused that Eren suddenly made an out-of-the-blue connection with him and Ralph. But he confirmed his suspicions anyway:
“Um… yeah. He is my cousin. Or was. His mother and my mother are sisters. And my uncle Lin Karr is their only brother. Why do you ask?”
‘Now it makes sense. The extra smartness runs in the family. Too bad the same could not be said about their uncle Lin Karr.’
Eren thought to himself before looking at the smartass v2.0. Then he just shrugged his shoulders before saying:
“It was just some news I had heard about your connection with the guy who had died by the butcher’s hands. Never mind, I’ll tell you about what you need to do in a few days. For now, you can disperse.”
Said Eren and turned his back on Ron before starting to walk in a certain direction. He still had another task to worry about now that the mana beasts were out of the picture.
Malva Hibiscus.
He didn’t need berserkers’ help in locating the ingredient. So he could let them go. But Ron wasn’t over with his questions it seemed:
“Was that beast contract spell you used back then?”
Eren just nodded in response like the pathological liar he was after listening to Ron’s query. He would never trust any person just because they were his slaves after all and come clean with all his secrets:
“But then why haven’t you used the spell in your ranking battles till now?”
Eren resumed his walk in the direction of Malva Hibiscus after he heard that question. His slightly distant was heard by Ron, answering his question by not answering it:
“And why would I reveal all my cards for everybody to see? And do you think that’s the only card I have? Hehehe!”
Eren seemingly disappeared from his position after he said that. Ron looked at his now-gone figure with sombre expressions. He had realized that he had messed up and gotten himself involved with a ruthless, cold, and calculative personality.
Ron could feel that the societal bottom lines Eren had only existed because he was looking after his self-interests. He didn’t follow them for the sake of others. And if there was the possibility that no repercussions would fall on him, Eren would be okay with anything and everything.
Eren was not evil because of his actions. He was evil for the simple fact that he knew how to pretend not to be one. With outright evil, the person confronting them had time to prepare in advance.
The chaotic evil is always on the path of self-destruction. And the lawful evil can be easy to deal with since it doesn’t try to break the established system. It was the neutral evil who could cause the most damage to the society if there ever was a benefit for them in doing so.
Ron had come to realize that Eren’s personality made him fall under the last category.
‘At least I’m alive. And as long as I’m alive, big brother Ralph, there’s a chance for me to get revenge on the butcher for killing you. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure that the fuc*ker pays somehow.”
Ron consoled himself with such thoughts. His big brother Ralph was his role model and guiding light.
Ron and Ralph were both birthed by their mothers inside a specialized array designed by Lin’s parents to boost the newborn child’s stats from the moment they were born. The array seemed to prioritize the intelligence stat more though.
Lin’s parents were very well-known to create and researching unique arrays like these. And they were very famous and influential because of them. Too bad, their only son couldn’t inherit their gifts and sucked balls in the study of arrays.
In conclusion, the role that the array played in both Ron and Ralph’s births became the foundation for their talents in analyzing things on a deeper level.
Both the boys grew up in the same environment. But because of their enhanced intelligence, they weren’t social to the peers of their age.
Ron and Ralph couldn’t connect with others the way they connected because of similar thought processes. That made them look for support in each other.
Things only changed for Ron a little when Dino became his friend. But that didn’t make him create a distance between him and his big brother Ralph.
So when news about Ralph’s death came, Ron didn’t take it too well. He had to process and release his bottled up emotions rationally to come up with the idea of taking revenge on the butcher.
That line of thought got Ron on his feet again and made him put extra effort into his ranking journey. The berserker had also figured out from the rumours that the butcher wasn’t a simple person to deal with. But he took it as a challenge rather than a deterrence. After all, his rational brain needed a clear goal to function, no matter how tall it might seem.
Ron thought of taking his time and dealing with the butcher in the future when he became powerful enough to do so. What he couldn’t have thought in his wildest dreams was the fact that the butcher who had killed the emotional support of a cousin was the same person he was currently serving as his slave.
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AN: Who remembers Ralph the smartass? 😉