Prepare to say goodbye to these herbs you call your friends and this lab in some days. And remember the name that will be the reason behind your ruin. It’s Sienna Slughorn!”
Sienna slowly left the lab after declaring her threat. Eren had understood that his refusal would have repercussions. But he didn’t understand the severity of them at the time.
Sienna had ties with the potioneer in charge of the first years. He would be a mad potioneer not to form ties with anyone from the viscount Slughorn’s house. He was the reason Sienna could dump her assignments on Eren without anyone being the wiser.
The potioneer in charge couldn’t control everything that happens in the academy. But the first-year lab was his domain. He might not be able to grant Sienna merit points out of nothing. Otherwise, he might get in trouble after someone else cross-checks the assignments. But granting her the merit points and letting her avoid the penalty for someone else’s work was still feasible.
Sienna just asked the same potioneer in charge to make trouble for Eren and gradually decrease his merit points after finding ‘supposed’ faults in his assignments. The sold-out potioneer obliged.
Sienna started attending her potioneering assignments. But it came with a cost that Eren had to pay for.
Eren soon found out how deep was Sienna’s reach. His prim and proper potion assignments suddenly started having errors in them. He would often get mistreated by the lab staff. The potioneer in charge would scold him for his ‘poor performance’ in front of everybody.
Eren’s merit points took a huge dip as a result. He now had to work twice as hard for half the merit points just to not get flunk in the course.
But that was not all. Sienna soon ranted to Ken that Eren had tried to be all touchy with her one day when they were alone in the lab. Almost everyone knew about Eren’s crush on Sienna. The girl had made sure of that with her previous gossip. So it wasn’t difficult for everyone to believe in the same. Why would a girl lie, right?
Eren was a recluse. He didn’t have any friends in the academy. His connections with the academy staff and teachers were even more imaginary. The news spread like a wildfire within the first-year community.
Soon the facts were twisted and Eren became even more of an abomination than Sienna had planned for him to be seen as. She fanned the flames even further. Eren’s life in and outside the lab became more difficult with each passing day because of the naked jeers and constant threats from various groups affiliated with Sienna.
Eren’s merit points soon became insufficient for him to continue studying potion-making in the academy. Eren was in his third academic year by then. Nobody would think of switching courses at this point. But Eren did. He did not have a choice.
The berserker course charged the least amount of merit points and had many options available in LA. it accepted any students who wanted to learn the way of berserking. It was a relatively straightforward path. Eren chose the path of a berserker when he only had two years remaining in the academy.
Eren had practised a potion-manufacture-centric F-Rank ranking technique when he first resumed his ranking journey after breaking through into the beginner’s rank. But that technique was not suitable for the path of a berserker.
Eren had to regress in his ranking journey to adapt to a new berserker ranking technique. He also had to take up compulsory battle-oriented courses. There, as if mental miseries were not enough, he faced even worse physical miseries.
Sienna and Ken had become a thing by then. The girl had played her sympathy card the most. She acted like a damsel in distress whenever she saw Eren. Of course, a few students had seen through her farce but they too joined hands with her to gain favour from one of the biggest names in potion manufacturing.
So whenever Eren would come for a duel in the arena, he would get beaten up black and blue by members of Sienna’s camp. She had again started coming to the battle courses to watch Ken’s performance. She had given the same offer to someone else. And that someone couldn’t refuse.
Eren was burning from within. He had not messed up with anybody. But it seemed to him that the entire academy was standing against him.
Eren was a hard-working man. He put double the efforts in the path of a berserker. But that didn’t help him in stopping the constant humiliation coming his way. They called him many names: leecher, pervert, cheater, psycho, potential serial killer, charlatan potioneer, worst berserker in history, and many more.
Eren had found a census had been raised against him. Sienna had a major hand to play in it. But most of it was due to him not having a backer to count on. Not having enough connections. But it was already too late. Even if by some miracle, he tries to form any connection and his voice gets heard, it will never be enough to wipe out his larger-than-life image of being the worst student in LA’s history.
Sienna had many accomplices in pulling the rug off of Eren’s feet for good. She had Vivi Loren and Luna Selene to spread the gossip of Eren’s apparent misadventures on a lot of girls, not just Sienna. Then there was Ron Valencia and Dino Moretti who was in the same battle classes as Eren. They would often challenge him and beat him up till he loses consciousness.
Eren had his patience’s limit breached a long time ago at the end of the academic year. Something needed to be done. He could still get a potioneer’s license even after getting graduated as a berserker with Sienna’s help.
The license would be of the lowest grade. And Eren would be the worst passed-out potioneer from LA because of his lost practice. But even with all that, Eren had a chance to resume being with Nina. His career as a potioneer was more important to him than his pride.
Eren decided to go with pragmatism. He decided he would say perfunctory sorry to Sienna for the things he had said. If she needs her ego soothed with Eren’s sorry, so be it! He was also willing to work for her. That’s why he asked her if they could meet in private.
Sienna agreed. But she asked her friends and more to stand at a distance from their meeting point in case ‘Eren decides to act rudely.’ She also made her friends ensure that no third party was there and Ken was accidentally brought to their meeting place at the right time.
The evening of their meeting arrived. Eren was at the place first and observed the surprising lack of people. But he didn’t pay any heed to it. He waited patiently for Sienna to show up.
Sienna had the same smile she had given to Eren when he had said no to her overbearing demands. Eren didn’t mind himself getting ridiculed for the sake of his future. For the sake of helping aunt Nina in her work.
Eren wanted to start right off with a sorry but the Slughorn vixen opened her mouth before him:
“You know, you are still as dense as you were back then. We are way past sorry and retracting our words. You are more useful to me being a useless student these days.
Men’s brains are as gullible as a young dog in heat. They would want to fuck anything that moves and believe in everything that would give them the treat known as self-gratification.
Your infamy has become the reason for me to get close to Ken. It has invoked a sort of hero complex in him. He now sees me as someone that needs protecting.
Why would I accept your apology now after achieving so much without it? In case you are wondering why I accepted your request. It was to make your case even worse in Ken’s eyes than what he sees you be.
Saying this, Sienna ran straight at Eren and crashed on him. The infamous leecher and pervert was caught off guard. He tried to block her with his hands but that only made matters worse as she grabbed his raised hands with hers and placed them on her breasts.
“Aaaaaaah! Help. Someone help. Eren Idril is trying to r*pe me.”