Chapter 144: Silver Lining
Chapter 144: Silver Lining
“This **** **** ***** fukin Ken Riverine. I should just kill him instead of petty plotting like this.
Aaaaaaargh! Fu*k… fu*k… fu*k…”
Eren was raging inside his room after Devon left. He was mad and pissed with the recent turn of events. But he wasn’t really angry at Ken.
He was angry at himself for inadvertently helping his enemy. Because he could see the trap that he had set for Ken was going to end up benefiting him in the end.
Eren did enjoy the rare sight of Ken getting beat up. But at what cost?
“Erni, why are you breaking stuff inside the room? You never do that. I told you. You should have let me eat Ken. I still don’t understand what he did to us this time though.”
Eren quieted down after he heard words of wisdom coming from his seemingly childish demon beast. She was sitting on his bed with a bowl of chips in her hand. She was munching on junk food as she watched her master make a mess out of his inn room.
Eren understood that he had lost his mind for real if Reen had to step in to talk sense into him.
Eren took a long breath and looked around him. He had broken a few things inside his inn room. His heart pained when he thought about the cost of this damage he had to pay with his money.
Losing his cool was not like him. He needed to think about things that he can do to find good in the bad. The protagonist’s luck would do this for him. But the butcher needed to find his own good luck with his actions.
After Devon’s explanation, Eren had realized that Ken’s supposed impression on Lensa’s psyche was deeper than he had anticipated. The trauma had caused her to go into a vegetative state inside a block of ice, which belongs to the magic of unknown origin.
If Eren’s grim predictions were right on spot, Ken’s presence was going to be the key in breaking that block of ice without harming Lensa. And knowing the guy, he would never leave a damsel in distress behind. Especially if he thought he was the cause behind it.
Eren had already committed to Devon that he was thinking of being in an official relationship with Lensa. With his attitude and the elf girl’s delicately impressionable mind added in the equation, the butcher had already predicted that things would turn out to be a fortuitous affair for his enemy.
Eren didn’t remember much from his previous timeline regarding Lensa’s family, but he knew that it was influential. At least influential enough to not fear the consequences of messing with the earl’s scion if he decides to harm one of theirs.
Ken would have another strong support to lean onto if the relationship becomes official. Eren was already worried that the guy’s background was too dangerous to go against openly. With Lensa’s family standing behind him as well, it might as well that he forgets about harming the strands of hair on his head.
Eren didn’t find any glory in the possibility of Ken getting pre-cucked if he entered into a serious relationship with Lensa. He hadn’t planned that thing in the first place. And it was not directly benefiting him either.
“Erni, am I allowed to eat Ken now?”
Reen asked while eating her chips. Eren stopped pacing around in his room and looked at his demon beast. He shook his head and massaged his forehead before saying:
“This is still not the right time, Reen. The reason I messed with Ken was not only because I have a personal grudge against him. It was the major reason, yes. But it wasn’t the only one.
The thing is, this guy will just keep on climbing the ladders of social status and personal powers if left unhindered. And he’ll have his biggest fortuitous encounter in some years due to those two things working for him.
I wanted to create a blemish on his image with this scene. I also had some other plans in mind so that he doesn’t become a threat in the future for me when I also enter the fray to claim that encounter for myself.
But now I see that fate is a fickle mistress. She wants to create a hero out of Ken. So me getting in progress will be squatted down like a fly by him directly or indirectly, and he’ll be awarded for lifting his hand.
An insect as I might be compared to those ranking monsters, I don’t wish to be treated like one. Therefore, I’ll give up on messing with the protagonist for now. I don’t want to passively buff the airhead any further than he already is.
My life and my plans are more important than my grudges. And things in the present are more important to me than what might happen in the future.
I… I just hope this doesn’t come back to bite me back in the ass. *sigh.”
Eren sat down on his bed after concluding that his previous plan of leaving Ken to his devices is the right choice even for now. He took some chips from the bowl Reen was holding and crunched on them while he tried to plan something good in the blunder he had created all by himself:
“Oh! Do you want to find out how you can make use of this situation? Let me think as well.”
Reen copied Eren’s gesture and massaged her forehead like him while trying to come up with an answer to her master’s worries. Eren could only smile at her for thinking about his well-being.
He thought maybe all his bad habits were getting picked up by the impressionable demon beast. Maybe she’ll be seen as even eviler than Eren himself in the future.
Because she doesn’t acknowledge the hold of human values. She has only copied what Eren teaches her because her master wants her to blend in with his current society. Eren was having wild thoughts like this when he was interrupted by Reen’s next words:
“Erni, what do you mean when you say this Ken guy and Lensa getting in a serious relationship?”