Chapter 1819 Rewriting the Script
Eren twisted the man's wrist and made him drop the runic knife he was holding.
Catching it with his free hand swiftly, Eren juggled with the knife out of habit before holding it between his two fingers, just as he had described to the man.
"This is how you hold this knife," Eren showed his grip to the assailant. He then kicked the man's knee joint and shattered it in an instant, making him tilt towards Eren.
[ The Spatial Seal unable to prevent the Skill Activation because of its low rank.
Skill: Stunning Speed
Skill: Sedated Perception ]
Eren lightly pushed the man's shoulder and made him spin around on his other leg before activating the runes on the knife.
Eren's grip changed slightly once again as he severed the man's head cleanly from his neck. The grip this time had been changed from its initial state; it was as if he was holding a brush as he drew a streak of red blood from the man's headless corpse.
The grip Eren had shown to the assailant was the base on which all the other forms of weapon tackles could be executed. In the geometry terms, it was the median which was equidistant from rest of the permutable geometrical patterns.
Unfortunately, the assailant couldn't observe the subtle nuances of the weapon handling Eren had executed.
The fountain of blood that was released from the assailant's neck like an enraged volcano was frozen with ice magic the next moment. This unmoving fountain of blood looked like it had been frozen in time.
It was as if a blood tree had been sprouted on the man's trunk where his head was supposed to be. It looked beautiful and artistic in a haunting way.
Eren used one of Birmond's powers and cast spontaneous ice magic because he didn't want any blood on his new clothes. The miser in him didn't want to spend extra on buying a new set of formal and rich-looking clothes for festivals like these.
Eren then raised his hand and made the traitor's cracked gem fly into his palm.
'Interesting stuff. Let's see if there are more of these for my Rank,' he thought before storing it in his Inventory. Since his Rank was too high, no area-wide spatial restrictions worked on him.
He knew the crushed gem still had two or three uses left within it. However, he didn't want to use the gem for his own safety. Instead, he was planning to mass-produce the gems in the higher ranks and distribute them among his followers. The demi-god in him was very thoughtful of his niche follower base.
'Time to rewrite the script and make someone else the hero of this story.'
Eren thought to himself before looking Arman's way from the corner of his eyes. He then used his space-element attainments to make Arman disappear from his position and appear right between him and the headless corpse. He then made Arman hold the knife he had just used before deactivating his Skills.
Snap!
It was as if someone had hit "play" on the paused individual recording. The isolation layer snapped and broke into countless pieces like glass shattering. The main assailant's headless corpse fell lifelessly on the ground, and the frozen-in-time blood fountain was ruined.
The assailant's partner-in-crime and Wilfer's ex-royal guard found out that the gem he was holding was missing. And the city guards, as well as the rest of Wilfer's royal guards, realized there was no restriction preventing them from pinning down the criminals.
The guards immediately pinned the gem-crushing traitor. Some of them went forward to arrest the original assailant but backed away in fright when they realized the man was missing his head.
"Huh?"
Arman felt like something had changed about him or his surroundings. He then looked around as if trying to gauge the situation he was in. However, what followed afterward made him even more confused. Because the stunned crowd had started to chant his name and celebrate him as the hero of the situation.
***
After a few hours, the crowd dispersed and awaited the official declaration of the king's death from the kingdom.
Backstage, away from the dispersing crowd.
"I'm sorry it came to this, Rook Ren," Wilfer dropped his neck as he apologized to Eren. "I never knew things would progress in this way," he said and sighed.
"You are not sorry," Eren snorted as he looked at Wilfer's apologizing stance.
"In fact, you are glad that they see you as someone backed by me. You were kind of hoping for similar developments when you decided to conduct business transactions with me."
Wilfer's expressions stiffened when he heard Eren's words. He wanted to discard Eren's claim. But somehow his voice failed him.
"Rest– rest assured. I will make sure that this situation never happens," Wilfer said with determined expressions as he clenched his fists.
"I will also reward your apprentice with suitable rewards when I get back to the capital. His actions have saved our lives after all. I'll arrange for him to become a baron if you don't mind. I just need to—" Wilfer's voice trailed off, hesitating to speak his next words.
"You want to confirm if the king has really died or not, right?" Eren chuckled and shook his head before speaking further.
"Don't worry. He is not dead. It was just a diversion tactic to assassinate you. The scriptwriter of this play first launched a successful "failed" attack on the king, then acted as the king's savior.
He then spread the news that the king had died to arrange a proper foundation for your assassination. He would then hunt down his own subordinates that he had arranged to kill you," Eren stated matter of factly.
"How– how did you know all this?" Wilfer raised his head and asked Eren with shocked expressions. The latter just shrugged his shoulders before turning around and walking away from the royal scion.
"Wilen… he stooped to this level," Wilfer's expressions turned hideous as he processed Eren's words and found them to be believable. Eren, however, had something else to say on the matter.
"Ummm… It's not the fourth prince Wilwen," Eren's distant-
sounding voice was heard by Wilfer.
"What kind of braindead mastermind allows his underlings to utter his name in front of a large crowd?
I would look somewhere else if I were you," the butcher said before disappearing from Wilfer's vision.
***
'I have babysat enough royal babies when I was in Anfang. No more.'
Eren said to himself before approaching Siren's Sanctuary.
If nothing too dramatic happened this time, the Festival of Intoxication would resume by the evening after the citizens hear that the king is alive and well.
Eren wanted to try his luck in the evening itself and see if he could have access to one of the Virtue Series Marks.
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