Chapter 154: Chapter 154: It was me
As he couldn\'t force his way inside, he stepped aside and allowed Nathaniel to enter. However, he still didn\'t give up.
He tapped Celeste\'s head, sending her a signal. Celeste understood what he wanted and flew inside the Palace with Nathaniel.
So what if they weren\'t going to tell him the contents of the letter? He had other ways to get his answer.
Eren silently waited outside the Palace for Nathaniel\'s meeting to end and for Celeste to return. Not far from him, the Leader of the Guards also waited.
The silence lasted for quite some time, before it was broken by the Leader of the Guards.
"Elder Ren, can I ask you something?"
"Hmm? Go ahead." Eren was unsure what the Leader of Guards was going to ask him.
This man looked simple, but he was farthest from it. It was said that he was as strong as a Great Elder. That\'s why, no one understood why he was even working as a Guard in the first place.
"Some time ago, your Phoenix entered the Core Region."
"It did?" Eren acted surprised as if this was the first time he was hearing about it.
The Leader of the Guards narrowed his eyes. "That day, we also found some footsteps. You wouldn\'t happen to know anything about it, would you?"
"Footsteps? I don\'t understand what you are talking about? My bird is young, so she loves flying everywhere when I am sleeping. But I doubt it would leave footsteps anywhere."
"They were human footsteps," the Leader of the Guards stated.
[Option One: Accept that these were your footsteps.
Reward: A random skill (Rare)]
[Option Two: Convince the man that you had nothing to do with it.
Reward: A random title (High Tier)]
[Option Three: Don\'t offer any explanation.
Reward: A random artifact (High Tier)]
[Option Four: Blame him for doubting you and get angry.
Reward: A random stat +5]
"Those were my footsteps. You are right," Eren said without a second thought.
[You have been rewarded with a random skill: Skill Unification]
[Skill Unification: You can merge two or more skills to create a new skill.
The skills used for merger will forever disappear and the process cannot be reversed]
"Since you have confessed, I\'m afraid I would have to-"
The Leader of the Guards sighed. Eren had already confessed to the crime.
Elders were not allowed to enter the Core Region without permission. Even if Eren was an Elder, he had to be arrested for breaking the rules of the Core Region.
He was partially expecting Eren to act ignorant. In any case, he didn\'t have much proof about it. But he was also taken aback to see Eren accept so easily.
"You are right. I infiltrated this place to steal the pillows of the Great Elders and run away," Eren continued, but instead of appearing scared, his tone only became colder.
"Is that what you thought I would say?" he further asked. "What a stupid question you are asking. Why would I do something like that?"
"What\'s in the Core Region that I would even need to come here and put my life in danger?"
"You…" The Leader of Guards was at a loss for words. So what Eren did was not a confession but sarcasm?
"But those footsteps…"
"Why would I care about some random footsteps that I didn\'t even see? It\'s your responsibility to catch all infiltrators."
"Are you shifting your duties to me? Don\'t tell me the Guards of the Core Region are so useless that they would need help from me."
"That night, your phoenix…"
"What about my phoenix? Just because my Contracted Beast flew here, you thought I would be here as well? What kind of logic is that? Do you think I am stuck to my Phoenix with glue or something?"
Eren didn\'t even give the man a chance to complete his sentence before countering. The Leader of the Guards was truly at a loss for words.
"I apologize. My intention was not to blame you. I was just asking a question."
"Ask your question to your subordinates. It seems people truly exaggerate the guards of the Core Region," Eren responded.
"If your words are true, then you people allowed an infiltrator to enter the Core Region and you couldn\'t even catch him? As expected, your reputation is undeserved."
Eren closed his eyes and stopped talking. He looked quite upset about being falsely accused. However, he was laughing on the inside.
He wasn\'t laughing at the Leader of the Guards. Instead, he was laughing at his luck.
\'My dear system, thank you for the sweet reward.\'
The system had screwed him quite a few times in the past. It wasn\'t often that he had an opportunity to exploit the options thanks to their vagueness.
[...]
"I truly apologize. It seems I was really hasty." The Leader of the Guards didn\'t question Eren anymore.
He apologized before going silent, but deep down, he was still suspicious.
....
Inside the main hall, Feng Yu was sitting with a letter in her hand. In front of her, the Archbishop of the Holy Church was standing silently.
"You can leave."
She kept the letter on the side and told the Archbishop to leave.
"It would be great if we could have an answer. I need something to convey back to the Holy Priestess." The Archbishop stated, being extremely careful with his words.
In front of Feng Yu, he felt the same pressure that he felt when he faced the Holy Priestess. Even his heart was wavering to some extent.
"Tell her that I will send someone," Feng Yu told the Archbishop, who nodded respectfully.
"We look forward to it," Nathaniel stated as he turned to leave.