House Carren’s estate in the city of White Raven.
A spacious hall with a chandelier hanging from its roof.
Dan Carren and Eren were seen sitting opposite each other on their plush sofas. Eren was looking at his reflection in one of the faces of countless gems the chandelier was studded with. He liked the way he looked today.
He smiled to himself in the reflection before looking ahead to see a grumpy-looking old elf looking at him as if he had committed something horrible.
“So you and my Linny… you guys are… let’s say… together?”
“Linny?” Eren raised his eyebrows before repeating the word Dan had used. It took him a moment to realize what the old elf was talking about.
“Oh, I got it. Lensa! Oh yes. We are together.”
Eren said and chuckled before adding further.
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“That’s an endearing way to call her. I’ll borrow that from you, grandfather Dan.”
Dan’s stressed expression became that of suppressed anger. As he clenched his fists, he said aloud.
“Don’t call me grandfather, boy. I’m not your grandfather.”
Eren looked into Dan’s eyes before speaking.
“I am not your boy, old man.”
Eren’s words left Dan stunned. But before he could react to Eren’s pun, the latter clarified it for him. The butcher wasn’t sure the old elf would understand he was just kidding with him.
“No need to act so stiff. That was a joke.”
Eren said and raised both his hands as if giving up.
“Of course, you can call me boy, Eren, Linny’s man. And I’d call you with whatever you are comfortable with.”
A feminine chuckle was heard when Eren called Lensa with Lenny. Lensa was obviously keeping tabs on the meeting taking place between Eren and her grandfather. It was just that she was asked by Dan to not be present in the same space as the guy she had fallen head-over-heels with.
***
Dan was called to the city of White Raven by Lensa and Dineria to talk about a possible alliance with Eren and his guild. To be more precise, the guild’s production unit. There was also a moisture balance array in the greenhouse that needed fixing.
Dan wrapped up his work in the city of New Beginnings and rushed to White Raven. He had come to find out that Lensa was completely swooned by Eren. He hadn’t seen her this passionate about talking about someone.
The elf prodigy had told her grandfather everything Eren wanted her to tell about. Besides, she added a few more pointers to make the deal even more tempting for the old elf.
Dan understood that Lensa was being partial to this new guy who had come into the picture out of nowhere. He just didn’t understand what had taken place between the two for Lensa to have gotten so close to this up-and-coming brat.
Dan eventually learned from Dineria that things had progressed much further between his granddaughter and Eren. The elf was glad that Lensa was able to snap out of her supposed depression after breaking her engagement with Ken. However, when he started reading about Eren’s personal life, he couldn’t help getting angrier at him.
Dan learned Eren was a certified womanizer. No matter how lowkey his affairs had been with the ladies, they couldn’t all be hidden away if people wanted to look for them.
Dan thought that Ken was a ten times better choice for Lensa than this vile man ever could be. Not that he was seeking to reestablish and regrow his ties with House Riverine. For some reason, the old elf wasn’t too comfortable with marrying her to another Big House and using her as a pedestal to grow his House. At least not anymore.
So engagement with Ken was water under the bridge for Dan. However, he thought that Lensa could do much better than the man who was sitting in front of him.
Dan told Lensa not to be present in the meeting because he would have a hard time standing against her wishes. And her wishes were completely in line with Eren’s and his guild’s well-being.
***
Reclining back to the sofa he was sitting on, Eren folded one leg over the other. He placed both his hands on the folded leg before continuing.
“If you don’t like me calling you grandfather, fine. I’ll call you Dan. But can we move forward with our talks here? That criticizing stare that you are giving me isn’t doing anything to help either of us.”
Eren said and pursed his lips. On normal days, he would take his time getting the old man to his side with his glib tongue. With a little effort and careful placement of words, the butcher knew the old elf could be handled just fine by him. Because of what he had to offer him, he had that confidence.
Eren was reminded of the first time he had seen this old man in front of him. He was merely a Novice ranker at the time. The situation was tense because Lensa was not waking up from her self-induced coma.
Eren was more tense than the rest present at the scene because he was the real culprit behind the incident. Plus, he had Reen on him. The old man was in the solid stage of the B-rank. Just a step away from attaining the Grandmaster rank. The butcher was worried that all his secrets would be found out by this old elf.
However, things had changed a lot between Eren and Dan. The old elf had indeed found something peculiar about Eren when he first met him. He was sure that Eren wasn’t like ordinary humans just by the way his presence felt to him. But he couldn’t pinpoint what was odd about Eren.
Dan stopped caring about Eren after meeting him for the first time at that time because he had bigger things to worry about. He had sensed that Eren of that time was lowkey wary of him.
And the same guy was now sitting in front of him like he controlled the space around him.
“Puberty did you a solid, boy!”
Dan said and snorted air through his nostrils before adding further.
“We can indeed talk about business. But first, tell me something honestly. How many women are you involved with as of right now?”
