"Hm."
Eren hummed, his fingers tracing the jagged contours of his disfigured face as he stared at his reflection. The scars ran deep, twisting his features into something he barely recognized anymore.
"You know,"
"I might have been trash in every other aspect, but at least I had my looks."
Slowly, he turned away, his gaze falling upon a set of pins lying on the table. His fingers hovered over them for a moment before he exhaled and shifted his thoughts elsewhere.
That day, after overpowering Annabelle, Eren had surveyed the house. That was how he came to know it was a two-bedroom flat with one of the doors permanently locked. For some reason he couldn't make out till this moment, he could feel something beyond that locked door. Not people exactly—it wasn't something he could explain, so he chose to ignore it for now.
The kitchen had been stocked with ingredients and spices of all sorts, an unusual contrast to the house's isolated, almost forgotten existence. Upon leaving the kitchen, he realized the house itself was hidden deep within the bushes, in a place difficult for anyone to track.
Then there was the blood.
Faint traces of it scattered here and there throughout the house. When he crouched down and touched it, a familiar sensation washed over him, the same feeling he had sensed from behind that locked door. He didn't know what was inside, but if he had to guess—
Annabelle had killed the house's original owners and hidden their bodies there.
It was entirely possible. After all, he knew exactly what kind of person Annabelle was.
Once upon a time, the system had given him a mission, one that required him to aid a heroine while pretending to be Jason. He had refused. And that was because the heroine in question was his stepsister.
Ashley.
The one person he hated more than even the goddess who had used him.
He rejected the mission outright. But then the system offered him something in return—a random reward, a mystery box marked with a question mark. At the time, he had been desperate, desperate for power, for anything that could help him survive. So he took the gamble, hoping and praying that whatever lay inside that box would be the answer he had been searching for since the moment he woke up in this world.
But it wasn't.
It wasn't a special fighting technique. It wasn't a bloodline ability.
It was a skill. No, not a skill. Not an ability either.
It was something else. Something called Reader.
He had asked the system about it repeatedly. Each time, the system gave the same answers—[No such ability is registered.] [You are mistaken.] [There is no such skill.] It insisted he was imagining things.
That was when he realized the system couldn't register the ability because it didn't originate from the system in the first place.
So he chose to forget about it.
But one day, he suddenly knew everything. It was as though the knowledge suddenly appeared from nowhere. He came to know who he was and why the system was so fixated on Jason.
Eren had seen the plot. He had seen the future. He knew everything.
And that was why he had always known just how much of a psycho Annabelle was, a psycho willing to go to any lengths to protect Jason. Even if it meant slaughtering an entire family to claim their secluded home as her base, she had no hesitation. A place hidden away where she could conduct her activities undisturbed for as long as she desired.
He had found a basement in the building. That was where he had her strung up now.
"You truly are resilient," he muttered, picking up a sharp pin as he approached Anna. She was unrecognizable now—hollow eyes, her mouth hung open with saliva dripping uncontrollably. She was broken beyond repair.
Four more days had passed. Four more days of unbearable torment.
She wasn't meant to endure this. She had never known hardship, never even tasted suffering. The cherished daughter of one of the king's chancellors, a grand duke no less. A princess pampered and adored since birth.
She had tried, she really had.
But in the end, she broke.
His gaze swept over her ruined face. Her entire body was disfigured beyond recognition, corroded by acid and twisted into something grotesque. She was hideous now. One of her hands was missing fingers, severed by his many cruel methods.
"I think this is enough," he said, tilting his head in consideration. "Any more and the potion might not be able to keep you alive."
He pressed the pin into her flesh and began carving intricate runes into her battered body.
"There are only two ways to form a slave contract," he murmured, his lips curling into a grin. "One is through consent."
The pin dug deeper.
"The other is by shattering the will until refusal is no longer possible."
His grin widened as he traced another mark upon her skin.
"Don't worry though. The journey has only just begun."