Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Hm? What are you doing here, Eren?"

Altashia got pulled away from her line of thoughts when Roo let her know that there was someone else in the watchtower's room apart from her. She turned around only to find the person that was the reason behind most of her stray thoughts standing with his hands behind his back.

Her cheeks had a tinge of red as a result. But by now, she was a pro at maintaining stoic expressions. So that experience didn't fail her here as she asked the reason for Eren's sudden visit. He was given off time to rest because of his involvement in the battle. He shouldn't have been in the perimeter detail.

"Oh, I came to check up on you. And relieve you of your night watch duties of course. Don't worry. I'm fine. Let's just say that I have discovered a way to quickly recover my stamina and my stats. Hehe!"

Altashia was reminded of Eren's voracious eating habits even though that's not what he meant. She smiled and asked another question in the spur of the moment.

"Your "appetite" indeed knows no bounds. Got bored from flirting with Dianna so you came here?"

This time Eren was taken aback. Even Altashia was also lowkey shocked that she tried to intrude in someone else's space like that. This was her first time doing something like this.

Eren saw the twitch behind Altashia's stoic expressions and realized that the captain was on the verge of breaking character in front of him. He smiled and shook his head before responding.

"Dianna and I… well... Let's just say we have a business deal. Forget about that. You should get up and take a rest as well. Let me man this tower."

Eren just shrugged his shoulders and acted like he didn't care what Altashia was trying to imply. He just had his agenda to carry forward.

Altashia pursed her lips and looked at Eren closely. She looked like she wanted to ask Eren a lot of things. Then she resigned to leaving them be and replied.

"Eren, I'm the least tired person in our team. I don't feel like I need to rest. You are the one who is supposed to be resting, you know."

Eren chuckled before taking out another bottle of elven ale from his space along with a wine glass. He filled the wine glass half-full and poured some ale into his pitcher.

"Here. have this. This elven ale can increase your understanding of the fire element upon drinking. This is a unique blend that is only available in the Lionheart duchy.

You won't find it here. Think you should give it a try. It'll also help you relax a bit."

Eren offered Altashia the wine glass while he drank from his pitcher. The latter looked at the glass and pondered for a bit before taking it in her hands.

The butcher did not come here to woo Altashia. At least that wasn't his primary reason to seek her company tonight.

He wanted her to rest and resign from her inspective duties so that he could sneak out and check up on a few things. He wanted to get to a certain place that he had heard about from his past timeline. And this orc camp was the closest to that place that he had ever come. So he needed to do some recon before setting his next course of action.

This area of the Badlands was restricted to military personnel. So he couldn't get to it by joining any guild. This was one of the major reasons Eren took on assignments in the Nightshade duchy.

He couldn't do what he had been intending to do if there was someone like Altashia keeping a watch over the camp. The sooner she retires, the better it would be for him.

Altashia started drinking some more with Eren. The pair talked about a lot of random things. Then the close combat expert and warrior both exchanged notes on how they could deal with a certain opponent they had seen in today's mission.

The butcher's witty replies would crack Altashia up from time to time. His glib tongue worked wonders when it had the backing of his Sativa-induced mind. This was the first time Altashia could open up to someone like Eren. A feat she had thought she would never be able to achieve.

After loads of laughter and pegs after pegs of booze, Altashia finally loosened up to Eren and commented.

"Sorry for asking something personal earlier, Eren. I just… hehe!

I just thought that you were a lot like me… you know… someone who keeps to themselves. That was until today when I saw a different shade of you. And felt it personally after talking with you."

Altashia looked at her half-finished drink after saying this. She swirled her wine and took another sip before continuing.

"You are indeed a lot like me. Yet I can see that you are more than any of the facets you have shown to any of us so far."

Eren smiled when he heard Altashia say all this about him. He also marvelled at the fact that a girl of her age could think so deeply about so many diverse and subtle things at once. He had to admit that he was not this mature when he was her age.

But Eren didn't say any of this out loud. He wanted to hear all that Altashia had to say without any interruptions.

The ale sure hits the spot, Eren. My fire-element mana is circulating on its own without me feeling any discomfort. Where did you get this?"

Altashia had another sip and couldn't help praising the butcher's booze collection. Eren knew she wasn't really asking for the ale's location. It was just the booze talking. So he let her return to her original line of thoughts without saying a word.

"So where were we? Yes… you! You surprised me. Um… How should I explain this? To me, it felt like you betrayed the camp of introverts I assumed we both belonged to. How stupid of me."

Altashia was starting to feel the effects of the Ace ranked wine Eren had given her. She came very close to Eren and placed her index finger over his chest in an accusing manner before continuing further.