Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Nina and Eren kept talking about a range of topics as they arranged Nina's new home for her.

The healer had started unloading a lot of her stuff from her storage.

The more they talked, the more both of them realized they had so much to talk about. The subjects of their talk changed from time to time and they had many things to add to their answers.

One had to say Nina did not know how to pack light. She had so much stuff stored in the house that Eren thought maybe he should build a chateau for her instead later down the line.

Eren rolled up his sleeves and got to work. And so did Nina. It was imperative to her to have a personal touch to her space so she started arranging things normally without any magical help.

Dinnertime arrived before the couple even realized it. Thankfully, they didn't have to prepare the food themselves. A majordomo assigned to the estate arranged everything for them at the right time.

A polished wooden table was adorned with plenty of sumptuous dishes. Nina and Eren were sitting in front of each other while a plant monster was standing behind Nina.

"Seraf… likes… to know how food tastes?"

The plant monster Seraf asked Eren and Nina as he kept serving more food to Eren and Nina at their dinner table. This was the same plant monster Will Evaan, Renar, and Viper had trained. He was then employed as one of Eren's clean-up crew members.

The plant monster had been given a new assignment since then– to be in charge of all the plant monsters working in the Corvo Bianco vineyard. He was also the majordomo appointed to the small house. His expanded responsibility would include serving Nina and all her guests.

Eren looked at Seraf and was impressed by how quickly he was learning the human language. He nodded at him before responding.

"The food tastes delicious, Seraf."

Eren said while taking a bite out of his kebab. There were other cuisines for the couple to choose from but they both preferred kebabs.

It had been a while since Nina had a tasty meal like this. The last time she had them was when Eren took her on a camping date. At that time, he had made the kebabs himself.

Eren had naturally passed his recipes on to Seraf who had done an excellent job of getting things right. The monster had a vegetarian diet most of the time. But that didn't stop him from becoming a pro chef in meat-based cuisines.

Nina smiled to herself when she realized that this was another way Eren was making her take a trip down memory lane. It told her that he had taken his time to plan for her arrival in the city ever since she told him that she'd be visiting him soon.

She felt that these small gestures mattered a lot. Especially when Eren was supposed to be handling the big stuff for his guild and his city.

Eren had paid close attention to Seraf's potential ever since he learned that the monster could clean his crime scene like a pro. He had invested a lot of his wood-element resources in him so that he could keep on growing. He also told Will Evaan and Renar to teach him more about the rankers' society. The butcher himself had taught him many things whenever he got time to do so.

Eren thought of teaching the plant monsters some more so he commented.

"You know… it would be so much better if you could stop referring to yourself in the third person."

Eren then thought that Seraf shouldn't deviate from his path as a plant monster so he added on.

"And it's terrific that you are learning a human language. But you should never forget your roots. Get it?"

Seraf looked at Eren with a puzzled expression. He then looked at his feet which still had root-like organs serving as his feet and toes.

"Seraf doesn't understand. Who is the third person? Will he also eat with you? And why would I forget about my roots? They are a part of me."

Eren had a blank expression on his face when he heard the line of questioning Seraf had asked him. It was clear that Seraf had taken the word "root" quite literally. He sighed and responded.

'Haaah! I say the most ambiguous things to monsters whenever they are around me and create confusion for both sides. This... this is a pattern.'

Eren shook his head before responding to Seraf for real.

"Um… never mind that. Why don't you bring us some wine from the well?"

Nina laughed the whole time when she heard Eren's pun about Seraph's roots. However, she was intrigued by his mention of wine and well in the same sentence. She looked at him with an enquiring gaze as a result. Eren met Nina's eyes and explained it to her with a smile on his face.

"There was a wine you used to like, right? Be Erna Soliflore. You stopped drinking it because it was only meant for C-rank entities and didn't have the potency you needed."

"Oh yes," Nina said and sighed.

She liked the flavor of the wine that she used to drink in Osan. She could get the same wine in the Nightshade Duchy as well after placing a custom order. However, once she attained B-Rank, the wine's effects stopped working for her. So she could only change her brand reluctantly.

Eren smirked at Nina before giving her the good news.

"Hehe. I managed to concoct the "inspired" version of that wine using B-Rank resources. The well you saw in the backyard of this house contains this wine."

Seraf returned with wine crockery and a jug full of red wine before Nina could express her surprise. He served the two rankers their drinks and placed the jug in the middle so they could refill them on their own.

Then Eren gestured to Seraf to leave the vineyards along with the other plant monsters. He needed some alone time with Nina. In fact, Argo and Alephee roamed the city on their own, giving him the privacy they thought he deserved.

AN: Be Erna Soliflore first gets mentioned in chapter 37. ;)