Eren had single handedly brought down the Kiel Family, saving the heir of the family, who now worked for him.
Through Ruby, he had made inroads into the Northern Continent. More importantly, he now has backing to drag the Western Continent into mud.
Despite everything working out for him as he planned, he still felt a little restless. Everything had gone a little too smoothly.
He still hadn't forgotten the author's warning. His trip to the Northern Continent was going to lead to his death. There was moving in the Kiel Family Estate that could threaten his life, so which part of the future was the author talking about?
Was he looking even farther into the future than he had assumed? Eren wasn't sure. The only thing that could threaten him in the Northern Continent was the Necromancer Tower.
"Was that warning related to the opening of hell?" he wondered, gazing at his inventory which still had the Hell's Pass.
The pass had no description. The only thing it stated was that it could only be activated when he was within the right proximity of Hell's Door.
Even though he wasn't informed about the whereabouts of Hell's Door, he had a rough estimate about its location. It was at the Necromancer Tower.
"Was that a warning to keep me away from hell? Just what is inside hell that could threaten me to this extent?" Eren wondered, rubbing his shoulder which had the mark of the Emperor's Sword.
"If I get scared now, will I ever be able to conquer that fear? Even if I don't go to hell; hell will come to me. Will I be safe if I stay in the Eastern Continent?"
Even though he asked himself a question, he already knew the answer. If he didn't pave a war forward, he was going to be no different than Fey who only relied on external factors to protect him.
"I have destroyed the leaders of the main families of the Northern Continent, weakening them. I hope this is enough to draw the Necromancer Tower out. But if it doesn't, should I try entering the Necromancer Tower myself?"
Silently, the girl turned around and walked over to the corpse of her father.
Eren momentarily looked at the girl who was crying in front of her father's corpse. She quickly shifted his attention to another direction.
"Do you feel bad for her?" Felona asked Eren who stood up and started walking away.
"Why would I feel bad for her? If I start feeling bad for her, should I also feel bad for the families of the people I have killed before?" Eren responded, but it was clear that his tone wasn't as firm as before.
Even Eren was coming to realize that so many families were destroyed because of him. However, he couldn't change his direction. For survival, this was the only path.
"There is a saying," he added after a brief period of silence. "Being kind to your enemies is no different than being cruel to yourself. I am not the Main Character. I will not have a false sense of morality."
"Do you consider yourself a villain?" Yelen asked Eren.
There was only silence for the next few minutes. After a long time, Eren's lips parted as he uttered a few words, "I am neither a hero, nor a villain. I am just an ordinary man who wants to survive in this foreign world."
"Just an ordinary man who wants to survive?" Yelen repeated Eren's sentence, feeling as if a lot of hidden meanings were hidden beneath his ordinary sounding sentence.
Once again, a long period of silence arrived. The silence was only broken when a portal opened in front of Eren.
From the portal, a bloody figure came falling out. With a thud, the figure which looked like it belonged to a bloodied young man fell at Eren's feet.
"I left him alive, just as you wanted." A woman stepped out of the portal, dressed in a yellow dress. She was being accompanied by Spirit Queen Felona who had opened the portal.
"It seems like you had a lot of fun already." Eren went down on his knees, taking a closer look at Fey whose eyes looked lifeless. It was as if pain had completely destroyed his sanity.