Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 156 The Instigator

"How many times do I have to say that's not going to happen!?"

An entire hour. Rhys has watched Lina and her family argue for an entire hour, and yet the topic of their conversation has not gone anywhere at all — him.

They have been talking about him for an entire hour, talking about who he belongs to like he was some sort of object. This must be what his ancestors felt when they were being sold by their own kind 300 years ago now.

Except Rhys wasn't being sold at all, no... he felt more like a prized goat. How could he not, when—

"Rhys is not going to shag one of your daughters, or any of my cousins for that matter!" Lina's voice echoed throughout the entire room, and considering the room was almost as large as the HQ of Wilder's Harem, one could really only just imagine how loud her voice actually was.

They were currently inside one of the many meeting halls of the palace, and although Rhys had really only seen the castle from the inside, it was obvious how large the castle actually was.

It was just too bad he did not really have time to explore the castle, or explore this new country he finds himself in at all.

"It is the Royal Law, Linette!"

"You brought us here for that!? Your stupid fucking archaic laws should be abolished!" Lina was seething in anger as she had been slamming her palm on the table in front of her since earlier, causing the poor table to almost crack from the repeated abuse,

"And have you asked my cousins what they feel about what you're asking them to do!?"

"They will follow," Annabeth, who has probably had her 12th cup of tea, finally let go of her hot beverage; elegantly wiping her lips as she glanced at her children, "Unlike you, they follow the Royal Law."

"Why Rhys in the first place?" Lina gestured to Rhys, who was just sitting beside her with his arm under the table, ready to flip it as soon as anyone decided to do anything funny, "I thought the bloodline's already on the verge of collapse since more and more Commoners are being born. You, me, my dad, Merle — why are you targeting Rhys, a Lowborn?"

"Because I believe we have been going on about this all wrong," Lance's voice remained calm as he answered Lina's question, "Nobles tend to be stronger than most of the other people, but recent history has been proving that wrong. The Commander of the Underworld Corps, whom you are very close with, is a Commoner and is considered to be one of the strongest humans in the world. And now...

...Rhys Wilder."

And as soon as Lance mentioned his name, all the other parties inside the hall that had been sneaking a glance at him now blatantly stared at him from head to toe, especially Victoria. Of course, there was also the fact that Rhys almost choked her to death and broke her neck, so her staring at him was more than valid.

Lina's other cousins, however, were also staring at him with intensely inquisitive eyes... like he was naked or something.

"Rhys Wilder," Lance then stood up from his seat as he looked Rhys in the eyes, "The most famous individual in Amerka right now. You are obviously not being treated right in your country, how many times have they attempted to arrest you for just being a Lowborn?"

Rhys did not really respond, but he knew what Lance was saying — he also knew that he was just trying to rile him up so that he would actually start considering living here in Enkland.

"Those people are trying to kill me and Lina," Rhys looked at Vicky and the others, "I think I'm fine with staying back in—"

"We're not trying to kill you!" Vicky violently pointed her finger at Rhys, "We're only trying to kill her! You have no idea what this cunt has done to us, Blackie! She bullied and tormented us back when we were children!"

"..." Rhys did not really say anything and just turned to look at Lina, waiting for her to rebuke her cousin's words. Lina, on the other hand, only let out a cheeky smile as she crossed her arms.

"Bullying is a strong word," Lina scoffed, "I just pranked all of you a little."

"You fed my hamster to Arnold's pets!" Vicky almost shrieked as growled at Lina.

"To be fair... I thought your hamster was going to win."

"His pets are monsters from the Underworld!"

"As I said, a lapse of judgment," Lina shrugged."

"You locked me in the closet when we were playing hide and seek!" Another one of Lina's cousins spoke up. And to Rhys's surprise, it was the largest and most muscular out of all of her male cousins; the fear in his eyes, obvious even to Rhys.

"Ack, grow up, Dan," Lina rolled her eyes, "And that was your fault, I told you I found you and you wouldn't come out — so I decided to play a little prank and lock you in."

"I was there for 3 days!" Dan covered his face as Lina's other cousins started consoling him.

"Who told you to hide in the dungeon?" Lina scoffed.

"You killed Ghoully!" And once again, another cousin pointed at Lina; tears, already threatening to burst out from her eyes.

"Relax, Mira," Lina sighed as she placed her hands on her waist, "I thought I was saving you from a monster."

"He was a special needs chihuahua!"

"Then you shouldn't have named him Ghoully, and to be fair, that little shit bit people every chance it gets, and it looked like a monster too. The only reason no one complained is that it didn't have any teeth, that little demon."

"You keep his corpse in your room!" Another cousin pointed at Lina.

"Taxidermy, I thought it was my first hunt," Lina once again sighed and shook her head. And as Rhys continued to listen in on their conversation and more and more cousins started to complain about her, he was starting to think that...

...Lina may actually just be the root cause of all problems here.