Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 114 A Tree

"...And what if I said I was planning to reshape the world?"

And with those words escaping Rhys's lips, silence took over the entire apartment as all the women just stared at him.

Katarina looked incredibly concerned, Lina looked curious, while Ayesha, who was the only one standing, seemed completely amused.

As for Maria, she did not show any change of emotion as usual; her breaths, however, did get noticeably heavier.

"Are you saying you are going to topple the government, Mr. Wilder?" Maria squinted her eyes, "Can… I take that as your official statement?"

"Rhys…" Katarina quickly held Rhys's hand, gripping it as tight as she could as she shook her head.

"Because if that is your official statement, you will officially be seen as a threat and branded as a terrorist," Maria then grabbed something from her pocket — a radio.

"You… were recording us!?" Lina quickly stood up as a gust of wind quickly started dancing around her arm, "That is totally not cool, dude!"

"None of you have to worry," Maria quickly raised her hand in surrender, "This is not transmitting or recording anything right now. It was earlier, but I made sure to only transmit those that would not make your situation worse, Mr. Wilder. To be clear, I am not on your side, and I am not on the government's side."

"Then which side are you on?" Ayesha crossed her arms as she looked Maria in the eyes.

"Myself," Maria smiled, or at least she attempted to, making everyone else in the apartment extremely uncomfortable, "And I am only doing my job the way I feel doing it. And so, Mr. Wilder…

…can I take that as your official statement?"

"Release the button, Ma'am," Rhys did not give a straight answer as he just looked at the transmitter she was holding, "You said it would start transmitting as soon as you let it go?"

"Yes."

"Let it go."

"Very well, it is your funeral, Mr. Wilder," Maria then released the button and placed it on the table before nodding to Rhys.

Rhys, however, just sat there; resting his chin on his fist as he looked at Katarina, who was still shaking her head and quietly pleading to Rhys not to say anything that would incriminate him. Rhys just looked at her, before letting out a short but very deep breath.

"For years, my kind has been persecuted, discriminated, and bullied against by everyone," Rhys then started speaking and making sure that whoever was listening on the other side was hearing him clearly,

"And you all laughed while watching it happen. Not even a hundred years ago, Lowborns like myself were almost wiped out by a Noble. And just a hundred years before that, we were slaves. And in turn, my people grew angry and started to fight back. But what could they even do, when the only thing their anger could turn into was hunger? We just… die."

"..."

"We are forgotten, forced to shy away from society and live in the Underworld. Crime is the only thing we could do, because that is the only thing the world is allowing us to do," Rhys let out a small but very deep sigh, "You ask me what I want, and what I want is justice…

…but I know I won't get it, not here."

"Be very careful with the next words you utter, Mr. Wilder," Maria also started shaking her head at Rhys.

"Why is everyone so serious?" And all of a sudden, Rhys just let out a small chuckle and started to relax in his seat, "I am not going to do anything, Ma'am. Because everything I ever wanted is already here by my side…

…4 beautiful women, all listening to what I say. Maybe 5, if the one listening on the other side is a woman."

"Hm… that was unnecessary," Maria grabbed the transmitter and returned it to her pocket.

"These government tools will probably be even more wary of you now, Recruit," Ayesha could really only let out a groan as she let herself fall onto the sofa, dropping beside Rhys and looking at him with her head upside down,

"I guess I'm not gonna be returning to the Underworld Corps anytime soon, this is getting interesting."

"What did they say!?" Lina quickly approached Maria and sat beside her, "Are they on their way here!? Isn't this an abuse of authority!?"

"They are…" Maria turned to look to the side as she touched her left ear, "...withdrawing."

"What… why?" Katarina blinked a couple of times.

"That is above my pay grade to know," Maria shrugged, "The only reason they gave this task to me is that they already know I am spending some time with you, Mr. Wilder. But I am with you, K. I was expecting them to just rush inside this apartment and arrest Mr. Wilder."

"Arrest him with what…?" Lina scoffed as she gestured to Rhys, "Everything he said was true. What could they even charge him with, being honest?"

"Oh, sweet Lina…" Ayesha sat up from the sofa and sighed, "...You don't seem to know the depths of what the government is willing to do to even just a speck of threat."

"They could charge him with coup d'etat, Ms. Churchill," Maria crossed her legs before grabbing another bottle of beer, "Truthfully, even if he hasn't said anything, just his connections alone and the abilities he has shown so far would give the government a reason to remove him."

"Why… do you think they're letting me roam free, then?" Rhys asked.

"As I said, above my pay grade," Maria took a small gulp of her beer before shaking her head, "Enough work, they are not even paying me for this overtime…

…shall we go back to just chatting casually?"

"The nerve on this…" Katarina could really only adjust her glasses as she glared at Maria, "...just go home."

"Oh," Maria blinked a couple of times as she looked at Rhys, "I thought you said I was welcome to treat this as my home, Mr. Wilder…

…and I even brought my own pillow."

***

"It is good that you still listen to reason, Madam Secretary."

"You… really think you could get away with this? This is the most secure building in the entire world."

"You overestimate your country's capabilities."

Back in the office of the Secretary to the President, Secretary Karen was currently seated on her chair—no, she was being forced to sit on the chair by the large knife floating just millimeters away from her neck. And in front of her…

…was the mayor of Old York.

"I knew it, I fucking knew Rhys Wilder is some sort of plant." And even with a large knife on her neck, Karen still did not stray her eyes away from the Mayor, "You think no one is waiting for you outside that door right now as we speak!?"

"If there are people outside your office, I suggest you withdraw them too," the mayor let out a small chuckle as he leaned his back on the chair, almost not fitting his enormous figure.

"What is it that you want!?" Karen wanted to stand up from her seat, but as she did so, someone suddenly appeared holding the floating knife on her neck – the Mayor's assistant, Dan, whose eyeglasses were glimmering even though the office was dim.

"Did you not hear what Rhys Wilder said?" The Mayor let out another hearty chuckle as he pointed at the radio on the Secretary's desk, "Justice for the Lowborns."

"You're doing all of this… because of your platform?" Secretary Karen raised an eyebrow, "...Are you planning to run for President!?"

"...Why would I support the Lowborns?" The Mayor raised an eyebrow; his large knuckles, slightly making a noise as they started tapping his chair, "If I wanted to become president, I would cater to the Commoners more. They are, after all, the most common."

"Then what?" Karen gritted her teeth, "What do you want to happen that you went through all of this just to not have us lock Rhys away?"

"Let's just say that I'm curious," the Mayor stood up from his seat before gesturing to Assistant Dan to let Karen go, "You say that Rhys is a plant; not at all, Madam Secretary."

"Then—"

"Rhys is a tree," the Mayor grinned as he walked toward the window to look at the view outside, "A tree that is about to bore a fruit that billions of people will eat. Some will like him, and most will definitely hate the taste. But you can be sure…

…people will start fighting over him. They already are."

***

"Damn it!"

Somewhere in a tall but archaic-looking building, a blue-haired man wearing a bulky armor with the emblem of a three-headed dog adorning it was running amok. Throwing everything he could get his hands on everywhere, leaving the other people in the room with no choice but to just dodge his anger, literally.

"This… this man think he could declare war against us!?" The man let out another roar as he pointed at the shattered TV behind him. And although one could barely even see because of the cracks, it was clear just from the hair alone that the image on it was Rhys during his interview in front of the police station,

"Does he think the Cerberus guild, my guild, is something to be taken lightly!?"

"Ed, calm down. Please."

"Calm down!? I am calm!" Edward, the guild master of the Cerberus guild, almost pulled out his hair as he looked at the person that just tried to speak to him,

"Find out…

…find out which Hole this fucker is crawling in next!"