"Jakey, my man. Your father left?"

Eren greeted Jake casually. The latter nodded to his question.

"Yepp. Father left as soon as he woke up. It's just us. So where are we heading now? We should probably get some snacks for the road first."

Jake prioritized the food. He and Reen would get along quite well, Eren thought.

Jake was also an F-Ran entity like Eren. He had started his ranking journey much earlier than the latter. He liked eating and making friends.

Jake's body subconsciously stored some amount of fat as a result despite him being a ranker. No amount of bodily cleansing could make that go away if it treated the fat, not as an impurity.

"We'll do that. But not before we find some shop to sell some herbs my aunt has given me. I also want to get a bunch of ingredients for potion making."

"Alright. I've been to this city many times. I know a herbal shop that is linked to our business. We can go there for your exchanges."

Eren and Jake went to the shop. Eren sold all the unwanted but expensive ingredients he had collected from the forest and found them inside his victims' storages.

Eren demanded the payment in Extols. He received more than 50 Extols in the transaction. He now had around 150 Extols on him. He had officially left Isaac behind in his current account money.

Jake was shocked after witnessing the magnitude of the exchange. He would have never thought Eren had so many stocks of rare ingredients. But then he thought of Nina, and it all made sense.

Of course, an apothecary would certainly have this much amount. Jake thought Nina had given him something like her savings to liquidate and support Eren in his academic life.

Eren then gave a list of ingredients he wanted from the shop. They were all F-Rank materials. But he paid for them in Eddies. His kingdom currency dropped by a huge margin as a result. But his Extols were left untouched.

Eren and Jake were on their way to a general store to stock up on snacks when the latter saw a group of people heading their way. He recognised them instantly.

Jake was active in socializing. Unlike Eren who acted as a shut-in while he was in the city of Osan in both of the timelines. So he didn't recognise any of them.

"Yo, Jake. Knew we could find you here outside the snacks shop. You should cut down on the carbs, man. Even being a ranker is not helping you out."

There were three people in that group. Two boys and one girl. The one who spoke and body-shamed Jake was a young girl in her early teens years.

"Aah! If it isn't miss Veronica Garcia! Hello. Good day to you as well, friends. Ivor Osan and Jason Storm."

Jake didn't mind the light taunt. He knew Veronica was foul-mouthed. It was better to ignore her than engage with her.

"Who is that guy with you? Is he also going to attend LA?"

Veronica zeroed in on Eren rudely, looking at him from top to bottom and asked. Her gaze spoke that there was something that she didn't like about him.

Eren of course didn't mind being stared at by a bratty girl. Why would he care about a flat-chested lass when all he was interested in was some jiggle physics inducing bods?

"Oh! Let me introduce you guys to the fifth reserved seat student from our city. His name is Eren Idril. He is nephew to Osan's top healer, madam Nina.

Eren, these three are the remaining reserved seat students from our city. Meet Ivor Osan, Jason Storm, and Veronica Garcia."

Jake introduced Eren to the three people in front of him. He didn't care about the first and last personnel. But one in the middle was someone that piqued his interest.

Jason Storm. Eren didn't know him personally but he had heard about his name in the past timeline. Eren had a tinge of shine in his eyes after he connected the Jason he heard of from his past to this Jason.

Your personal and family background as well as your previous connections kinda become less important when you enter the academy. So although he had heard that Jason was from the same city as him, he didn't approach or try to make acquaintance with him.

'These guys must be leaving the city for LA with us,' Eren thought while he introduced himself cordially to the three. Eren acted just like Jake, easy-going and friendly.

"Ivor, weren't you going to join another academy? Why change to LA all of a sudden?"

Jake asked as he kept on buying snacks from the snack shop. They all had entered the shop. They were buying something or the other. Eren was quiet. He knew Jake would pack things for both of them.

"Haah! Me joining a different academy was my grandfather Isen's decision. And to be honest, this decision of joining LA is also not mine.

I was going to join the Royal Ren academy. But that all changed when my brother Isaac died. Now grandpa Isen wants me to graduate from LA instead."

Ivor replied while getting himself a packet of tangy chips. He was as tall as Eren but his expensive clothes made him more dignified and charming than him. He had shoulder-length white hair and grey eyes, like his dead brother.

"Oh. Sorry for asking. Hope you can make your family proud like your brother."

Jake replied with formality. But he wasn't expecting a violent reaction from Ivor.

"Watch your mouth fatass. You don't know a thing about my family or my brother. And don't believe in everything that is general knowledge about my family.

Isaac was an asshole king among the assholest of assholes.

['I'll drink to that!' Thought Eren when he heard an apt description about his former kill straight from his younger brother.]

Isaac would have been kicked out of the academy as soon as he entered it if it wasn't for my grandpa's support. He squandered money and resources. He was still an F-Rank even after all the efforts my family put into him.

I blame grandpa for not being strict with Isaac when he needed to. But to be honest, him being the firstborn son of our generation had blinded my whole family, not just my grandfather.

So stop comparing me to an ideal image of Isaac which he himself couldn't possibly hope to match up to even in his seven lifetimes."

Ivor was strict and loud with his words. It was like he had enough of being compared to his waste of a big brother. Even the snack shop owner stopped doing what he was doing and looked at the group of young kids.

Jason was the one who recovered quickly from that tense atmosphere. He placed his hands on Ivor's shoulders to calm him down and spoke to Eren and Jake on a different matter to change the subject:

"Ah sorry for that, Eren and Jake. Ivor didn't mean that. Are you going to leave with today's carriage fleet as well? It'd be better if you do so today and not delay it any further.

I heard from my sources that a guy named Matt who might be involved with the OWB has gotten into this city. He might target someone from our group, especially Ivor for his relationship with Isaac or Eren for his relationship with madam healer."

Jason looked connected with the information network. Eren thought only he knew about Matt's appearance here in the city among them. But apparently, he was wrong.

Jason lived up to his achievements from the previous timeline. He was a tall boy for his age. He had black hair and black eyes. The most prominent feature about him was the above-than-normal thyroid protrusion of his neck.

Jake wasn't aware Isen had created a larger than life image of his dead grandson. What he said to Ivor about Isaac was only a perfunctory greeting.

How was Sullivan Jr supposed to know these details? But his father's business was connected to the Osan's city administration. He couldn't afford to offend Ivor in any way. Therefore, he quickly tried to lessen the damage with his words:

"Oh! Alright. Although I didn't mean to offend, I apologise to friend Ivor for my words. Of course, we will be careful and I'm sure you will do the same as well."

"Hehe! Ivor, stop scaring a spineless coward. It's no fun doing that. How about a friendly duel if you really want to vent out your anger?

You. Eron or something. Why don't you spar with Ivor? I'm sure you'll learn a lot even before entering the academy. We'll become your teachers and professors free of cost. What do you say?"

Veronica Garcia marched verbally forward with her haughty attitude without anyone giving her a cue to do so. She was exceptionally porcelain-skinned and had golden hair and green eyes.

Her body was slim and undeveloped. But one could tell she was going to grow into a bitchy yet beautiful lady.

Veronica gave a naked challenge to Eren even without the latter saying anything in retaliation to Ivor's rude behaviour.

Author's note: Hello. Last week VEH received loads of responses in the form of comments and reviews. Some of them got deleted by WN's NSFW filter.

The filter is running on crack it seems. It even deletes the comments and reviews with the word "damn" in them. I'm not even sure damn is an NSFW word.

Anywho. You might want to consider altering the spellings of such words when posting your responses.

As I said, there'd be extra chapters for every set of such responses coming from the readers. So enjoy an extra release for today. ;)