Chapter 123: An Old Acquaintance and High Charisma

The snow stopped melting as soon as it touched the ground. Winter had settled hard over Evon and a thick white blanket covered the dirt paths of the Elven Village.

Eren stood near the northern barricade in athletic shorts and a thin grey t-shirt. His breath barely fogged. His base stats had pushed into the sixties and the Evon winter felt like a spring breeze on his skin now.

He crushed a frozen slime under his boot and flicked the pieces into the bushes.

The last three days had been surprisingly calm and he was enjoying his new life immensely. He spent his early mornings clearing out weak monsters that wandered too close to the barricades. Then he moved on to much better activities.

He remembered walking into the bakery yesterday morning. The room was suffocatingly hot and smelled like yeast and burning wood. Lyra was kneading thick dough on the heavy table when he stepped behind her without saying a word. He wrapped his arms around her soft waist.

His base Strength was so ridiculous now that she felt as light as a feather in his grip. She made a quiet breathy sound and leaned back against his chest. They spent twenty minutes hiding behind the grain sacks while white flour stuck to his sweaty skin.

Earlier that week it had been Selena’s back kitchen. She had straddled his lap mid-sentence while complaining about Toris drinking too much, tasted like warm Zen Wine against his mouth and promised him more that night.

Yeah. I am definitely living the best life in two universes. Best of both worlds. Or something. My mom would kill me if she knew.

He pulled the white plastic drone Rosa had bought for him from his inventory bag.

Today was the perfect weather to test its camera. He set it on the snow and pressed the launch button on the controller. The four rotors buzzed loudly and lifted the machine into the freezing air.

A dozen elves gathered around the village square. They didn’t run or scream in terror. They just stared at the buzzing plastic thing with pure confusion.

“Is it a lazy bird?” Thadric squinted at the drone and scratched his chin. “It has no wings.”

“It is a metal magic trick.” Oldir took a slow drag from his leaf cigarette and nodded wisely. “The human makes weird things.”

Rury trotted out from behind Eren’s legs. She snapped her powerful jaws at the drone and missed it by two inches. [Can I eat the loud bird?]

“No Rury.” Eren raised the drone higher with the joystick. “It tastes like poison and rocks.”

She immediately lost interest and sat down in the snow.

Eren looked at the screen on his phone controller. The camera fed back clear images of the forest canopy. He flew the drone north toward the dangerous mountains.

He saw them a minute later. Hundreds of dark green shapes moved through the snowy trees in the distance. Orcs. They were migrating further north in a massive organized line.

Did they move because I slaughtered their vanguard camp?

Probably not. The dragon is up there. They must be desperate enough to risk the dragon just to reach the deep caves before real winter hits.

He showed the screen to Oldir and Thadric. Both elves leaned in and squinted at the small moving pictures.

“They are heading to the deep caves.” Oldir pointed a calloused finger at the screen. “Winter forces them to seek shelter. It means they won’t attack us until spring.”

“That buys us time.” Thadric sighed with relief and adjusted his grip on his spear.

Eren opened his skill panel and stared at the legendary clone skill. A second body to scout the orc horde or fight beside him in a real battle would be incredible.

But it eats a thousand mana to activate. That’s my whole portal budget for emergencies.

Clone can wait. I want to test it somewhere safe anyway, not when I actually need it.

He dismissed the blue screen with a small smile and turned back toward his house. He checked his watch. He needed to go to Earth today. It was around nine in the morning back in Istanbul and he wanted to talk to Rosa face-to-face. He knew how busy she got during her kindergarten shifts and texting her wasn’t going to cut it for the things they needed to discuss.

Eren walked into his house, locked the door and focused on his old bathroom in Istanbul.

He activated Door Master. The air shimmered and tore open in front of him. He stepped through the blue light and his bare feet hit the cold ceramic tiles of his family’s Zekeriyaköy house.

He walked out of the bathroom and into the spacious living room.

The scene in front of the television was hilarious. Three elderly elves sat on the carpet with thick winter beanies pulled down over their pointed ears. They watched a dramatic Turkish morning show with absolute focus.

Emily sat on the sofa with a large bowl of potato chips. Her pregnant belly was slightly visible under her loose Earth sweater. She looked up at Eren and smiled brightly.

“Welcome back mister.” She spoke in perfect Turkish.

Eren froze in his tracks and stared at her.

You speak Turkish now? How the hell did you learn it this fast?

“The moving box teaches us.” Emily pointed a potato chip at the TV screen. “The system doesn’t show screens here but we learn the words very fast. It just clicks in our heads with its hidden support.”

She watched a handsome Turkish actor yell at a crying woman on the screen. Eren frowned and crossed his arms.

I am definitely handsomer than that crying actor now. Right? Right.

Emily caught his look and giggled. “Don’t be jealous mister. I only want you.” She tossed the chip into her mouth and chewed loudly. “Are you going to buy the whole world with those paper bills and make me a Queen?”

Eren laughed and walked over to kiss her forehead. “Maybe.”

Rosa stepped out of the guest bedroom wearing her professional work clothes and a tailored winter coat. She held a stack of green paper bills in her hand and waved them at Eren with a proud grin.

“About forty-five thousand Turkish Lira.” Rosa patted the money against her palm. “Roughly fifteen hundred dollars. I only sold three fruits and a tiny sample bottle of that wine to those elite shops in Bebek.”

“You’re a genius.” Eren pulled her into a quick hug.

“I know.” She pushed him away gently but her cheeks were pink. “I haven’t quit the kindergarten yet. I want to make sure this is a steady income first before I resign and build our empire. I’m going to work now.”

She turned toward the elderly elves sitting on the carpet and her expression turned incredibly stern.

“No talking to neighbors and absolutely no police contact.” Rosa pointed a warning finger at the old elves. “We don’t have IDs for you. The police will lock you up.”

The elves just nodded and went back to watching the dramatic crying woman on the screen. They didn’t care about Earth laws at all.

Rosa was exaggerating the threat on purpose. Zekeriyaköy was a wealthy and quiet neighborhood where patrol cars rarely stopped random pedestrians. The real chance of an elderly person getting questioned for ID was almost zero. But Rosa knew elves were naturally curious and had zero common sense about modern Earth. She had to scare them a little so they wouldn’t wander outside the garden gates and cause a national incident before they were ready.

“I’ll pick you up after your shift.” Eren grabbed his motorcycle keys from the counter.

Rosa nodded and left the house to catch her shuttle.

..

Hours later Eren walked out of the house and started his cheap motorcycle. He drove through the wealthy streets of Sarıyer as the late afternoon sun began to set. The cold winter wind whipped against his bare arms and legs but he didn’t care.

His mind drifted back to his old life while he navigated the heavy Istanbul traffic. He thought about Anaton. His old packaging and security sales company.

He remembered dragging heavy sample boxes between corporate offices in freezing rain. He had hated the endless commission cuts and the illegal overtime hours without pay. The company operated on a supposedly professional salary and bonus system but it was completely rigged against the employees. If you missed a morning meeting or failed to hit a random sales quota, management didn’t just withhold your bonus. They illegally docked your base salary. The executives were used to operating like tyrants and the entire work culture was suffocating.

He especially remembered Kalina.

His old department manager was an absolute nightmare. She was twenty-six, half-Italian and gorgeous but she made his life a living hell. She called him at midnight for useless reports and humiliated him during morning meetings just to assert dominance. “You are too slow Eren. Your sales numbers are a joke.” She loved saying that in front of his coworkers.

She regularly forced him to go out drinking with sleazy corporate clients late at night and then docked his pay the next morning when he was exhausted and missed his sales quota. She demanded twenty-four-seven availability and respected zero personal boundaries. Eren knew Kalina blamed him for every single problem in the department even though the issues were systemic across the entire Anaton Company.

She was just taking her loneliness out on me.

He had figured the truth out eventually. Kalina was a successful “it-girl” on the outside but she had no real friends in Istanbul outside of her family. She was slightly overweight, had a terrible love life and secretly harbored feelings for Eren. She didn’t know how to handle those emotions so she lashed out. She only realized she actually liked him after he completely disappeared two and a half months ago. That was probably why she was still obsessively trying to reach him and tracking his old connections.

He squeezed the motorcycle throttle and the engine whined loudly as he sped up.

That whole life feels like a bad dream now. Kalina used to scare me. She weighed sixty kilos on her heaviest day and I was terrified of her.

Weird how fast that kind of fear evaporates when you punch through a troll’s chest.

Eren pulled up to the boutique kindergarten in a quiet upscale street. Luxury cars lined the sidewalk. Parents in expensive coats waited near the main doors for their kids.

He parked his bike at the curb and spotted Rosa near the side gate.

She wasn’t alone.

Two big men in dark suits had her backed against the brick wall. They pointed aggressive fingers at her leather bag.

“Where did you get the fruit?” The taller one demanded. “Our boss wants to know.”

A black SUV was parked illegally on the curb behind them. The back door opened and a woman stepped out onto the icy pavement.

Eren squinted.

Wait.

Wait wait wait.

He knew that walk. That slightly hunched-forward posture she used to pretend was confidence. Those ridiculous five-hundred-dollar heels on a sidewalk in December. That curly brown hair done in the exact same salon style she wore to work every morning for three years straight.

No. No way. What the fuck.

Kalina?

He thought he would feel his heart speed up when he saw her. He didn’t. He thought his stomach would flip like it used to in the Anaton elevator before morning meetings. It didn’t. He just sat on the motorcycle and watched her walk toward Rosa like he was watching any other woman cross the street.

How did she find Rosa? I never told Rosa about her. I never even said her name at home.

He figured it out a second later. Kalina had probably been digging into his life for weeks. Rosa was listed in his old Anaton files as his emergency contact from three years ago.

Varga. Her surname is Varga. I forgot I ever wrote that down.

He slid the helmet off and hung it on the handlebar.

“Rosa Varga.” Kalina stopped two feet away from Rosa and blocked her path to the gate. “You sold some very interesting organic products to my clients. I want the supplier.”

Rosa clutched her bag tighter against her chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play games with me.” Kalina narrowed her eyes. “My best client called me at midnight asking where he could buy more of that fruit. He sounded like he was on drugs. Tell me where it comes from.”

Eren swung his leg over the motorcycle and stepped onto the sidewalk.

The shorter of the two men noticed him first. He stepped into Eren’s path and raised a flat palm.

“Hey. Back off. Private matter.”

Eren didn’t slow down. He didn’t raise his hands. He just walked forward like the guy wasn’t even standing there.

His shoulder caught him in the chest.

The impact felt like nothing on Eren’s side. The man went flying backward and slammed into the side of the black SUV hard enough to dent the door. He landed on his back in the slush and made a thin wheezing noise. He didn’t get up.

The second man froze with his hand halfway into his jacket.

The whole street went quiet. A kid near the kindergarten gate dropped her juice box into the snow. Two parents stopped mid-conversation and stared.

Eren kept walking.

Kalina heard the quiet before she understood what had caused it. She turned around with her mouth already half-open to snap at whoever had interrupted her.

Then she saw him.

The man standing three meters away was too big to be anyone she knew. His shoulders were twice as wide as she remembered. His arms looked like they belonged on a professional athlete. He was wearing summer clothes in the middle of December and he wasn’t shivering. Steam came off his bare forearms in the cold air.

Her eyes moved up to his face and her chest went tight.

Oh my god. It’s him.

The jaw was sharper now and the cheekbones stood out more. But the eyes were the same tired brown eyes that had stared at her office carpet during every reprimand for three years. Nobody else in the world had those eyes.

She had been looking for him for almost three months. She had hired a private detective, called his mother twice and checked bank records she had no legal right to see. And here he was. Standing on a sidewalk in Sarıyer. Almost unrecognizable.

Kalina took a small step back without meaning to. Her heel caught on a crack in the pavement but she didn’t look down.

Eren stopped a meter in front of her. Rosa had already moved to stand beside him. Kalina didn’t notice Rosa at all.

“Eren.”

The name came out in a voice he had never heard her use. Not her office voice. Not her yelling voice. Something smaller and much older than either of those.

Eren didn’t say anything back.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep