Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 191 Boss Man

"Lies!"

The clicking of the cameras almost caused the skin at the back of everyone who could hear it crawl. If anything, they now sounded like the chitter chatter of what the ants would sound like if they endlessly crawled inside your ears.

The flashes of light and their whispers, all drowning the air as they pointed their attention to the woman who threw a stone at Rhys. The woman, however, did not seem to care for all the attention as her eyes were just completely locked onto Rhys; the anger and rage that her eyes carried, evident for everyone to see just from her trembling eyebrows alone.

"My husband… my husband would never ally himself with your… with your putrid kind! You are a demon! A disease to this land!"

Husband. And as soon as the woman uttered those words, all the reporters went quiet as they realized who she was — the wife of Lieutenant Stretcher.

"We should bail, Recruit," Ayesha deeply breathed in as she placed her hand on Rhys's chest and softly pushed him away, "Angry wives are not someone you can deal with, trust me."

"I do trust you," Rhys smiled and nodded.

"Good, then—" And before Ayesha could even take a single step away from their situation, Rhys took a step toward the problem, "Recruit, what are you doing…?"

"You are a heathen! The spawn of the Underworld!"

Stretcher's widow continued to violently point at Rhys, to the point she absolutely did not care about her appearance at all as her saliva went everywhere. There are guards around the building, but no one seems to care that there is a commotion — most of them even smirking as Rhys is bombarded with all sorts of drama and controversy.

There shouldn't even be civilians loitering around near a government building, and yet there was a crowd watching them from the other side of the streets; crowded, extremely so.

"It's you, I know it's you! The world might be blinded by your charm, but that is the mark of the Betrayer!"

"Ma'am, I—"

"Don't you dare 'ma'am' me, you fucking dregger!" The woman screamed from her lungs as Rhys got near her, "Go back to picking adamantines in the rotting fields! I don't care for the words that come out of your unintelligible mouth! Wh—What are you doing!? He's trying to kill me! Everyone, look at that, he's trying to kill me!"

Rhys was only trying to hand her something, but the woman just quickly dropped to the floor and started violently waddling her legs and crying. Of course, the reporters truly liked this a lot as they focused all their cameras; making sure that they were still going live.

As for Rhys, he really only just let out a sigh… before slowly and carefully sitting on the ground and… doing nothing. He just sat there, letting Stretcher's wife degrade and spat on him without end.

Ayesha, who was watching this from afar, could really only take in another deep breath and watch. Maria had told them that Rhys craved for the attention, and she was starting to think it was really true — but still, she did not look away and just watched.

Rhys probably spent several minutes there without uttering a word. Fortunately, Stretcher's wife seemed to have gotten tired as her voice started cracking, finally only letting her tears and cries speak.

And with her words finally silent, Rhys very gently placed something on the woman's lap.

Stretcher's wife turned to look at what Rhys just placed, only to see her husband's black dog tag.

"Ma'am. Your husband served the country for a very long time until he didn't," Rhys then whispered gently, but not gentle enough that the cameras couldn't pick it up,

"Perhaps along the way something just… changed. But the fact that he was a hero for most of his service will never change — perhaps you should focus on that memory of him instead…

…perhaps the world should focus on that instead," Rhys then turned to look at the lens of Karl Harper's camera as he said that,

"Lieutenant Franklin Stretcher was a hero. A hero who was failed by the people and the system around him — and perhaps he saw, he saw at the end that something was incredibly wrong with our country, and he did the only thing he could to fight it…

…and perhaps the only reason he hasn't succumbed to it is because he had you by his side, Ma'am."

Stretcher's wife could really only look Rhys in the eyes for a few seconds. But very slowly, tears once again shed as her eyebrows turned.

"No…" She shook her head, "...I knew what he was doing. I knew he was talking to another woman, I just… I just didn't know it was…"

"Ma'am…" Rhys very gently placed his hand on her knee; barely even touching it as he shook his head, gesturing to her not to continue her words. Stretcher's wife, however, just cried out even louder as she suddenly embraced Rhys; to everyone's surprise.

"It… it would have been better if he was just cheating on me!" Stretcher's wife screamed, "I… I knew… I knew he was working with the terrorists but I didn't—I'd rather believe that…"

"Ma'am, please…" Everyone watched as Rhys tried to pull her away and stop her from speaking any further, but a widow's grip was strong and unrelenting.

"It was him… he was the one who planted the bomb, he… he killed all those people!" Stretcher's wife continued to cry out, "I… I saw all of it in the house and… oh god… why… why didn't I do anything?"

And as Stretcher's wife confessed everything, the people from the government building who were previously not doing anything rushed to pull her out and push away all the reporters.

"Don't." Before they could get their hands on Stretcher's wife, however, Rhys stood up and blocked their path; placing his finger on the very first man who approached them,

"Touch even a single strand of her hair…

…and you would really know what it's like to have me as an enemy."

"Recruit," Ayesha appeared from behind Rhys and tapped him on the shoulder, "I'll handle this. You and the missus leave, take the car. It's out in the parking lot, I drove the 'matic because I knew something like this might happen."

"Are you sure…?"

"Yes…" Ayesha only scoffed as she gently placed her hand on Rhys's cheek, "...You really do have massive balls, Recruit. Go."

"I'll… meet you back in the HQ."

And with those words, Rhys gently grabbed the hand of Stretcher's wife as they swiftly made their way through the crowd; not stopping until they got in the car and Rhys drove out of the vicinity away from everyone.

The two just kept quiet inside the car, that is until they reached an expressway…

…and Stretcher's wife suddenly placed her hand on Rhys's thigh before grabbing his crotch.

"So…" Stretcher's wife then leaned closer and whispered in Rhys's ear, "...How would you like to fuck in memory of my late dear husband? A hero… innit?"

"Stop it," Rhys leaned away, "Someone might be following us."

"Ugh, lighten up you silly hunk of a man," and as Stretcher's wife returned to her seat, her face suddenly started to wriggle and morph, and so did the tone of her voice; her hair, turning white — and if Lina or Agatha was here right now, they would quickly recognize this extremely average face as the impostor who pretended to be Lina back in Enkland,

"I think I deserve some compensation after everything I've done for you, no? You's a rich man, but all I ask is a good time."

"...Thank you," Rhys only sighed as he glanced at the woman.

"What are you thanking me for…?" The woman forced out a giggle, "You really confused me, Blackie. One moment you're threatening to kill me if I don't do as you say, now you're suddenly thanking me. But I think I've done more than you've asked already."

"You have, Heidi."

"First, instigating the riot, and now this," the woman, Heidi, let out a very long and deep sigh.

"And now you are free to go," Rhys then said.

"Well, I'd figure I'd stay, actually…" Heidi let out a small hum as she looked out the moving scenery outside the window, "...I don't wanna end up dead. Wilder's Harem, is it?"

"She would be useful, Rhys Wilder."

"What the—" Heidi almost jumped from her seat as she heard a whisper coming from behind the car. She looked back, only to see Maria just casually sitting there, "Where did this one pop out from then?"

Rhys, on the other hand, seemed completely unperturbed and only looked at Maria from the rearview mirror,

"Maria…" He whispered, "...Is it done?"

"As you ordered," Maria nodded,

"Natasha Stretcher will be found dead 16 days from now, hanging by the neck in their living room."

"I'm… sorry you had to do something like this again," Rhys breathed out.

"No," Maria, however, just smiled while keeping her completely monotonous tone, "Thank you for bringing me back to this line of work."

"...Hm."

"What in the—" Heidi could really only sit tight on her seat as she heard everything, "So… I'm part of the Wilder's Harem now, right…? Rhys? Boss?"

Heidi glanced at Rhys, who just kept on driving in silence, causing her to just take in a small gulp,

"I'm part of the Wilder's Harem now, right?" Heidi started looking around, "You…

…you're not going to kill me, right? Boss man? Your Grace?"