Eddie tightened his grip slightly on the sword hilt slipping in his sweaty right hand, took a deep breath, and then—
Right in front of Ash, he furiously smashed the longsword in his hand onto the ground.
"What kind of bullshit is this?!"
Eddie's furious outburst startled a whole flock of cooing pigeons overhead.
"I mean—" Under Ash's gaze, which seemed to ask, Is this some kind of novel tactic?, Eddie completely lost it, flailing his arms about. "Wasn't I trying to have a chat with you? Why did this turn into a situation where either you die or I die?!"
"Didn't you want to strike first? Of course I had to defend myself."
"Yeah, yeah, I wanted to... wanted my ass!" With a look of utter collapse, he grabbed Ash by the collar and roared. "I only told you about this, and you immediately pulled a gun! I drew my sword for self-defense, you bastard! Bastard! You jumpy bastard!"
"What, all this over that? You should've explained yourself. You're spraying spit everywhere now." Seeing that Eddie had stopped playing along, Ash lost interest as well and withdrew rather boredly. "You made me think you were one of those people eyeing the darkness I've been collecting."
"You never gave me a chance to explain, you self-righteous bastard!"
So tiring... Talking to this guy was exhausting. The thought process of someone so self-centered was simply too bizarre.
Nearly dead from exhaustion, Eddie panted heavily. After grumbling in dissatisfaction for a while, he finally brought the subject back on track.
"So, someone really is collecting the dark negative energy from different worlds, and that person is you?"
"That's right, it is I." Ash, utterly unaware of himself, pointed his thumb at his chest. "The one and only Lord Ash, same name wherever