Ⅰ
The wound on Jimte's back was incredibly long, stretching almost all the way from his right shoulder to his left waist. Flesh curled outward on either side, faintly exposing white bone.
Joel Coleman had inflicted it with a single sword slash.
Jimte had done everything he could to dodge that strike.
But he still hadn't avoided it completely.
Yet all Jimte felt about the strike that had wounded him so badly was relief-if he had dodged even a little slower, he would have been cut in two.
But when he thought of how the inner armor his fiancée Annie had sewn for him by hand was now ruined, the young noble's heart filled with regret and reluctance to part with it.
"Ah!"
The young noble sighed.
When he saw Joel Coleman catching up behind him, Jimte sighed again.
"Can't we talk this over?
You've been chasing me for a whole day, haven't you?
Everyone in the Inner Bay knows about this now. Don't you have any reservations at all?"
Jimte looked puzzled and aggrieved.
Seeing that aggrieved expression on Jimte's face, Joel Coleman was so furious that his sword hand trembled. His left arm, corroded by acid; his calf, pierced by a poisoned needle; his lower back, bitten by a poisonous spider; and his neck, grazed by a crossbow bolt-all flared with indescribable pain at that moment.
The pain only made Joel Coleman angrier.
He slashed with his sword.
That strike flashed with cold light.
That strike unleashed razor-sharp sword energy.
That strike cleaved a house in two.
That strike sent Jimte fleeing in disarray once again.
But although Jimte appeared to be fleeing desperately with his head down, a cold gleam flickered in his eyes.
Something was wrong!
Jimte had noticed something was wrong as soon as Joel