“Really now,” a man said with a shake of his head as he clicked his tongue. “There was no need for the both of us to tire ourselves out because of this. You’re just giving me more work.”

Signard didn’t reply to the man’s words.

Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t reply.

Signard was covered in blood and a large hand was wrapped around his throat. Like this, he couldn’t even breathe properly. When Signard finally managed to part his lips, the only sound that emerged was a faint moan.

“This is all because you misunderstood me,” the man said with a sigh as he shook his hand.

This set Signard’s body swaying back and forth like a doll hanging from a string as his blood sprayed across the floor.

The floor that was already covered in his blood.

“I had no intention of harming you,” the man claimed. “I have no desire to bully the weak.”

“...Krgh…” Signard groaned as he swallowed back the blood that was filling his mouth.

“Didn’t I say as much in the first place? I just wanted to stay here for a while, a few days at the very most. I wasn’t going to bother you and there was no need for you to pay any special attention to me either.”

Signard squeezed out the last dregs of his mana and strength, then he swung his arm as if he was trying to slice open the man’s throat with his hand.

“All I wanted—”

Before his hand had even reached the man’s throat, Signard’s body was smashed into the ground.

Baaang!

The ground shook, as clumps of blood and dirt sprang up into the air. Signard’s lips stretched wide open, but he wasn’t even able to release any of the excruciating pain that he was in with a scream.

“—was to stay here until that brat returned. Asking you to just pretend to be hostage, so that we could all have a pleasant negotiation… was that really such a difficult request for you to accept?” the man asked rhetorically.

It felt as if all the bones in Signard’s body had been shattered. As the last of the mana in his core had just been exhausted, he didn’t...