"You've doomed me!"

Jake lifted Agnes off the reclining chair and threw her down to the floor with a sound that resembled cracking branches.

Something might've broken.

"Ahh!"

Agnes screamed and tried crawling away, but then Jake yanked on her gray hair and pulled her back towards him.

Jake reeled back his right arm, but then flinched in pain, as he accidentally tried to form a fist with his broken right hand.

"Fuck… I already lost my hand. Do you want me to lose my life too, grandmother? How could you be this stupid!"

He asked in frustration and was on the verge of crying.

"Y-You're hurting me, Jake. Let me go!"

Agnes screamed while trying to push Jake away with all the strength she had left. It wasn't working.

Her hair was being pulled roughly. It was almost at the point of being ripped out of her scalp.

"Help! Someone help!"

She shouted to no one in particular, but one face did appear in her mind, and it was that of her new tenant.

In that moment, footsteps came down the stairs, and a black-haired young man with cross ear piercings appeared at the bottom.

"What do you think you are doing?"

Aren asked.

"Haha, look at who it is…"

Jake laughed, lifted Agnes up from the floor with a tug of her hair, and then wrapped his right arm around her throat and pulled her close to his chest.

Tears kept streaming down from Agnes' blind eyes.

"…"

Aren looked at those tears, clicked his tongue, and moved his left hand next to his waist—only a flap of his long coat stood in the way of the hidden revolver.

"Please, let her go. I know you're angry, but you don't really want to hurt her, do you? She is your grandmother, after all."

He tried to reason with him, but to no avail.

"Hahaha!"

As if he had gone mad, Jake just laughed and pressed his forearm against Agnes' throat, cutting off the air supply.

"Why are you acting all high and mighty, huh? You've tricked her too, haven't you? You thought that you would be able to get cheap rent by tricking this nice blind lady, didn't you?"

Jake said with a grin.

"She is an easy target, and you took advantage of it. So, why are you acting like you're better than me, piece of shit?"

Those words landed on Aren's ears like a hammer to a nail, and while he wanted to rebut, he didn't have anything to say.

It was true that he had taken advantage of the blind lady Agnes to change his name and to get a cheap rent.

He lied to her to get his name changed and intentionally became somewhat of a caretaker to her to make the rent cheaper.

Aren didn't think of himself as a saint. Far from it.

However, it didn't mean that he didn't care about Agnes, and he was actually quite pleased, as it felt like having a real grandmother.

When he was very young, his real grandmother and grandfather died in a car crash. He was so young that he didn't even remember their faces.

If it weren't for a few pictures, he wouldn't have any memories of them at all.

"Let Agnes go, and we can resolve this between the two of us. Say what you want, and I'll get it for you."

Aren said.

"…Anything?"

Jake asked.

"If it is within my power, I'll do it."

Aren said, and while combing his hair back with his hand, he sneakily tapped his forehead to check whether Jake was the Blessed One.

Nothing happened, so it meant that Jake wasn't one, and he doubted that he knew that he was a Blessed One.

"Thousand Iris coins. If you can get me that. I'll leave her be."

Jake said.

It was barely enough to pay off his debt, and after paying the debt, he would definitely leave Kornacis.

There was nothing left for him, and it was just a matter of time before the Steel Bank would come knocking down on his door to ask for payment for the luxurious house that he happened to purchase.

He still had a couple of payments left, but with his bank account being as dry as the Deceased Wasteland, there was no way he would be able to pay it all off.

"I can do that."

Aren said.

"…You have ten minutes. I'll wait with Agnes here until you get back."

Jake said and caressed Agnes' old gray hair—it felt like straw—and Agnes looked as if she were to collapse at any moment.

This whole incident had been very bad for her heart, not to mention that she currently had a cold with the flu.

'…Don't miss.'

Aren thought to himself, then reached out to his holster, and pulled out the black revolver. His finger was already on the trigger.

And he gave one quick squeeze.

Quickdraw Shot!

The bullet sped through the air, landed in Jake's right elbow, and drilled through his arm.

"Aaargh!"

Jake's right arm dropped to the side with his elbow, now missing a chunk of flesh, and blood gushing out.

The elbow joint was composed of three bones—humerus, ulna, and radius—and all three of them were now shattered.

Aren lunged forward, hugged Agnes close to his chest to shield her from Jake, and then kicked him in the chest to send him flying through the air.

Jake crashed into the fireplace and then dropped back to the ground, and his hoarse screams of anguish filled the room.

"Ah… ah… ah…"

Agnes' eyes shook, as she didn't know what happened, as she just heard a loud sound and then a scream from her grandson.

She could also feel that something liquidy touched her face but couldn't tell what it was.

It was the drop of Jake's blood that came from his destroyed elbow.

"Are you alright, Madam Agnes?"

In that moment, she heard the sound of Aren's gentle voice, and she looked up, even though she couldn't see him, and touched his face.

"A-Aren, is it you?"

"Mmh. Yes, it's me. Why don't you take a seat while I deal with your grandson?"

Aren said and helped her to sit down a little further away from the screaming Jake.

"D-Don't hurt him… I don't know what happened with him, but he is a good boy… I believe."

Agnes said.

"I won't hurt him. I will just have a talk with him."

Aren said, slid his black revolver back in the holster, and took a deep breath as he turned around to approach Jake.

His hand was slightly trembling, as there was a slight chance that he might've accidentally hit Agnes with his shot.

In that moment, he decided to trust himself.