Chaos erupted as fast as lightning. I felt the sword turn in my hand, the blade slicing through a mercenary's armor as if it were paper. The screams and the clash of steel filled the underground market, but my mind was elsewhere. I couldn’t stop thinking about what I had just witnessed: Caroline, fleeing into the crowd, leaving me to face these damned mercenaries alone.
Is she running, knowing what’s at stake? The bitterness bit deeper with every strike I delivered. Every movement of my sword carried the weight of my a and also something else… something I preferred not to name. It was a disappointment. A part of me had begun to see her differently. Not because of her ability to fight—let’s be honest, she’s pathetic at that—but because of her stubbornness, that annoying, desperate will to
