Chapter 180
"What? Ah!"
Startled, Koi slipped with his knife while cutting his steak and let out a near-scream. The unpleasant screech of the blade scraping the plate made him grimace unconsciously as he looked up in alarm at Ashley, who sat across from him.
Ashley, as if nothing had happened, calmly sliced into his steak and said,
"I handled it. He won’t be showing up in front of you again, so don’t worry."
"Wait, how...?"
Koi blinked, confused—then suddenly his eyes went wide.
"No way... Ash, that bruise on your jaw—is that why...?"
"Don’t worry. I hit him too. Probably more than he hit me."
Ashley echoed Koi’s own words from before, saying it like a joke—but it was the plain truth. Nelson had been beaten to the brink of death.
But Koi, unaware of that, thought Ashley was just bluffing to ease his mind. His eyes trembled as he looked at Ashley, voice shaky.
"Does it hurt a lot? I mean—of course it hurts. What should I do..."
Koi couldn’t take his eyes off the red mark still lingering on Ashley’s jaw. Ashley brought a piece of steak to his mouth and answered casually,