Andrew raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Alright, alright, I'll go back. Is that good enough for you? Seriously, I am still a guest here, you know. Isn't it a bit rude for the three of you to resort to force so quickly?"

Jericho's eyes remained wary, and his guard did not lower much. He suspected Andrew's compliant act might be a deception.

But then he reconsidered, thinking that even if Andrew was pretending to be weak, it did not matter. They were in Swordhaven Keep, and there was no way one man could cause real trouble here.

He was confident that even if the entire Lloyd family's elite were here, Swordhaven Keep would not be intimidated. After all, Onyx and Ivory alone were formidable, as few in the world could withstand their combined assault.

If he added Alfredo to the equation, Jericho sometimes let himself imagine that if the Topsfield family were to leave the Eastern Regions and establish a clan in Chetvine, they would be a major power from the start. They co