Crow tensed as Gavin took a step towards him, preparing himself to move if the knight decided to throw a punch at him. He kept his gaze fixed on the other man cautiously. Usually, he didn’t try to provoke others quite this much, but this guy really rubbed him the wrong way. Perhaps it was petty, since he knew he was just jealous to keep Penelope away from her ex suitor, but he couldn’t help it. Gavin had been inserting himself into their business for a while now, and it was really starting to grate on the thief’s nerves. He wished the knight would just accept that Penelope wasn’t with him anymore and move on already.

Fortunately, because of Penelope’s brief intervention, Gavin seemed to hold himself back from attacking Crow. The thief couldn’t help but laugh at his prideful words. “Ah, so the truth comes out at last,” he said snidely, keeping a close watch of the knight’s hands in the edge of his vision. “It’s not me that’s threatened by you; you’re threatened by the fact that, for some reason you can’t understand, Penelope chose to be with a lying criminal instead of you.” His lip curled upward in a smirk. “You’ve got everything—status, wealth, perhaps even land—yet you still lost to a peasant thief without even a copper coin to his name.”

“Shut up,” Gavin growled, trembling slightly as he fought to hold himself back.

“That’s why you’re so bothered by me, isn’t it?” Crow went on, ignoring the knight’s warning. “You have a perfect picture of your life that you think you deserve, and I’m standing in the way of it. Well, guess what? You’re not going to get everything you want, because as long as I’ve still got breath in my lungs, I’m not going anywhere.”

“That’s it,” Gavin snapped.

Crow flinched as the knight suddenly lunged at him, cocking back his arm to swing at his face. However, just as Gavin was about to land the punch, the thief ducked out of the way and his fist collided with the wall where his head had just been. He sucked in his breath, clutching his right hand in his left with a pained wince.

Crow whistled. “That looked like it hurt,” he said with a click of his tongue. “Maybe you should look before you swing next time.”

Gavin shot him a glare and took a step forward to come at him again but faltered as he caught sight of the crowd of villagers that was gathering to watch the fight. Reason seemed to take over, and he straightened his posture, avoiding the thief’s gaze as he muttered, “We should get out of here.”

“Aww, come on,” Olivia pouted. “Things were jus’ gettin’ interesting around here!”

“There’s nothing to continue,” Crow smirked smugly. “He’s given up like the coward he is.”

Gavin glared at him one more time but said nothing. Instead, he clenched his jaw and took a calming breath as he stepped towards the door and hurried outside, seeming eager to put some distance between himself and the thief.