Shiro was the most tired he’d ever been, and the fact that Sarah was just sitting on the sidelines, giggling at him did not help one bit.

His momentary lapse in focus earned him a warhammer hit to his left shoulder, and he was sure he’d heard something snap — but the pain was already an old friend, by now, and though the new injury would have been enough to put a normal human down, for Shiro it was simply a minor annoyance.

“Do you need your eyes checked? How did you miss the giant hammer headed your way?” he heard Sarah yell from the edge of the training grounds. He let out a low growl, clamping down on the urge to lash out at her — she was an irritating distraction, for sure, but he wasn’t so dumb that he didn’t know why she was doing it.

He jumped out of the way as a sword slashed downward to his right, just barely missing him by a hair’s breadth.

Focus.

“Is dodging all you can do? I’ve seen salmon who can fight better than that,” Sarah yelled.

Of his five sparring partners, one lowered his sword and turned around to face the Death Knight.

“Salmon? Really?”

The others followed suit, never willing to waste a good opportunity for banter.

Glancing at Sarah, Shiro saw her give the trainees a half-hearted shrug, and he took advantage of the ceasefire to fix his wounded shoulder.

“What’s wrong with salmon?” he heard his fellow Revenant ask while he contended with the surge of pain from setting his broken bones.

“At least pick something vaguely realistic. Fish don’t even have limbs!” the first trainee — Olly, if Shiro remembered his name right — retorted.

“Eh… fine,” Sarah relented. “I’ve seen rabbits who can fight better than that,” she amended.

“Better. No opposable thumbs, but I’ll take whatever I can get,” Olly said as he removed his training gloves.

Shiro blinked twice, surprise evident on his face. “We’re done?”

A different trainee answered. “Well, I don’t know, but you look like you’re barely standing, so....” Her name was Ara, and Shiro had fancied her for a bit before she clobbered him with a mace.

“You could say I’m… dead on my feet,” Shiro said, and instantly ducked as Sarah threw her sword at his head. Olly and another big, burly trainee — Roger — grimaced, while the other three — Ara, Fye, and Cain — wore amused smiles on their faces.

“You know, when we were fighting I was kind of intimidated by you — it’s pretty scary to see someone just shrug off grievous wounds like you do — but then you go and say shit like that, and the illusion is shattered. You’re really just a dumbass,” Roger graveled. His face scrunched in disgust, but the amused curl in his lips gave away his true feelings.

“You say the nicest things,” Shiro replied, bringing his right hand to his chest in mock appreciation.

“Now kiss,” Sarah encouraged from the sidelines as she clapped enthusiastically.

“Har, har,” Shiro scoffed with an eye-roll. “Anyway, we’re done here, yeah?” he asked as he crossed his arms, trying to look confident. Inwardly, he could only chant ‘Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.’

“Yeah, we’re done,” Olly agreed as he stretched his sore shoulders. “Us mere mortals can’t go on forever like you two,” he said with a hint of amusement, “though if you want to keep going, I think there was another group of senior disciples starting soon.”

“We’ll pass,” Sarah interjected before Shiro had the chance, much to his surprise. He thought she’d relish the idea of torturing him some more. After all, it was her fault he was in this sorry state. Evil woman.

“I wanna show him around town, first. He’s new here,” she continued. “We’ll probably return tomorrow, though.” He thought he spotted an evil glint in her eye.

“Technically, you’re also new here,” Fye pointed out.

“Yeah, but I’m not the newest anymore, so it’s fair game,” Sarah retorted.

“Do you even know your way around?” Ara asked.

Sarah blanched. The only time she’d really seen the sights, Lynn had guided her, and Sarah had been too busy gawking at everything to take stock of where everything was.

“...you may have a point there,” she finally admitted.

“That’s all good—” a voice from behind called out, causing the lot of them to turn around swiftly. Shiro scowled upon seeing Leon entering the courtyard, while the disciples gave him a practiced salute. Sarah nodded respectfully.

“—I was thinking of taking the two of you out for lunch, my treat. Share some stories, and all that. What do you say?”

Shiro’s first instinct was to decline, wanting nothing more from the man after the beating he’d been through. Having to fight unarmed against experienced trainees with live weapons almost made him wish he was back on the rack — almost being the operative word.

Still, he couldn’t deny that the older man was helping him, as weird as his methods were.

He noticed Sarah looking at him questioningly — and he finally nodded in acceptance. She grinned and answered for the both of them, “That sounds great!”

Sarah jumped off from the pillar she had been perching on, and after waving goodbye to their new friends, she and Shiro followed Leon out of the compound.

“Are you really only going to eat desserts?” Shiro asked Sarah as she stuffed her face with another cinnamon roll. Leon sat next to them, smiling at their antics. Oh, how it made him yearn for his old adventuring days and the friends he’d made then.

“If I’m dead, I might as well make the most of it, right? To hell with balanced diets, sweets is where it’s at,” she retorted between bites.

“At least don’t talk when you chew,” he sighed and turned to Leon. “Maybe bringing this monkey to a high-class restaurant wasn’t the best of ideas.” He wouldn’t be surprised if they were kicked out on general principle. His mother would probably have had a heart attack if she ever saw him behaving the way Sarah was — though he doubted he’d ever see her again.

Leon waved away his concerns. “It shouldn’t be a problem. I’m good friends with the owner of this establishment.”

“So,” Sarah started as she downed a glazed donut, “how do you and the Boss even know each other? Like, no offense, but you two go together about as well as water and oil.”

“Hah! No offense taken, my dear,” Leon said as he twirled his glass of wine, “you’re quite right. We never did have much in common, but killing monsters has a way to create friendships in the unlikeliest places.”

“Monsters? You two were in an adventuring team?” Shiro asked.

“Wait, the Boss? An adventurer? No way,” Sarah interjected, spitting out crumbs.

“What, is it that surprising? We were a pretty mismatched group, for sure, but I don’t think it’s that unbelievable?”

“It’s just… the Boss always struck me as a bookworm type, you know? Not the type to go out and actually do things.” Sarah said.

“You’re not wrong,” Leon admitted. “Even when we were delving deep inside the more dangerous dungeons, he almost always had his nose in a book. Heh, he actually got both Jenna and himself captured by a pack of shadelings once, because he was too busy reading instead of keeping watch like he was supposed to. Ah, those were the days.”

Sarah snorted. “That I can believe.”

“That sounds like a story. How d’you get them back?” Shiro asked, cocking his head.

“We didn’t, actually. It’s quite funny — they were back by the time we woke up.” Leon took a sip from his glass, staring in the distance as he reminisced. “You see, even though Jenna was our archer, she was still a half-blood ogre — and anyone with ogre blood in them gets really scary when they’re angry. The fact that shadelings were barely corporeal didn’t even matter — they got pulped all the same.” Leon smiled as he continued, “And of course, Jules was entirely useless — journeymen mages with his specialties usually are, when fighting monsters. So she took away his books for the rest of that delve as payment for rescuing the both of them. Or punishment, I suppose.”

“He deserved it,” Shiro found himself saying, a twinge of anger overtaking him. “He let you all down.” The idea of being charged with protecting his friends and failing because of sheer carelessness bothered him greatly.

Leon dismissed his concerns with a wave. “Oh, we were angry then, for sure. He walked on hot coals for quite some time after that. And we never let him live it down.” He took another sip from his wineglass and smiled. “But that’s ancient history, at this point, and we’re all alive and well so we can smile and laugh about it.”

Shiro relaxed after hearing the older man’s words, unclenching his fists — he hadn’t even realized how far his nails had dug into his flesh.

The past was not his problem, but one thing he knew for certain. He would never let his friends down like that.

Sarah glanced at her fellow Revenant, noting his severe expression as she threw a profiterole into her mouth. She had an inkling of what he was feeling — she’d gone through the same thing not long after rising from the dead. A curious mix of anger and conviction, and she didn’t know where the soul magic ended and where her own feelings began.

Sarah had already come to terms with it — not too long before she had been spirited away into this world, she had spent a whole night reading about free will and gods and determinism and what the purpose of life was. She managed to even find a sort of answer to that last question, one that worked for her — simply, she didn’t care. Whether her actions were predetermined or not, she’d just do what she thought best. After all, even if free will was an illusion, there was nothing she could do about it, anyway.

She was worried about Shiro, though. Sarah liked the little dynamic they had, she and Shiro and the Boss. The thought of Shiro being angry with the Boss and doing something stupid nagged at her mind.

She finally had something close to a family, finally felt like she belonged — and she really didn’t want to lose this feeling.

Shiro seemed to have a kind of idealistic perfectionism about him, and Sarah didn’t want him lashing out when reality inevitably came crashing down.

Still, she saw nothing she could do now, so she turned to Leon as she picked up an apple tart, and asked, “So, do you have any exciting stories to tell? Maybe something with dragons?”

Leon snorted. “Dragons don’t show up around these parts — they stick to their mountains in the Archipelago. Not to mention, if we’d run into one back then we’d have been turned to cinders. Dragons are no joke.”

Shiro perked up, eyes going wide. “There are dragons here?”

“Of course there are dragons here,” Sarah retorted. “You can’t have an isekai fantasy land without dragons.”

Shiro rolled his eyes while Leon magnanimously ignored her. “Yes, there are dragons here,” he confirmed, and his face turned severe, “but you do not want to get involved with them. They’re immortal, inherently powerful, and have a matching sense of self-importance.”

“So, what you’re saying is, going against one is certain death,” Shiro concluded, carefully articulating his words. Leon nodded, and Shiro turned to Sarah, his eyes glinting. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I don’t know. Does what you’re thinking involve capturing and riding dragons, potentially into battle?” she asked friskily.

“It might,” Shiro agreed, mouth curling into a grin.

Leon stared at them with disapproval in his eyes, mouth pressed into a thin line. He finally relaxed, leaning back into his chair and taking another sip from his glass. “You can plan all you want, but you won’t be running into any dragons anytime soon. As I said, they don’t haunt these parts.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Sarah conceded, “but I’m willing to bet five bucks it’s going to happen. Maybe even within the year.”

“Yup,” Shiro seconded. “It’s probably worth preparing for this scenario.”

Leon took a good look at the pair. “I don’t know why you’re so certain of this, but, when you get your asses kicked by an angry dragon, don’t you say I didn’t warn you.”

Sarah and Shiro could only grin.