Morgan was pretty sure he was ready to fight in the tournament—and at the very least, it felt pretty great to be able to put strategies to use. He's been moving around chess pieces for a good portion of his life so far; it was nice to know that he'd have a chance to apply that in an actual situation, and that said situation wouldn't mean that someone died if he messed up. He received a word or two of promise that the others would follow the plan to the best of their abilities, which assured him that it wouldn't immediately fail.

The tournament was held about an hour after breakfast. "All right!" Basilio said, coming into the training area with a man following him. "Everyone's here, so let's start! I promised that the adults would be using training weapons, so go ahead and take out whatever you're fighting with."

A lot of them nodded, and Lucina sent one or two of the Mini Shepherds to get all of the weapons that they would need. Once everyone got the best weapon they were comfortable wielding, they got into the general position Morgan had planned beforehand. The people who had a closer range—Lucina, Kjelle, Cynthia, and Owain—were in front, while the magic people—Morgan and Laurent—were behind them and Brady was in the very back.

It started off fine; Marth, Malin, and Lon'qu more-or-less seemed to move as they pleased. It took a whole five minutes before the Mini Shepherds started to fall apart, though, to Morgan's slight annoyance. It shouldn't have been too hard—Marth avoided the kids from the castle and Lon'qu avoided the girls, making Malin the only one who fought everyone (then again, he was still obviously hesitant about it).

Brady was the first to go, very openly saying "Screw this!" and running ahead to wack Marth with his staff before anyone with better sense could stop him. A few seconds later, Brady had retreated to cheer them on with Flavia and Basilio. Kjelle was the next to leave, apparently getting frustrated and attacking Lon'qu; although she managed to get him off of the field, she also got herself in a tricky situation with Marth and Malin and opted to retreat.

Owain and Cynthia retreated a few minutes later, both by failure to recognize that it wasn't exactly the time for fancy names (Cynthia even said "Not fair! You're supposed to wait for me to finish the speech!"). With a muttered apology from the attacker and a wince from the retreater, Malin forced Lucina to watch as well. After Laurent got sneak-attacked, Morgan promptly made his own retreat.

"That's it!" Flavia called. With a smug smile towards Basilio, she bluntly said, "I win. You're pretty bad at picking the winning side, huh? It's a shame you didn't go with the ones that have already fought underneath you."

"Bah, I saw them fought; that's enough for me," Basilio replied. He gave a genuine smile towards the Mini Shepherds. "You fought well! Reminded me of when Chrom kicked my sorry arse the first time."

"I'd say it was good experience," Lucina said simply.

"And it was nice to feel like I have a practical field of study," Morgan chimed him happily. Looking at the victors, he said, "The phrase doesn't quite fit, but good game."

Malin kindly laughed. "Hey, thanks for putting up a bit of a fight. You kids won't get ambushed again too quickly if you keep improving."

Morgan beamed in response. After a short moment of silence, Basilio happily announced, "All right, if any adult wants alcohol I'm going to get it; for the kids, you can go out and eat in some place in town—my treat. Just don't spend everything I have!"

The Mini Shepherds nodded, deciding to eat lunch since it was offered. Going to a place that Lucina knew served good food, they all sat at one table and told stories of what happened and what could come afterwards. Like with most other important events, the storytellers weaved legends based on their battle, giving it twists and reveals that hadn't actually happened. They might have lost, but they were all willing to take it as a learning experience—and for those who weren't, they certainly weren't willing to prevent the others from having their fun.

They made plans to leave the day after next, so they spent the afternoon unwinding. Marth and Malin seemed to be leaving the same day, and as such the next morning Malin offered to help the Mini Shepherds with their preparations. Morgan was the only one who volunteered—Lucina said she was tired, Kjelle and Laurent wanted to train more, Brady wanted to watch them, and Cynthia and Owain wanted to continue weaving stories—so it quickly became ask-questions-that-you-couldn't-earlier time.

"How close were you to my mom?" Morgan asked curiously. They had bought everything they would need, so they were heading back to the arena to meet up with their respective groups.

"I'd say we were good friends," Malin replied, "If not something like family. It's a long story to explain, but I don't even remember my childhood—my sister included. At some point, though, I met Robin in my past; and I know that because when I joined the army, I recognized her."

"Oh!" Morgan glanced back at Malin, even more curious. "So you're an amnesiac, too? Who knew that the same army would have two!"

Malin chuckled. "A lot of people had the same thought. It was hard for my friends and family, but we pulled through." Morgan looked ahead again, and after a little bit Malin continued. "Say, does Robin remember anything at all?"

"Nope," Morgan replied. "She still likes to say that meeting Father and Lissa was her first memory. As far as I'm aware, she doesn't remember anything before that."

Malin nodded, and it wasn't too long until they got back to the arena. It was a bit surprising to see that Marth was outside—and wasn't wearing her mask. Opening her eyes to see who came, Morgan respectfully looked away while she put her mask back on and stood up (because if someone wore a mask covering their eyes all the time, they probably didn't want people looking at their eyes).

"We're leaving today," Marth told Malin.

"Any particular reason..?" Malin asked.

"I want to make sure everything's ready," Marth explained.

"All right," Malin replied. He looked at Morgan, offering a smile. "I gotta go, kid. We might stop by Ylisstol soon, if you'll keep an eye out?"

Morgan nodded. "I will," he promised.

Malin smiled a bit more, and the two went their separate ways for the time being.