After seeing barely anyone while crossing the castle, Pilate finally reached the training room. Even this part of the castle was unusually calm. He could only see Salaan and Shoki, the two assassins of Sabasa, who were discussing with Kasumi, an elven kunoichi. Of the three, only Shoki had her face revealed. Pilate asked himself why they bothered covering their faces when everybody recognized their manners and dark clothing anyway. Salaan invited him.

"Greetings, Pilate, did you come here to train?"

The soldier from Iliasville didn't feel at ease, surrounded by people who specialized in murdering their targets in the shadows rather than in good old chivalrous fights. However, the assassins had soon revealed themselves more honest than he expected, and they even were good -if somewhat gloom- company. And at least they kept to themselves.

"I wanted to spar against a fellow swordsman to prepare for the tournament, but I can't find her."

"Were you looking to test yourself against someone in particular?"

"I hoped to train against Regina. I didn't have the occasion to face her sword skills in all that time, and I wanted to change that."

Also he appreciated that she didn't want to get on top of everything that moved. As much as he loved sparring against Izuna, the kitsune's advances were becoming more pressing. He wanted to become stronger to protect the world, not to bed monsters.

Kasumi answered the soldier.

"She left for the Gold Region a few hours ago."

Pilate sighed as he looked around the almost empty room.

"I wanted to train my skills for the tournament that is going to happen soon in Grand Noah, but I don't think anybody who's staying in the castle right now wants to spar."

Kasumi got up in a swift motion and took a fighting stance.

"We're assassins, we do not fight in the light."

Neither of the other assassins reacted to their colleague's movement. The elven kunoichi eventually sat down back without a word, but looked slightly ashamed of her outburst. Salaan eventually explained the situation to the soldier.

"You choose a bad time to come here, most people went on the road to train in their own corner. They all hope to develop some secret skills far from prying eyes." She accentuated the end of her sentence to highlight how ridiculous it apparently sounded. "But right now, there are so many people training in the wilds that they're starting to run low on targets to spar with."

Shoki smiled.

"On the plus side, I'm pretty sure monsters will be less likely to attack travelers after that one."

Her expression fell right afterwards.

"At least none of them had the brilliant idea to go wander near the past Monster Lord's castle…"

Thinking about the hero's current goals, Pilate asked around him.

"Do you think destroying it would help us against the Monster Lord?"

Sallan answered simply. "No."

"I mean, if we destroy it in the past..." Pilate was insisting, hoping for an easier solution than what they would have to deal with.

Salaan made a dismissive movement with her hand.

"It is from the past from another dimension, destroying it would only damage the dimension there. Furthermore Luka and their majesties made it clear that leaving this world for another one, even temporarily would only attract unwanted attention from the apoptosis."

Shoki leaned back.

"It didn't prevent him from recruiting some locals, though. And it looked like they had no difficulty fitting in." She sighed. "I already felt like I was going crazy when I was in Snow Heaven and needed time to adapt, but I guess monsters are more adaptable than us in that regard."

Salaan scoffed before declaring.

"Most monsters do not care, as long as they have a decent place to live in and perverted males to have sex with."

Kasumi raised her hand as if to counter the master assassin's argument, before casting her gaze downward half ashamed.

"That's… actually true." The elf then perked up a little."Although the merchant from Remina didn't have any difficulties fitting in either."

Salaan nodded.

"True… but then again, she is a human who lived in Remina during the bloodiest hour of Black Alice's reign. You either had to be fearless or lack the most basic common sense to live without going insane. She's used to deal with the perspective of her world ending at any time."

Pilate took his head between his hands.

"Multiple different dimensions, at a time different than ours, populated by beings that may or may not be aware of the situation, and for some have a hand in it, while we deal with the Monster Lord's machinations…"

He started massaging his temples to focus.

"What insane world are we living in?"

Slaan closed her eyes as she responded the distraught soldier.

"One orchestrated by cruel gods, who see worlds as their sandbox and their inhabitants as playthings that can be stolen by their counterpart. One where a life only has value if it blindly follows the grand plan of an egomaniac. One where the weak is oppressed by the strong, and whether it is under the cover of his own safety or not is irrelevant. One where we must fight for everyone because we are the only one who can."

The other people around the table looked at the assassin as she ended her diatribe.

"That was… dark. Even for you."

Salaan sighed.

"Apologies, but I am growing weary of having to deal with the consequences of actions done in the shadow for the sake of pushing this world to its ruin. Although those are easier to deal with than the chaosization process, as a well placed blade can solve those problems quite effectively."

Pilate looked down with his shoulders slumped, which didn't escape the elven kunoichi.

"Are you alright, Pilate? You seems to be depressed."

"I'm just feeling a bit inadequate right now… I mean, we keep facing more and more dangerous enemies, and I used to be a lowly guard in a peaceful village. Even know, I'm just a human who's relying on skills to not get completely outclassed by monsters."

Kasumi got up and bowed.

"Then as a monster I shall spar with you and participate in making your skills grow further, it has been a while since I last had the occasion to train my kunoichi skills against a male opponent, and I would not want them to dull because of a lack of practice."

Pilate got up right afterward, as he regained confidence in front of the challenge.

"I accept your challenge, let us face on the central platform right now!"

As the duo moved toward the platform, Shoki used hand signs to send a silent message to Salaan.

"Do you think he understand that she was talking about sexual skills?"

Salaan answered using the same process.

"He will be reminded soon enough."

"Secondary entrance. Bedrooms."

Salaan silently turned around and noticed a small movement near the hall that led to the cavern under the castle. She didn't see anything moving for several seconds, before she noticed that the shadow was way thicker than it should have been. Concentrating more, she then noticed several flowing movements in the doorway that led to the resting zone. Eventually, she realized that the shadow was Minamo, a kitsune kunoichi recruited by Luka during his raid on Grangold's castle. The fox made a sign to remain silent, and Salaan could tell the monster was fully focused on Pilate.

Salaan turned back to Shoki and resumed their silent conversation.

"Someone else has sights on him."

"And she's excited. I can see her tails swishing from here."

Salaan grinned under her mask as she sent her last message.

"This is going to be interesting."