#laoch

is a lot less heroic, basically when slei first confronts the oni and gets taken away by the rest of the guild when things get too heavy, laoch makes it his deal to take on the oni with a small team he's managed to rally while slei is resting [because he straight up doesn't understand what happened during that fight] and just as slei is recovered and finds out what happened, he ends up saving laoch from the oni and having the realisation that more people than his close circle were influenced by him/his actions and its causing wider consequences and collateral of people who think they can do the same work he does slei ends up saving laoch and dragging him through the final sequences of the oni fight from the ley transference chamber all the way up to the surface for the final confrontation, and laoch realises by actually standing toe to toe with slei he is woefully far off of actually filling those shoes but not discouraged to the point of quitting his work for dragons watch! slei's final 'nail in the coffin' for retirement ends up being the introduction of the wizards in soto, he's not a magically inclined person, and to some degree he's downright distrustful of people who use magic in excess, so thats when he strikes a bargain with tai to pass his metaphorical leash onto the astral ward, since he figures tai's expendable if something goes horribly wrong [its probably his most morally dubious act since his old bandit days, people who REALLY know slei knows he has a bit of a messed up view on punishment being 'proportional' so sending tai to what he feels would be his death without personally dirtying his own hands is pretty par for the course for him lol