We will not let him down.

“Do you want to see how strong I am for yourself?”

A non-answer. She didn’t know how strong this boy, she couldn’t say she was better yet.

“--Is that a serious challenge!?” He was so excited, he barely realized he put his hands on her shoulders and started shaking her. Saro didn’t exactly challenge him, and he wasn’t exactly on equal footing with the others.

“So you are like their leader then? I agree, overworking and underworking is dangerous. But at like you said at least training with friends is fun.”

He didn’t have a group to train with but sometimes he trained with Yato or other trainees when he was younger.

“You would really come? It is true, I do want you to come with me to Rodorio village but what I said about building bonds with the villagers and getting to know them, I think it is important. But that is just my opinion on what a good saint is.” He knew there were other saints who would disagree with him but he always thought building bonds between saints, trainees, even villagers was important. His uncle agree with him to an extent. “I know others may disagree or think I make no sense but that is up to you to decide. Sorry though, I didn’t mean to make you or anyone feel bad." 

He watched patiently as Teneo stretched and after a few minutes, he was done.

 "Alright, lets go! Have you ever been to Rodorio village and explore around before?” He was already starting to walk in the direction of Rodorio village.

“No, Sir Aldebaran is still in charge. I just have to watch over those two while he’s busy. Like a babysitter. Obviously, I don’t need to do that so much anymore.” Saro still had a lot of growing up to do, but he’d come a long enough way that Teneo could trust in his resolve now. And Celintha was... well, she had always been Celintha.

Teneo just nodded. He didn’t think the point was worth arguing, but the way he had brought it up, it had felt like Regulus was trying to make him feel like his own training was insufficient. Perhaps Teneo had misread the situation.  

❀

Yes, this was the might of a gold saint. Agasha was soundly, completely defeated.

In the back of her mind, she thought that Celintha was lucky. But not nearly as lucky as Teneo would be for getting to be with Celintha.

“And just remember,” she said, one final push, because she lost the fight but she’d go down fighting.

“If you don’t make her happy, she has an army of her own, and we’ll all do everything we can to protect her. Me, her kids, this whole village. So…”

“Take care of her. I mean, not that she needs to be babied or held on a leash, but… you know what I mean. Take care of her heart.”

He had her approval, then. He was relieved. He had felt odd, arguing with the younger woman, but this whole exchange taught him exactly how good of hands Celintha had been left in. She would be fine. He would find the right time to talk to her, too.

After all, they both had time.

“I’ll try not to make enemies of Rodorio village. Thanks. Tell Celintha that I stopped by.”

He waved and turned to go back to the sanctuary.

Did he really want to push his luck with that? Laying there was kinda the best bet but he didn’t want the other freaking out. Slowly the mute tried to sit up gritting his teeth while the hand held his gut. Able to sit fully he threw up the same sign so he knew he can.

Teneo smiled and put a hand on the other’s back to help balance them. 

“I…” he muttered and sniffled. He couldn’t stop his tears. At all. But Teneo suddenly sounded so much older. “I always believe you, Teneo. You’re always so strong. I…”

Saro finally reached out and weakly accepted the outstretched hand.

“I want to be with you. I want to– I want to live. And not alone. With you. Um…” He couldn’t sound mature and elegant like the other boy.

“Then I won’t leave you alone. I promise, Saro. We’re going to stay together.” Teneo grasped the younger boy’s hand and pulled him up from the ground into a sudden hug. It was more to keep him standing than anything, but it was nice to feel close to someone again.

Pefko frowned and tilted his head. He searched Teneo with his eyes. “Well, I know you didn’t want me to die, so that helps! But, um,”  

“Did you think I could handle it, or did you hope I could?”

“Well, a test is a test, so if I’m being perfectly honest…” Teneo really hadn’t hoped or thought about Pefko dying out there, not as a person and not as Pefko’s friend, but as a fellow gold saint who hadn’t been training with Pefko all his life?

Regulus smiled, “I understand. You want to train hard so you could protect Saro and Celintha, so you can fight with each other and Aldebaran. I am sure Celintha and Saro feels the same too. But…" 

He felt so frustrated. He never knew getting someone to relax and have fun for one day was so hard. "You know you guys can still relax for a little even now. It is like as if El Cid or Kunikida were your masters and not Aldebaran. Train all day and no fun.” He did not know if they knew who Kunikida was but he knew for sure that they would know who El Cid was. “One day of fun isn’t going to hurt anyone." 

Just then he had an idea. He did not know if the idea would work but it was worth a try. "Okay as I said, I won’t force you. But have you ever been to the Rodorio village before? Have you ever even talk to the villagers at a personal level? You are training to be a saint, right? Saints have a mission to serve Athena and protect the innocents and that include the villagers in Rodorio village. What kind of saint would one be if they didn’t know anything about the villagers there or didn’t care to know about them? My uncle said that it is important to understand and know the people who you are protecting. It would be good if they get to know you as well so they can feel reassure and confident in being protect by the saints. It is like forming a bond between the protector and innocent…” Something like that, he think…Did he even made any sense? “But…it is fine, you are still a trainee and not a saint yet so I guess there is no need to get to know the villagers yet. As you said, you should probably focus on getting stronger even though I don’t think that is the only important thing."  

“I’m more or less in charge of them. I make sure they don’t overwork themselves, but underworking themselves is far more dangerous. Especially Saro.” And Sir El Cid had three students and three cloths. Clearly Teneo’s group wasn’t working hard enough.  “Besides, training is fun. Tons of fun.”

“...Regulus, if you need me to accompany you that badly, then I’ll just come. You don’t have to try to do all this... reverse psychology.” He took a deep, steady breath, and with a bend of his knees, he set down the makeshift weights he was making use of. “Better me than Celintha. --Or Saro,” he quickly added. “I’d rather you not try to pull that with Saro. He would start to feel like a failure. They still have a far way to go, but I’d rather it not be rubbed in like that. Saro is sensitive...” Celintha would take it just fine, she was confident. As for Teneo, even just hearing that he was apparently failing at this vital part of being a saint stung deep, like he had just let down Sir Aldebaran, yet again. It would hurt Saro more. He might even cry.

“Just let me stretch first.” Even Teneo’s form of stretching was as extreme as his form of weightlifting. Intense, deep stretches of his arms and his legs, each held for about a minute before he slowly moved onto the next muscle group.