"In my youth, we were counselled to the opposite." It's more thinking out loud than anything else, but it's true. Cort and Vannay didn't believe in blind trust - nobody could afford to, when they were training gunslingers - but they knew, and taught their charges, the truth that men who stand alone usually die quickly. Raised in such a martial society, it's no surprise that Alain holds high value on the bonds of friendship. Raised in that setting with the kind of sensitivity he ordinarily has, it would be a miracle if he were otherwise.

"But then," he says, taking another drag of smoke, "I guess I was raised for battles between armies, not battles where only one man can stand alive and victorious. Perhaps whoever told you that was right." Then, with a little half-smile, "Though it seems a lonely way to live your life, say true."