“You killed the demon,” he said in a voice touched with sadness. “Why did you do it?”
“To save you, of course. Your weapon was broken. You had only a sword left. And, anyway, you saved our lives, so we were but repaying an honorable debt,” Stanley said in surprise.
“I was not afraid. I am not a coward.”
“No one could ever call you a coward after seeing what we saw. But it was only natural that we should see your danger and do what we could to help you out of it. A man armed with only a sword would have small chance against such a large, ferocious beast.”
“I was not afraid to die. It would not have mattered, anyway,” the man said sadly.
“Tell us,” Stanley urged, “how did you happen to be in the crater at this time of the night, and alone?”
“To prove to myself that, no matter what I may have been or may have done in the past, I am not a coward at heart.”
“No one called you a coward.”
“Yes, imploring your forgiveness for the contradiction. You called me that very loathsome thing.”
“I?” in surprise. “When?”