Lucky you, kid, that Devero seems inclined to take that at face value. He laughs, a brief and rueful sound. "Yeah. We sure as hell were. I saw how hard you were running."

And he also saw, earlier today, a Koumyou so exhausted following the mission that the priest's magical exertions in the kitchen car had almost totally wiped him out. He'd needed to carry his partner away from the remnants of the mess; Koumyou'd barely had enough energy left to sit up.

That's an extreme example, of course-- and with a mitigating circumstance involved-- but still. It had been a hard mission.

"Lots of folks on this train are still recovering," he adds kindly.