They offer him all kinds of enticements and deals, if he'll only renounce his sorceress. Puberty Boy visits him in his cell seven times to try and persuade him to accept. When that doesn't work, he sends Instructor Trepe, with her cool voice and calm reasoning. When she fails, Chicken-Wuss attempts to embarrass him into buying into that load of bullshit. Raijin and Fujin try more times than he can count, though they ought to know better.

He refuses them all. It's not that he particularly wants to die; it's more the principle of the thing. He's come this far in pursuit of his romantic dream. Maybe the sorceress wasn't what he dreamed of, but he's still a knight, and a knight never backs down. A knight never turns his back on his sorceress. A knight would not take a coward's bargain to save his own life.

As they line up in front of him with their rifles, he thinks she would be proud of him, for facing them without flinching. He never got to serve a sorceress who was truly worthy of him, but at least he can say he never bent, never broke, never backed down.