Oh, that is a good custom. It is the custom a holy order would have, if they needed to establish who had won fights for some reason. It is a custom that says, everybody here is honorable, so we can do things a way that -

- no, actually, her delight is building as she contemplates it, because - in a sense that is the entire and whole core of being a paladin, isn't it, that if you are honorable, and everybody can trust you to be honorable, then you can dispense with all the costly parts of everything which are just there as guards against evildoers. In Heaven probably the Emperor wanders the streets without bodyguards, and need not wonder which of his advisors are being truthful, because things are better when people are Good. The core of Goodness is not giving your food to the hungry, though you should give your food to the hungry. The core of Goodness is that honorable things are stronger than dishonorable things, that honor is a kind of wealth - 

- a kind she'd feared America didn't have -

"As in Heaven," she says. "I am with you."

Honestly 'as in heaven' is a very sweet thing to say and he can get on board with this whole.... Crusader persona or whatever is going on. 

"Great! And if someone hits you a lot harder than you're comfortable with, you can tell them it's excessive and they'll hit you lighter so you don't get hurt. If someone hits you and you think it would not stop you even with a sharp sword, you can say light to tell people that you are not dead and you can keep fighting. Does that make sense too?"

"I have not been - hurt enough to die but for God in a real fight. I would be - not sure, some things."

"That's okay! If you aren't certain in practice you can just say you aren't certain and we can help you learn calibration. Once you have enough armour to be safe, we can hit you good and hit you light so you can tell the difference."

Gabriel shoots an apologetic look at Robert. "Going to have to check exactly what she's allowed to do right now - how long until she's sixteen?" 

“She, uh, doesn’t know her birthday. I think they just put January 1st on the forms.”

He so so so badly doesn't want this girl to be told that she has to use nothing but foam swords and fight whichever twelve-year-old shows up for youth combat. Not with the way she lights up upon being given a sword - he can imagine it's probably a break from how powerless it must feel to be a foster kid. He also doesn't even know much about youth combat off the top of his head, because Kalomeros has never had a strong youth combat program and he thinks it's dormant right now.

"Would you give her permission to do armoured combat? She won't be able to authorise and fight in any actual tournaments until she's sixteen, but she can get some armour on and give it a go at practice."

He is PRETTY sure the marshals will not yell at him for this but he's also just not going to go and ask Reynhard what the rule is for people who don't know their birthday because he knows Reynhard is not going to know the answer and then Iomedae is not going to be allowed to fight until someone finds out. 

"Well, how dangerous would you say it is compared to, say, hockey, or football, or something?"

Roger and Lucia are very enthusiastically murdering each other in the background as this conversation happens. Roger just hit Lucia hard enough in the head that she staggered back two paces with a cry of, "Good!"

Then she's right back up in his face making a noise like a thunderstorm as she beats her sword on every edge of his shield, looking for openings that he isn't giving her.

A couple other fighters are moving out onto the field now, and one of the knights is lazily putting a newer fighter through some warmup exercises. Those produce significantly less noise. 

This would probably be easier if Roger and Lucia were not doing that! He can't begrudge them, though, they have that special rivalry that comes from starting at the same time and improving at similar rates so that they're always alternating which one is pulling ahead of the other today, and that kind of rivalry makes people want to take harder and dish out harder. He knows from experience. 

Bright smile. 

"We actually probably have similar or lower rates of injuries to football and hockey!" he says cheerfully. It helps that he's saying true things even if he's worried it's not going to convince his normal coworker from his extremely normal job. "I know it looks dangerous, but we have a strong community that looks out for each other, and we're very conscious of armour standards and safety.... you know, people shouldn't be hitting each other in football, but that often means they're not really wearing enough protective gear or preparing for when something does happen. We're always thinking about how we can make sure we're still able to fi-" don't call it fighting, "-do this sport when we're seventy."

"Kiddo, promise me you'll be safe?"

"It is good to die fighting as holy warrior. It is how I will die. My life give first to God, and no can obey you if you ask me not to give life to God.

But live longer if good at swording."

If Iomedae said that at home he'd probably just laugh and tell her not to die on him any time soon but she's being like this in front of his coworkers. 

Why are they upset about this trivial and obvious statement. "...I do not plan be foolish. I will no go to Hell, fight Satan, until very strong."

Yeah he's also got nothing. 

Three rounds back Roger noticed she was really tired and asked if she was done, and she gasped out, "Three more!" because that's what she says every time she's asked if she's done. Her dad says you're not learning unless you're tired and you're not growing unless you want to quit.

She taps the top corner of Roger's shield just enough to make him put it over his eyes and then steps sharply to the right and throws the wrap juuust far enough that it'll hit the unarmoured section on the back of his thigh, right underneath the bottom edge of his shield. As soon as he yelps acknowledgement, she's already going in for the hug. "Great fight!!"

Then she takes her helmet off immediately so she can wipe all the sweat out of her eyes, and looks around for somewhere to collapse exhaustedly, and - NEWBIE!! THERE IS A NEWBIE!!

Lucy considers it her SACRED DUTY to make sure she, with her long ponytail and her slight stature and her voice that she can't get to drop below a bright soprano tone no matter how hard she tries, is VISIBLE to new fighters just in case anyone ever thinks that they won't be able to fight because of their body or their identity. (She cries whenever she sings One Of Us.) 

"Hello!!" she says as she bounds over. "Welcome!!!" 

Most women don't fight because they are weaker than men and less possessed of the martial virtues. Iomedae has spent her life petitioning to be an exception but she has never entertained the claim that this would work out for most people. She heard the high voice and assumed Lucia was a younger boy. But no!

"Hello! God glad we meet!" Aaand she doesn't know the knight's name at all - "This great man say me the rules."

Okay, not what she expected to hear but the important thing continues to be that she has a SACRED DUTY to be nice to the newbies even if she has absolutely no idea how she is supposed to feel about claims that God himself has taken notice of who she meets.

"I'm glad to meet you too! I'm Lucy - uh, or Lucia. Are you new?"

Belatedly, Lucy looks sideways at Sir Gabriel for confirmation she isn't interrupting anything important. 

He is still kind of stuck on the whole thing where Iomedae is a holy warrior who thinks she will die for God by fighting against Hell. That's.... not how anything works. Magic is real but he's pretty sure Hell is not real. (Or he really, really hopes Hell is not real!) 

"Um, Lucy, do you actually want to show Iomedae the free donuts? I should catch up with Robert, we work together."

Iomedae will delightedly be handed off to the girl her age who fights! "Thank you sir, God greet you in Heaven!" and to the girl, "I am Robert foster child. And Jenny foster child - that is Jenny there. I want to join an order, I am a holy warrior."

Lucy is nineteen but honestly looks like she could be fifteen. She will excitedly take Iomedae to the folding table where somebody has left a tray of free donuts. 

...she did not just openly say that openly what the heck - okay Gabriel isn't freaking out so clearly this is fine somehow - is she just really into her persona? 

"Say your name again slowly? Aye - oh - med - aye? Is that... Greek?" 

"Iomedae. Aye- oh - meh - day. I do not know Greek."