A symbol of his victory.

"Haha, it's nothing much," Liam said with his sweetest smile, addressing Ralli in a low, conspiring voice. "I'm going to lord it over you a little, but this is just a show for the class. After all, this isn't about me: It's about your excellent carrot and stick strategy, and the good of our class of trainees. So, please, play along, understanding I only have the best of intentions."

Ralli didn't understand that at all, but she didn't feel she was in a position to refuse. "You talk too much," she responded simply.

"That's the spirit!" he gave his chipper response, reaching into the vest of his padded armor and raising his voice to a volume that would allow the other students to hear. "Now, as for my reward, I ask only that you wear this for me." He produced something he had procured in town in the past, but never thought he'd get a chance to do anything with until now: it was a small, elastic pink choker with a symbol of the church on it, a cross over a heart. It had a white frill around the top and bottom that looked especially humiliating to Ralli. But, more importantly...

"That cross is a symbol of the church," the deathspeaker remarked, backing away instinctively. "I refuse to wear it, as a... knight."

"Ugh, picky picky," Liam complained, turning it over in his hand. "There. How about an upside down cross? Do the knights have any code against that?"

"It is not about a code..." Ralli grumbled, taking the item from Liam and inspecting it, but failing to detect any new revelations.

"How about it?" the young nobleman asked, spreading his palms. "All you have to do is wear this itsy bitsy thing until you wake up tomorrow. Until that time, this will simply act as a small mark of shame signifying your tiny defeat. Then, your honor as an undefeated knight will be restored, and you can simply throw it in the rubbish, should you choose."

Ralli tried to consider... something about it seemed very off. She had taught Liam long enough to know he was deceitful and ambitious, both of which made his offer hard to trust, even if it hadn't been a request to put an actual cross on an actual demon. Then again... Even if he was trying to weasel his way into something in the future, maybe Liam did actually intend to help out the class with his sacrifice of a more involved reward? From time to time, the young man did seem to put the unity of the class first... "But even that feels like a means to his own ends," Ralli thought to herself privately.