[That earns her a satisfied little grin from him.]

I sure hope so too. Honestly, I'm as frustrated as you probably are with how little of an actual plan we have for how to proceed beyond "generate enough magical energy", but for the time being all we can do is look out for each other, so that's what I'm going to do.

[He takes another long drag from his cigarette. Mismatched as he may look with his cattle attributes and knight's sigil, he nonetheless seems determined.]

I'll patrol on foot to see if anyone else is trying to mess up our animal mages. Are you coming along?

[It's not a quest or anything else that'd yield a reward, so he won't hold it against her if she has better things to do. Learning her name and getting a chance to explain his reasoning was enough to dissipate the slight lingering vexation from their previous encounter.]