Meager Supper

Sonia urges Schierke to join her band, promising she would never be shunned there for what she is. Overhearing, Isidro stops trading blows with Mule to listen and takes a punch for it. Mule declares that Isidro, unwilling to kill even when the pirates meant to end him, is too arrogant and unsuited to the sword, words that visibly sting the boy, who fires back that he was the one who rescued Mule from Bonebeard. As the two scuffle on, Schierke sees Guts standing alone at the city gate and decides to remain with the party she already belongs to. Sonia accepts this warmly, then teases, unheard by the others, that the man in the gateway must be the one Schierke loves.

The girls finally exchange names, and Mule asks for Isidro's, though the boy's swollen lip mangles it. Before Sonia leaves, she warns Schierke to depart Vritannis soon; Schierke is struck by a vision of the streets ablaze and strewn with corpses. Sonia gives her a knowing look and goes, sure they will meet again. Walking back, Isidro apologizes for the insult over her hat, and Schierke, forgiving him, thanks him for coming after her.

That night the group lodges in a canteen, where Guts kicks a drunk who demands Casca pour his drink. Farnese brings down Schierke, now dressed as an ordinary child, and the young witch squirms under everyone's stares and Isidro's tactless remark that no one would take her for a powerful witch. When leering men crowd Farnese and Casca and slosh ale over Schierke's new dress, Guts floors the offender, saying it was payment for staining her clothes, which earns him her admiring look. A full brawl erupts, the knight Azan resurfaces, and Schierke cracks a bottle over a drunk's head, drawing a compliment from Guts and, at last, a wide smile.

"Meager Supper" runs twenty-one pages of the Millennium Falcon arc and first appeared in Young Animal issue 23 on November 26, 2004. Sonia's parting vision foreshadows disaster for Vritannis, while the closing tavern scene lets Schierke find a corner of the human world she can genuinely enjoy.