Pretty sure your last attempt to lure me into transferring was far more elaborate than that. Although I seem to recall telling you then that you’d have had better luck if you’d sent the girls to invite me.

[ It had been a flippant dismissal, at the time. An evasion, and one he hadn’t put much thought into. But that had been early in their time in the Academy, and he hadn’t known Claude very well yet. Not past some idle curiosity over the man who seemed to wear as many masks as he did.

Which just made him dangerous to get too close to. Sylvain could safely hide among the Lions. They’d all known him long enough that none of them looked at him too closely anymore. Just accepted the truth of what he showed everyone, back then. He’d doubted, even then, that Claude would ever be so willingly obtuse.

Still, he reaches his hand out to tap at the knuckles of Claude’s left hand, joking as he does so. ] Choosing right never ends well for me.