[ He hadn’t been intentionally eavesdropping on Claude’s emotions - in fact, he’s been struggling to ignore them more of late. But that wash of sudden and sharp grief catches him like a punch to the gut, making his breath hitch for a moment as his fingers hesitate over his next move.

He stares at the board for a moment, unseeing, because that had been so visceral and unexpected. But as he pauses to wonder why, it’s not hard to piece things together. Even if he’s a little surprised at the strength behind that reaction.

Huh. Well. Apparently Claude would miss him when he was gone after all. What a strange thought. And one he doesn’t want to think too deeply about. Not because he wouldn’t be around to enjoy that fact when it became a reality, but because he doesn’t want to think too much about why that might have elicited such a strong response.

Easier, then, to let Claude divert the conversation to joking and strategy, rather than the grim realities that awaited them back home.

He lets his lips quirk in wry amusement as he slides another pawn forward. ]

Mmm, we used tactics they weren’t familiar with, mostly. The western lords were always pretty arrogant in general, and never studied any strategies outside the ones most common in Fodlan. So we started employing some of the Srengi ambush tactics on them. My father was horrified, but they worked as well on the southern troops sent to subdue us as they had on our invading troops a decade back.

[ He thought Claude might get a kick out of that bit of irony and clever trickery. ]