[ As Sylvain sits and Claude takes a sip of his mostly finished drink, he eyes the other man over the glass's rim with a decidedly unimpressed stare regarding that commentary about a date. Sylvain won't get his secrets that easily, old acquaintances or not, so he sets it down with a shrug and an easy smile. ]

Depends on whether that'll fuel how much effort you're gonna put into those lines. Do I get even better ones than whatever you've saved up as the best if I say it was? If so, it was a date.

[ It wasn't, but he'll never turn down a chance to stir up some light trouble. That's a good cover for waiting for his answer about the barracks, and that Sylvain sends what Claude thinks is a scowl down at the clothes when they're mentioned - that's comforting. He'll lean back a bit in his own seat after that, that smile never once fading. ]

Yeah, I did. Everyone does when they first get here, mostly because the Free Cities is hoping to recruit as many people as possible.

[ Claude says this evenly, even though he has some fairly solid negative feelings about the push for war going on. Some things never change: it's not like he's just going to openly say those things without some confirmation the other person listening is on the same page as him. It just gets more complicated with all the context of Fodlan added in.

So he'll just lift his glass again for another drink, not without casually mentioning first: ] Regardless of whatever they've said, you don't have to stay out at the barracks for any longer than you want to. There's other places to go.