"My expectation is that we would all die." Linhardt responded bluntly. He was not an optimist. Nor did he require lectures on the trade-offs involved in warfare. He knew how war worked, he just hated it. Why didn't anyone understand that other than Dorothea? That his magical prowess and its military application didn't grant him the right to immolate a soldier who might have been plucked from his home for reasons he didn't fully understand and sent to a battlefield?

"I am ill-suited for leadership, for reasons which you have identified. I do not deny this." He continued, "But nor can I force myself to be otherwise."

"You're staring at me without speaking. Usually this happens because I have violated a social or cultural boundary. Have I done so?" Knowing that he had transgressed a boundary would not stop Linhardt from doing so, but he did like to know what rules he was breaking. The healer was genuinely curious; having spent most of his life being told that his morals, emotions, and discomforts didn't matter or should change has both made Linhardt stubborn and adopt a stance that nobody cared about his experiences except for himself. Hence why he was so defensive of his right to his own life.