[It's a nice play, and Claude admires the confidence with which Hubert bluffs with the zero cards in his hand. Of course he'll find out about the others soon enough. Claude half expects they'll come to Hubert, possibly with weapons out. Claude has no expectations of being able to hide this fact - that Hubert seems to think is advantageous - from him.
Well, if Hubert thinks he's starting to find his footing, that's exactly the time to pull the rug out from under him.]
Oh, yeah, there's actually a lot of us. [He says this far too cheerfully, casually dismantling the idea that Hubert's uncovered some valuable intel by tossing it off without a care. Or, at least, without a visible care. When will Hubert learn that choosing your expressions is so much better than simply trying to hide them?] I have to say, though, the Kingdom's way over-represented. Not a single Imperial citizen yet - excepting yourself, of course. In fact, it's just about every Faerghan with a grudge against the Empire who's good to hand-to-hand combat that's here. So, uh, speaking of lying low, you might want to do a little of it. I don't know if you've noticed, but you don't have magic here. But, well, muscles are muscles, y'know? You might get a pretty rough welcome if you're not careful.
[In other words: you have no allies and a whole lot of enemies, and you're unarmed.
Claude actually would prefer to keep relations between Hubert and the other people from their world from getting violent. Partly because he just thinks it'd be bad for everyone involved, but partly because he feels like this is a golden opportunity. There's so much he doesn't understand about Edelgard's actions, so much he feels like could be avoided or fixed if people just sat down and talked things out, but back home...well, events had possessed their own momentum, and had washed away any number of chances. Maybe here, there's some kind of chance to understand each other - a chance for them all to stop having to fight and kill old friends.
But either way...if Hubert might unbalance Dimitri's mental state again, encouraging the man to keep a safe distance could go a long way in preserving stability, to say nothing of peace. And in the meantime...if anyone is inclined to violence, maybe Claude can talk them down to mere verbal hostilities. Framing it as being for Hubert's own safety isn't even inaccurate to the possibilities; it just frames the situation in a way that incentivizes the man to do what he wants. And, incidentally...Claude's offering Hubert a little bit of advice, what one might even call help, free of charge in the form of this warning. He knows the man won't miss that, and whether it keeps him guessing or renders him grateful, Claude still comes out ahead.]
no subject
Well, if Hubert thinks he's starting to find his footing, that's exactly the time to pull the rug out from under him.]
Oh, yeah, there's actually a lot of us. [He says this far too cheerfully, casually dismantling the idea that Hubert's uncovered some valuable intel by tossing it off without a care. Or, at least, without a visible care. When will Hubert learn that choosing your expressions is so much better than simply trying to hide them?] I have to say, though, the Kingdom's way over-represented. Not a single Imperial citizen yet - excepting yourself, of course. In fact, it's just about every Faerghan with a grudge against the Empire who's good to hand-to-hand combat that's here. So, uh, speaking of lying low, you might want to do a little of it. I don't know if you've noticed, but you don't have magic here. But, well, muscles are muscles, y'know? You might get a pretty rough welcome if you're not careful.
[In other words: you have no allies and a whole lot of enemies, and you're unarmed.
Claude actually would prefer to keep relations between Hubert and the other people from their world from getting violent. Partly because he just thinks it'd be bad for everyone involved, but partly because he feels like this is a golden opportunity. There's so much he doesn't understand about Edelgard's actions, so much he feels like could be avoided or fixed if people just sat down and talked things out, but back home...well, events had possessed their own momentum, and had washed away any number of chances. Maybe here, there's some kind of chance to understand each other - a chance for them all to stop having to fight and kill old friends.
But either way...if Hubert might unbalance Dimitri's mental state again, encouraging the man to keep a safe distance could go a long way in preserving stability, to say nothing of peace. And in the meantime...if anyone is inclined to violence, maybe Claude can talk them down to mere verbal hostilities. Framing it as being for Hubert's own safety isn't even inaccurate to the possibilities; it just frames the situation in a way that incentivizes the man to do what he wants. And, incidentally...Claude's offering Hubert a little bit of advice, what one might even call help, free of charge in the form of this warning. He knows the man won't miss that, and whether it keeps him guessing or renders him grateful, Claude still comes out ahead.]