[ There's a smirk quickly replacing the expression that'd been there before in his act of complete and total blamelessness for anything happening. Yes, he's well aware about the boots and they've certainly paid off and then some by now.

Before he can continue to mention them, completely just because without anything attached whatsoever, Sylvain says something unexpected. Something almost sentimental even with the voiced disbelief of sorts, if he's reading between the lines correctly even though there's that grin he knows too well. It's the grin which gives him pause, makes Claude move it aside to mere teasing. They're rather good at that, and it's easy to ignore the tiny pang of wistfulness and fall back into it. ]

Maybe you should've bribed me via bribing yourself thanks to the boots a little bit sooner. [ Now it's his turn to grin, as if that's how that really worked, but as Sylvain knows well that won't stop Claude from continuing on - especially when he thinks he has something else to point out. ] Or there was always the near miss in Nocwich. Though really, I think things have worked out pretty well the way they have since.