"That's true enough, though I've always preferred to set the odds myself." Through plans, through schemes, through whatever ways he could possibly make it happen: that'd been his goal for so long Claude can hardly remember the exact moment it'd crystallized for him rather than it being something developed over the years. By necessity, by means of everything to make sure he succeeded, and with space for failure left between if only because he'd planned for those instances, too.

"Of course, setting them at home came with having many things which made that possible there that isn't the case here without some serious interventions of some kind or the state of things tipping over into something else entirely. I don't particularly want to wish for the latter even if I wish there was a way to guarantee things could become stable for everyone."

Those all feel like mere wishes with hollowness than any promises within, and he's quiet again afterwards as his mind continues to puzzle over that with as many winding paths as the streets of Cadens before them. It leaves him with a question, one Claude suspects he might know a partial answer to, but he turns to Altaïr to ask it. "Is that something you've lived by yourself? With choices, I mean."