He wants to press about the party, the guests, but he doesn't think Wilhelm is entirely receptive at the moment to prying. Instead, he voices the thoughts that were rattling around in his head with a dismissive scoff, for better or for worse, "I'm surprised," he says, "I wasn't sure the other Summoned knew what neutrality meant."

He will continue to argue that he did not make the first strike if anyone calls him a hypocrite, and he attacked that woman after Thorne's delegate was in danger. It's meant at an insult to everyone else outside of Thorne. Pushing more and more daggers at the other factions.

He wonders what would have happened if he had gone and actively gave their little shindig a problem, instead of passively. Ha.

"I just worry," he starts, and it sounds mostly true, but then he adds, sharper and a bit frigid, "that someone out there will find a reason and a way to weaponize you against the rest of us."

Ah.

Maybe his "reprieve" isn't as helpful as he needs it to be.