It's what people like us were born to do, if we do it right, [ Claude says. The words flow from him as easily as can be, even with the honestly curse still afflicting his tongue; there is so much in this world he feels deeply uncertain about, but his own sense of responsibility, his own ambitions for the future, his own hopes for the way the future may be -- these are things that he never gets to speak aloud, but are the only things that get him out of bed every morning.

That godawful curse wasn't altogether incorrect. Talking about the nature of his birth is one thing, or about feeling a bit cranky about the way the world has shifted around them, but this? This is, he supposes, the closest he can get to his true self.

Damn it all. He hates it when they're right. ]

And people like us, with our ambitions... all we want is for people like you to be able to live full, happy, healthy lives. People without the sort of power I'm born with should just be able to live in peace.

[ And yes, he's aware that Ange was born rich -- but that's different from having power. When he smiles at her, it reaches his eyes. It's sweet of her to worry, he thinks. He knows how outlandish his plans sound, of course; that's why not a living soul in Fodlan knows about them. Almyra either, for that matter, not after his mother had dismissed them as nothing but childhood fancies. ]

If I can make that happen, I'll be happy, [ he says firmly. ] And I hope you can live in peace once we're eventually freed of this place too.

[ Peace isn't something they see very much of at all, these days. It'll come. ]