"Yes, dear heart, I do know what conditioning is."

He'd been conditioned, too, after all, even if he prefers to not see it that way. His treatment at the hands of his brother, the gods, Niflheim even... it had all conditioned him to hate.

Over the long years love, light and kindness faded from his heart until nothing but dark anger, pain and spite remained.

"But a name is far too valuable a thing to lose. It is...how to put it...where we hang our identities, don't you think? Take it from a man whose name was erased from the books of history. My name is gone. You still have yours."

He tries not to jealously spit those words. He doesn't care that the soldier was conditioned to forget their identity, they can still access it if they try. He can't do that anymore. The last person who knew the name Ardyn Lucis Caelum died thousands of years ago. Everything he was is in the past.

"Ah, of course I do not mean to offend or to imply anything untoward."

A lie, though he covers it with a pleasant lilt.

"If I've crossed a line do forgive me."