[Claude laughs, taking the open embarrassment--however small--as a personal victory.] You've got me there, my friend. I feel like my bed must be getting lonely with me gone nearly every night.

[His eyes follow the movement of Byleth's hand, and the joke he prepared about the older man's insatiable desire for food slips from his mind as his eyes widen just a bit at the scales there. ]

So here you've been delegated as a monster here, hm?

[He itches to see how far the transformation has gone--to ask what monster Byleth could be becoming--but he holds back his questions for the moment, trying not to be insensitive. Though, this wasn't the first major change Byleth had gone through, was it...]