"Ah, but I have a busy mind, it won't quiet. You know, you know!" A mou of his lips, and he clasps Jiang Cheng by the shoulder, leaning in and offering the pretense of a pout that's barely there, compared to how he was in the years that spanned their mutual coming of age.

"Thank the Ministry for their kind contribution. Don't tell anyone, but I think half of it is to hopefully discourage us from roughly running off into any trouble. They, ah, they seem to be catching on to the fact we're not trained."

He smiles at that, with the wry edge of a man well aware that the lack of training they all share is because none of them came here by choice, informed. Their stumbling makes sense with no framework for being caught in the first place.