[ Man, Skylark never expected that one day he'd end up pulling from this specific set of past experiences in an attempt to get someone to understand what he's trying to say here and that he isn't just talking out of his ass. He isn't even sure why he's trying this hard, but it bothers him to hear Alcryst put himself down like that when such admiration speaks a lot about his own character. ]

Well...if you'll bear with me for a bit, I can try to explain. I've met a lot of noble and royal patrons while I was growing up, so I got to overhear some things every now and then. Especially if they had too much to drink. [ Don't ask how he ended up overhearing. ]

And the imperial family is bloody huge. Nearly all of them have at least one sibling, but they're rarely close with one another. If you accomplish great deeds, you're honoured and rewarded, but there's only so much of those to go around. And sometimes whether you can receive recognition and achieve prestige isn't even in your control. I think you can guess how that tends to go between family, yeah?

[ It's not really a rhetorical question so much as he's asking if Alcryst follows so far while he tries to figure out how to follow up on this. ]