[He realized he misspoke when Dio recounted his and his friend's story, with the ages this time. He looked apologetic, but found the words too difficult to say.]

... yes, I understand.

It wasn't aimed at you, by the way. My words were only for me. You're an adult at ten, where I'm from... and I have different reasons for having needed to grow up quickly.

[Well, the age issue is a bit more complicated than that, but he feels no need to explain the legal workings of his world. As for his own reasons, they're not something he discusses unprompted, but he wanted to catch up with someone much, much older.]

But— I see now this has nothing to do with that. He's charismatic, he's powerful, but in a subtle way you won't notice until it's too late to escape...

That was a close call, wasn't it?

[This dreary talk's gone on for a while, maybe he should try to lighten the mood... he's not exactly good at that, but... Serperior picks up on that and tries to nudge Polnareff's shoulder. It'd nuzzle him if he let it, it was very affectionate despite the rather arrogant air about it. Meanwhile, Trip had to think of something to do: maybe let him pick who to meet from the rest of his team....?]