One would think that an expression of sympathy, of kindness, would make Gladio softer. Instead, by contrast, he stiffens. It's honestly a lot easier for Gladio to repress things than to have to acknowledge them; Noct hasn't said anything wrong, certainly, but he's turned the focus on Gladio and how he's doing when Gladio generally deals with such things privately, when he deals with them at all. Which isn't often.

Besides, dead or alive...it's always easier to simply not think about his father.

"It was a lot longer ago for me than for you," he murmurs. "It's fine. Besides, it's nothing an Amicitia isn't prepared for. I know the only regret he had was that he couldn't at least guarantee your dad's safety with his sacrifice. Dying in the line of duty's not exactly the optimal outcome, but if we at least accomplish what a Shield is supposed to do, then we can feel like our death meant something."

Which...brushes up against something Gladio has always tried to avoid thinking about himself. The fact that, on some level, Regis' death meant that Clarus failed in his duty as a Shield. Of course it's a wildly unreasonable ask for one man to protect the king against an entire citywide invasion, but at the end of the day, the odds aren't really something the Amicitias care about. Their duty is to protect their king, and there's simply no way to look at both king and Shield dying and say the Shield succeeded in their duties. But at the same time...Clarus had always been the exemplary Shield. The mark for Gladio to measure himself by. The idea of the standard Gladio has always been held to, compared negatively to fairly often, being a failing standard...Gladio doesn't know how to wrap his head around that. He never has.

He'd wanted to elaborate a bit to Noct to make him feel like Gladio wasn't just shrugging off his sentiment, but...now he kind of wishes he had, just so he hadn't opened this internal can of worms. A grumpy Noct is a lot easier to deal with than an existential crisis.