[He raises both eyebrows in return at that, considering it; it seems he might've struck a nerve, and the urge to be petty and run with it is so tempting, but he's not going to. It gains him nothing, and the point of this conversation isn't to antagonize Maketh.

At least not as a main goal, anyway.

And something she says gives him an opening to bring up another topic he's interested in hearing her view on, so he can move onto that smoothly enough after briefly addressing her response.]

I don't see how it's disrespectful to believe that those in the Guard might have their own opinions.

[In fact he's pretty sure that's the opposite, but moving on--]

As far as proving themselves in the field, I had actually heard about an incident that took place some time ago; I was wondering about your view on it.