"He's my friend. Not Claudius's. And Claudius is afraid of Luo Binghe. I wasn't going to ask him." He frowns a little; he's not actually sure how to encompass all the dynamics of it, how he loves Shen Yuan but that isn't in and of itself enough to expect Claudius to like or tolerate him, how he understands Shen Yuan loves Luo Binghe in the same way that Galahad loves Claudius, in a fierce and all-encompassing way that means Galahad doesn't expect Shen Yuan to forsake him or hear anything against him, and it's one thing to accept that in a friend but another thing to accept it in someone who would be at their wedding, who could stand before Claudius and try to defend his pain. Galahad loves Shen Yuan, but if he thought it hurt Claudius for them to be friends he wouldn't speak to Shen Yuan again; he wouldn't ask, because Claudius would pretend it was all right, he wants Galahad to have all the friends he possibly can now that he can have friends (Claudius pretends things don't hurt him, but Galahad has studied him, and he knows). All of that means that he expected Shen Yuan wouldn't be at the wedding, and he accepted it.