Kurogane didn't really care if he was interested or not, and he didn't mind the conversation either. The few words he was managing were as social as he could possibly get at times. Aside from that, this person wasn't someone he could merely ignore. He was strong, and Kurogane wasn't about to make another enemy today; he'd already managed enough so far. For that reason, he could manage a few simple answers, if that's what he wanted.

"He's not an idiot in the way you're thinking." Defending that magician was not the intent of the response, though it might have come across as such. In reality, Fai was very intelligent, and Kurogane knew it. There were just some aspects of Fai's life that the magician acted beyond idiotic in.