"One of the better," and Martel's tone isn't much different. The fact he drinks directly after he says it is probably not a coincidence, but this conversation is tolerable because of how utterly sardonic they are, the absence of a requirement to talk about it in terms of an emotion. "Rather too pragmatic and worldly for the sainthood, at least."

...let's bear in mind that he is, still, the sort of man Martel once got along with. There's no place in the knighthood for saints, anyway; Martel has seen young men too good for this world holding the swords they will invariably die by, and even now it sort of pains him to think of.