I have to agree with Rin about him. For lack of better words, he's too chill. I think it has to do with his speech pattern. I'm not observant by any means, but I made a list of things I have noticed about the way stoic leaders I know talk, and adapted it to match how Valory, a circus newbie, might respond; I hope it'll make good brain fodder for ya.(〃・・〃)
RAMBLE:
Stoic people I know are very blunt but eloquent when they speak. They tend to do away with vanilla when conveying ideas, and as a result of omitting what they think are dead obvious explanations, they come off as uncaring, even scary. Weirdly enough, that becomes charismatic, and any room they enter will instantly sound like a morgue. Conversing with them one-on-one is actually harder, because it puts you on the spot and makes it more difficult to diffuse tension, at least in my experience. Then there's the socially awkward reaction you get when you touch on a topic they're invested in, where you play audience to a passionate monologue (I can totally see that happen with Eric and visual kei. XD).
From your description of him, I get the feeling that he's respected but hard to approach because he fails at small talk (and I mean that in the most affectionate way possible). I was actually expecting Valory to pull a "good evening, sir" (never mind the real time) or a U-turn. XD
I was also expecting Eric to correct her with a completely tactless, "Eric." That gives him room to aha! and clumsily elaborate after the fact; it also sets up [End] (+3) by hinting to Valory that Eric is just a serious guy who needs verbal diarrhea on his side. It sounds to me like the mini event takes place early on in the game, which makes it the ideal time to work that boss-like-a-baus image, before you go and shoot it dead.(@´_`@)