Finally a chance to show my Drayton autism
In his defense, out of the e4, he is the only one who actively tries to do something not even Amarys who shows to be super worried about Kieran yet didn't do shit about it.
I think Drayton genuinely likes Kieran and holds him on high regard, they both had a positive relationship, ScaVio has a lot of visual storytelling and Drayton wears the kitakami delinquent jacket, it may have been a gift from from Kieran himself which may be a proof they have nice friendship.
For someone who presents himself as lazy, is all day on the League club room, he showed a lot of pro activeness on stopping Kieran's tyranny and from latter's own words he kept losing to him (which probably built up frustration), meaning until MC's arrival he kept trying to beat sense onto him and let's not forget the speech he had before the final confrontation
>>55431382 outside the hair line, he shows genuine worry and fondly remembers his battles with Kieran.
In the end, he wanted his friend back by any means necessary even if meant manipulating a stranger (who was the "source" of Kieran's problems) to help him.
As for the whole Ex-champion bit, while petty and problably wanted to make him taste medicine, Kieran needed to be humbled and holy shit it didn't even work kek.
Makes me sad Drayton didn't come to Area Zero, it'd make sense considering his involvement on the BB arc