"The same for me, I am glad to meet the earliest holder of the ring"
I replied as I shook the hand of the man in front of me, he had long horns growing out of his head, while his grayish and reddish mix hair which fell back to his shoulders, his dark red eyes looked calm and composed as he gazed at me, his skin, unlike the other demons where white, his face was the perfect definition of handsome.
Overall he had a 'badboy' look to him, the man in front of me Ron Formier Ramoin Zafeer, the crown prince of the Efeth Demon Empire, the man who is the holder of another ring, right now growing up to 23 years, among the many ring holders the power he holds is one of the fiercest of them all.
With several powerful demons under his rule, he is a smart, calm, and ruthless man, his siblings that turned against him all dissipated or died of unknown causes, of course, this rose many speculations about him but without any proof, Ron was able to walk scot-free, dealing with such a man I should always be careful. Here the only thing connecting the both of us is his love for Elda.
Which I could see was genuine, this arose from the fact that he was willing to make Elda his Empress! this was by no means small, since birth Ron was marked with a fiance that would rule beside him, a demoness of a powerful rank but Ron here was willing to make a hassle of it by breaking this engagement.
This would have severely affected his standing, yet he was willing to go that far, just this was enough to show that his feelings were genuine but sadly for him he would never be receiving Elda's love,
"Why don't you take a seat"
Ron spoke as he pointed towards the adjacent sofa, I nodded my head at him as I sat, behind me stood the rest that came with me, and behind Ron stood his confidants, their aura was stifling and powerful, pointing towards the fact that none of them are to be messed with,
"So, what do I owe to the pleasure of meeting you?"
I directly spoke about the topic, with people like him straightforwardness is the best thing, he didn't seem to mind it as he responded,
"Straightforward I see...well I just wanted to meet with you and talk about a possible situation for a partnership"
"Partnership?"
"Yes, during the fight for the title of king, what do you think about forming an alliance between the both of us, of course, this would only last till we meet each other, and if we do why don't we promise to give each other a way out?"
Hearing his words I didn't respond immediately, keeping quiet I thought about all the things at hand, the reason being that the alliance was readily useful for me, all the advantages also seemed to be in my hand and this is the most suspicious thing, as much as I hate to admit it, my faction wouldn't be able to hold much against Ron's faction.
He had been in the Academy since the starting and most of the demon that works under him are his true subordinates, they have true loyalty towards him, moreover, they know each other well and complement each other too, in factions there would always be some friction between them, in fact, few conflicts did arise within my faction.
And that was not all, I also have to pay attention to the spies that are being sent by the rest, I have a pack of hyenas waiting for me to slip up so that they could devour me whole, maintaining a faction is no simple matter, finally after what seemed like a minute I spoke,
"It's a good deal and everything seems fine but..."
"But?"
Ron asked with a calm smile to which I gave him my own as I asked,
"But are you doing this because you want to invest in my faction's growth or are you doing this out of your feelings for my sister?"
As I finished speaking the atmosphere in the room became heavy, if his answer was the first one then there was no problem but if it was the second then we would have a problem at hand, this being simply due to the reason that it was humiliating, supporting us because you like my sister? this was just blatant disrespect for me and my faction.
Silence remained as time ticked by and the more it did the more stifling the atmosphere was getting and just as the 2-minute mark passed Ron spoke,
"A bit of both"
"A bit of both..?"
I asked back and he leaned onto the chair as he spoke in a relaxed voice,
"Yup, the people under you are strong and you have complete control over them, each one of them is rare geniuses meaning that you would have a formidable power under you in the future, making you a valuable pillar for the world"
Saying so he stopped for a moment as he looked at me, I didn't tell him to stop as I nodded my head,
"Hence I thought that it would be better to be friends with you and yes Elda is involved too, as her older brother whom she seems to respect much, I thought that getting to know you better will increase my chance, so both of my desire gave birthed to this deal"
As he finished speaking he looked into my eyes, waiting for my response and I couldn't help but admire him for a moment, each of his words was careful and prepared, he made sure that his words were flattering me and touched on the truth, this was a truly masterful move that many won't be able to reject, sadly I wasn't part of that many,
"I gotta say crown prince Ron I am impressed"
"Oh no, no you can call me Ron"
He spoke with an amiable voice to which I complied,
"Ok sure Ron, your proposal is extremely tempting but sorry I would have to reject"
"May I ask why?"
Ron asked back sill remaining calm, to this I replied with a smirk as I sank back into my chair,
"The reason is simple, even if small your proposal is still laced with your desire for my sister and that is not something I accept, who Elda chooses is her wish and I would not meddle in it, if I accept this proposal then I would be going again my oath"
"I see....but are you sure about this? shouldn't you talk about this to your subordinates, they might have different views about your selfishness"
Ron spoke back clearly trying to create a wedge between us, I shook my head at his antics as I pointed my hands to the back, at the guys who were standing behind me, still maintaining eye contact with Ron I spoke
"Does this look like the faces of people who are afraid?"
"!!"
And this time there was a change in his expression, seeing it I turned back as I saw excitement-filled smiles on their faces, none of them seemed afraid, heck all of them were raring for a fight, especially Alex who seemed to be writing something on a notebook but all of them had one same thing, the smile of anticipating a challenge, even Mark had a small little smile.
