Finley Cai Aies Hall April 17th, 20XX

Cambridge strode into the room in full knight attire and ceremoniously held out an arm to escort me out of the room.

Her eyes stayed on the ground, avoiding my line of vision and her shoulders were stiff and straight, keeping up the strict persona of a royal guard.

Despite my speech of gender equality earlier I was still rather disinclined to being treated like a fragile princess from the middle ages so I bypassed the extended arm and walked ahead of them, letting them settle for walking slightly behind me instead, ready to support me if I fell but not actively supporting me.

I slowly felt my expression go slack jawed as we walked through the castle and I witnessed the grandeur of it for the first time. Long hallways decked out in gold and glass ceilings that very clearly showed the beautiful skies up above.

Although I spent most of my time here I rarely ever left the lesson room before heading over to Theodulus’s lessons. Even after that I would go back home and use the stopwatch to sleep for a few hours and then get to finishing up whatever work I had brought home.

I was led into a room furnished with expensive seats and a magnificent throne at the head of it and I could feel a sharp shiver run down my spine as I realized I was currently the only one that had the right to sit on it.

The feeling of being the most important person in the room definitely wasn't a bad one.

In between being the Ceo of the company and being the prince here I could feel a grand superiority complex building up within me and the urge to suppress it grew less and less with each passing day. In fact if not for the regular sessions with Theodulus that showed me just how weak I really was I might have considered myself the most important person in the world by now.

Woah.. did I just thank Theodulus for continuously beating me up instead of actually training me?... I wonder if this is how victims of stockholm syndrome feel.

My limbs started to hurt at even the thought of ‘training’ with that demon. Lining the walls on the right were the guests from the west and Esmeralda, Cambridge and Corin lined the walls on the right.

A pairs of deep brown eyes flecked with hypnotizing gold-bronze sparks directed themselves towards me as I sat, dismissing my discomfort to satisfy their curiosity. Her gaze attacked me like two sharp and deadly arrows but I held up as strong of a guard as I could and ignored her Instead choosing to admire to room again.

A somewhat displeased smile graced her lovely face and she slightly narrowed her large eyes but she said nothing and waited for me to take a seat before she and the others sat.

Unlike myself who had a whole entourage of Cambridge, Corin, Esmarelda and a few other guards she only had the presence of a dark looking fairy as support.

The dark looking fairy stepped forward and bowed to me with a single knee on the ground and slightly tilted her wing but she did not completely collapse it as one would do for the queen or any other member of royalty making the opponent’s stance towards me clear.

At the sight Esmarelda slightly frowned and Cambridge and Corin instinctually reached for their weapons and waited for my reaction but much to the disappointment of the brown eyed woman and to a lesser extent Corin and Camridge’s I didn't react and instead continued looking around the fancy room.

Whether she chose to disrespect Cai, the prince of the fairy world really didn't affect me at all. In fact as long as she didn't go as far as to insult my mother or the queendom she had built then I really didn't care what she did.

Although I did have to wonder what the purpose of her coming here was if she meant to treat me as such… perhaps she wanted to put forth a proposal towards the royal family and felt the need to establish an upper hand?

I had used this strategy before when dealing with the previous shareholders of the company and with other companies but those were completely different situations from this.

In those cases they were under the impression that we were all equal in status and it was up to me to clearly define the difference. But in this situation, between Prince and duke, even if me being a prince rather than a princess was a bit of a disadvantage the difference was still clear. Being so aggressive could only be a defensive measure, perhaps to show that her dukedom could not be looked down on.

The dark fairy stood up from the half bow and began to introduce them which triggered the woman behind her to stand up; managing a graceful but still forceful air as she did.

Honestly, if you subtracted the dominant and oppressive air she carried around like a sword it wouldn't be a stretch to call the general an amazingly beauty.

She had a tall and slender frame and had very balanced features that were amplified by her large but angled brown eyes that at certain angles looked much more golden.

“ I am Lillian, official representative of the True Duchess Ruan and this is General Mei Ruan hailing from the Ruan Clan to greet the newly found prince.”

As if trying to put us at a further disadvantage Esmarelda let out a soft exclamation at the statement, confirming that I had been lost previously.

I couldn't help but scowl at her actions but I quickly played it off by tracking the pattern of a small bird-like that flew through the room and eventually escaped.

The room was actually more of a concert hall, with an open roof and a structure built to echo sound so it was easy to pretend to be easily distracted to not focus on the conversation at hand.

According to Esmarelda pretending to be an air headed prince was really the best thing i could do to help out with my mother’s queendom. and despite how kind and welcoming Corin and Cambridge we were all clear from the beginning that was all i was intended for.

All I had to do was to find some powerful family which was willing to completely assimilate themselves into the royal family to continue the line. And out of all of the Families Corin had investigated on my behalf The Ruan Family was the most highly regarded.

On one hand they were one of the four families that were second to only the royal family and on the other, My mother had been close friends to the matriarch or the ‘True Duchess” of the family, even to the point of promising each other’s children in marriage to each other at a young age.

Of course it was mostly said in jest but that was probably the ledge the Ruan clan was grabbing onto in order to get the throne and similarly it was the lure we were using to bring them in.

Unlike the larger clans of 20 or more people the much smaller but equally powerful Ruan clan which only had 4 people was a much better match to be absorbed into the royal family. As well it would weaken the power of the four dukes as the Ruan clan had the largest military and monetary power and give enough time to let the general settle into being queen and to settle the queendom.

General Ruan waved Lillian back and the dark fairy naturally took place behind her, showing the clear hierarchy of the Ruan Dukedom.

It was pretty clear that she was the most powerful one at the moment. I also had the rumors of the changing of the duchess in the Ruan family due to the corruption of the previous but Corin hadn't been able to find out any more without alerting the other clans of the Royal families interest in the Ruan family.

The General finally stepped forwards and bowed to me, much more informally than her subordinate had, this time only bending her wing before turning to Esmarelda who acted as the representative of my mother. She didn't really have a lot of power as I was here but she could at least act as a mouthpiece.

As the General exchanged formalities with Esmarelda her eyes never left me and she continued her previous attack. At first I just ignored her and continued to study the Lizard like creature that flew outside the boundary of the room when I suddenly felt a small tendril of magic prick at me.

I knew it was harmless, more like a poke to the face than any sort of attack but before I could stop myself (not that I would have) , the past month of training from Cambridge and Theodulus took effect and I grabbed it between my two fingers, intending to break it.

I had only practised it with Cambridge and Corin who had most of their power sealed as a part of their vow to be loyal to the queendom so the resistance of her magic took me by surprise at first but in the end I was still a Royal and she had not employed her magic expecting any sort of resistance. With a little more applied strength I was able to snap it.

There was also the curiosity of how far my powers went. Since I was a prince in a matriatrical world, the chances of me getting to fight using my magic in this world were almost little to none.

Even during my sparring with Cambridge she would always go easy on me when I tried to fight back in earnest and she focused more on self defensive techniques so I didn't know how far the brute force of my power went.

The best way to test that was by comparing it with those of others, weather they were aware or not.

The general suddenly stiffened as she felt her magic break but upon looking back at me and seeing that I had taken on the same slack eyed look I had maintained throughout the whole meeting her eyes narrowed but could not hide the slightly pleased sparkle they held. .

Her eyes narrowed at the challenge and she tried again, this time strengthening the invisible tendril. It snaked past Corin and cambridges defenses quite easily and grabbed at a lock of my hair like it had attempted too before and held itself there. as if waiting for me to act.

I pretended to yawn, raising my hand to my face to block it and pretended to move to scratch my head instead. In that same motion I grabbed a hold of the strand of magic but I instead of gently snapping it as I had last time I applied a coat of magic to my hands and crushed it.

The general’s stoic expression finally loosed and she let out a smile…... in that instant I felt I was in an extreme amount of danger.

The features which I had previously described as balanced could now only be seen as perfect and the dominant oppressive air was all but gone leaving only the need to get closer to her.

She turned away from Esmarelda and openly looked at me, done hiding her actions.

“ So this is the prince? He’s a decent looking guy.”

I resisted the urge to draw my jacket close as I was looked up and down and continued pretending to be a dunce since I was being treated as one regardless.

Esmeralda glowed as if she was the one who’d been complemented and began to speak in an obnoxiously flattering manner,

“ Of Course, He is the child of Belphoebe after all…. but of course he’s honored to receive your praise regardless”

The General sneered at Esmeralda’s sleazy acting and nodded at Lillian who immediately stepped forward and spoke loudly.

“ Im sure you already know the reason for our visit so I won't waste any time on formalities. Now that His highness has arrived when do you plan to announce the ceremony?”

Esmeralda coughed and began to lead the two away but quickly switched to only Lillian when she noticed the general had no intentions of moving.

“ Why don’t we discuss this in another room and leave the two young ones to get to know each other.”

Lillian looked to the general for permission and as soon as she received it she took the lead in leaving the room and taking Corin and Cambridge with her. Cambridge and Corin attempted to stay but was eventually forced to leave under Esmeralda's forceful and desperate gaze. They gave me an apologetic glance before hurrying after Esmeralda and leaving me to deal with the guest on my own.

She continued to look me over, completely disregarding the common etiquette usually given to royalty before finally taking a seat and speaking.

“ do you know what's going on right now?”

The slight tone of condescendence in her voice, the type reserved for children as she spoke would usually be enough to make me scowl but I managed to hold it back and instead gave the best smile I could summon.

“ Not in particular. But that’s okay isn't it?”

Borrowing the light breezy tone Will often used around me I responded. In order for the plan to work I needed her to believe I was truly a fairy male, mannerisms and all, so she could marry into the royal family and I could live out the rest of my life however I wanted to.

Since I couldn't stomach the thought of acting polite and demure as Esmarelda had tried to teach me, I could only go for pretending to be an air headed good for nothing.

Aside from my temporary break of character earlier when I had crushed her magic but seeing as she was a general I doubted that she would take my small show of strength as a bad thing.

I smiled even wider and tried to connect to her powerful gaze but it was like guarding against a sword with a pillow. No matter how much the force was reduced it was still a sharp object.

I quickly looked away from her piercing gaze and returned to surveying the room in order to regain my composure however doing this elicited a warm smile from her that I suspected was the result of a very large misunderstanding.

But good lord she was incredibly beautiful. Probably the most beautiful person I’d seen so far…. Save for my mother of course. With long dark hair that was tied back into an elaborate hairstyle and some rather…. tight fitting clothes under bronzen ethereal fairy robes that made her look like she belonged in a painting.

Still despite the fact that she showed little to no signs of aggression at the moment I couldn't help but be incredibly cautious around her, almost as if I was in danger. The fact that the outlines of various weapons could be seen through her robes didn't help.

What the hell are you guys doing Corin and Cambridge?! Letting an armed person into a throne room!

She slightly adjusted her posture by squaring off her shoulders and flared her wings a tad more, so I could see the intricate patterns they held.

“ Let me introduce myself. I am Mei Ruan, second daughter of the north duchy in the Fairy Realm, General of the mighty Ruan Army …... As well as the Fiancee of The first prince of the first Reich of the Realm.”

She bowed again, this time properly with every bit of respect one should have for a royal and as she did so she flashed me a particularly bewitching but dangerous smile however I was in no state of mind to properly admire it.

As she stayed bowed I realized with a sinking feeling that she was the exact opposite of the type of person I had wished to meet.

From the stories I had heard the General Ruan was supposed to be a cold person with little to no affection or concern for the world around her aside for her Army and family, more specifically her younger sister. The perfect candidate for me, who would spend most of my time out of the fairy world.

So when faced by the vivacious woman in front of me, who’s passion and drive rolled off her in waves I could see my dreams of a leisurely life sprouting wings and flying away like one of the creatures I had been watching earlier.