To everyone's surprise, the person who arrived was not Alexander. It was the prince himself, Kaiden. Even though Gideon loathed the fact that it was this person, he had no choice. At this point, Luciel was more terrifying than Kaiden.
"Oh nothing, I was just offering to your friend Gideon that he should read the ones on the sixth floor since it had more information"
"How would you know his name when you have never even seen him"
"..."
Luciel fell silent. His "friendly" expression was no longer visible and instead, it was replaced with a poker face. He had been caught red-handed by his son that he was snooping at his own son's private affairs. His son looked at him like he had touched something he shouldn't. Luciel was pissed because just what was it about this Halfling?
Kaiden wasn't in the mood to play games with his father so he walks past him and grabs Gideon by the hand. Luciel didn't stop him because if he did then he would make things worse between them.
Earlier, Kaiden had passed by Alexander who kept anxiously tapping his foot as he waited in front of Luciel's Office. He had already finished up most of his work since he did an all-nighter due to a certain situation last night. Alexander saw Kaiden and his face lit up a little.
"Your Highness! Have you seen the king?"
"He's not here?"
He also needed to pass on some of his works to his father. Where the hell is he? Didn't his father have meetings to attend to? Kaiden could have sworn that today is Kassandra's departure so it wouldn't make sense for the king to suddenly disappear. He assumed that Alexander was anxious because he was under Azazel. That being said, his workload consisted of important matters directly issued by the King himself.
"I haven't seen the king, otherwise I would not go here"
Everyone knows about the strained relationship he had with his father.
"Ah.. yes... It was a stupid question for me to ask" Alexander replied and perhaps he couldn't help but worry too much. "Your Highness! Can I be rude right now and ask for a favor?"
Kaiden's gaze turned cold and he straightened his back before replying "What is it?"
"Is it alright to leave these documents for you to pass onto the king once he returns? I have something really important to attend to"
"Are you suggesting that this "something" is more important than the king himself?"
"No no! I was…" Alexander pursed his lips and ultimately gave up. He muttered an apology to Theodora before raising his head to look Kaiden straight in the eyes.
"Your Highness, I was supposed to escort Gideon today around. He's currently waiting in the Royal Library, and I worry that something might happen to him. I know I cannot leave my duty so I'll just ask you to please go to Gideon in my place in the meantime"
Kaiden didn't even hesitate to start walking in the direction of the library. Alexander just cried inside but hoped that the King would return soon so he could catch up with the two.
When he had arrived at the library, he couldn't sense Gideon at all and assumed he was on the lower floors. Upon descending to the fourth floor, he could sense his father's presence. He frowned and rushed down to the next floor and saw Gideon's terrified expression. He was trying to mask it with a smile at first but Luciel said something and it made him hold his breath. Kaiden yelled out to him and approached the two.
And that's how he ended up dragging Gideon away from his father. He pulled him into the elevator, still not letting go of his hand.
"Kaiden?" Gideon called out to him but Kaiden was still not speaking to him. He was only going to ask if he could let go of his hand. But upon remembering the situation he was in earlier, he kept quiet and even squeezed his hand.
The doors opened and Kaiden gently pulled him along to somewhere. Some people immediately looked down the moment they saw Kaiden. They did not dare to take a peek at the prince and this made Gideon feel a little bit better because he was a little embarrassed getting dragged around by Kaiden. He looked down at Kaiden's feet to keep his face hidden.
After a while, they entered a room without knocking and Kaiden spoke up;
"Arda, have someone prepare some food for our guest. Damien, look after him for a moment. I need to sort something out with father"
Kaiden had let go of Gideon's hand and upon glancing up he saw a woman with a dark hair color that would remind the person who saw it of twilight scenery. It wasn't unusual for demons to have different hair colors and certainly this wasn't his first time seeing purple but still it was beautiful. She had her hair up in a braid and it flattered her honey-colored eyes. This was Arda, the second in the ranking among the Six Demon Nobles.
Next to her was a man who had a muscular build but it added to his appeal. He looked pretty intimidating to Gideon's perspective and that's probably due to the sharp contrast between them. This person was Damien, He is ranked third among the Six Demon Nobles. He had dark brown hair and besides his size, the other unique thing about him was the fact had two different eye colors. A phenomenon is otherwise known as Heterochromia. His right eye was gray while his left was a light blue color, both of them are usually seen in Angels so it was surprising for a Demon to have both eye colors.
"Eh? Your Highness, you can't possibly-" before Arda could finish speaking, Kaiden already left the room. He didn't even need to reply because this action already said it for him. "I said what I said, Do what you are told".
Arda sighed and glanced at Gideon, looking up and down, before contacting one of her subordinates to fetch some Iced tea and other specific snacks such as Macaroons, cookies, and ham sandwiches. It was very specific, almost as if it's her snacks.
"If I'm not mistaken, you're Gideon, right? You certainly didn't grow that much" Arda compiled the papers in her desk before putting them away in one of her drawers. Gideon didn't know how to respond to that and smiled back at her politely.
"Yes, I am Gideon"
"Hmm, anyways this was certainly unexpected of you to drop by especially when everyone here is currently busy with their work" She narrowed her eyes at Gideon and it made him gulp in nervousness.
Damien broke the tension by chuckling.
"You most certainly have a way with children, Arda" Damien side commented at Arda's actions.
"and you have a way of suddenly interrupting while I speak"
"Hehe so anyways, this is the infamous Gideon?" Damien walked towards Gideon and the man was close to being half his size.
"Infamous?" Gideon suddenly asks and Damien leads him to one of the sofas to sit down. Damien sat across from him and motioned for Arda to sit next to him. She glared at him but she sat up from her desk and still sat next to him.
"Well your name is certainly well known around these parts but not for the proper reasons"
"You're known as the "bastard who betrayed the prince" here" Arda cuts off Damien and Damien nearly choked on his spit.
"ARDA!"
"What? He's aware of the situation himself. There's no point in beating around the bush, I'm only entertaining you because I was ordered by his highness. He did not tell me to act nice, and he's not a child Damien"
"It's alright Lord Damien" Gideon prevented the two from fighting each other. Arda is pissed off because of Kaiden throwing him at them especially when they were supposed to be working. He lowered his head and twiddled his thumbs. "I'm aware and I can't do anything about it because it was the truth"
Damien smacked his hand on the low table in front of them and it surprised Gideon. He looked up and saw Damien's serious expression.
"I wasn't there when it happened but I heard it enough times from the others during meetings. You can't just put all the blame onto yourself. The Prince was just childish to see that you were not at fault"
"Damien" Arda calls out to him.
"Arda, how would you feel if everyone constantly blamed you for betraying someone even though the situation called for it?"
Arda stayed silent and Gideon was a little lost at what's going on with the two. Were there any instances of betrayals in the original novel? There was only one situation that he could think of but that was-
"I know how you feel Damien, and I know you're empathizing with this kid but you know that's why we have to focus on our work to prevent that from happening again. No one blames you for what happened to him"
"Yeah because everyone placed the blame on Amias and that ruined him. Can't you see that's the same situation right now?"