"Well, I can give you a lot more information in the future if you agree to this partnership, but you can consider this a gift in good faith, hoping for cooperation. If you have any investments in Duke Renforths businesses, pull out right now. Especially in Selena's own business about cosmetics and makeup. And put all that money into Miz and Una's self care."
He looked skeptical. "Those are some of the best businesses in the country and are very stable, but I've never even heard of Miz and Una's self care. Why should I trust this information, especially after you just asked me to fabricate some a minute ago?"
"Well, I don't really care if you believe it or not. I won't force you to do anything but it's your loss if you don't. Also, you obviously haven't heard of Miz and Una's, I haven't made it yet."
"...Wut?"
"I SAID, I haven't made it yet."
"... Okay."
It seems he doesn't believe in me. Well, it's his loss if he doesn't invest, not mine.
"Alright, now that I gave you a wonderful gift in commemoration of our friendship, I think you should return the favour." I shamelessly asked for more.
"But you just forced me to fabricate information! I'm already contributing!" Claude retorted.
"What would be a good gift? Hmmm."
"He's not even listening to me!"
"Ah! I know! How about a little rumor?"
"Haaa, What rumor do you want me to spread your highness?" Claude resigned himself to the current situation.
"How about, my little brother Julian has a crush on Selena's little sister? I think that's a good one."
I had told Selena I was gonna get a good replacement for her after all, and what better replacement than her own sister? I think the betrayal of a family member stealing your dearly loved fiancé would be a great gift for Selena.
"Is that true?" Claude asked, feigning nonchalance, but it was obvious he was interested.
"Who knows? It's just a rumor though, I'm not asking you to back it up with evidence, just get it spreading around. That way there's no risk for you or your guild. Make sure it's especially spead around high society. Or amongst the nobles maids, as long as it reaches Selena and her fathers ears."
"Fine, whatever. Can you just get out of my hair now, I feel like the longer you stay here, the worse this gets for me."
"What about your second question?"
"I honestly don't care anymore. I just want today to end."
"Haha! You're quite honest. Well, actually the reason was that I liked your name. Plus I knew Anna worked for you so you were an easy target."
"What?"
"I like the moonlight, so I figured I'd partner with you. And trust me, you're gonna be glad that I did. You should give whoever made that name a raise, he just made you a hell of a lot of money."
"... I'll be sure to give myself a raise then."
"Haha! Good, good. Also…"
I locked eyes with Claude and activated my magic circle of storage once again. 2 bodies landed on the floor with a thud.
"... You better not deal with my step mother ever again. These two idiots were assassins who tried to kill me a few years ago. They also had a note on them that said that you recommended them for the job."
I said in a threatening tone as I pulled out the piece of paper they had on them when they died.
Claude looked solemn. He was probably more pissed that the assassins kept the recommendation letter on them when they attacked than that I found out he tried to get me killed.
"That was clearly a mistake on our part. No such thing will happen again. We only dealt with the Queen consort Harper once and as we can both clearly see from these two on the floor, it didn't go very well. She got extremely angry that we recommended her to an 'untalented assassin' and never contacted us again. We have also never dealt with Queen Mia. I'll make sure we don't ever work together again with them in the future."
I smiled. "No, it's fine to work with the Queen. Mia is a really nice person actually, I feel bad that she's stuck married to a prick like my dad. As long as you never talk to the Queen consort Harper again, we will be fine."
I started to make my way towards the exit after seeing Claude nod.
I stopped right when I was at the door frame. "One more thing, can you show me your real face? It would make me feel much more at ease if you took off that ring."
Claude seemed very hesitant for a while.
"Two conditions. I want it on paper that you won't tell anyone anything about me and will still cooperate with me in the future. Secondly, I wanna know your reason for acting now after staying quiet for all these years, and why you are targeting Selena Renforth."
I didn't even have to think it over, these are much more lenient conditions than I had ever expected.
"Sure thing, where do I sign?"
He pulled out a sheet of paper and used magic to instantly draft a contract. We both signed but right when I thought we were done Claude pointed to my shoulder.
"The cat too. It needs to sign."
I shrugged and looked at Luna. "Wanna just leave while he shows me, or are you gonna sign it and stay?"
She mulled it over. "I'll sign if I can do a blood oath rather than print my name."
A blood oath is when you just drip your own blood on the contract and use a fingerprint or something equivalent to sign instead. It only works with a magic contract as it links to your magic power.
Claude allowed it and Luna reached out her paw, she transformed her hand into that of a human but kept up the rest of the cat appearance, it looked really goofy. When she 'singed' the contract I gave her some headpats.
"Good, kitty~."
"I'll rip out your hair follicles." She replied, which caused me to shut up.
Claude watched this spectacle and looked disappointed.
"Why isn't it showing me it's real appearance?"
Me and Luna looked at him confused.
"When did we ever say he was gonna do that?" I asked. Intentionally misleading Claude to make him think Luna was a man.
"I- I just kinda assumed, you know since I'm doing it and all…"
"Aww, that's a shame. But I never agreed to anything of the sort." Luna mocked.
Claude just grumbled. "You two are both assholes, you know that?"
"Assholes who will make you a shit ton of money, and bring your guild to new heights!"
"Yeah yeah whatever." Claude sounded defeated. As he lightly waved me off.
I looked at Luna and I could tell we were thinking the exact same thing, it's fun to fuck with Claude.
Claude then took off his ring.
The moment he removed his ring Luna gasped and her claws dug into my shoulder, she was clearly shocked and possibly a little hostile.
I… didn't really care.
The man standing in front of us looked completely different than before, he used to have short green hair and yellow eyes. But now, he had long blonde hair that went down to his waist and black eyes. He stood tall at around 6 foot 5 but was fairly skinny. If I had to use one word to describe him, it would be pretty, he looked very feminine but in a masculine way. However, you could clearly still tell he was a man, he just had that kinda pretty look to him.
The most important feature he had and what I imagine it was that shocked Luna, was the two large black horns protruding from the sides of his head that pointed upwards.
He was a demon.