He started thinking for a while. After 15 minutes of him going over the numbers again and asking me about the specifics about this deal he finally smiled and looked me in the eyes.
"It would be my pleasure to do business with you, your highness."
I stretched out my hand and we shook on it, then I pulled out a contract with everything we just agreed upon written on it and we both signed. Then I pulled out the NDA contract from before and looked at the Marquis.
"One more thing, your daughter has to sign this."
He looked shocked. "What? Why?"
I walked over to the door and yanked it open. A girl fell forward into the room and I caught her with my other arm.
"We had a cute little spy." I replied with a smile.
The pink haired girl in my arms went bright red all over her face.
"Wh-w-what? C-c-c-cu-cut-cute?!?!?!!"
She covered her face with both hands.
The Marquis had his jaw dropped to the floor, I assume that he has never seen his daughter act like this, she was very haughty and arrogant earlier, I guess she was just really surprised that I caught her eavesdropping and freaked out.
After a minute of awkward silence and me having to hold up Victoria in my arm. Eventually she stopped muttering something and took a deep breath. Then she looked around.
"W-why are you holding me?! Kyaa! Pervert!" She yelled as she slapped me and ran behind her father to hide.
What was that for? I wondered as I rubbed my cheek which was now red.
It's not like it hurt much, but it was a very interesting way to repay the favour of me preventing her fall.
I decided that I would much rather return home then deal with this farce so I just ignored what happened.
"Could you please sign the contract?" I asked politely.
She seemed adverse to listening to me. Her father realized this and spoke up. "Please sign Victoria, it was very improper of you to listen to what we were talking about."
She looked over to me hesitantly, not facing me completely and just side eyeing me. She twirled a strand of her pink hair that came loose earlier when she fell.
"Hmph, f-fine, but only because father asked!"
Well, I don't really care why, just please sign quickly so I can leave.
She eventually signed after continuously shifting her gaze from the paper to me to her father and back to the paper for a while.
As soon as she finished I smiled and took the paper back in my dimensional storage.
"I look forward to the future of our cooperation. Then, I shall take my leave." I said and turned around to leave.
Suddenly Victoria ran in front of me and blocked my path to the door.
"Y-you c-can't!"
Huh?
"I can't what?"
"Y-you can't just leave!"
"I can't … leave?"
She started looking around the room as if trying to figure out an answer on the spot.
"B-b-because… Y-you need to stay for dinner! It's bad manners to have a guest over and offer them nothing. In the name of the Sergio family I can't just let you leave like this! Hmph!"
She tilted her head up and to the side while crossing her arms. As if she had just made a great point.
I politely smiled. "It's quite alright, you needn't be so hospitable, you have already done so much for me, besides, I am at fault for coming unannounced."
"N-no, please stay! It's bad for our reputation if we let you leave like this."
I noticed that the Marquis wasn't replying, either he was too stunned at his daughters actions right now to do anything or she was making up bullshit right now, or perhaps it's a mixture of the two.
"I see, if you don't mind my asking, what changed? You are treating me very differently from earlier, milady."
She turned around so I was looking at her back and whispered, I could faintly hear her.
"Ehehehehe… milady… -me milady, ehehehe."
What the fuck is wrong with this girl?
I cleared my throat.
*ahem*
She straightened up stiffly before turning around with a forced smile on her face. Her face looked a little red, I wonder if she was struggling to eavesdrop, but it shouldn't be that tiring… I don't know what it is.
"T-th-that's just. W-well, I thought you were an idiot before. B-but your not!! Your not. I know that now, and you were really good at business, I've never met someone our age who could go toe-to-toe with father like that. I-I just didn't know you were a man like that earlier… A-a-artemis."
She was looking away and twirling her hair the whole time she spoke, until she said my name. Then she looked me dead in the eye. I don't know why she was dropping honorifics with me, maybe it's a thing you do as business partners, this is my first time doing this, so I actually have no clue. I mean, she is also acting a lot like a girl in love, but there is no way she is that superficial, right? Right!
Ah hahaha hahaha… wait, is it that?
No way! She was so spiteful earlier. That can't be the case.
Well, either way I'll just pretend this never happened. Women are confusing creatures so you really have no clue what they really want, I mean even if they kiss you and tell you they like you they could just be doing it to make some other man they really like jealous. So who really knows?
Haaa, this is why my maid is so great! Luna isn't insanely confusing, I at least somewhat understand her. Maybe it's because of how similar we are, but I relate to a lot of the things she says and understand why she does the things she does.
I mean we both have dead mother's who were the only people who cared about us. We both have shitty fathers, although hers is a lot worse than mine. We were both isolated from society for years on end, me when I lost my memories and her when her father locked her up.
She's also the only person to ever truly care about my trauma and help me through it… She's also drop dead gorgeous, is competent and strong enough to do anything she wants on her own. She's also the ideal woman in every way, looks, personality and everything else.
She's literally the girl of my dreams and she also…
Wait!
What was I just thinking? Nonono, I'm not falling for her, right?
I can't have a crush on my maid, who just happens to be a beautiful demon princess, so it might just work so long as I marry into her family on the context of peace talks and also throw away my position as crown prince. Then I could… wait, why am I trying so hard to make this work?
Oh no, I think I'm in a little too deep. She's just some random girl I picked up on the street, sure she the perfect woman, but she just sees me as her boss… who she tried to fuck the other day… plus there is also that other time from back then… maybe I do have a chance.
Nah, what am I saying, I'm way too nervous to just go for it like that, it's one thing if I can just put on a front and make fun of people, but opening up and being vulnerable? No way!
Maybe. Urggh! This is infuriating, fine, I'll just see how it goes for a while, don't think too much about it, if it seems positive, maybe I'll tell her about… that. Then maybe she'll like me a bit more, yeah maybe that will work. If I just tell her that, which doesn't mean anything to me, then I can see her reaction and I'll judge based on that.
Yup, sounds like a plan, force her to be vulnerable, not me. Then I don't have to risk getting rejected, I'm not being a selfish asshole, it's just strategic.
Well, maybe a bit of an asshole, but that's just who I am, you gotta take the good with the bad right?