"Who are you?" Jake's voice echoed through the room.
"Ah! Shadow King. The guild master of the prodigal guild. Please, take a seat." the calm, experienced voice from inside the room said.
Jake nodded and took a seat opposite to the head of the table.
"I thought that I would be meeting with the Mr. Grant. The CEO of Horace. But it seems like you are not him. Who are you?" Jake asked as he took a seat fearlessly.
He knew that nothing was going to happen to him. They were still in a safe zone where killing was forbidden. Jake would not face a penalty if he was attacked, and he wouldn't drop anything, while the person who did kill him would go to jail for a long time.
"Ah! Yes. John was supposed to meet you, but I told him that I wanted to meet you myself. After all, this is far too important to be leaving in the hands of others. I can't exactly be letting others handle the future of where the company and this guild will go now, can I?" the old man chuckled.
Jake took the moment to study the person that was in front of him. A well tanned face, wrinkles all over it like contours on a map, this was the man who just came from a vacation, not someone who worked day in and day out.
And the way that he addressed the CEO of the company without any regard, the way he sat as if he was the lord of the place and the fact that not a single person outside would do anything about it only meant that he was.
"Someone that I have never heard about or seen is the true controller of Horace? That is interesting. But then again, I was just a low life rat back then. I wasn't exactly privy to the best information was I?" Jake chuckled as he thought to himself.
"Is there anything funny, boy? Perhaps I have dressed a little too shabbily for the meeting?" the old man chuckled as he asked.
"No, nothing of the sort. Forgive me if I may seem so rude, but who are you? I mean, your player name is seen and such, but to act like the cover of a big corporation like Horace, who are you?" Jake asked.
"Ah! That is nothing boy. What is rude in that? I am some guy that you have never seen before until now. Of course you will be suspicious of me." the old man chuckled. The bright green player name of his hovered right over him, spelling out the name 'Roma Felur'.
An interesting name no doubt, but it was one that Jake had never heard in his life.
"You see, I am just a part of the board that controls Horace. The CEO, he is just a replaceable face. Someone who can be changed whenever the board feels like it. But the board, it is permenant. And we only want what is good for the company." the old man, Roma Felur for now, said.
"But that still doesn't explain who you are. The board members of Horace are private, and I am sure that your signature has the power to bind Horace to our agreement. But I still need to know who you are. I mean, I came here all the way from Loviel just for a gesture. Surely, I need to know who I am talking to." Jake asked.
"That is true. True indeed. You can call me Nolan Horace. From Horace." Roma Felur said.
"Nolan Horace? Horace as in the company? Your family owns a majority stake?" Jake raised his eyebrows.
"That is indeed the case. My great great great grandfather founded the company. Or maybe someone older than that. It was all the way back in the dawn of the twenty first century. Well, that was a while ago wasn't it." Nolan nodded.
"An inheritor, I see. Well, I doubt it was the CEO who even called me here. I think it was you that the representative was talking to? You were the one who intended to speak with me in the first place? I think that the CEO isn't even aware of the meeting?" Jake asked.
"You are a bright one, boy. No wonder you are the guild master of such a budding guild. And the one who is clearly taking the front end of this alliance." Nolan nodded.
"Then, Mr. Horace. Why is it that you have called me here? Why is it that you wanted to meet with me when the contract that I put forward was pretty simple and very unintrusive. There is just a single binding clause in there. No other." Jake said.
"Just the one? You and I have different definitions of the word 'single', don't we, Shadow King?" Nolan chuckled.
"Not the word 'single', Mr. Horace. Maybe the word binding. Everything that you might think is binding, I see as simple contingencies that you do not need to worry about one single bit. Now then, there are other things that we need to over as well, now that you have be here face to face." Jake said.
"Just a moment there, boy. You have demanded to know my name, and yet it seems odd that we are continuing while your identity still remains an identity. I am trusting the future of Horace on your hands. The hands of a reckless boy who just started a war with Aries." Nolan said.
"Could it be, you are actually afraid of Aries? If that is the issue, and that Horace is afraid of offending a company like Aries, then I don't think that you are the right match to make an alliance." Jake got up, about to leave when Nolan interrupted him.
"Wait, boy, Sit down and stop taunting me. You and I both know that Aries is not an issue. You are. A boy who is not levelheaded is not suited to lead an alliance. How can I be so sure to leave the alliance to you, when you lose your temper to the smallest bark?" Nolan said.
"Do not worry about that, Mr. Horace. I never do anything if I am not levelheaded. And as for the attack on Aries, that has not yet proven to be a war, and if it does, that will only benefit the alliance, not weaken it." Jake smiled.
A smile that gave shivers to the very man who maintained an iron fist through a company that employed thousands. This was the smile of the devil.
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