Exposed Demons

"Hi. I'm Ryan. You must be the dude who beat up that wyvern. It's pleasure to meet you."

The young demon seemed to be in great spirits right now. He had a gleaming smile and energetic tone that showed excitement towards Daren. This was a drastic change from the cold treatment he was giving everyone else.

Daren shook the young man's hand and could feel that his grip was much stronger than his own. He had to be physically stronger than Daren but he could feel force particles coming off from him. This indicated that he may not be a cultivator.

This made no sense as his strength was too high for just a normal demon. Daren knew that demons were born with the same strength as Body Strengthening Level 3 to Level 4.

"Nice to meet you. It seems that you know a little bit about me but I have no idea who you are. No offense." says Daren as politely as he could. He was being honest. It was hard to greet someone who you knew nothing about.

"Come on in. It's rude to talk near the doorway. There's a nice seating area up ahead." Ryan strode away from the group and headed towards the group of sofas he was sitting on earlier.

At this point, the once noisy room had become completely silent. The only noise was from the footsteps of the group walking towards the sofas.

When they walked past some groups, people bowed and treated the empress by saying "Long live the Empress!" Others were less formal and just said "Good afternoon mother," or "Good afternoon mother empress."

These young men and women were obviously the prince and princess. In their eyes, all they had was resect for the lady. There were was no hostility shown by these kids and it seemed quite natural to outsiders. They would think that every one of these princes and princesses really adored their mother based on how they looked at her with reverence or love.

Daren wasn't as foolish as these idiots as he also assumed that none of these royal children would dare show any dissatisfaction towards the empress in public. That would be beyond idiot as was she is the second most powerful authority in this land.

Even if they hated her to the core they would do their best to hold in until they were not in a public occasion.

Daren also scanned the reactions of those who looked at him and the girls. Some had indifferent looks while others were rather cold and dull. Daren wasn't sure what he had done to receive cold looks from people who were so obviously warm towards the empress.

This was only the distinct reaction from people who were not from the children of the empress. All the princes and princesses seemed to be quite excited as Ryan was when he first greeted them.

'The princes and princesses seemed to be expectant of us and it looks like they want to approach us for a conversation. The moment they see Ryan though, traces of fear can be seen from their eyes so they look away with disappointed looks. On the other hand, we have what appears to be people from other noble families. They are either cold or indifferent towards us. Why would that be?'

Daren was sure he had not done anything to aggress the nobles yet so why do they dislike him? The only thing he found common between the royal and the nobles is that they all seemed to somewhat fear Ryan. There's no way that demon isn't special in some way.

"Alright then. Here are the very comfy sofas. They are nice to sit on while munching on some snakes or shoving fruit juice down my dry throat. I would not sit on that one though. I accidentally burned it because I was moving too fast."

Ryan laughed a little as he sat down and practically sunk into the sofa. It indicated that these things were soft beyond any of the couches that Daren had ever sat on.

"What are these made of?" Daren was stunned by how comfortable the couch was. He felt like just melting himself into it. It made him rethink what a "couch potato" was. If he had this kind of couch to sit on every day, he would no doubt take on the life of a couch potato. It just made him that lazy and unwilling to get off.

The girls had a similar feeling and reaction of astonishment when they felt themselves sinking into the sofas. Of course, there was a point where the couches just didn't dip anymore but who cares. All things have a limit. Maybe?

The empress giggles at the expression of wonder on the people who had felt the comfort of these couches for the first time. She waves her and in the air as the attention of the 3 dozen people in the room is dragged towards her. "Don't mind us."

The Empress's words meant that she didn't want anyone to bother her and for them to mind their own business. No one who is this early to the banquet would be unable to understand the meaning behind the words. They promptly regrouped into the conversation they were having before the group's arrival.

"It is made from a seafoam produced by a sea monster living on the coasts of a certain demon nation." says the empress as she sighed in comfort as she also took a seat on the otherworldly couch.

She also darts a fishy look over towards Ryan who was sipping on what looked like red wine but with a whiff, you could tell it was a sort of fruit punch.

'Fruit punch?! They have fruity punch?!' Daren thought that there this world didn't really make juices but there is the demon who was enjoying quite a fragrant and sweet glass of fruit punch.

"The Momolata Seaworm's spit. We had to gift you this set and a couple of other sets of couches because of those stupid delegates!" said Ryan as he showed despise towards the 'delegates.

"It's not our fault that your servants let them try sitting on them. Once they got back, they started to hound my husband for weeks to get your family to send some over." The empress shifts the blame over to Ryan's side for even letting them try the couches in the first place.

If they were soo reluctant to share such a good thing, why show it to the delegates in the first place?

"Hmph. You win.." Ryan pouts as if he had just lost a game of tag against a younger sibling and reaches for his suit pocket. He takes out a shiny, metal coin the size of a tennis ball and tosses it over to the empress. "I won't lose next time."

The empress catches the coin and looks at it with glimmering eyes. She was glad and somewhat disappointed at the same time.

"Why can't I get a couple more big brother. You said you hit it big with a force stone mine." The empress looks at Ryan with puppy dog eyes as if she wanted more of these red coins. She also pointed out multiple things that stupefied Daren.

"First of all, these two are playing a game where whoever takes the blame for something loses. The loser has to probably give the winner that red coin as a prize.

Secondly, what's a force stone mine?

Lastly, DID SHE JUST CALL THAT DEMON HER BIG BROTHER?!!!" Daren was screaming with questions on the inside as he kept a charming smile plastered to his face.

"The mining hasn't begun. The nobles are trying to see if they can get a piece of it for themselves," Ryan's face turns gloomy as soon as he mentioned the nobles.

"What is uncle doing? How have things gotten so out of hand? How come those petty nobles are allowed to even ask for a piece of imperial property?" The empress had many questions for Daren who just refused to make eye contact with her.

He wanted to avoid this topic as it brought him great displeasure. He would rather just sip on his juice all day than answer such a complicated set of queries. The empress stared daggers at the brother who did his best to avoid her but it didn't take long for him to surrender.

When Ryan's sister stared at him like that, he would sometimes question if that angelic face and bright smile of hers has always been a facade. He wondered if her real character was that of a psychopathic slaughter who..... Never mind. He already knew the answer and didn't want to slip into the dark rabbit hole who is his dear younger sister.

"Angelica my dear sister, this is really not the best time for them to discuss our clan's political matters. I will tell you all about it once Gigantus's war against the beast realm is over." Ryan did not want to talk about sensitive topics in public, especially in a nation, he didn't have any trust towards.

The empress's face turned dark for a bit as she understood what her brother meant. It didn't take long for her to bring back her angelic self. Just as the name suggests, her face truly seemed to be that of a mature yet innocent angel.

"As you wish big brother. That's enough from me. How about you talk to the guests you wanted to meet so badly." The empress gestured at Daren's group of immaculate faces.

"Hahaha. You're right." Ryan laughs and then smiles at the group while his red eyes shine with excitement. "Once again, I am Ryan Vivonte Asteros. The 1st royal prince of the Tenebris Empire and Angelica's oldest brother."

"Nice to meet you. I am Daren Frince." Daren introduces himself formally and looks over to the girls as they should do so as well. It is a basic formality.

"I'm Celina Frince. Where's that juice from?" Celina was bold as she only cared about food. She could smell the fruit punch and knew what it was from Daren. She also wondered where he got it from and if he also had other good food to share with her.

"Hi! This little one is called Chloe. I'm mommy and daddy's cute daughter. I can see that uncle is a demon. Do you have demonic spirit candy?" Chloe's introduction was as cute as herself. I wonder what the candy she wants is?

"I'm Chanela. Celina's younger sister." a bland and cold introduction as expected from Chanela. She had not been the to talk much. It felt as if she had said an entire lifetime of words when she had narrated Daren's backstory.

"Quite an eccentric bunch I see. No worries. You guys can be as honest or as dishonest as you want with me. I don't really care. One thing I will say is that you shouldn't lie about your race in front of me." Ryan seemed relaxed but there was some sort of fearsome glint that was in his eyes for a second.

Daren remained calm at his suspicious words as he asked "What do you mean by lying about our race?"

"I can see that all of you have some sort of demon blood. It also seems to be quite pure too. I don't understand how you all are hiding your horns though."

"Why are you so confident about us being demons?" Surprisingly, Chanela spoke up this time as she seemed stunned to hear the young man's words. She was sure the system was hiding their identity as demonic dragons by giving them human bodies.

"The answer is quite simple. It's these annoying eyes of mine." Ryan points to his red eyes that instantly change in a shade of midnight purple. The glow of the eyes seemed to drag anyone who looked into them into a deep abyss. It had an eerie and dangerous feeling to it.

Fortunately, the eyes went back to red as Ryan shook his head and blinked twice. Daren felt that he would be tossed into a never-ending back hole if he stared at those mysterious eyes any longer.

"Those eyes let me differentiate between any species that I've seen at least once by surrounding them in a unique aura. The thickness of the aura tells me their bloodline's purity. For me, all four of you have an insanely thick aura that is quite similar to my demon race but somewhat different as well."

Ryan seemed to be an honest person who would explain how his abilities worked while he was fighting a deadly enemy. At the same time, it felt like Ryan didn't care that he was explaining all of this in great detail.

It's as if they could know all this if they just asked some random person on the street. He did not value this at all.

"Okay then. Let's say that we are demons of some kind, you gotta problem with that." snorted Chanela. This snobbish personality seemed odd compared to her usual quiet and cold one.

Ryan only raised an eyebrow at her as he spoke once again. "It does not make a negative difference to me or the ruling class of this empire. If that's what you're worried about"

"Yes. We don't care if you all are demons. On the other hand, we welcome demons and great nobility and talent." chipped in Angelica. She wanted to support her brother's claim and wanted to calm down the dangerous atmosphere that was forming.

Daren had been preparing for a fight the moment that Ryan had mentioned them being demons. This causes the copious amounts of ice elemental force to leat out. Everyone in the room could feel the chilliness coming from Daren. He himself could feel the auras of many cultivators in the room flaring up as well as they were ready to fight as well.

The once lively atmosphere turned quiet as the air became stifling. The people who were not cultivators all held onto someone on or something very anxiously. The moment something went wrong, they would run for the door.

The empress had to make sure that no such thing happened so she tried to calm Daren down by supporting the claim that the empire would not be hostile to demons.

"How can I believe that? There are countless incidents where demons and humans had territorial disputes. Human nation's apparently harbor great dislike towards demons." Daren stated the obvious facts that all humans knew.

The empress nodded to acknowledge that he was a right but then gave him a serious look before turning to her brother. He nodded to her as well like he was giving her permission for something.

Ryan wore a single red jade earring on his left ear that glowed very subtly when he snapped his fingers. This formed an instantaneous barrier around the seating area. It was a barrier that kept sound from only exiting its confines.

The empress then proceeded to wave her hand in the air and gestured to everyone to calm down. She indicated that everything was under control.

The 7 or so people who had their aura's flaring up and readying for a fight calmed down as it was the empress's order and they cannot disobey. Daren could tell that they had no intention to fight him but he still kept ready just in case things did go wrong.

The empress couldn't blame him for being cautious until she explained herself better so she just sighed and started talking.

"As you can see, we clearly have a demon in front of you right now. People fear him but still come up to talk to him with friendliness. Ryan here is my brother which obviously means I'm a demon too. Do you think an empire that hates demons would let one be their empress?"

The empress was serious with her words. Daren knew that she was going to say this as well. Everything was within his assumptions. He just wanted to hear it from her own mouth.

"Then why are there so many stories of humans and demons being hostile?" asked Daren as the answer he got was not enough. There was still more he wanted to know.

"That's because other human countries do hate demons. There are exceptions like Gigantus that do not have any feud with demons. This country actually owes demons more than you can imagine." Ryan wanted to explain further why Gigantus owed demon's but he was interrupted by the sound of loud drums.