Prince Ronan

Edited by: Chip

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Two days later, Prince Ronan arrived at the Alnhart estate wearing his usual outfit. He did not wear the hair and eye color-changing cloak, showing his silver hair and icy blue eyes.

At the entrance to the Alnhart mansion, Everet, Mirabelle, Cyrus, and Altas were waiting with a quarter of the servants. The ones chosen for this occasion were top-tier servants who had worked with the Alnhart family for over a decade.

Everyone was quiet and gave the proper bow to greet the Imperial family.

Atlas did his best to hold his surprise after seeing what Prince Ronan really looked like. He had the same features, just a different hair and eye color. If he had to describe Ronan, it would be an ice prince who was cold and unfeeling. Almost like a dark and cold winter, devoid of any life.

“Please, be at ease, Duke Alnhart and Duchess Alnhart. Thank you for accepting my request on such short notice.” With Prince Ronan’s signal, everyone finished their bow and stood as normal.

“It was no trouble at all, Your Imperial Highness,” Duke Alnhart spoke for the rest of the family. “It is an honor to have you visit us for the sake of giving thanks to Atlas.”

“Let us go inside and enjoy our conversation in the parlor room.”

With that, most of the servants dispersed to do their jobs while the Alnhart family, except for Sirius, and Prince Ronan moved over to the parlor room. Everyone’s trusted servants followed them.

As tea and snacks were being placed on the coffee table, everyone took their seats on the sofa. There were four sofas, so Everet and Mirabelle sat on one, Cyrus and Atlas shared a sofa, while Prince Ronna sat on his own.

After getting settled, Prince Ronan looked over at his butler, Tristan Xanoni. Tristan was from a family of Counts who had been serving the Imperial family since the Hirean Empire’s founding. He had long dark brown hair that was always in a braid. He also had brown eyes, showing that Earth was his strongest magic attribute. He wore a traditional butler’s outfit with the crest of the Imperial family on his suit jacket.

Ronan motioned Tristan to come over because he was holding Atlas’ thank you gift.

“Lord Atlas, please accept this gift as thanks for saving my life several days ago.” He grabbed the gift from his butler and then handed it over to Atlas. “I do not know your preferences, but I do hope you will enjoy the gift that I got you.”

“Thank you, Your Imperial Highness,” Atlas accepted the gift and did his best to speak formally, but he sounded a little awkward. “It was no trouble at all saving you.”

For some reason, Atlas felt Ronan could have beaten the assassins himself if he was given the chance. Was it Atlas’ instincts from when he was living in the forest?

Atlas was taught that it was not proper to open up gifts in front of the person in case you are unable to hold in your expression, especially if you dislike it, so Atlas just held on to the gift and didn’t ask what was inside.

Ronan smiled but everyone could see there were no emotions in his eyes. “How kind of you.”

After that, there was a long silence that Atlas did not know how to break. This was not in his etiquette lessons…

Everet saw Atlas’ look for help, so he coughed to get everyone’s attention. “Your Imperial Highness, is there anything else that you need from the Alnhart family today?”

Atlas took a sip of his tea because he didn’t know what else to say. If his mouth was occupied, wouldn’t that mean he didn’t have to talk? It was his only solution.

Cyrus, on the other hand, was blatantly looking at Prince Ronan, trying to gauge his motives.

“Yes, Duke Alnhart. Another reason why I came here today is to cultivate a friendship between Lord Atlas, Lord Cyrus, and me. That is to say, I would like to become their friend.”

The Alnhart family was looking at Prince Ronan flabbergasted because he said he wanted to be friends, but his body language and his face didn’t look like he wanted to be Atlas and Cyrus’ friends.

Everet did his best but his chuckle still came out awkward. “I understand, Your Imperial Highness. I do not have a say in who my sons can be friends with, so it would be best if you had a conversation with them to see if you are compatible.”

Translation: My sons have full say as to whether they want to be your friend and it has nothing to do with me.

Duchess Alnhart took a sip of her tea and looked over at Atlas and Cyrus. Cyrus didn’t seem surprised and Atlas, though nervous, didn’t look like he was opposed to making a new friend. She could only wish the two luck.

“Since His Imperial Highness would like to be friends with Cyrus and Atlas, honey, let us give them some space.” Mirabelle patted Everet on his arm and gave him a signal.

She felt it was fine to leave everything to Cyrus. Plus, it might be less awkward without them there. Kids don’t like to be as honest and carefree with adults around, right?

“I understand, then, Your Imperial Highness, please excuse my wife and me from the parlor room. If you need anything, let one of the servants know.”

Everet and Mirabelle gave a polite bow to Prince Ronan and then looked at Cyrus and Atlas.

Mirabelle patted both of them on the head. “Be nice and take care.”

Cyrus picked up her hidden meaning while Atlas did not. Basically, she said to be nice but you don’t have to be his friend. She and Everet could handle the rest.

“I understand, Mom,” Cyrus replied.

Atlas also responded to her, his reply was a lot more innocent than Cyrus’. “Thank you, Mom, I will see you at dinner.”

“Yes, I will see you at dinner.”

When Everet and Mirabelle finally left the room, Cyrus and Ronan dropped their facade while Atlas looked over at Cyrus like, ‘What’s happening now?’

“Imperial Prince Ronan-“ Cyrus started but was quickly cut off.

Ronan gave his signature emotionless smile. “Lord Cyrus, you can just call me Prince Ronan. I do not need the stuffy formalities. This is not our first time meeting.”

“I understand, Prince Ronan. Since you want us to drop the formalities, then I will do so. What is your purpose for trying to establish a friendship with us? From the rumors, you refuse to socialize with other children of our age group. They say it is because you find other children to be uninteresting and too childish.” They were children, but he didn’t care.

Even though they said, “Drop the formalities,” it was just a figure of speech to say, “There’s no need to pretend to be nice.”

Being a noble was different. There were too many instances where someone had to read between the lines.

Atlas, a very simple-minded child, decided that he wanted no part of this conversation and tried to minimize his presence by, figuratively speaking, merging with the couch. He was not good at these kinds of conversations!

He wished Sir Walter and Starlight were with him so he could distract himself.

“Jumping right to the important question, I see. Though you could say I am curious as to what the Alnhart family is hiding, I do not feel that much curiosity like the rest of the high society. I just feel that it would cause no harm to establish a friendship with the Alnhart family.”

“Plus, you two seem like people who could relieve boredom.”

Cyrus knew that the last sentence was his real motive.

From the rumors, Prince Ronan was a talented young boy who was so smart, he became uninterested in everything and everyone. He learned everything he could learn by the age of 9, surpassing the level of the Imperial Academy teachers, leaving him with not much else to learn. Not only that, he found people to be predictable, following a set of personalities and paths.

He looked at everyone like they were ants, following the rules of the colony. No one deviated from their roles and they fulfilled said roles until the day they died. Nobles and commoners were the same for him in this regard.

Well, this was all he had heard about Prince Ronan.

“I cannot say I feel like that is a compliment.” Cyrus almost rolled his eyes. “Prince Ronan, I could care less about you trying to relieve your boredom. I am not opposed to being your ‘friend,’ but if it hurts Atlas or it gets in my way, I will not be nice even if you are a member of the Imperial family.”

Ronan raised his left eyebrow. “Oh, you would offend the Imperial family if I cross your boundaries?”

“Of course,” Cyrus said without any hesitation. He said this because he had the blessing of the Dragon God and the God of Light. His and Atlas’ status in this Empire was higher than the Imperial family. They would do everything they could to tie him and Atlas to the Hirean Empire even if it meant discarding Prince Ronan’s feelings and opinions.

Even if the Imperial family was crazy enough to try to banish or exile him, he could just speed up his mission and take over the Holy Kingdom.

“I am not trying to offend you, Prince Ronan, or the Imperial family. I just hope that our boundaries are respected and we can keep an amicable friendship between our two families.”

If this was the beginning of a fight, Atlas felt like he could see sparks fly between the two. That’s how intense the tension was.

“And is Lord Atlas okay with being friends with me?” Prince Ronan suddenly dragged Atlas into the conversation, not caring about the threat Cyrus gave him.

Atlas was startled at being addressed and almost jumped up from his seat. He was able to control himself though, so he just looked like he was coming out from a daze.

“Oh, um, of course, Prince Ronan.” Atlas was a little nervous because he couldn’t understand the look on Prince Ronan’s face.

Cyrus also had an emotionless face half the time, but at least he could understand the feelings that Cyrus was trying to give off. On the other hand, Prince Ronan seemed to have nothing. There were no emotions that he could pick up on, making Atlas feel strange.

All of Atlas’ interactions were based on how people felt about him. If they liked him, he liked them too. If they didn’t like him, he didn’t like them either. That’s why he could not figure out how to act in front of Prince Ronan.

Prince Ronan said he was interested in him and Cyrus and wanted to be their friend but… Atlas felt those were just empty words. He felt like he was an animal in the zoo, being observed at all times, even when he was trying to sleep. The feeling was unsettling.

Seeing Atlas trying to avoid eye contact with him, Prince Ronan was not offended. Actually, he felt Atlas somewhat understood him, which was why he was acting that way.

Atlas was not as stupid as he made himself to be.

“Lord Atlas, there is no need to feel nervous or anxious. Just act the way you usually do in front of Cyrus or the Alnhart family. We will be friends from now on, right?”

Well, Atlas felt like he could only take Prince Ronan’s word for it. Even if he felt a little unsettled, he knew that Cyrus and the other members of the Alnhart family would protect him.

He also felt that Prince Ronan meant no harm to him or Atlas, so he didn’t dwell too much on Prince Ronan’s… different personality.

“I understand, Prince Ronan!” He changed back to his usual self.

For him, people were nice until they were proven guilty (mean/evil).

For some odd reason, Cyrus felt his internal alarm bells ringing. Why was Prince Ronan doing this to Atlas and why was his interest so intense? Prince Ronan nor Atlas could not see it, but he could.

This whole time, Prince Ronan could hardly take his eyes off Atlas, almost like he was trying to dissect every aspect of Atlas.

Cyrus immediately put his guard up against Prince Ronan. What was this feeling? Why did he feel like Atlas could get swallowed up by this dragon if he was not careful…

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Grandpa Marky: I hope I will be able to get Prince Ronan's character right. He does try to smile because he was told to, but it's unsettling to everyone LOL. Good luck, Atlas... Ya gonna need it.

Also, that's it from me for today. I will update the rest of the chapters next Sunday! I will see you all then. Have a lovely day/night my beautiful grandchildren <3