"I want you to join us, Broken Halo."
Simon raised a brow the moment he heard this.
This was not what he was expecting in the slightest, and he was baffled.
"First of all, who are you?"
Caesar chuckled as he gestured for the female employee that was standing to his right to fill up his glass.
"Haven’t I told you? They call me the Bored One and my name is-"
Simon cut him off.
"You know what I mean. What is your relationship to the Sanguine Fang faction, the Iron Ledger faction, and the Obsidian Thorns faction?"
The female employee finished pouring the wine, and Caesar looked at it for three seconds before replying Simon.
"Well, I guess you can say that I’m the leader of those three factions."
Simon narrowed his eyes.
"So you’re the one that ordered the death of three members of the Iron Fangs? My life and death duel with Blackblade? And the attempted removal of my poison in the Iron Fangs?"
Caesar raised a brow as he took a sip of the wine.
"I’m fairly certain you’re not the type to keep a grudge or dwell on insignificant past events. Especially on the Iron Fangs."
He looked down and mumbled.
"Was I wrong?"
Simon narrowed his eyes as he continued his observation of Caesar.
Though Caesar was right in saying that he was not the type of person to keep a grudge or duel on insignificant past events- though his life and death battle was not insignificant- he would not admit it.
"Why did you bump into me at the exchange center? What was your goal?"
"Oh." Caesar chuckled and swirled the little wine that was left in the glass cup.
"I had actually taken too much wine on that day and I could barely walk straight."
Simon released a scoff immediately, showing that he did not believe Caesar in the slightest.
First of all, Simon did not believe that Caesar was the type of demon that loved to indulge himself in alcohol.
He was like Simon in the sense that both of them loved making calculated moves.
And somebody like that would not be drunk at any point in time because that would be a moment of weakness for both of them.
Also, even if a demon was drunk, the demon could use his or her demonic energy to expel the alcohol from their body.
’Unless the alcohol is extremely toxic.’
Just as he had this thought, Caesar gestured at Simon’s untouched glass of wine.
"If you drank your wine, you’d know why I got drunk back then."
Simon glanced at his cup of wine with a slight furrow of his brows.
He could not help but wonder if Caesar was saying the truth, but he eventually pushed everything to the back of his mind since it was not important to him at all.
He looked at Caesar.
"If it’s really that potent, isn’t that more reason for me to not drink it?"
Caesar nodded with a slight chuckle.
"I guess you’re right. I was thinking that you were a fellow wine lover like me since we have some similarities."
Simon raised his brows, then he shook his head with a slight chuckle.
"Let’s move back to the reason why you’re here. You want me to join the... three factions?" He asked with a slightly baffled tone.
Which faction was he going to join exactly.
"Well, you can obviously choose one of the three factions, but I’ll advise you not to pick the Obsidian Thorns cause my brother is there and he’s called the Mad Thorn for a reason."
Simon leaned back into his chair and folded his arms.
"And who told you that I’m going to join a faction?"
Caesar looked at Simon with a slight tilt of his head.
"You won’t? I’m giving you an opportunity to keep your life and to end this nonsense war between us, but you’re not taking the opportunity?"
Simon remained silent for a moment then he began to tap his foot on the floor.
Caesar patiently waited for Simon, but he kept on drinking from his cup.
Some seconds later, Simon finally spoke.
"If I join, what are the benefits I’m going to get? And would I have any authority? Or would I just be a random faction member?"
Caesar looked ag Simon with raised brows.
"Authority? Hmm... No. I don’t think I can give you any authority after the things you’ve done to us."
"If you’re asking because you don’t want to lose the feeling of being the leader of the Iron Fangs, just know that being a member of one of my three factions is a lot better than being the leader of a mere and useless Iron Fangs."
Caesar paused, took another sip of his wine, then he continued.
"As for benefits... Once again, you can’t be a new member of the clan and be given more benefits than somebody who has been in the clan for a long time."
"However, you would be given a weekly stipend of one thousand merits, you would be protected by the faction you join, you would be respected in the academy despite being a slave, and I’ll even allow you to sell that sword for more than what it’s worth."
"I would have given you more, but you’ll need to improve your status and image in the eyes of the faction members because you’ve done quite a bit of damage. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be given more benefits according to the rules of the faction."
"And I promise you that I won’t make life difficult for you."
"So, what do you say?"
Simon gave his response immediately.
"I obviously refuse."
Caesar did not seem surprised by Simon’s rejection. He just calmly took a sip of his drink with his eyes closed.
A few seconds later, he dropped the cup.
"Well, that’s a shame and a relief at the same time."
Simon raised a brow. "A relief?"
Caesar nodded.
"Yeah. Cause I have a feeling that you might entertain me with your bag of... tricks. I’ve been bored for so long."