Chapter 453 - Grand Ambition.
Of course, the Dane Patroness was not asking that question because she did not know. She might have only had one partner all her life but she knew what flirting looked like.
What made her ask was mostly surprise at Hal's audacity to actually attempt to flirt with her.
Hal shrugged and joined his fingertips together in front of his face as he told her with a smile,
"Yes, yes I do believe I am. And it's clearly having an effect on you" he said.
Isabella frowned but said nothing.
Hal broke the silence,
"Your cheeks are getting red"
While he said that, in all honesty, Isabella's face was actually still the same. While she might be a tad bit flustered, she was experienced enough to not let it show on her face.
The only reason she had not said anything so far was so she could collect herself before she smiled brightly and her eyes flashed,
"And what about my granddaughter?" She asked.
"What about her?" Hal asked as though he was confused as to what she was getting at even though he could already tell.
"You are still getting married to her, aren't you?" Isabella said and gesticulated as though she could not see how Hal was not getting what she was trying to say.
"Yes, I am. What's your point and what does that have to do with me rocking your world?" Hal asked with a slight frown while he was roaring with laughter on the inside.
"Rock my world? You are a few millennia too young to do that" Isabella said with a mocking chuckle.
Hal was unaffected,
"I'm pretty confident but we won't know until we try." He said with a shit-eating grin.
Isabella paused for a second as she was a little startled at the sheer confidence that backed his words and then she shook her head,
"A Doxon man through and through. Sleazy and lustful to the core. I can not believe I did not see it earlier" she said.
Hal sat up in his chair as he said,
"While I do agree with lustful and I could let sleazy slide, I absolutely oppose to being called a Doxon" he said with a natural face.
Isabella rolled her eyes,
"But that's what you are, is it not? Your eyes, your resemblance with a certain someone and this (she picked up a rolled-up parchment from her desk and unrolled it to show Hal its content) say that you are"
On the scroll was a painting of him but only his bust was seen and there was incredible detail on the painting which made it impossible to miss that it was him painted on it. Right underneath the painting red;
The Young Lord Hal Doxon, Heir Of The Doxon Duchess.
Hal's eyes narrowed but he said nothing as Isabella continued,
"Multiple posters just like this one were being plastered all over the Doxon Duchy about two days ago and an informant of mine over there picked this up for me.
Taking an Express Teleportation circle courtesy of me, he was able to get here from Doxon in a day."
Now Hal put on a confused expression,
"So... What? It's a crime to look so good in a poster?" He asked.
"No, no it's not..." Isabella said.
"So you admit I look good" Hal noted but Isabella merely frowned and ignored him,
"... However, you did mislead us. You claimed to have been born and raised in the Silva Duchy."
Hal shrugged,
"I didn't lie. Surely all your investigations should have shown that I indeed was raised in Sapphire city." He said.
"But you knew you were a Doxon, did you not?" Isabella asked.
Hal sighed,
"Once again, I am not a Doxon"
"That doesn't answer my question" the Patroness said and her eyes flashed dangerously.
Hal rolled his eyes,
"Actually, I had no idea" he lied through his teeth.
"That's a lie. Why else would you go to Doxon if not to reunite with your family?"
Hal chucked,
"No, I didn't go to Doxon for a reunion with 'my family'. It's only after I got there that I was met with the truth about my parentage. It was hard to ignore when everyone kept pointing out that my eyes were of the same shade as a Doxon" he said still very much at ease.
Isabella frowned.
If there was one thing that frustrated her about all this, it was the fact that she could not tell for sure if he was lying or being truthful.
"Why did you go to Doxon then?"
"To meet two ladies with whom I share an intimate relationship." He said with a sigh.
"In other words, two women you've slept with" Isabella said.
"That's a more direct and mildly unrefined way of putting it but, Yes" Hal admitted.
"And now we are back to you being Lustful and sleazy like the Doxon you are" Isabella said and Hal saw no reason to keep correcting her on his familial status.
Instead, he said,
"And we are also back to you feeling attracted to me and hiding it all behind that false bravado with a touch of intimidation"
"Get over yourself, boy. Not only are you too young to even attempt to seduce me, but you will also never be able to succeed.
No matter how old you become. My heart only ever beat for one man and that is as true today as it was when he was alive."
"And how long has it been since your husband died?" Hal asked in an uncharacteristically sensitive tone of voice that actually saw the Dane Patroness become vulnerable enough to answer,
"Over one thousand years ago" she said and then cleared her throat as her eyes cleared up,
"Back to the issue at hand. You're a Doxon. That changes things"
"How so?" Hal asked.
The Patroness shrugged,
"You have proven to not be a one partner man and my granddaughter seems quite fine with that, so quite frankly, while I do not condone it, I will accept that it is none of my business.
However, your union with Melinda is no longer just something I will accept just for your potential and because it's what that girl wants. Now it is a chance for the unification of two fundamentally different families." She said with a sly smile that Hal admitted in the back of his mind was very sexy.
That said, he was still confused by this turn of events,
"What?" He asked.
Isabella smiled,
"Do you wish to hear a story, Hal?"
"If it's going to be a long one, then no" he said with a shake of his head.
"Okay then, let me shorten it for you.
Long before the Continent was unified by the Harons, this region was known as the Dane Kingdom and as you can probably guess from the name, we Danes ruled it.
And when the Harons came with the proposal for unification, we were strongly against it. The Danes of old were ready to die but would not let themselves be under the Harons.
They were brave and ready to sacrifice everything.
Unfortunately for them, they were also too trusting and the very ones they relied on as part of their fighting force to repel the Harons turned against them.
That was the first Silva Duke.
A shrewd man with a maddening appetite for ambition.
They joined forces with the Harons and successfully killed the Dane King as well as several elders of the family. The then prince lost all determination to fight after that.
He could no longer watch the Danes get slaughtered and surrendered. The massacre stopped but rulership was given to the Silvas who along with support from the Harons made sure to oppress surviving Danes to avoid insurrection.
We laid low for millennia while building up our forces to be certified as second only to the Silvas.
Because of this, we are still under strict watch.
We are also far from being able to really stump the Silvas in terms of manpower.
Our plans used to stretch further into the future. Slowly building strength as well as merit. But with a potential partnership with the Doxons, we can move things up and act sooner than we thought."
"You want to rule the Duchy?"
"No, we want to rule the continent."