The Young Master in the Shadows

“So this is your place!” Victor said as he looked around the lavish palace. “Not bad!”

“Yes…” Rosette said as she carefully kept her eyes on Victor, analyzing every gesture he was making especially when he noticed all the pretty maids who bowed to welcome them as soon as they entered. He didn’t keep his gaze on them for too long which made her feel a little strange…

“Aren't the maids pretty?” Aerith who walked beside him asked. Clearly having the same thoughts as her mother.

“The maids?” Victor asked as if he wasn’t really paying attention to them. “Ah…. Probably…. But not as pretty as you!” he said after giving them a second glance.

To tell the truth, he truly wasn’t paying attention to their beauty, they didn’t even reach 7 on the Lily scale after all, and were way below his current standards. He was just casually appraising them, making note that all of them had a level above 100 despite their ages being clearly below 20!

“Really?” Aerith asked, raising one eyebrow. This didn’t fit the report she got about him. “How about I send a few to accompany you tonight?” she asked, making Ariana who walked ahead turn her eyes as if any guy would fall for that!

“With you or without you?” Victor asked, making both, his aunt and mother-in-law, almost stumble and fall.

“Without me…” Aerith spat angrily. Why was she angry... DAMN IT!

“Then I don’t need them!” Victor sighed. “After Sleeping with you, I don’t think I can manage to be turned on by the likes of them!” he whispered embarrassingly in a pretty much audible voice that made all the maids glare at him.

Aerith froze. This was clearly a compliment, but she didn’t like it at all! And when did he have time to test that out… Damn liar! “You would have to make do with what you have then!” she spat angrily. “I will take a shower and go to sleep… Don’t wake me up!” she told her mother then hurried toward a side stairway.

“Despite being horny all the time, she is really shy!” Victor sighed, making the poor girl almost slip off the stairs. Still, she resisted the desire to bash his handsome face into the marble floor and just ignored him and left.

“You are really overusing that ‘Horny’ joke…” Mirai, who was clearly amused, said. “The last one who told Aeirth anything close, got one of his three legs chopped off!”

“I am not worried… A girl who was born horny can never harm her husband!” he affirmed.

“...” Rosette glared at him, she didn’t seem angry, on the contrary, she seemed a little amused, clearly glad that her daughter was finally acting like a normal girl… And Victor really reminded her of the young Theodore who followed her around all the time.

“I say…” Ariana sighed “Why don’t you go take a shower and find something to wear, then we can speak over dinner!”

“Ah… Ok!” Victor nodded.

…

Lily sighed as she looked out of the gloomy castle’s window down on the girls who were practicing downstairs, they were no longer fat after losing half of their weight. But they still had a long time to go to reach her standards.

“What?” Yulian asked.

“Your birthday is next week!” she said, pouting a little.

“Right? And? Are you going to throw me a party or something?” he asked with a smirk.

“No… I will be chasing you with a knife like a mad woman, trying to kill you!” she sighed again.

“I see… WHAT?” he asked, looking fearfully at his sister. This girl was very pretty, yet borderline insane. That’s what he discovered after living with her for nearly a month.

“Once it is your birthday, your family test will come to an end, and the family will be able to use your bloodline mark to track you!” Lily explained. “We need to leave this place before that and then pul a little act like I want to kill you so that our dear uncle would not suspect a thing!”

“Ah… Right! But would they really believe that I managed to escape you… A player for a full month?” he frowned.

“I will guide you to an F-rank dungeon, where we will act like we accidentally stumbled upon it… We just need to emerge from it and claim that it was the reason you became a player!” she said. “It will also help us cover everything and give us some time in case our stupid uncle sends someone to kill us!!”

“Oh….” Yulian nodded nervously. They have already discussed this numerous times. “If you have everything planned out, why do you seem a little distracted?”

“Family trouble... Mine, not yours... It is not something you should concern yourself with… ” Lily sighed for the 9th time. “Did Alicia Return?”

“Oh... Yeah… I have to say, that girl is a real Jinx, the players she met at that Gate you sent her to enter are all dead!” he said, shivering a little, “No wonder you told her to act alone!”

“Um… She is just a poor lass…” Lily said like an old woman. Yulian could also sense some annoyance and jealousy in her tone. “Call her here, it is time for me to explain her real mission to her… It will be crucial for our…” she paused as she looked at something, probably her status screen.

“WHEN THE FUCK DID WE BECOME 11?” she yelled in shock as she punished the table in front of her, turning it into dust. “BASTARD!” she screamed. “SCUMBAG! PERVERT!”

Yulian slowly stepped back leaving the room as he watched his sister take a meditative pose. He had no idea what just happened, but his instinct was telling him he shouldn’t ask.

Hopefully, his last sister Tulip, who was his last hope to be a real siscon, didn't inherit this same craziness gene from their mother.

…

The crow perched as usual on the highest branch of the large tree, enjoining the endless view of countless crows flying around below him, and the pretty female crows preening their feathers to his side.

Then he saw it, a golden pin shining on the next branch…

He couldn't help but want it, so flew up and down, reaching it in a second and grabbing it, but in the next moment the pin turned into a smoke, a smoke that rose up into the sky forming a great shadow covering the entire world.

It was like a great black bird formed in the sky.

All the female crows looked up and then flew all at once, by the time the crow noticed what happened, his tree was bare.

He wanted to fly off and see what happened, but suddenly he felt a cold hand grasp his neck.

He wanted to move or struggle, yet he couldn’t… The coldness of the hand froze him, reaching his spine and his wings that felt powerless...

He was dying!

“AH!”

Aarak von Krone sat up. He was not in a mythical forest but in his lavish gold-wood bed at Nest Castle. What a strange dream…

“Master… Is there a problem?” one of the slave girls, who was always on duty beside his bed, immediately ran to his side and knelt down!

“Ah….” he began to look around. “WHO THE FUCK LEFT THE WINDOW OPEN?” he asked, no wonder he felt cold. The window was wide open!

“I did… You told us to, Master…” the girl said fearfully.

“GUARDS… TAKE THIS BITCH AND WHIP HER FOR FAILING TO CARE FOR HER MASTER!” he ordered, making 2 fully armored female guards quickly enter the room and then drag the poor girl who didn’t dare to struggle away.

“My lord… Aren't you overreacting a little?” a bald man in blue robes who entered the room behind the guard asked. It was Aarak’s main assistant, a eunuch. No men except for Aarak were allowed at this tower.

“No… I just had a nightmare… Damn it… Hopefully, it is just a dream, not some bad omen!” Aarak said their family had this strange gift where sometimes their dreams showed the future or the past.

His aunt Vinus apparently saw something very disturbing, which is why she ordered the family to go into hiding before he left to explore that gate. “Did you find Yulian and Lili?”

“Not yet my lord!”

“Hopefully that crazy chick would kill him and save us the trouble…” Aarak spat. “Make sure to keep an eye on the news from the Ritual hall, the moment they activate the blood talisman, delay the envoys, and send the assassin, if those two are not dead, make sure they are by the time the supreme elders get to them!”

“Yes my lord!” the eunuch said.

…

“So… The gray hair was the effect of demonic energy in that pit!” Victor, who sat at the dinner table with Ariana, Rosette, and Mirai, said with a frown.

“Yes, and purple hair is not a good sign here, so we didn’t try to fix it!” Mirai Explained. Her name turned out to be Mirai Von Weise, she was a distant cousin who was taken in by Ariana. Her class was Huntress.

“Then what happened after that?” he asked, picking another steak from the large dish in the center. There were no maids here as the information being discussed was a little sensitive.

“We took a chance when the guards were not looking and freed the demons… Then we used the chaos to escape!” Ariana said, keeping it brief. “Apparently the Lord was away that day to do some kind of ceremony, we are not sure as we only heard it from one of the drunk guards!”

“Oh!” Victor nodded, his aunt was clearly not telling him everything, but from her expression, it was clear it involved some very dirty details, so he knew better than to ask.

“Try the wyvern eggs… they are good!” Rosette told him as she watched him eat. She clearly didn’t want him to ask.

“Ok…” he nodded as he took one. They were really good, he should breed some of those… “Then… How did you guys get here?”

“By a chance… We were really lucky!” Mirai said. “ We stole some donkeys from an elven temple then used them to cross the desert,”

“They didn’t follow you?”

“They did! And they almost caught up if it were not for someone suddenly falling from the sky!” she said like a girl telling her friends what happens in an action movie.

“It was the Storm lord…” Ariana said, spoiling her disciples' fun. “We didn’t know it back then though… She was hurt, suffering from a strange kind of poisoning, and Rosette, who has medical knowledge, managed to help her… It was right by the time the elves caught up with us… Those lads didn’t die with full corpses!”

“Ah… So this ‘thankful lord’ took her in as her disciple?” Victor asked. So the lord is a female… Wow… Scions were really scary.

“Kinda…” Rosette sighed. “Although I can’t tell you all the details, the Lord also wanted someone to balance the power struggle in the kingdom. You see, I am her third disciple and the other two each had their own factions and were fighting for more control!”

“Ah…. So that’s why!” Victor nodded as he slowly connected the dots. He also believed that the lord was clearly cursed or hurt, and she maybe wanted Rosette's skills as a doctor!

“That’s the gist of it!” Ariana sighed. “My other disciples who survived with us are working in different positions around the kingdom at the moment!”

“Oh…” Victor nodded, he was not in a hurry to meet those guys. “Well, I…”

BAM!

The door of the dining hall opened and a cheerful girl walked in with her armor.

“Mom! Aunt Ariana, Aunt Mirai! You started dinner early!” Lyra said, failing to notice Victor who had his back to the door.

“You were the one who was late…” Ariana said.

Rosette just squinted her eyes and looked at her daughter.

“Sorry… I had to go for another trip around the border, not even getting to watch that bastard get eaten!” she sighed. “The elves are making trouble again. They have been screening the border a lot these last couple of days, it was as if they were searching for something!” she said as she took a seat. “Someone stole something from them or something…”

“Probably my master!” Victor said as he grabbed another wyvern egg.

“Oh…” Rosette nodded.

“Your…” Lyra looked at him. He was right beside me.

“...”

“.... HI!” Victor said.

“WAIT…. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE!?” she stood up, knocking the chair back. “WHY THE FUCK IS HE HERE?” she turned to her mother and asked, her face kept turning between the two of them.

“My mother-in-law invited me for dinner!” he said proudly!

“WHAT?”

“You should call me brother-in-law!” he added, as an adult would tell a child.

“....”

“....”

“.... Mom?” it was as if something broke in Lyra’s mind. She couldn’t get what Victor meant.

“He was telling the truth that day… His name is Victor von Weise, and he is my…. Your aunt Ariana’s great nephew!”

“WHAT?”

“And he just married your horny sister!” Mirai said as she stuffed her mouth with a steak.

“WHAT…”

“And you are going to get your sorry butt busted!” Victor wanted to say, but he kept those words to himself! He was not going to give this bitch an early warning!

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