The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 435: Strange Connections

Victor, who was sitting and having a drink with Meril, Macil, the elf girls, and Emira, suddenly stood up and began coughing up the carrot juice he had just drunk.

“Victor? Is there anything wrong?” Meril asked in a worried voice as Macil frowned. How can someone spit out the holy carrot juice so carelessly?

“Ah... Nothing… I am fine… “ he quickly replied, dismissing his sister. 

Just now he was paying attention to what his blood slaves were doing, and he happened to hear what Margret said through Lin. 

She was fucking pregnant! HOW? That was not in his plans! 

Wasn’t his bloodline supposed to be too strong for this to happen? This was common knowledge. The stronger the bloodline, the harder it was to conceive. That’s why his family likes to go hunt for normal mates with nonexistent bloodlines. Marrying inside the family or from someone from the other awakened families was only done for political reasons.

On top of that, after a bloodline awakens, the probability of conceiving a child would exponentially diminish.

Could it be that Margret’s bloodline was so weak, that it countered his strong bloodline? Or was he an outlier like his father, a monster who could get any woman pregnant just by touching her?

As far as he remembered, In his past life, he was pretty normal… so in short, he had no idea!

Damn it… Those girls better be careful not to tell Lily, that girl got a new super sword and should be considered armed and dangerous. Victor was not sure what she would do if she were to know. The worst-case scenario would be her painting his mansion red with Margret’s blood... This was very unlikely, but the girls better be careful. The best-case scenario would be Lily using her family power to hunt him down and then lock him in her bedroom or some sex dungeon, where she would force him to ‘Work’ until she was pregnant too!

Victor shivered just thinking about that. He needed to find a way to make her his bloodslave very soon to be safe... Too bad he would have to wait until her family's cleansing ritual.

“You seem troubled?” Macil said. A man could feel it when another was having manly troubles.

“Ah…” Victor sighed. “We are getting very near to our target, I can feel it… I am just hesitant about what to say when I meet my stepmother and my great aunt!” he lied.

“Um…” Meril nodded nervously. She was also very nervous about meeting her mother!

“I will go out and check out with my master…” Victor said. “Emira… Stay here with Meril and be obedient!” he added to the little girl.

Emira just looked at him and then nodded. Lately, she began to fully understand the common language, and after staying with Meril for the last week they had become friends. She was no longer dependent on Victor. It is just that she would only go to sleep next to him, treating him as a hug pillow… He was not complaining as the girls seemed to suffer from nightmares after seeing Zendo, but with Meril here it was awkward.

Victor sighed and looked at the sky. “Master… Can I come out?” he asked. For Macil, he was keeping the facade that his master was the one who saved them. It was better this way.

… Nothing happened.

“Master?”

“....”

“He should have gone somewhere…” Macil commented.

“No way, he always carries this dimensional pocket with him! He might be answering the call of nature or something… He is always doing that lately…” Victor explained. “I think he has a problem with his prostate or…”

Victor vanished before he could continue.

“...”

“What is a prostate?” Macil asked.

“No idea…” Meril replied. She just had the feeling that Victor's last comment was very inappropriate.

…

Outside, Victor appeared in the middle of the desert where his cauldron was buried in the sand.

Lately, he had only been traveling at night using a jagged path, fearing that the sun lord might notice him. He needed to keep this up at least until he reached the human lands.

; ;

WARNING: 74 TRACING SKILLS HAVE BEEN CAST ON YOU… ORIGINATOR : [SUN LORD] ERROR: CASTER DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH AUTHORITY TO TARGET YOU… DO YOU WANT TO ALLOW SKILL? <YES> <NO>

As usual, Victor was quickly barraged by messages about tracing skills targeting him as soon as he was out.

<NO>

He quickly answered.

; ;

SUN LORD IS REQUESTING A REPORT FOR THE REASON OF FAILURE OF HIS SKILL. HE DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH AUTHORITY TO ACCESS DATA CONNECTED TO YOU... DO YOU WANT TO ALLOW THE [SYSTEM] TO MAKE THIS REPORT?

Victor paused for a moment, then pressed <NO>.

Although he considered revealing his huge authority to Zendo and scaring the shit out of him, he didn’t want to reveal any information about himself. From experience, he knew that this was the best approach, and his Authority was his biggest trump card!

; ;

WARNING: 9 BLOOD TRACING SKILLS HAVE BEEN CAST ON YOU… ORIGINATOR: ZIFR THE GREAT ERROR: CASTER DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH AUTHORITY… DO YOU WANT TO ALLOW SKILL? <YES> <NO>

“What?” Victor exclaimed. This one was new.

Why would that demon try to find him? Why now? How did Zifr get his blood? The only place he might have bled was during the battle in Sun City. He was careless.... Damn it!

He pressed <No> as he thought about it. Could it be that Zifr was there? Could it be that he was working for the Sun Lord? That would be absurd…

; ;

WARNING: DEMONIC BLOOD CURSING SKILL HAD BEEN CAST ON YOU… ORIGINATOR: ZIFR THE GREAT ERROR: CASTER BLOODLINE IS WAY WEAKER THAN YOURS. CURSE WAS INVALIDATED

Shit.... That was close! Thankfully his demonic bloodline seemed to be able to resist any blood curses, or he would have had to waste another dispelling talisman.

But this guy was pretty persistent to get rid of him! Well... Getting rid of as many unknown as possible was one of the main steps for a perfect scam!

Victor was pretty sure that Zifr that demon must have found some way to scam Zendo and work for him. No wonder the sun temple was infiltrated.

The schemes in this world were way deeper than he could ever have imagined. It would be better to leave this world ASAP, that’s what his intuition was telling him.

Grabbing the cauldron, and checking his surroundings, he slowly levitated in midair, then began to fly in a certain direction, following the fate threads that stretched in front of him. Hopefully, those would lead him to his great-aunt.

He had been doing this for the last few days, and although it was a little tiresome, it was the fastest way to move around. His speed was like that of a missile after all.

…

“You must be Abe…” Mira said as she reached the table Abe and a middle-aged balding man who seemed to be his lawyer were waiting in the company's exclusive restaurant. This place was very luxurious and it was meant to be used when the company negotiated contracts with big stars or big assholes like Abe.

“MIRA!” Abe quickly stood up, wiping his mouth with his cuff, before extending his hand to shake hers.

Mira hesitated and then shook it before quickly letting go shaking the lawyer's hand and sitting down.

“Mister Abe… I was sent here after…”

Abe raised one hand stopping her, he clearly enjoyed flaunting his power. “Let’s have a drink first… I already requested the most expensive one here!” he explained, gesturing to a waitress on the side.

“Master Abe… We are here to talk business…” Mira said.

The lawyer nodded professionally, he clearly didn’t agree with Abe.

“Nothing makes business smoother than a glass of wine!” Abe said as he licked his lips.

…

“This guy is not Abe!” Margret, who watched the interaction through the security cameras said. “I can feel it!”

“What do you mean?” Aria asked. “We already confirmed his identity through a DNA sample that we secretly took… His fingerprints also match!”

“I don’t care… This guy is definitely not Abe, just look at how he is looking at Mira like he is planning to eat her up!” Margret said.

“As far as I remember, Abe is a pervert like that…” Lin commented.

“No, Mira is not the kind Abe likes, he is into... Ehm... younger girls who have curvy body, Mira is not only too flat for him, she is way older than anything he would be interested in!” Margret explained with disgust. She knew him better than anyone else.

“I remember him taking a long look at us and the twins back then when we first met him…” Beta, who was operating the camera said, remembering how Abe’s eyes were about to fall from their sockets when he saw them at the pool that day.

“For Abe, girls are not the most important thing, money is! He sees the world through the eyes of a pimp!” Margret explained. “That’s how he saw you back then, as potential merchandise. And that’s how he should be looking at Mira, as someone appraising the goods, not someone who is starving for… STOP THERE!” Margret told Beta. “Replay the Video from the last 20 seconds!”

Beta, who was listening with interest quickly operated the computer in front of her, replaying the video onto one of the meridian screens in the room.

“Focus on Abe’s hand…”

"Ah!"

Beta did, revealing that as Abe pushed the glass to Mira, he seemed to have slipped something into the wine in a very professional manner that was barely noticeable.

If it were not for Margret who knew how perverts did this, they would have missed it.

“We are game!” Elise said. “Pay attention, Mira! Start acting like you can't lie!”

…

“So… Why do you want to break the contract all of a sudden?” Mira asked as she swallowed the antidote pill hidden in her mouth after hearing what Margret said. She just acted a little drunk. “This... is too troublesome...”

“It is just that I got a better offer somewhere else…” Abe said. 

“What do you mean…”

“I can’t explain the details as I am under an NDA,” he said, nodding to the lawyer,  “But all you need to know is that I was offered  10 times what you paid me!” He shrugged. “I think this will cover the contract-breaking fee!”

“We can pay you 10 times too….”

“No, the deal is already done… You should have paid me for my work's real value from the start!” he said in a hateful tone.

“...” Mira frowned “Who is the other party?”

“I told you I can’t say…” He shook his head making Mira pout, why wasn’t the soul wine working.

“Why did you seek them in the first place?” Mira asked, trying to agitate him. “Is it about Margret?”

“She is a part of the reason… I don’t want to work with a company she is a part of, and I got a better offer!” he shrugged. “I bet she is watching us through those cameras…” he said.

“Yeah… I have no idea what you are talking about…” Mira said as if she slipped before correcting herself. “Let’s focus on business… What about the works currently in production?” Mira asked. “Are you pulling those too?”

“Well, for those the fans might get upset, so let’s discuss them in detail…” Abe said, flicking his finger at his lawyer who quickly took out a bag full of documents. “I hope Mrs Mira would have the authority to look at those…”

“Let’s see what you have first…” Mira frowned.

…

“Mistress Margret… Did you call for me?” Yin, who seemed to have just finished her dancing training, came to the security room, accompanied by Lara, Ren, and El who were too curious and had to hop along to take a look.

Lately, they were pretty bored getting grounded by George, and having to wait for Thedoore to return for them to resume the trials at home.

“Yeah… Look at that guy, do you feel anything strange about him?” Margret asked.

“Ah… I can’t use my powers through screens…” Yin said in an embarrassed voice.

“Ah… Right…. Sorry…. Come with me then…” Margret said she was so disturbed by Abe’s appearance that she was not thinking straight.

The girls left the Security room and took the elevator up. There Margret guided them into a big office that had a one-sided window overlooking the restaurant. This place was meant for the CEO to have a look at how things went downstairs, and very few knew about it.

“Be sure not to stick too close to the window,” Margret said.

Yin nodded as she took two steps with El and Lara. They looked at the table where Mira was asking Abe about some details in the revised contracts.

“What do you see?” Margret asked.

“That guy…” Yin frowned. “He has balls in his head!”

“Have a what?” Margret asked, some very nasty thoughts crossed her mind. Abe did have only his balls in his brain.

“Balls… 3 Marbles of sorts are floating and rotating around each other where a person’s soul should be…” Yin frowned as she tried to explain with a blush. 

“An artifact!” Elise commented.

“What else?”

“Nothing…. Wait…”

“What?”

“The other guy… The one in the lame brown suit… His soul appears to be that of a girl?”

“A girl?” Margret frowned, looking at the middle-aged lawyer.

“ He appears normal to me…” Elise frowned. She has the True Sight bloodline ability and she should be able to see through any disguises, but the lawyer appeared normal to her.

“Can you make out her features?” Margret asked.

“Yeah, barely…” Yin said.

“Is she this one…” Margaret asked, showing Yin a photo of Bianca.

“No…”

“Use this…” Elise grabbed a tablet and gave it to Yin, “Try to use this program to construct her face.” she explained, starting an App that would allow Yin to construct the face.

“Um… “ Yin nodded as she began to work. “There seems to be a connection between the girl and the marbles in the guy's head… But I can't really make it out…” she added casually as Lara and El peeked over her shoulders to have a look.

Margret looked at Elise, both of them just understood what happened!

No wonder the Wine didn’t work, the lawyer didn’t drink at all, and she must have been the one controlling Abe whose soul was already lost!

“Finished!” yin said, giving the tablet back to Elise who gave it a look and then handed it to Margret. 

“Any idea who that is?” Elise asked.

Margret frowned. “No…”

“Ah… I know her!” Lin exclaimed, making everyone look at her.

“Who is she?” Margret asked.

“She is a famous internet influencer… I used to watch her a lot a few years ago before she disappeared after some crypto scam!” Lin said. 

“Oh…. Mining GreenSun Coin?” Margret asked.

“Yeah…”

“I see…” Margret nodded, “If she is not our target, she would definitely have a connection to them!”

“Oh…”

“Tell Mira to wrap things up… We better not scare the snake!” she said, turning to look at Lara who seemed to be a little interested in her sister-in-law's spy action.  “Don't tell Father-in-law about what you saw here!”

“I know!” Lara nodded. “Will you tell Esteemed brother?” she asked.

“Ah…” Margret hesitated, looking at Elise who nodded. “Listen up Lara… George must have told you that your father will be back today with Victor…”

“Um!” Lara nodded with a smile.

“That Victor is a fake!” Margret said.

“WHAT?” Lara frowned.

“It is a bad guy who is planning to scam the family!” Elise explained.

“Yin will discover him pretty quickly…. And maybe El too…” Margret said. “I want you to act as if you noticed nothing… We will take care of him!”

“But…”

“Don’t tell anyone, as that guy might run away... You can inform George and explain that Victor knew all about this and that it is a part of the plan… Tell him to call us if he needs more info,” Margret said. “George would find a way to discreetly tell father-in-law if needed!”

“Ah…. Then what about my real esteemed brother?” Lara frowned. She didn't like to keep secrets, but she understood the gravity of the situation.

“Don’t worry… He is fine!” Margret sighed. It seemed like they would have to tell Theodore a few things, but this was the best course of action right now, as Victor was taking way longer to return than planned.  “Tell George that we have a way to connect to him, but he better keep it a secret!”

“Um…” Lara nodded.