The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 294: Edict Shards

Victor cursed as he left the mountain in a hurry with disheveled hair and tattered clothes. This was close, too close!

What Kind of shit luck was this? No this was beyond shit!

THREE SCIONS AT ONCE? AND ONE OF THEM HAD TO BE THAT FUCKING BITCH TULIP!

What was this? An RPG hero party with a hero, a princess, and now a priestess?

BITCH, BITCH, STUPID BITCH! Victor kept cursing on his way down, scaring away many of the wide life there, especially a poor bear that almost had a heart attack when the nutcracker passed beside it. All the animals would decide to move to the city after this.

Victor sighed remembering Tulips' status. It was completely different from what he knew from his past life. This BITCH was hiding her power!

“FUCK! What a b*tch!” Victor cursed. He had no idea that she was a scion too. She had surely hidden this fact well in his previous life… As for what was her destiny he knew perfectly well, it was like Zoe, to be one of the world’s five saints. The one who protected the world order!

Many things fit now!

Back then she was the most arrogant thing he had ever seen, even her father, the emperor had to smile and scratch his beard when she cursed at him.

Her attack earlier was extremely dangerous. He only managed to spot her at the last moment, thankfully his fate instinct had saved him again!

As for Rea, Seemingly now he had to leave her until later. He would have to wait until he got some skill or artifact to deal with scions... Sh*t!

No matter what, he had enough Edict Shards now to make a rudimentary control formation.

Victor smiled as he looked at the stone he got… He got all four he could get for now. The others are either far away or in heavily guarded locations. With an array, those things range can be extended depending on how many he had.

In his past life, no one could understand what those stones were. In fact, no one knew that they were the same thing as each stone was programmed to do different things.

They had only one job. Override and write additional rules to the system. Affecting the behavior of any skills in their area of effect.

The first one he got from a museum had the effect of nullifying fire attacks. That’s why it was considered a lucky charm there!

The second one was from a drug lord's mansion and was programmed to calm the mind and increase libido. It worked wonders with the right drugs.

The third was in a trash dump. Its effect to attract misfortune was affecting it. He had to disable its effect before traveling with it, but it seemed to have affected him a little before he could do that.

The fourth was the one at the shrine, being treated as a sacred stone to lift curses and expel demons.

The truth about them was discovered by one of the alchemists of the royal family after getting a tip from a friend from another world. 

After that, they were used to develop the imperial palace’s grand protection array. No skills could be used in the imperial palace after that without the emperor’s permission.

Victor learned about their history and where they were found from the book THE IMPERIAL ARRAY - A Dark History!

Victor planned to use those in the wedding to stop certain exploding and poisoning skills. He was confident that he would be able to locate any demonized agents that the von Zwei could have summoned using Yin’s power and an extensive array, he just had to stop them from exploding before the girls got to them!

This would cost him all of his order points though. DAMN IT!

Victor casually cursed as he made his way toward the nearest city’s airport, intending to return to Vein city ASAP. The wedding was the next day.

Hopefully, Aria would have already prepared the groundwork for the defense formation. 

Victor frowned and pressed <No> In a hurry… Did they already turn Rea into a player? Damn it! That bitch Tulip surely acted fast. She knew how to hold a grudge and didn’t like unknown things at all!

Thankfully, due to his Authority, they would never be able to find him using those stupid methods.

…

When Victor reached Vein city late at night, he quickly unlocked his phone and looked at the barrage of messages and missed calls waiting for him.

He wanted to finish some business and reach the mansion before checking them, but a sudden call from Kai, his faithful butler, stopped him.

"Young master…I found you at last!"

"Is there anything?" 

"Your father has been searching for you…"

"Only that?"

" Yes…."

"Ok, I have been notified… Did you get that guy Yulian and guide him to the hotel?"

" Ah… I forgot to tell you young master but Yulian's release date had been delayed until tomorrow due to a clerical error.” kai said, “I learned of it a week ago.”

"What! At what hour will he be released!" Victor asked as he cursed inwardly. Damn that misfortune curse.

" Early in the morning…"

"GOOD!” Victor sighed in relief, “Then make sure that he can find a ride to the wedding tomorrow!” he ordered before he hung up and then hurried to his mansion. He planned to go install the array at the hotel, but knowing his parents were looking for him, he realized that they were already waiting at the mansion. Installing the array had to be delayed until the morning.

Things were getting messier even before the wedding started.

Victor quickly took a taxi after that, while calling Mike and Alice to ask about their schedule and to arrange a meeting at the hotel in the morning before the wedding so that they could take about what to do if Caspian appeared.

…

Reaching his mansion, Victor quickly noticed the strange atmosphere from the bottom of the mountain. The two chicks who guarded the gate were on edge. Even the hounds were restless as if they had just been scolded.

"What's wrong?" Victor asked as he walked down from the Taxi.

"Ah! Young master! You are here at last!" They cried in relief. "Your esteemed father and mother had been waiting for you inside since noon!"

"Oh!" Victor nodded in acknowledgment then walked in then took a cart up the mountain and reached the top in 15 minutes.

When he walked inside, he was welcomed by the stern gaze of his father and mother who were sitting in the living room with the girls. Interrogating them about Victor's ‘habits’.

“VICTOR!” Theodore said coldly.

“Esteemed father!” Victor bowed respectfully. “Mother.”

“Where have you been for the last three days?” Elena, his mother, asked.

“Didn’t the girls tell you?” Victor asked, looking at Lily who was sitting beside his mother… She wanted to jump and hug him, but she didn’t dare to.

“They said you went to attend some bachelor party!” Elena said, “What kind of parties take three days?” she asked as Theodore looked away. Back before he married his first wife Marta, he had a 25-day bachelor party… it was a blast… 33 hot models got pregnant that month. In fact, this was when he met Elena for the first time!

“It was supposed to be a one-night thing, but the girls there wanted to take turns, so I was locked until they were satisfied,” he said as he glanced at Margret. “I just…”

“No need for further details!” his mother scolded, “sit down now…” she said then turned to her daughter.

“Dear Lara… Go to your room, it is already past your sleeping time…” Elena said to Lara as she watched her son sit down.

“Ah… yes mother…” Lara reluctantly said as she stood up, bowed then headed upstairs followed by El who gave Victor a look of sympathy.

Victor, who knew what this was about, threw his father a blaming look. He should have appeased Elena before coming here.

Theodore just shrugged his shoulders. He was not going to lie to his wife and take the heat for his son. Not for something like this anyway.

“Now…” Elena said, turning to Victor after making sure that Lara had left. “WHY THE HELL ARE YOU MARRYING 8 GIRLS!” Elena began to scold him.

“Ah… Should I marry 9 then?” Victor asked, almost giving his mother a heart attack.

“DON’T TRY TO BE FUNNY!” She cursed at him.

“Ah... Well…you see… I like them all… and I couldn’t choose….” he began to mumble, making the girls blush. 

“Victor! Tell the truth!” his mother said coldly.

“Well, keep it a secret, It is because of the family rules… They usually only approve of holding a marriage ceremony if the girl already gave birth to an heir… This time they approved because of the political situation and I just wanted to use it to marry all the girls I like!” he explained

“Oh…” Elena was convinced. “Then why didn’t you include Lily?” she asked.

“Well…” Victor hesitated then looked at his father… “I already married Lily…” he said.

“WHAT!” both Theodore and Elena asked.

“Yes… we did it in secret in a temple in the mountains… I know this would be troublesome, but I wanted her to be my first wife before Lin and Nova, and I didn’t want the family to know….” he explained as he blushed and scratched the back of his head. Lily blushed too as the rest of the girls looked at her in shock.

Theodore sighed and looked away as Elena looked at Lily. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“The young master told me not to….”

“You still call him young master? Isn’t he your husband?”

“I like to be called ‘Young master’…” Victor answered his mother awkwardly. 

“Oh…” Elena said, realizing that this was one of her son’s fetishes. She better keep out of this.

“You understand that the family, despite approving the wedding, would not really recognize these marriages. And as long as the girls do not give birth to heirs they would be considered concubines!” Theodore warned.

“I do… I just want them to have a wedding!” Victor said, making his mother sigh. 

“Do you know how embraced I was when my family knew about the mass wedding? Everyone in town was making fun of me!” Elena finally said with a sigh, “You should have warned me beforehand!”

“It was an abrupt decision,” Victor lied. “And they will stop making fun of us when they see how grand the wedding is!”

“Yeah... Hopefully, nothing bad will happen…" Elena said, jinxing it. “I almost lost my mind after that Video with the old prostitutes! I am ashamed of myself for thinking it was you!” she added, making Theodore to the side clear his throat.

“I know… We will catch that imposter and spank his butt to oblivion!” Victor said, glaring at Alex who was standing as a butler near the wall. She unconsciously rubbed her butt.

“I don’t care about that! I just want him to confess so that I can gain my lost reputation back!” Elena said dismissively, “Now let’s talk about something else, why didn’t you invite your half-brothers? Your first mother Marta was so angry that she began shouting on the phone!” Elena said. She was not blaming him.

“This has nothing to do with her… when brother Max got married, they didn’t invite you!” he said. He didn’t really want his half-brothers to be there. And he knew that even if he invited them they would not come… They just wanted to make trouble.

“You were young back then! I couldn't leave you and go…” Elena said as Theodore sighed. His tactic for dealing with his household problems was the policy of non-interference. He left them to sort it out themselves. Although it was far from perfect, for a man with hundreds of children and mistresses this was the best way he had to avoid headaches. Little did he know that his stupid approach created a huge mess in the darkness.

“Regardless… Brother Mike and Sister Alice will be there…” Victor said, changing the subject.

“WHAT ALICE WILL BE THERE TOO?” Elena asked in shock as Lara who was eavesdropping on El from outside shivered. Would she be able to meet her mysterious esteemed sister Alice at long last? When Alice left the house she was too young to remember her.

“Yeah,” Victor said.

“Will she come with her entourage?.”

“Probably…”

“Then I will not attend!” Elena interrupted decisively. She was not going to be humiliated in front of her entire family!

“Don’t worry mother… I will talk to her,” Victor said as the conversation was heading in the way he wanted, “And Alice already has a boyfriend… they are deeply in love, so she is no longer… eh…into wired hobbies…” Victor explained it in a way suitable to be heard by little girls.

“What? A boyfriend? Really? When did you learn of that?” Elena asked as Theodore frowned, he knew about Caspian, so Alice having a boyfriend felt strange.

“She told me a few weeks ago when I called to invite her… She can’t wait to introduce you to him!” Victor said as he crossed his fingers. This step was very important as he planned to arrange for a certain stupid siscon to be Alice’s fake boyfriend… This had to be played tight though.