The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 313: The Witnesses signatures

The priestess cleared her throat.

“Now, That the wedding is over, as we give the brides a chance to change their outfits before the dance, we will take the opportunity to let the witnesses examine and sign the contract!” The priestess said as the stage grew dim and the lights in the hall flickered on again illuminating the entire place once more….

Everyone gasped.

The roses on the walls were no longer colorful, but now they were all gold! Giving the hall a majestic look. That was matched by the fragrant flowery incense smell that filled it, giving it a refreshing atmosphere!

As the attendees began to look around, they quickly noticed the Golden petals that began to fall from the ceiling like snow slowly drifting.

The music changed into a slow swing but no one noticed that.

"We realized that everyone was looking forward to the bouquet but due to the tradition's restraints we couldn't, so after consulting a historian, we chose to sprinkle those golden leaves… According to an old tale, whoever collects most of them would be able to marry the prince in her dreams!" the priestess said, setting the hall on fire.

…

“Those are real gold?” Willow, Victor’s maternal grandmother asked as one of the petals fell on her head. She quickly took it and bit it.

“Don’t put that thing in your mouth!” her husband scolded his cheap wife, but she didn’t listen.

“It is real gold!” she exclaimed loudly, almost screaming.

“What?” her children and grandchildren asked as they quickly began to grab the petals near them, making their father look around nervously, but then sigh in relief when he noticed that everyone was doing the same.

…

“Are these made of real gold?” April caught one and examined it. She was no longer poor after marrying Gary, and she was not looking for a husband. It is just that she was curious.

She never heard of such a tradition before, but she felt that this was somewhat romantic as all the girls will get to take something with them.

The petals were pretty, they were very light and had a unique organic texture that made them a little stiff holding their shapes, unlike regular gold leaves that crumbled in seconds.

“Yes…. I wonder how much it cost…” Gary said. “They must have been made one by one!” he added as he inspected one.

“Ho! Ho!… So that’s it!” Havey said, striking the table suddenly with his hand as he looked at the stage. “I see now why he did it… that sneaky fox!”

“Did what?” Gary asked.

“You will see….” Harvey didn’t answer. “Your friend is a fox who is ready to do anything to line up his pockets! You should be more like him!”

“...Grandfather, do you know how those are made?” Gary frowned, changing the subject.

“Oh…What? Those trinkets? You were the one who sold them to Victor… You should know better..” Harvey said as he finally noticed the golden petals.

“What? How?” Gary asked.

“You can tell from their texture… They are golden eggs that have been peeled then stamped.” Harvey said dismissively.

“Golden eggs?” Gary frowned. When did he sell Victor golden eggs? Wait… he seemed to have heard that word before…

“From the goose! The ones that didn't vibrate! ” Harvey said. “Now they apparently can!”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……..” Gary finally remembered.

…

On the stage, when the lights turned on, everyone could see that the priest was no longer there, only the brides and the groom who were still making out… The girls, seemingly not satisfied with their first kiss, were taking turns trying again. That girl Margret even grabbed Victor’s ass and wrapped one of her slender legs around him as she kissed him.

“Bitch…” Elena silently cursed as Theodore cleared his throat loudly, making the bride blush as they noticed that the lights were on so, headed by Victor, they quickly retreated backstage with a heavy blush, forgetting Poor Elise who was waiting for her turn on the stage… Aria had to quickly return and grab her.

“Now…” the priestess said as she stepped down awkwardly, “Let us view the contract… Starting with the groom’s family!” she added as the golden contract was placed on a golden tray and then brought downstage by a few girls holding it as if it was a treasure.

Seconds later many bald burly men walked in and began to professionally disassemble the stage behind her to prepare the floor for the dance.

After placing the tray on the table, Theodore raised one brow as he inspected the objects on the tray. The contract, the red feather quill, and a bottle of ink beside it.

"If any of you wish to officially bear witness to this contract, please sign here, below the black dotted line, or on the back!" The priestess said just as Victor left the backstage and hurried to his parents… He had changed into a white gilded suit that was a little easier to move with. Lily, who appeared from a different door, ran to his side and quickly replaced one of the girls holding the contract tray… She had a very bright smile on her face, but no one saw it thanks to her veil.

“Is this some new trend?” Elena asked as she looked at the strange contract. It was made of pure gold and on it, there were words written in some kind of strange language with black sparkly ink.

Diagonally across the paper, there was a purple blood S-shaped curved line overlapping a bright red one. Across it, horizontal streaks of blood were marked next to some other words. They were clearly the ones made by the brides.

“What are those?” She asked.

“This is an old ceremony…” Victor who just reached the table said, ignoring his father's glares, “Those are the bride's names and blood signatures…” he said.

“Oh… what language is this?”

“Black Dragon higher tongue!”

“Is this some new trending conlang?” Luna was the one who asked, she heard of those things on the internet.

“It’s an old obscure one…” Victor said as he chuckled dryly, “I paid a famous expert calligrapher to write them!” he lied, he wrote it himself as no one knew how to read these nowadays.

“You probably got scammed…” Alice said as she looked at the contract. It was neat, but as an elite disciple of the heavenly sect, she had studied a plethora of ancient languages in order to be able to decode some of the secret scripts in the sect. And the symbols used here, although they resembled some of the ones she knew, it was easy to tell that they were just empty imitations!

The poor girl had no idea that the ones she spent years learning were imitations! Dragon languages were a wide area of expertise that even Victor with his vast knowledge could only understand the main dialects of it.

Yulian also inspected the contract, but he didn’t find anything interesting… He was just too preoccupied with Lily standing a few feets next to him… He wished to hug her and tell her who he really is, but decided to hold himself… She would not believe him, and both of them might be in danger.

“This piece of paper doesn’t matter… It is just for the authenticity!“ Victor lied casually.

Only a few understood what he meant. As the system had already acknowledged his wedding.

“Why didn’t you officially announce the brides’ names?” Elena asked, noticing the thing that most didn’t.

“It is to keep the ritual’s authenticity… In old times names were believed to be magical and they held great power, so people avoided announcing them!” he didn’t really lie… but he didn’t tell the truth either. He couldn't simply slip in two brides if he announced their names. Especially that one of them who had no idea that she was getting married.

“Oh…” she was not convinced.

“Now come on… use this quilt to sign it… I want you all to be witnesses to this day!” he said, presenting the strange red feather quill to his mother.

She frowned then nodded and dipped it in the ink then signed her name which Victor pointed at with the bright red ink. Little did she know that this feather was an artifact that drew some blood from her body and mixed it with the ink.

Theodore glared at his son, then signed his name too followed by Mike and Alice.

“You too, brother-in-law!” Victor said to Yulian, as Lily presented the quill to her brother. “We are one family now!” Victor added with a smile that he reserved for those whom he was going to f*ck their sisters.

Yulian nodded, then quickly took the quill from Lily’s delicate hand and signed his name. He was feeling that Victor was not that bad…Wait… Why did that blood streak in the center make him feel strange? The feeling disappeared moments later as Lily put her hand on the contract to take it back… It must be an illusion.

“Can I sign too?” Lara asked as she jumped on her chair.

“Of course!” Victor said and watched as the little girl took the quill and then began to sign with bright purplish red.

“Did you change the ink bottle?” Elena asked as she noticed the color difference.

“... No… the bottle had some old leftover ink…” Victor lied as he looked at his sister’s signature then quickly withdrew the contract… He really needed to investigate his sister's bloodline. Its color was so strong that even less than a drop was enough to dye this especially made ink.

“Now, if you excuse me…” Victor said as he gestured to Ruby and the girls holding the tray and began to move around the tables making all the attendees, especially the VIP ones sign the contract.

“Aunt… what do you think?” Amelia asked her aunt after finishing the signing and watched as Victor moved away to scam someone else.

“It is an old marriage contract… The kid is no fool…” Martha said.

“What do you mean?” Amelia asked.

“He wants to use this to ask for help once his family ends… He made a contract with both us and Von Geldstadt to secure an escape route for himself!”

“Oh… You mean he knows about our plan?”

“Probably not… But he is an elite of his family, and I am sure he is aware of the recent problem they encountered,”

“What problem?” Amelia asked.

“It is too early for you to know…” Martha didn’t answer, the matter of the destroyed awakening artifact was still hidden.

“Will we help him if he asks?” Amelia asked.

“Are you a fool? Of course, we would! Then we will make sure to take everything!” she said.

…

“Master Harvey! You can sign here!” Victor said as soon as he reached Harvey's table.

Harvey glared at Victor and then inspected the contract, making sure it didn’t have any problems… It was an ancient marriage contract. He could also easily spot Elise's name which was hastily written next to the last blood stroke.

"Draconic language?" Harvey asked.

“Supposedly…. I had to use an old dictionary to write your granddaughter's name…. Thankfully I managed to get it written in time…”

“Oh, a dictionary?”

“... Family secrets….” Victor said as Harvey carefully inspected the quill then nodded and signed the contract as a witness.

Gary and April quickly followed.

“Young master Victor…. Could you introduce me to your wedding contractor…” April suddenly asked as she held Gary's hand under the table.

“We want to hold a wedding soon too..” Gary added.

"Oh… Congratulations" Victor said with a bright smile, “Who is the other bride?”

"What other bride?" Gary and April asked at the same time.

"My wedding contractor specializes in mass weddings… I thought that's what you wanted!" Victor said innocently.

“No… Sorry… We didn’t mean that… April would be my only bride…” Gary said nervously. Feeling April’s high heels penetrating his shoe… It gave him a strange feeling of fulfillment.

“Oh… Well, I will send you his number in case you change your mind…” Victor nodded to himself.

“No thanks!” Gary said… He was a really faithful guy.

“Victor…” Harvey suddenly as he pointed to a specific strike of blood on the contract… The one before the last. “This one belonged to that bald guard… right?”

“... I don’t know what you mean…” Victor sweated as Gary and April looked at Harvy and then at the blonde stroke that seemed a little abrupt.

“You made all of this show to marry another guy, didn’t you… I knew you had some peculiar fetishes the moment I saw you… ”

“... I am sorry… Although I don’t discriminate, I only like girls…”Victor told the truth.

“Then why did you fake Alex Donner’s death and then marry him in front of everyone?” Harvy said, making Victor look to the side to make sure no one was listening… No one was, Harvey was using an isolation artifact.

“Master Harvey, please keep it a secret…. Alex saved my life and we just happened to make a bond on a cold prison night… I couldn’t stop thinking about him ever since…” Victor whispered in fright, making Gary and April look at each other…

“Oh… don’t worry, don’t worry!” Harvey said, “I will not tell anyone, but when you plan to scam that poor lass to take you inside the Thunder sect to get their vault, make sure to let me know…” Harvey said, making Gary gasp… So that's it! Victor was plotting some scheme!

“AH… So Master Harvey already knows... I understand…” Victor said as he quickly took the contract and then ran to another table to scam them. As if he was afraid Harvey would ask something else from him.

…

Alex bit her lip then tried to twirl her hair and failed after remembering that it was shaved clean earlier.

She was looking at the new field in her status window.

Alex couldn’t believe this happened… First, that stupid priest made her sign the contract by mistake, then when the stage went dark, Victor also kissed her by mistake!

When the system displayed the message ( DO YOU APPROVE OF THIS MARRIAGE CONTRACT ) She pressed yes, totally unaware that it meant her marriage!

Was Victor aware of this?

Probably….

What would he say?

She didn’t know…

What would he do?

Hopefully, He would sleep with her… NOOOOOOO…. What was she thinking…

Would he find out the truth about her? Would he hate her? Would he send her away to work at a brothel?

She didn’t know….

Can this marriage be annulled?

She remembered hearing Victor that it would require a king's ransom and a great sacrifice to annul it… So probably not.

What should she do?

She had no idea….

“Stop spacing out… Did your brain shrink after the girls shaved your hair?” Alpha who was sitting next to Alex asked coldly. She never liked Alex since the moment she saw her.

“Ah… sorry…” Alex replied nervously.

“Just focus on the screens… The dance party will start shortly, and we must make sure that nothing bad happens!” Alpha said then looked at Yin, “And you need to stop sulking too..”

“I am not sulking… I am just not happy that Victor went easy on that demon… I know I could have killed him!” Yin said. This was her first time seeing another demon after her parent’s accident and she was full of hate.

“That’s impossible. He had many protection treasures. And even if you did, that would put us all in grave danger!” Alpha sighed, “I am sure Victor has some plan for that Caspian, so Just relax and focus on your job, we have a long day in front of us.” she added as she looked at the screen displaying the Hall.

Victor was slowly making a beeline between the tables, getting all the VIPs to sign his stupid contract.

At the front of the hall, the stage was almost finished being dismantled by the chicks. A dancing stage was slowly taking shape with the previously hidden grand orchestra fully revealed.

“Did the burning of the offerings finish?”

“Yes… Thanks to the incense the young master gave us, no one noticed a thing about the smell in the hall!” Camellia who was responsible for managing the background operations said.

“That’s good…” Alpha sighed as she looked at the screens then squinted her eyes and focused on one particular woman who slowly and silently withdrew from the hall without being noticed.

“Tell Victor to hurry up with his stupid dance…. The target is already on the move…”