The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 468: The old Master!

“What do you mean we can’t go back yet? You promised” one rude girl snapped at the blond handsome young self-proclaimed Emperor who stood in front of her in his silky regal robes.

“Listen here, little Mavis, first of all, please use the proper pronoun, and secondly this seat’s team did the math,” Vic said, nodding to one of the two girls in the Elven secretary cosplay costume behind him. “The chance of you surviving after returning is practically Zero, you will be captured almost immediately and will also risk exposing this emperor’s own operation ahead of time!” he explained.

“No! You can’t do that!” she spat.

“Mavis, calm down…” one other girl, who felt that what Vic said was reasonable, said.

“I have things to do… It is my life, my decision! I am a free woman…”

“No you are not!” someone suddenly said in a harsh voice as out of thin air a hooded figure appeared, he was an old man, but his face was barely visible under his black cloak.

The girls stepped back worriedly. They have been through a lot of shit and have already realized that many unnatural things exist in this world. And every cell in their body was screaming to them that this hooded figure was dangerous!

“Let this Emperor introduce you, this is The old Master, You can call him Master for short!” Vic said. “From now on, you are under his care!” he added as he put his hands on his waist and nodded to the old Master.

“What?” the girls frowned. “What do you. Your Highness, mean?” one of them asked, remembering to use the right pronoun.

“Simple, in order to keep this seat’s promise and make sure that you survive at the same time, we have decided to make you stronger!” Vic explained generously. “For the next few months, you will be under the care of the old Master here, who will teach you how to hunt and kill demons!”

“WHAT?” the girls gasped.

“Stop screaming! You are hurting this old man’s delicate ears!” the old master scolded. “As His Highness Vic said, you will be under my care, and you will do as I tell you to….”

“NO! I REFUSE!” Mavis screamed. She had enough!

BAM!

The old master, who was 10 feet away from Mavis, appeared in front of her in the blink of an eye and then slapped her face making her fly and hit a nearby hut. “BITCH, IF I WERE NOT YOUR REAL BIOLOGICAL FATHER I WOULD HAVE KILLED YOU FOR SAYING THAT!” he spat “Now stop bitching around!”

“WHAT?” The girls froze.

“OLD MASTER! That’s going too far! You promised not to hurt them!” Vic quickly said as he ran to check on Mavis, promptly giving her a healing pill as he glared at the old Master. “And please stop proclaiming that you are people’s real father. It is very offensive and not funny at all!” he clarified, making the girls quickly figure out that this was the old master’s way of cursing. Really toxic!

“I say what I want to say…. And you were the one who gave the girls to me to train, and it is my job how to do it…” The old master spat.

“Old Master, please use the right pronoun!”

“FUCK YOU AND FUCK YOUR RIGHT PRONOUN! MY FUCKING C*** MUST HAVE BEEN CROOKED WHEN I F****ED YOUR MOTHER TO MAKE HER CONCEIVE YOU!”

“DON’T YOU DARE SPEAK ABOUT THIS EMPEROR’S IMPERIAL MOTHER!” Vic screamed angrily. For some reason, the girls no longer found his stupid way of talking strange.

“SHUT UP!” The old man suddenly yelled as he appeared next to Vic, and like what happened with Mavis, slapped him so hard that he flew a dozen feet away before landing and making the elven secretaries run to his side to check on him. “He will be fine, I will never kill my son’s… Just take him away and let him rest a bit….”

The elven secretaries nodded and dragged Vic into one of the huts.

The old master shot them a fleeting glare, then shook his head and looked at the girls. “Vic told me that you have been practicing martial arts for the last few weeks, right?” he asked, ignoring Mavis who crawled out of the debris of the damaged hut while glaring at him.

“Yes!” one of them said.

“Let’s say how far you have progressed then!” he said flicking his finger and out of thin air a wolf appeared. It was not a normal wolf but a huge one that had two horns, bright red eyes from its mouth, and a green acidic drool oozed out.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…..” The girls quickly screamed as they stepped away. “Those are…”

“Your prey! Demonic wolves, F-rank demonic monsters!” the old master explained. “Kill it, or die trying…” the old master said coldly.

The girls just froze as they eyed the wolf, calming down a bit as they saw that it was tied to a pole on the ground.

“What are you waiting for?” The old master asked. “If it is not dead by the end of the hour, I will slap each one of you twice!” he spat as he slashed with his hand, cutting the wolf’s rope.

The next moment it attacked the weakest girl she could find. Mavis who could barely stand up!

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…..” the girls screamed as they saw the wolf jump Mavis and push her down with its large paws and sharp claws.

“NO! MAVIS!” one girl screamed but no one dared to approach. “HOW DARE YOU!” she asked the old master as she turned to face him.

“Dare what? Do you think if you were to be released from here the danger would be any lesser?” he asked with sarcasm in his voice.

The girls frowned. “But….”

“Don’t worry, she is not dead! My daughter really got my genes, she is a tough girl!” he smirked, turning to face the wolf. “How long do you plan to play dead for?” he asked.

“I am not playing dead… AND I AM NOT YOUR FUCKING DAUGHTER!” someone said. It was the bloodied Mavice who pushed the wolf and crawled from under it to reveal that it was already dead with a dagger stuck in its forehead. The dagger she prepared to use to stab Vic in case he dared to do anything to her. “How long do I need to be trained to be strong enough to beat those bastards who kidnapped me?” she asked, seemingly convinced.

“The von Zwei family are beyond anything you can imagine!” the old master said, “But… If you follow my command, you will be able to do it!” He said as he threw her a healing pill, that demon wolf, although already beaten up beforehand to weaken it, still managed to slash her arm and it looked nasty.

Mavis caught it in midair and ate it immediately. “Then I will be under your care master!” she said with determination in her eyes. “It is just… Can I ask you for a favor?” she asked after a brief hesitation.

“Sure… You are my daughter after all…”

“I am not… And stop spouting nonsense!” she spat. “I have this little brother, I wonder if there is a way to send him some money with a message to reassure him of my situation!” she said directly, biting her lip.

“...” The old master raised one eyebrow, it was as if he got interested. “I will arrange it, but you will have to work for the money I pay in your stead!”

“Sure!” she nodded as if finally a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Earlier, all she was thinking was going back to check on him, but now with a real path to grow stronger, maybe she could seek revenge for their parents before she could return home!

“Good. Now each of you, take your weapon and be ready, you will have to kill three demons each before midnight!” he told the girls with a smirk, flicking his finger to make three other wolves appear from his private collection.

It was going to be a long day!

***

The night was moonless, and the city sky was pitch black.

“This way young masters!” The maid, Adele, told Max and Rex as she slowly guided them to a deserted path behind the manor, guided only by a lantern. “We are almost there!”

“Yeah…” Max replied briefly as he looked around. He really wanted to know what kind of awakening ritual his father prepared. He had a tone of questions, but in order not to be suspected of being an agent, he kept them to himself.

“What do you think father wants from us?” Rex, who had no idea about the ritual, asked.

“You will see!!” Max replied confidently as they finally stepped into a clearing in the forest and stood still watching the strange scene in front of them.

There in front of them, there was a huge structure that was covered with all kinds of mirrors and lenses. It seemed to be some kind of modern art piece, but Max could tell that it wasn’t, especially after noticing that in its middle there was an object covered with a black steel domed vault. It had four high-ranking family guards in black armor standing guard around it.

Surrounding this structure, many people were gathering and curiously inspecting it, some were players from the family, and others were his illegitimate half-siblings.

“Young master, feel free to roam around, the master will inform you about everything once everything is ready!” Adele said seriously, before retreating to one of the military tents that were erected around the clearing.

“Oh…” Max nodded.

“What do you…” Rex began to inquire again but paused as they sensed someone approaching them.

“Esteemed brothers! I am so glad to see you once again!” Someone shouted, making them turn to face the newcomer. It was none other than their little brother, Luke, who greeted them politely.

“Luke? Why are you here?” Rex asked in surprise, noticing how thin and pale his brother had become. Staying in the mines must have been hard on him. “Did your punishment end?”

“I don’t know! I was busy, fu... Ehm… Working out when the family guards came and dragged me out!” He said it with annoyance as if he really didn’t want to leave the mines.

“Drag you out?” Rex frowned. Why would someone need to be dragged out of that shitty place?”

“Yeah! Those bastards didn’t even give me time to finish my… Ehm... Workout!” Luke clarified. “I just got here an out ago, and they are saying that they will let me attempt the family Ceremony ahead of time with the others!”

“What?!” Rex exclaimed. “Could it be…” he turned to look at Max. “Is this for real?” He was not that stupid and could easily connect the dots. He could finally get why his father gathered all of his offspring!

“Yes…” Max nodded. “Father is planning to do a ‘Special Ceremony’!” Max, who got a tip from Geroge before, replied. “Is John here?” he asked about their youngest ‘legitimate’ brother.

“Yes, he was dragged by that stupid lass Lara earlier, she wanted to show him the mansion!” Luke replied with annoyance. He didn’t like Lara.

“Oh…” Rex swallowed. The mere mention of that girl’s name made him shiver. The feeling of getting punished by her was still fresh in his mind.

“Esteemed brothers… I wanted to ask, will there be some kind of a test?” Luke, who didn’t know the reason for Rex’s expression, asked nervously.

“No, It is just…” Max paused as he saw Mike and Victor walking toward him.

“Mike!” he greeted with annoyance. It has been 3 years since the last time they met. “Victor… Congrats on your weddings! Sorry, I couldn’t make it,” he told Victor. Both of them knew why Max didn’t come. It was because he was not invited in the first place!

“It’s ok…” Victor said awkwardly. He seemed a little nervous, but Max didn’t find that strange, the Victor he knew was that kind of weakling who could only be pushed around by others.

“I heard you survived a big incident in the Mines?” Max pressed, making Luke look at Victor. There was something big that day and they said it was an explosion of some kind, but he didn’t know Victor was involved.

“Yeah… I can’t talk about it” Victor replied. “I lost my memories about what happened there…”

“So I heard…” Max nodded.

“Max, I wanted to see you yesterday, where were you?” Mike, who felt the awkward situation, intervened.

“Just doing some side business around town… I had no idea you planned this ‘Ceremony’. No one informed me!” he stated his point.

“It is a top-secret operation!” Mike replied. “After the orb got busted we had to keep the fact that we found a new artifact a secret, in fact, I only knew about this a few weeks ago when my wives participated in the first test!” he replied. “You remember Honey and Bunny right?” Mike asked with a smug look.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“Wives? Those too? You married them?” Max frowned as he remembered the two girls he had a fight with Mike over. It was then that their relationship became sour. Over a couple of whores whom he wanted to gift to some old man.

“Yes, Father approved last week! They are special after all!” Mike winked.

“Oh! Did they really become…”

“Oops, be careful there!” Mike interrupted him, stopping him from saying the word players. “You don’t want to spoil Father's favorite hobby!”

“Ah… Noted…” Max nodded, remembering that Luke was beside him. His father’s favorite hobby was telling others about the existence of players and watching the shocked expressions on their faces. “Did they succeed?” he asked. In the family, the way to take a wife was to make sure she gave birth to a pure-blood child, the other way was if they were players themselves, only a few knew about this exception, but it was the loophole that allowed the family to engage Linda to Victor in the first place!.

“Yes, It is pretty much a 100% guarantee” Mike replied.

“Really? Without a bloodline?” he asked, making Luke look at him with a frown as he tried to figure out what he meant.

“Yup!”

“What about hidden dangers?” Max asked. Artifacts without hidden dangers were very rare and very special.

“There are some limitations, but with ample preparation, it should be fine!” Mike replied. “You can see for yourself later… Look, Father is already on the stage, let’s go!” he said, pointing to Theodore who was heading to a stage to the side of the clearing accompanied by George who was carrying a large arms chair for him.