The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 453: Regressor

After Aerith left the room, Victor slowly watched from his window as a convey left hurriedly from the palace.

He sighed. Thankfully, he got back into the room just in time before Aerith broke in.

Yup, he was out all night, exploring the city and setting things up. He found an abandoned mansion nearby and there he transformed into his fictional Demon Slayer master, entered the cauldron, and told Meril and Macil that they had reached the city. He got them out with Emira, and then told them to wait in the mansion until Victor sent someone to get them!

This was all meant to make sure that Rosette’s attention would be focused on the mysterious master, allowing him to move freely.

He didn’t plan to scam Aerith earlier, but when she came barging in, it was too good of a chance to miss! She wouldnʼt suspect him if she were the one who witnessed his masterʼs strength!

Now that the family was reunited, it was time to start planning to take them home back to Trialria! All kinds of shit were going on there, and he really needed to be back by the time to attend the tournament. Many schemes depended on that!

The problem was the HOW!

The obvious answer was to use the mysterious master who would create a gate for him for a very ʼsteep priceʼ! In fact, this was Victor’s main goal of making that persona!

Still, there were a few things he needed to sort out first.

First of all, Rosette would definitely be reluctant to leave without healing her Lord. Victor also wanted to heal that woman. That Sun bastard was really getting on his nerves, and he really believed that the Storm lord’s condition was connected to him, but he still didn’t know how yet!
What he told Aerith about that guy having some kind of a deal with the demons was only his speculation for now, but Victor was about 90% sure of it… If it were not a deal, then the Sun Lord was definitely being scammed!

Secondly, Victor really wanted to know more about the Lords. The available info was just too scarce! Healing the Storm lord might provide some precious info!

Third, Victor wanted to create a base for himself in this world… Although he was not sure yet, once he established that gate using his skill, bidirectional travel might be possible. So he really wanted to keep it and exploit it! But the said gate must be built in a secure place, that’s why he made his master leave for now… To give himself some time to find a suitable place!

Fourth was the supposed Fate treasure, and also that strange book the cannibals talked about… He couldn’t just leave treasures lying around unattended!

The fifth point was that he wanted to investigate the box he found in the sun temple!

Maybe he should try again!

With a thought, Victor disappeared from his room and appeared inside his cauldron, not in one of the populated areas, but in a desolate zone where the mountain of corpses was kept.

There, he looked at the box plastered with all kinds of talismans… Just being near it made his demonic blood boil! The strange thing is that no one else seemed to feel anything about it, not even the half-demons he captured and were now locked away to use as spares in case he needed to fake his death again!

Why just him? He had no idea…

; ;
ZIFR’S BOX, SSS

CAN NOT BE OPENED WITHOUT OWNER PERMISSION!CANʼT BE STORED IN ARTIFACTS!INDESTRUCTIBLE, SSSLOCATION BEACON, SSSOWNER: ZIFR THE GREAT!
He didn’t open the box, he just laid his hand through it using his shadow shift skill and grabbed something from inside of it.

Taking his hand out, in it there was a strange glass bead with something flickering inside. It was very similar to the one he found with Sebastian. A Spark! Yet this one had a different description.

; ; Faded Minor Spark
Looking at it, he could feel the deep resonance that his blood was displaying. It was as if this thing should be a part of him but wasnʼt!

Once again, he had the desire to eat it, but he stepped himself. He already tried that, and it was useless. Also, getting it back was not an enjoyable process at all!

He tried using the same technique Alpha used when she bound Eternal Spark…

Again… Nothing happened.

He had many questions about this… What was it? Why was it kept in the basement of that temple under demon corpses? What was Zifr’s plan? What can it be used for?

He had many questions, but the most important one was that if he were to really forcibly change ownership and open the box, would that Zifr guy come running? Victor was pretty sure that the demon didnʼt even realize that his box was taken, probably confident in the boxʼs skills! He would have never imagined that Victor would use something like cauldron, which was not technically a artifact to take it away!

No matter what… This was another trump card!

***

“Why did you come?” Axel asked as he left the police station with Alice. Strangely enough, none of the cops on their way stopped them, it was as if they were in a trance or something.

“I came here wanting to talk to you… That’s when I noticed how those guys were under some kind of a spell and hurried toward your cell using a tracing talisman!” Alice said.

“Oh!” Axel nodded as they reached Alice’s car which was a grand white colored SUV.

“Get in!” she said as she hurried to the driver’s seat.

“Yes!” Axel said, opening the door and then jumping in… “AH!” he was startled. On the back, there were four huge bald tan burly men crammed together and barely fitting in. They were mostly naked, only dressed in latex shorts. “Those are?” he asked Alice who also got into her seat.

“My men, ignore them… ” she spat as she pressed the pedal and the car moved into the highway.

“Ah… Ok….” Axel nodded, his family was really full of weirdos! “Where are we going?”

“To meet father…” Alice said, pondering on something. “Did that guy say why he wanted to kill you?” she asked.

“Ah… He made me sign some papers about the rights for some novels!” he said, deciding not to say anything about that Lily thing until he met her. “He also said something about me killing his pals or something… Sadly I don’t remember doing…”

“Drop the act!” Alice spat. “We know that you are not the real Victor!” she said, not even caring to look at him.

“OH…. WHAT… I…” Axel paused. “I don’t know what you mean… I am the real Victor!” he said nervously.

“I thought you lost your memories!” Alice smirked. She got him!

“Ah….I… That’s not what I meant… I…” he paused as a hand extended from the back. It was one of the burly men handing him a folder.

“Read it!” Alice spat.

Axel frowned and grabbed the folder. Inside of it, he could see some reports… “Those are…”

“DNA tests, the first one is against the father, proving you are his son, the second against the mother, proving that you are not related to her in any way… The third against me, proving that you are my half-brother… You are Victor though!” she said, keeping her eyes on the road. “The last report is one comparing your DNA to a sample that we took from Victor’s own bed… It also states that you are his half-brother!”

“Where should there be some kind of mistake…” Axel began to mumble as he flipped through the folder. It took him a few moments to get what she said….

“...” she didnʼt reply.

“...”

“...”

Axelʼs frown grew deeper, he took a deep breath and began to read the folder, it looked genuine. It stated that he was really Theodore’s son, but not Victor… That’s not what Olaf said, but truth be told, he never fully trusted that sketchy guy to begin with.

As someone who came back in time, he was far wiser than anyone expected.

Yes, Axel was a regressor! And the moment he returned was that day when Olaf came to get him, something that never happened in his past life!

In his past life, that Olaf guy never came to meet him in the sect that he was raised in.

In that timeline, he was just a simple guy who came down from the sect when he became 20 years old and entered society. He worked as a bodyguard for a few months, before managing to make his employerʼs cold daughter fall for him.

He married her and created a happy family… Everything was perfect, he even had two slutty concubines whom he took care of… Then the reckoning came!

The world was all destroyed.

His family all died in the first wave when the demons broke into their secure bunker trapping them inside.

He survived by chance as he was buried in an air pocket under the rubble when the gate broke...

By the time he dug his way up, it was already over and the demons were gone.

After a few days of struggling and coming to terms with what happened, he hurried back to the sect to check on his old pals.

His master was there... so did most of the disciples all safe and sound! It was just that they were no longer human... That night, the girl Tiara who was possessed by a demon tried to seduce him and almost succeeded if he didnʼt have a life-saving artifact that activated just in time.

He hurried to escape, but sadly, after a gruesome battle, he was captured by that hateful demon who used to be his master.

There as he was being tortured, she told him some facts to break him. First, she was a demon from the beginning, from way before the reckoning, and the fact that he was a descendant from a big family who was kept as a pawn if ever needed!

After that, he was tortured day and night as they tried to break his soul and let another demon possess him, but he resisted to the end... He lost consciousness and has no idea what happened after that! and then killed!

When he was born back here, he didn’t know what was happening, he decided to play along as he first thought it was an illusion created by the demons, but as time progressed, he finally came to believe that he had really regressed!

And considering that what Olaf said really fit with what that bitch said in the other timeline, he somehow believed him

Yet, now Alice was claiming that the facts that Olaf told him were only half the truth! Could it be that he, as a Pown, was useful in this timeline? Or was it that Alice was the one lying...

“I… I don’t know what this all means…” he decided to play dumb. Who knew if Alice was also an agent for the traitors!

“Stop with the act… It is getting lame!” Alice spat. “I bet they told you that you are the real Victor right?”

“...” he swallowed, as he slowly considered his options.

“Father already knows,” Alice ignored what he said.

“Oh… That’s…” if his father knew the truth then Olaf would be the one who was lying.

“You are being used…” she interrupted. “It is truly all father’s fault, he has a tendency to go and impregnate women randomly, leaving the rest for the family agents to take care of… recently there was a huge coup attempt in the family, and we discovered many agents working for others, and we believe there are many more!”

“I still don’t get…”

“The real Victor sacrificed his life to save our grandma, so right now his position in the family is really good…. Not too powerful, yet close enough to the top that he can move freely!” Alice analyzed.

“What? Really?” Alex frowned. From what he got Victor was a depraved Pervert.

“Yeah… Victor might be a little pervert, but he is very smart! In fact, Victor’s wives already knew you were a fake… The real one had already suspected that someone might be trying something like this!”

“Ah… WHAT? you mean… “

“Yeah… Margret was really scamming you since the moment you stepped into the mansion… The only reason they didn’t kill you is them wanting to know who is behind you!“

“Ah! Then that tranny was also….” Axel almost gasped. He was being played!

“What tranny?”

“Nothing…” Axel said he was too embarrassed to say it.

“I want to know who your contact agent is….”

“...” Axel didn’t say anything. “I don’t understand what you are talking about… I have amnesia…” He quickly got his act together. He must not confess a thing before making absolutely sure she was telling the truth!

“Let’s go meet Father for now…” Alice sighed. She knew that this guy would never believe her until he really met Theodore. “Oh, and don’t reveal anything to anyone else! Keep acting as if you are the real Victor for now!” she reminded him.

He just looked out of the window. Keeping his silence.

***

“YOU ARE REALLY MY DAUGHTER!” Rosette said as she hugged Maril.

“MOM!” the girl began to cry.

When Victor walked downstairs, to the reception hall, in the morning all kinds of emotional dramas were unfolding. A little girl also threw herself at him, hugging his leg… He just patted her little head and took out a candy and gave it to her.

“You are late!” Aerith who stood near the wall said. They arrived 15 minutes ago and had just finished checking whether Meril was the real thing using an artifact. “I guess you didn’t watch all the drama…”

“Kinda… I also thought it would take you till morning to come back so I went to sleep…” he said. “Was the place my master left them in close?”

“Yeah, an abandoned mansion that used to be owned by an old noble…” Aeirht said, eyeing the little girl. “Who is she?” she asked, clearly unwilling to join the Drama.

“Her name is Emira, a feral child that was found near the death gorge… My master thinks there is something strange about her, so we took her in!” Victor said. “She is really pitiful! And seemed to have bonded with me!”

“Oh…” Aerith nodded as she looked at the little girl. “She seems to be attached to you?” she asked. The poor lass was definitely bought with some candy…

“Yeah… She thinks of me as a big brother, and she really reminds me of my little sister! OUR little sister!” He corrected himself.

“Oh…” she didn’t really trust him. But she could give him the benefit of the doubt.

”Where is Macil?” He asked, changing the subject as he looked around.

“The elf?” Aerith asked.

“Yeah! Hopefully, nothing bad happened to him!” Victor said with a frown. That elf was an idiot, but he was a good guy!

“He is in the dungeon downstairs with Lyra… We will let him go after some debriefing…” she said.

“With Lyra…” Victor frowned.

“Yeah, that girl can be an idiot, but she is really good at making people talk…”

“You mean to curse at her?”

“Yeah… We needed to give her something to do…” Aerith shrugged. “We also need to make him think that we are vigilant!” she smirked. Victor’s master was really a genius, scamming that elf into thinking he was a spy!

“Um!” Victor nodded just as the hugging finished.

“Victor…” Meril turned to Victor and bowed. “Thank you!” she said.

“We are brother and sister! No need for that!” he quickly waved his hands and said.

“Um…” Meril nodded with tears in her eyes.

“Victor… I owe you a favor!” Rosette also said seriously. “If there is anything you need, please tell me!” she said, on her face, there was a very secure smile as if she had the weight of the entire world lifted off her shoulders.

“I want access to the kingdom’s library!” he quickly said. He wanted to also request a chance to spank Lyra’s butt, but he felt that it was a little inappropriate.

“That is not a request… Since you are already Aerith’s husband, you have become a noble, and access to many places, including the library, was automatically granted!” Mirai, who was also watching the drama from the side, said. “You can ask her to give you an Oath with the Storm Lord!” she suggested!

“Yes!” Rosette nodded.

“Oh…” Victor said as if he was pondering it. “ First of all... Can you explain what an oath really is? What exactly is a Lord?!” He finally got the chance to get some real answers.