The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 490: Can’t take a joke about his mother

“Wow… I really should get one of those!” Victor, who rode behind Aerith on her dragon, said as they flew high among the clouds, his arms wrapped around her waist, watching the world below grow smaller.

“Don’t you have flying devices in your world? As far as I remembered, my mother called them planes…” Aerith asked, pinching his hand, which was moving indecently along her stomach. 

“We do have those, but they are not cool like this…” he said. “And I am a guy who likes to be on top…”

“Look… I told you I am sorry for what happened last night… But I did warn you that I might hurt you if I lose control…. You shouldn’t have kissed me…” she whispered, blushing a little as she remembered what happened yesterday.

“I am not complaining… I told you that you are being worried over nothing! didnʼt you manage to control yourself toward the end… All you need is to get used to it!” he said. Yesterday, as he was getting ravaged by the horny Aerith, he purposely began to lower his bloodline’s effect, making her think that she was regaining control! It was a little scummy, but a very efficient way to make her have some confidence in herself. “I can’t blame you for being horny!”

“...” Aerith just rolled her eyes and didn’t even care to try to refute that anymore. Still, he was right, it seemed all she needed was time to be able to control her urges.

“We shall practice more…” he said as his hands began to play around again. “Ouch…”

She pinched his hand. “Stop playing around… If I lose control we will fall!” she warned.

“Sure… Too bad Lyra is not here; we could have left the driving to her…” he said lewdly.

“Really! You still have the gall to say that after what you did to her last night!” Aerith spat angrily. This guy was a real pervert. If Lyra was to be left alone with him, she would surely be corrupted beyond redemption!

“Look lady, that is a question that you should be asking yourself!” Victor complained. “I was not in a situation where I could move freely less if something broke!” he said.

“Idiot…” Aerith spat, blushing more as she remembered the awkward position Lyra caught her in. Still, at that time, she was too ‘preoccupied ‘to care about her sister’s feelings.

 “I don’t think you should worry about her though…” Victor said. “I think it will be a good lesson for her in the future…”

“I know, she should really stop with all that sneaking around and eavesdropping on others!” Aerith sighed.

“No, I meant she should start to use me as a standard when she plans to find a good husband in the future…  OUCH!”

“Bastard…” Aerith pouted as she pinched his thigh. He had a point though, compared to all the men she knew, this guy had every right to be proud. Lyra might not find a suitable guy... That was unless... “PERVERT…” she hissed, shaking her head as if to erase a very disturbing thought from her mind.

“Just telling the truth…” he smirked, wondering what the storm lord’s reaction was as she watched. That death thread wrapped around his neck seemed to have grown a little darker since last night. So, it seemed like seducing her was not an option!

“... We are here!” Aerith suddenly said after a brief silence, bringing her dragon down toward a hill in the middle of what looked like barren land covered with weed.

It was a rocky place, with only a few trees growing around with a few shrubberies. There was technically no place suitable for two lovers to hide and make out except for the half-destroyed old tower built at the peak.

“This place fits your master’s conditions… It is in the middle of the three empires, The elf lands are at the east and the demi-humans are at the south,” Aerith explained as the dragon landed. “There used to be a defense garrison here, but since there is nothing of interest and the soil is not suitable for agriculture, it had long been abandoned to a more strategic place a few miles west… This place although officially belongs to Her Majesty the storm lord, it is pretty much abandoned no one even bothers to live here!” she said. 

“Oh…” Victor, who jumped down and began to look around, nodded. It really suited his needs, and he would have been really tempted to create the gate here if it were not for knowing well that the storm lord was an ungrateful bitch!

“When is your master coming?” Aerith asked.

“One moment…” Victor said as he took a talisman and activated it. It immediately lit on fire sending a strange arrow into the sky. “I think we should wait now…My master likes to take his time!” he said.

“Oh…” Aerith nodded. 

“...”

“...”

“Say… How about we make out a little as we wait?” he asked.

“Seriously? Don’t you have anything else in your mind?!” Aerith rolled her eyes again. Seriously, why did she have to fall for this guy!

“Let me tell you the harsh truth, wife. All men only have sex in mind… It is the reason for their existence, all their actions are guided by a desire to have sex!” he said, nodding to himself.

“...” she glared at him. While she didn’t fully agree, his words had some truth to them. “Anyway, now is not the time to behave!” she scolded, looking away as she crossed her arms.

“True… We have visitors…” Victor said as he looked in the same direction she was looking at.

Three men were heading toward them.

One of them was a dwarf, with him, he had two sneaky men with what looked like spotted cat ears coming out of their heads. From their attires, they were clearly some kinds of mercenaries or bandits.

At first, they were moving fast, but after getting close enough to notice Aerith and the large dragon behind her, they paused, looking hesitant. 

After some time, noticing that Aerith was looking their way, they seemed to have made up their minds and hurried up toward the hill.

“Hello there…” the dwarf said in a lousy Empire accent as they got close.

“Hi…” Aerith replied coldly. Since she was wearing her official Empire uniform and had a dragon behind her, she was not really worried about them failing to recognize which power she belonged to. “How can I be of your service?” she asked.

“We were camping south of here and noticed an arrow of light shoot into the sky and came to check it out… “the dwarf said. “Was it you’re doing?” he asked as he sneakily looked around.

“No!” Victor replied before Aerith could say a thing. “We also saw it and came to check!”

“Oh…” the dwarf nodded as he looked at one of his friends as if asking for his opinion. “Did you investigate it?”

“Yeah, but we found nothing!” he said. 

“...” the three men looked at each other. “Then we will continue with our journey!” they said bowing slightly toward Aerith before turning to go.

Victor just marked the dwarf with a fate thread then watched them leave.

“Those guys are suspicious…” Aerith said as soon as they were far enough.

“True…But that is not business!” someone said. It was a clocked old man who appeared out of nowhere behind Aerith.

“Ah…” she immediately fell to the ground as a strange pressure began exerting on her.

“MASTER!” Victor said, “Why…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t harm her… I just don’t trust demons…” the master said, waving his hand to make the pressure on Aerith lessen a bit, still, she couldn’t move. “Is this the place?” he asked, looking at the empty hill.

“Yes…”

“Good… “the master said as he began to walk around. It took him 30 minutes to check the entire perimeter. “Not bad…” he finally said.

“Then…”

“Stay back…” the master said, waving his hand making Victor step back toward where Aerith was kneeling.

Almost immediately a group of 25 girls appeared out of nowhere. All of them were in leather armor and carrying camping bags.

“Eh… Where….” they looked around before all of them suddenly fell to their knees, clutching their heads. It took a moment before all of them looked up in shock at the holographic screens appearing in front of them.

“You are now players…” the master said, waving his hand again to make a few wooden houses appear around them. “As I promised Vic, you guys will live here from now on… You….” the master spoke as one of the girls seemed to have sneaked around him and tried to kill him with a hidden dagger.

“MASTER….” Victor warned, but he didn’t need to. His master, who seemed already aware of the girls’ movement, turned and with one move disarmed her and grabbed her from her neck.

“Did Vic tell you to do that?” he asked with anger as he lifted her up.

“Ah……. FOR THE EMPEROR….” she yelled as she seemed to swallow something.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

She exploded in a ball of fire, surprising not only Aerith but also the other girls who didn’t know what their friend was doing. 

Some of them were flung away due to the aftershocks, while others fell to the ground as many small stones hit their bodies. Thankfully, the explosion was too concentrated to cause them any serious injury, and the armor they were wearing was enough to protect their vitals.

“BITCH!” The master cursed as he climbed out from the flames that left a 5-foot deep hole in the ground completely unharmed except for some cindered parts of his robes.

“Master…”

“Don’t ask… That bastard can’t take a joke about his fucking mother… SHE WAS NOT THAT HOT ANYWAY!” the master cursed to the sky before turning to look at the rest of the girls who didn’t understand what had just happened. “You wanna try and kill this old master too?” he asked angrily.

“...” they quickly all shook their heads in fear.

“Good… This is a new world, feel free to live and die here…” the master said. “If you want to survive, follow my teaching and form a demon-killing sect,” he said before beginning to fade away.

“I DON’T WANT TO STAY HERE…” one girl screamed.

“Then find your own way out, bitch!” the old master spat, flicking his finger to make her fall to the ground, her face hitting the dirt.

“Master... What about me?” Victor quickly asked nervously as a few of the girls hurried to check on their friend.

“Our deal stands... After you and your group are ready, activate your talisman to summon me… You have three days max to sort out your shit, and do it after dusk!” the master said as he completely faded away.

After he left there seemed to be a shimmer in the air, but it quickly dissipated.

A few moments later, Aerith who could finally move stood up.

“Are you ok?” he asked worriedly.

“Yeah…” Aerith nodded, sighing.

“Donʼt blame my master... He really hates horny girls... I mean demons...”

“I noticed that...” she said rolling her eyes again  “What about those girls?” she asked. She needed to make a report for the Storm lord about them later.

“No idea… Let’s ask and check!” Victor said as he walked toward them while using his inspection skills. As expected, the moment they entered his world, all of them became players. Their classes were just the basic stuff, except for one. That annoying dark scion Mavis.

NAME: Mavis Ironblood

LEVEL: 1

CLASS: AVENGER, S

AUTHORITY: 7

HEALTH: 100

STAMINA: 150

MANA: 120

Strength: 10

Agility: 15

Intelligence: 12

Luck: 11

Charm: 23

Order: 10

SYSTEM SKILLS:

PAYBACK TIME, S

RENEGE KICK, B

REVENGE PUNCH, B

FIREBALL, D

QUICK DRAW, D

PARALYZING SHOUT, F

Bloodline:

None.

EQUIPMENT:

None.

FATE:

FATE’S POWER: S (SCION)

DEFINED FATE: ERROR - SCIONS HAS NO DEFINED FATES

DESTINY LIST: < 10 ORDER POINTS TO UNVEIL>

The thing about her being a dark scion was gone, as the system only says Scion. Could being a scion be something dependent on the world itself?

He had no idea.

***

She was tied with golden chains, her tattered body hanging from the ceiling in a dark dungeon, only lit by three red orbs that shone sinister light.

‘That’ was there, standing with a devilish smirk. ‘Their’ snake-like split irises shone from behind an ivory mask, inspecting every inch of her body, something that no one dared to do before she was captured. Yet to add insult to injury, despite her beauty that made her one of the most charming women alive, ‘they’ didn’t seem interested at all in her flesh at all, it was as if ‘they’ were eyeing some kind of a toy.

All high demons were like that. For them, humans were just food or playthings.

“JUST KILL ME ALREADY!” she hissed, looking at the scalding hot branding iron in ‘their’ hand. ‘They’ had been using it to trace a strange intricate array of lines on her skin in the last three days, like a kid, drawing on sand. It hurt so much that she wished to die, but that was not something the demon was willing to grant her! Breaking their victim’s soul was something they did best.

“... Don’t worry, my dear Liliara… You will die in due time…” the demon said in a feminine-like voice that mimicked that of her mother’s.

“You… BASTARD….” she screamed in anger. This demon was the one who decimated her family, how else could ‘they’ know what her mother sounded like.

 “If you want to blame someone for your suffering, you should blame your master…” ‘They’ said with a mocking tone. “She should have just surrendered when we came to this world, instead of struggling pointlessly…” ‘they’ added. 

“If you think that you will be able to take my body and fool her lordship, you would be mistaken!” she hissed. Her master was not a fool! The moment she was captured, she would have been pronounced dead. Demons kept no prisoners! People taken would either be eaten or their bodies would be possessed to be used as agents.

“I know, I know… Your brother had already told us all about that….”  the demon said, “Lately she has been using the Fate Signature to fish us out, as creatures from another realm, we truly have no way to fake that… “ ʼTheyʼ added, mimicking Yulian’s voice. 

“YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” she screamed, feeling remorse. It was he who brought Yulian along to buy time for their mistress. She could imagine how cruel his end was.

“To tell the truth, we never knew such a thing was possible… It was quite a revelation. Still, while it might have been troublesome before, it is no longer that big of an obstacle, not after the gates were broken!” the demon continued, ignoring her outburst. 

“THEN JUST KILL ME!” she screamed, biting her already dried-up lip.

“That would be a waste, wouldnʼt it…” the demon said with a sinister voice as it used its bony finger to trace the array on her body. “I have better plans for you… the variables might change, but the constants are the way to go… Humans are always that sentimental!”

“What…” Before she could understand what the demon meant; she felt the hot iron rod pierce through her heart.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH……….” Lily sat up and began to look around. What was that…. A nightmare?

She was in a bed inside what looked like a medical facility. Her hand was handcuffed to the bed’s railing.

She frowned trying to pull the cuff away, but she quickly discovered that she couldn’t use any of her powers. Someone must have used a talisman to seal them.

Slowly, as she squinted her pretty eyes, she recalled what happened before... Ah right… This should be her family’s base. That damn elder must have hit her too hard when she was acting as if she wanted to kill Yulian. He should have used some soul shock ability, something her family was very adept at!

This shock might be the cause of that dream… Was it just a dream? That demon did call her Liliara…

She felt a shiver, remembering that thing. For some reason, it struck a primal fear in her that she didn’t know existed. 

Instinctively, she wanted to reach for her pendant and seek Victor’s assistance, but she quickly remembered that she had given it to Yulian for safekeeping, less the family had taken it from her!

Shit… what the hell was that…

“So, you are awake!” someone said, cutting her train of thought. It was an old man who walked into her room completely undetected.

“AH…” she paused for a moment before remembering what she needed to do. “WHO ARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU IMPRISON A SUBJECT OF THE VON WEISE FAMILY!” she screamed.

“Von Weise?” the elder chuckled. “We don’t care about those lowly guys here… You shouldn’t be either…”

“WHAT. WHO…”?

The man waved his hand making her lose the ability to talk. It seemed magical, but it was all due to the control talisman they used on her when she was asleep.

“Zip it for now…. Your real name is Lily von Krone. At birth you were sent to the mortal world as a part of the familyʼs ritual to strengthen your fate, however, due to an unforeseen circumstance you were lost… that was until a few months ago, when we managed to locate you in Vein city serving the von Weise family!”

“.... mmmmmmm….”

“I know, this is hard to believe…” the old man said. “Read those… The proof is in there, in addition to some info about our family!” he said, throwing her a thick stack of documents before turning to leave.

“MMMMnnnn….”

“Don’t worry, everything will become clear once you read those and go through the cleansing ritual… You will be born anew, and be able to see things clearly!” he added as he walked out.