The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 531: A Prologue to Chaos

“Say, Tulip… I really don’t like that arrogant uncle of yours!” Rain said, lazily stretching his body as he climbed down the SUV.

Hearing him, 10 warriors in tight combat dresses, 6 girls, and 4 boys, looked at him with annoyance. They were Tulip’s newly assigned team and didn’t like the way this stupid guy talked about their family’s patriarch! Damn it, who the hell did he think he was to even dare to like or dislike their patriarch?

“I don’t like him either, but this is irrelevant!” Tulip replied coldly as her eyes looked at the vast expanse in front of her.

Hearing her, the team members were at a loss. Well, Mistress Tulip was technically the patriarchʼs niece, so she had the privilege of disliking him.

“Irrelevant? Look… I didn’t want to say this, but I have a real bad feeling about this raid!” he said, looking toward the same thing Tulip was eyeing. A blue shimmering gate barely visible in the center of a large lake!

This place was once the Von Rosen’s ‘Secret’ Ancestral grounds. According to the maps the family gave them, in front of them, there should have been a heavily guarded road that led up a mountain, but not anymore!

“I know, but a mission is a mission! And I am not asking you to follow me or anything… If you don’t like it, feel free to wait outside!” Tulip replied in her usual nonchalant manner as she secretly sighed.

Knowing how dungeons worked thanks to her master’s teachings, it was easy to summarize that an entire mountain was ripped from this place and turned into a dungeon! This raised one question in her mind, though… How could this dungeon only be an A rank?

Doubt flashed in her eyes for a moment there, but she could only sigh and shake her head.

Thankfully, after that Red moon dungeon, her master gave her an Escape talisman that she would be able to use to get away if things got dicey, but if she did, would her friends be able to escape…

Why was she having such ominous thoughts?

“Like hell I would leave you alone… Rea, you should wait outside, though…” he looked toward their third companion, a silent girl in a wide priestessʼ robes.

“No… I also want to become stronger…” Rea replied as she bit her lip. She needed to get rid of that demonʼs curse. The one that even Rainʼs master, the Death lord, couldnʼt touch.

“...” Tulip sighed, hearing her.

“Mistress… We have surveyed the zone, other than our family, the teams from the Von Zwei and the von Gledstadt are already there on the other sides, they will be sending their teams by boats as agreed! One male guard hurried and reported as he secretly checked Tulip’s body. His mistress was a bit short. Her body was very slim and not the sexy kind, but as a lolicon, she was kinda his type…

“Hey! Careful with your eyes, buddy!” Rain suddenly barked at him. As a guy who had long planned to include Tulip in his Harem, he was very sensitive when guys checked her out.

“I don’t follow what you mean, young master…” That guy turned and asked politely, hiding a murderous intent as he spoke. He looked down on Rain, who came from a low background and could only be there with them thanks to Mistress Tulip’s recommendation!

“...” Rain humphed. “Then let me show you…”

“Rain, enough…” Tulip interrupted, shaking her head. This was not the time nor the place to argue over trivial things. Sure, in the past, she would have whipped such an insolent servant who dared to look at her into shape, but after encountering that hateful Vic Volt who felt her body all over without shame, she became a little bit more tolerant… Wait… Why was she thinking about that piece of shit now? “When is the agreed entrance time?” She quickly asked the guy to think about something else.

“46 Minutes later!” the guy replied. The families here agreed to enter at the same time. The Von Rosen’s treasury had a lot of things, so naturally, a lot of politics were required before anyone attempted to conquer this place. The deal was that they would all enter at the same time, and that it would be a grab fest!

“Then let’s get ready…” Tulip said as she looked toward a rippling blue vortex that shimmered at the center of the lake. She kept feeling that something was very wrong here, as her uncle had no reason to give such a lucrative mission to her. She had long learnt that there was no free meal in life, but she couldn’t go back now!

Well, with three teams of the best players around, nothing should go wrong… Right?

***

“Young master Victor! It is really an honor seeing you here!” A middle-aged man hurried toward the highly decorated gate of the Bloodflint clan as soon as the Lemo parked, and a purple-haired young man stepped down and adjusted his tiger-striped golden suit.

“You must be master Fars! Robin’s father… I thought you were on a business trip!” The fake Victor replied and quickly shook hands with the man as Theta stepped down from the car and hurried to stand beside him.

“Yes, yes, young master… I was, but when I heard from my wife that you would be coming, I hurried here!” Fars replied as he secretly glanced at his daughter, whom he had never cared about before. She really grew up in the year and a half since he last saw her. No wonder this perverted young master set his eyes on her, she was growing up nicely! Well, her late mother was also a beauty... Not the kind that made people want to marry, but the kind that made them want to take her into some hotel room and spend a few days wrapped in her long legs....

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Never mind that!

His stupid wife wanted to keep Robin’s return a secret, but thankfully, one of his spies who was planted beside her reported what happened in the Von Geldstadt wedding to him, making him cancel all of his plans and return in a hurry. His wife didn’t know it, but after the recent rumble in the Von Weise family, Victorʼs position was strengthened beyond belief!

“Oh, I thought this trip would involve slapping faces…. It seemed that there was no need after all!” Victor sighed.

“Of course not, we are all on the same page here! Why don’t we go in? My old man is waiting to celebrate your arrival inside!” Fars said as he sweated a bit. Thankfully, he convinced the old man, who was busy investigating some hidden power that was targeting their family lately, to participate in this!

“Sure…” Victor, or rather Alpha, said, secretly clicking her tongue as she stepped forward arrogantly. “Robin, let’s go… Make sure to point out the guys who bullied you in the past; this young master will make sure to break one of their legs… How dare they bully my girl!” he said.

“...” Theta rolled her eyes and followed behind without replying.

Seeing their actions, Fars sweated a bit. From Victor’s casual remark to the way Robin didn’t seem to respect him a lot, it was clear that the relationship between them had already crossed the new lovers stage into the Old Husband and Wife one… For how long did they know each other? How old was Theta then?

Damn it! It didn’t matter… What he had to do now was to warn his greedy wife not to do anything stupid!

***

“I know you wanted to be with Theta, but I might really need you here!” Victor said, facing Ruby, who sat beside him in the minivan heading toward the Von Rosen Dungeon. Lin was sitting on his other side, nervously looking outside.

“It’s ok, Young master… As long as the young master needs me!” Ruby replied, blushing. She always felt a bit shy toward Victor, not knowing how to act around him. She had a bit of a crush on him, but knowing her past, she felt that she was not worthy.

“Good…” Victor said, rubbing her head. This girl’s class was his backup plan in case his first plan failed. “Watch it there, Elise, there is a checkpoint ahead!” he suddenly said to Elise, who was driving this SUV. Yeah… The loli was driving!

Ever since she regained her vision, she developed an ‘unhealthy’ interest in cars thanks to Margret’s influence. Apparently, right after Victor left, she took her out ‘shopping,’ and there she showed her the local racing track she recently purchased using her husband’s money. The girl was immediately thrilled watching those cars race.

So, in the past few months, she could only learn how to drive in the mansion as she kept the news about her recovery a secret. But since they were in the middle of nowhere now, she asked Victor if she could show him her skills, and he didn’t have any reason to refuse her! It was just that the way she sat with her legs barely making it to the paddles made him feel a little worried.

“I know…” Elise said, sliding down the seat a bit to press the paddle, making the car speed up, passing just by the checkpoint where two very relaxed armed men sat at the side of the road playing chess.

They saw nothing…

“OOOOOhhh……… That was one dusty wind there…” one of them said, cursing a bit as the car passed by him. That’s it…

“Wait, where is old Jack?”

“... I swear he was just there!”

“I am here… I went to take a piss…”

“Oh…”

Yeah, no one noticed anything.

With Victor in the car, it was naturally in full disguise mode. As far as the world knew, he was not here, but in the Flintblood family compound, committing some crime!

Anyways, after passing the checkpoint, and 3 others that were set by the player council, the car finally reached ‘ The lake’.

Parking on its rocky shore, Victor slowly descended. “It seems we might be a bit late…” he said as he pulled the car into his cauldron, then, using his enhanced Vision, scanned the distant shores around the lake and the gate in the middle.

“The other teams are already in?” Lin, who was looking around with interest, turned and asked. Despite being a von Rosen, she had never been here in her life, but her mother grew up here and told her the story about this place. There should have been a mountain here, but it seemed to have been dug up!

“Yeah, there are boats near the gate, so they must have already entered!” he said, switching to Astran’s vision. Yup, they were already inside, and that guy had already started entrapping them, totally disregarding Victor’s orders not to stay hidden. His first plan was already falling, it seemed. “Let’s go!” he said in a grave voice as his hair grew blond and shape changed to resemble that of Vic Volt.

As expected, that heavenly Horror was not something that listened to words! Well, at least he still held some power over it, so it was time for the Emperor hero to go save the Turnip!

***

“Did mistress Lily finish her daily meditation?” One blond girl in a tight-fitting combat uniform asked another who was sweeping the courtyard using a long broom.

“She…”

“I have finished…” Lily replied as she walked out of the private meditation room toward the courtyard that had quite a few rooms around it. This place was the base of the team that the family provided to her. “Did those old foggies finally issue a mission?” she asked as she inspected the 2 girls. They were a part of her newly found team.

“Yes, mistress… Our mission is to escort the measuring artifact to that Dungeon in Dilark. We are to only assess the dungeon’s level, then return!” the blond girl who was the team’s vice leader quickly reported. “They are definitely looking down on us… Instead of giving us some important mission like Miss Tulip’s, they just throw us some stupid recon…” she complained in a low voice.

“Careful what you ask for, Kiln! Despite what the family announcement was, Tulip’s mission is far more dangerous than any of you girls think!” Lily said, reminding her, this girl was the one she trusted most, as she knew about her from her past life, where she became Yulian’s maidservant and sacrificed her life to save him.

“Really?” Kiln asked.

“Yes!” Lily sighed. The Von Rosen’s family dungeon was not measurable using conventional methods due to the nature of the thing inside. Dungeon’s level measurement was not an exact science.

So, in the family records, it should be only an A-level. In her past life, only after all the teams sent failed to return was its true level reassessed into S, then to SSS after one high-ranked player managed to send a message out before he died.

Her guts were telling her that her stupid uncle might know something, which is why he was sending Tulip there. Still, she had no proof!

Well, Tulip would not die easily… Victor, that pervert was going to be there after all, and he would surely save her! “Damn that pervert…” she suddenly barked angrily.

“Mistress?” Kiln asked nervously. What’s wrong with her mistress?

“Nothing… Go call the others, and let’s move out! We need to return early because I need to head to the tournament! ” she spat.

“YES, MISTRESS!” the two girls saluted as they said in unison!