Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Chapter 455: How To Spot Secret Agents (Step 1: Ask Nicely) [I]

“So, when were you going to tell me about Ivan?” Juliana asked me after we sent off Alexia and Ray. “He’s working for you, isn’t he?”

I paused. I trusted my friends, even though they were a bunch of idiotic blabbermouths. I knew they would never intentionally sell me out.

Hell, they should’ve been resting and recovering after that hellish journey from which we somehow, barely, miraculously returned alive.

Instead, they were here, preparing to fight a fight that wasn’t even theirs. No one would’ve blamed them if they didn’t want to participate. (Okay, maybe I’d have held a grudge.)

But they did want to.

They had stayed.

So, yeah, I had no question about their loyalty. Intelligence? Maybe. Not loyalty.

But they could still be captured and interrogated. I didn’t think it was possible. I also didn’t think my sister would resort to torturing them or something.

However, Thalia Kaizer Theosbane was a different breed of terrifying when victory was on the line. Even I had no idea what lengths she would go to or depths she would fall to if pushed into a corner.

Thus, I kept Ivan’s involvement to myself. He was going to be my trump card near the endgame. I couldn’t risk his cover.

Secrets, after all, were like a suit of armor. The fewer pieces you shared, the fewer chinks you left for a blade to slip through.

Unfortunately, Juliana was too keen.

“When did you figure it out?” I answered her with a question.

“Guessed it. Just now.” She was also too insufferable when she pulled tricks like these. “Also, the boy idolizes you.”

Exhaling, I stood up from my seat. “Yeah, I asked him to infiltrate Thalia’s faction before the war began.”

Juliana made a face that would’ve been indecipherable to me if I hadn’t practically grown up with her. She was pouting with a hint of begrudging approval.

Either she didn’t think Ivan was up to the task or she was annoyed that I had kept her in the dark. “Why didn’t you send me?”

A frown stole over my face. “What?”

“Me. Why didn’t you send me? I could’ve been the perfect infiltrator. Is it because you don’t trust me?”

“…What? No.” What kind of question even was that? “You would’ve been under too much scrutiny. No one would’ve bought that you betrayed me.”

She raised both eyebrows. “Why not? I could’ve just said I finally grew a spine and didn’t wish to attend to every minute inconvenience in my master’s life. It’s no secret how you treated me.”

I was deeply offended. “What do you mean by how I treated you? I treated you so well!”

“You ordered me around all the time.”

“Only because I was deliberately annoying you! It was part of my masterplan to push you to Rexerd.”

“Okay. You still kept ordering me around after that. Even now, you dump all your responsibilities on me the first chance you get, blame me for your shortcomings even when I have nothing to do with them, shrug off my pleas about your health and education, and somehow still expect me to thank you every day for allowing me the honor to bask in your glory.”

Whatever defense I was preparing died somewhere between my brain and my throat. I opened and closed my mouth a few times like a fish, then squinted. “Wait a second, this reminds me! You haven’t thanked me in days!”

“…Thank you.”

“Thank you for what?” I arched a demanding eyebrow.

Juliana stared at me with the same expression one would give a particularly disappointing child.

“For allowing me the honor to bask in your glory,” she finished flatly.

I touched my chin. “That sounded sarcastic.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Still unacceptable. Try again.”

“No,” she said and walked over, stopping to stand uncomfortably close to me. I looked down at her. Her eyes, blue like the azure sky, bore into mine. “So you don’t think you ever treated me roughly?”

Something about the way she said that last word, breathy and teasing, made sure the suggestive double entendre wasn’t lost on me.

I had to take a breath. “Not at all. And look, even if I had sent you there, you would’ve had to charm my sister and her inner circle.”

My doubtful tone made her flinch.

“So? I could’ve done that. I can be charming,” she insisted, sounding uncharacteristically defensive. “I charmed you, didn’t I?”

An adorable attempt to push me on the back foot.

But I decided to bite back, “Well, don’t expect everyone to share my debased taste.”

Juliana nearly gasped. Her face went red. Not sure whether it was from embarrassment or outrage. I decided to believe it was the former. (It wasn’t the former.)

•••

I filled her in on everything else I had been planning, mostly because I needed her input. And she really did not disappoint me with her deep tactical acumen.

As I had mentioned before, Spirit Realm Chronicles was a game full of smart, scheming, manipulative characters.

But amongst all the backstabbing, quick-witted, intellectually deranged monsters, three warriors of the mind stood out from the rest.

They dominated every single war they ever campaigned in with their sharp swords and even sharper wits.

The first was the Grand Duchess Casey.

The second was the Scarlet Knight Kaelron.

And the third should’ve been Princess Alice, the gifted genius with unparalleled military instincts. But she died too early, and in her place, another name rose to prominence.

The Dreadful Butcheress Juliana.

Although she lacked the blinding brilliance of the other three, the last surviving daughter of the Blade House had this terrifying ability to adapt to any situation no matter how much it had spiralled out of control.

In fact, it was actually ironic that she craved control but excelled the most when everything fell apart.

Give her a perfect plan with every variable accounted for, and she would still find ten ways to improve it.

But throw her into a battlefield where half her forces were dead, the enemy had three times her numbers, and the sky itself was on fire? She would some-fucking-how conjure up a miracle.

When the situation was at its most dire, her nerves were steel.

In a way, I shared that quality with my Shadow. We both thrived in chaos in our own way.

That was a good thing.

The bad thing was she sometimes made ridiculous suggestions.

“It’s not going to work,” I said as I stalked after her toward the exit. “You really think they’ll just reveal themselves if you ask nicely?”

“Yes,” Juliana nodded at me seriously, then spun around.

“Wait!” Before she could leave, though, I caught her wrist and made her stop. She glanced down at my leather-gloved hand, then looked up into my face. “I— uh, before we go, I wanted to thank you. For not ignoring me, I mean. You’ve been kind of avoiding me since Ray’s party, so I thought—”

Juliana’s other hand went up to my cheek, startling me before I realized she was caressing me, the light touch of her thumb ticklishly soft on my skin. “I won’t ever ignore you when you need me. Would you?”

Maybe it was the open vulnerability with which she said it, or maybe it was all just a game she liked to play to indulge her cruel pleasures.

Whatever it was, it forced an honest answer out of me before I could think of a clever retort.

“No,” I muttered. “Never.”

She offered a small smile, private and beautiful. Then it vanished as soon as she pulled her hand away, “Good. Now let’s go find our King.”