The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 433: The trouble and the Empress

“So… What happened?” Alpha asked. She sat behind a desk in one of the hotel’s most secure areas. The presidential suite!

This place was full of girls who sat in front of a row of screens, processing all kinds of data.

The entire building, which was a floundering hotel, had already been brought up by Alpha a week ago. Right now, it was their base of operation in RingCloud city.

“That guy, Donald, was a complete idiot!” Mina who took a seat next to her sister spat, “He really forgot that his face was changed back then! No one would recognize him in those videos…” 

“But there is something very fishy about him…” Mana continued.

“Oh…” Alpha frowned. The reason she wanted to make the Justice ring work for her was for three reasons. 

The First reason was to use them as a decoy.

Using Victor’s name, Margret had already sent a report about the overseers to the players' council without mentioning who their masters were. 

Connecting Victor to the raids was a matter of time with Mona and the twins involved.

By taking the initiative, they had now forced Von Zwer into a defensive position. Those guys would definitely seek revenge but they would have to keep it a secret. They would most likely think of using The Justice Ring against Victor somehow, not expecting that it would all be a trap!

The second reason to take the Justice Ring in, was to placate Mona who was a scion and according to that girl scammer Victor, they needed to make enough connections with her so that she would convince herself to join his cause, AKA His Harem!

The last reason was to find out if there was anything fishy here, Mona has some gaps in her memories that even with Ruby’s power they weren't able to retrieve.

“How fishy?” Alpha asked, watching Mana hesitate.

“It was as if he really wanted to stay with Mona… When I asked him why, he just said that he felt that they were fated to be together, so he felt that he should not leave her side!” Mana said, frowning. “When I asked him if he meant like a lover, he said no… He was not into flat girls…”

“Oh!” Alpha raised one eyebrow. “Then what? Does he have some strange fetish or something?” 

“No idea, even after we dosed him a little more, he still couldn’t explain it!” Mina added.

“What kind of bullshit is that?” Alpha frowned. 

“That girl, Opal, felt the same…” Mina added. “And she is not a lesbian… We checked by showing her Big sister Lily’s photo and asking her what she thought about her!” 

“I see…” Alpha pondered. If that girl were to have the tiniest inclinations for being a lesbian, she would have turned to one immediately after seeing Lily’s beauty. It was a tried and confirmed method. “Did you guys ask them how they joined the justice ring?”

“The same with Mona, the overseas appeared one day after they had a strange near-death encounter with a monster and invited them… Both of them have never met with the others before!”

“Oh…”  Alpha frowned as she looked at the door. Theta and Ruby, who seemed to have also finished her interrogation, were there. “Is there anything wrong with your target too?

“Um…” Theta, who seemed a little shaken, said. “We may have found something… “ 

“What?” Alpha asked, raising one eyebrow. Victor had sent Theta here for one reason, to stumble upon things that no one could find!

“Let me explain from the start…” Theta said as she sat down and grabbed a can of coke from the mini fridge to the side. “After Christopher and Tala left the hotel, they found a cheap restaurant where they got a room and began to trash talk about Mona and the others. Christopher was in a bad mood and Tala, who seemed interested in him, ordered some heavy-duty wine… We used that chance to slip them some soul wine bottles before we entered as waitresses and began questioning them!”

“And?” Alpha nodded and asked.

“At first all we got was the info we knew… Other than Christoher wanting to take revenge on Mona there was nothing interesting…”

“Did he say why?” Alpha asked.

“Just that she was meant to be his bride and that she had betrayed him and she deserved to die!” she said. 

“That’s stupid!” Mina spat angrily. “Mona can only marry Victor!” she said. Her sister nodded.

Alpha sighed hearing them. She couldn’t get it… Why would the twins want Mona to join them? Was Victor’s charm really this big, making his wives race to bring their loved ones along? If she didn’t know better she would have assumed he was using some kind of brainwashing on them! DAMN IT! She slipped some wine into their drinks to interrogate them a few nights ago, it turned out that they were just stupidly in love, wanting to both please Victor and make Mona know true happiness!

DAMN VICTOR, THAT GIRL SCAMMING BASTARD!

“Alpha… Are you listening?” Theta poked her arm.

“Ah! Sorry... What were you saying?” Alpha quickly asked, dismissing the unnecessary thoughts. Ever since her great-great-grandmother ‘asked her’ to let Victor ‘Impregnate’ her, she was feeling extra annoyed.

“I was saying that Christopher couldn't really explain why he was attached to Mona, he just told us that it was love at first sight and that she was meant to be his wife… He also kept repeating the same stupid lines about her betraying him…” Theta sighed. “Tala seemed to also like Mona from the start, but she couldn't explain why…”

“Oh… She hated her?” Alpha asked.

“Yeah, something to do with jealousy over Christopher… Those girls really have no eyes for men!” she sighed.

“Yeah!” Mana nodded.

“What happened next?” Alpha asked as she rolled her eyes. Those girls were beyond redemption.

“Not getting anything useful after more than 30 minutes of grilling, I decided to start using the list Victor created… The one with blanket questions…”

“And?” Alpha asked. This list was created in order to find out if the person is a demon, or has been manipulated in some way. It also has some good questions to fill in the blackmailing database they were creating.

“At first I got nothing interesting, just the usual delusional teen bullshit…“ Theta sighed like she herself was not also a teen with a lot of those delusions. “Then… When I reached question 37 I messed up…”

“What?” Alpha asked, taking out her phone and opening a document on it. After flipping a few pages she reached her target, Question 37 which was at the end of the page.

“IN CASE YOU BECAME THE RULER OF THE ENTIRE WORLD, WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU WOULD DO?”

It was meant to discover the person's political tendencies.

“As I scrolled while reading it, I accidentally dropped my phone, when I grabbed it back and continued, I mistakenly continued with a different question, number 79!” Theta said. 

“Your phone scrolled three pages by itself?” Alpha frowned and asked as she scrolled to the said question. WHERE DO YOU HIDE YOUR PORN STASH? 

“Yeah… The question became, ‘IN CASE YOU BECAME THE RULER OF THE ENTIRE WORLD, WHERE DO YOU HIDE YOUR PORN STASH?’….”

“And? What did he answer?” Alpha asked. This question was stupid. Most single men hide their porn stash under their bed! Displaying those magazines in a dedicated room like Victor was doing was not considered hiding.

“Under the bed in his personal cave in the sect!” Theta said. “That’s exactly how he said it!”

“Typical… Wait… A Sect?” Alpha asked as she quickly took a file from her desk’s drawer and began to flip through it.  “When was he a disciple in some sect?”

“No idea… When I asked him about that, he said that he had never been to a sect!“

“Didn’t he just confess to having a ‘Personal cave’ before?” Mina exclaimed.

“Yup… I mentioned that exact point to him, but he just frowned and began to explain that I must have heard him wrong and that he didn’t know of any sects!” Theta said. “After that no matter what I asked he stopped mentioning anything about a sect!”

“Oh…” Mana frowned.

“Could it be a fluke?” Mina asked.

“We don’t think so… “ Theta said. “Right, Ruby?”

Ruby nodded. “Although I couldn’t find any traces of his soul being controlled when I examined him, it felt strange…”

“Strange?” Alpha asked. Ruby seemed to have gained a lot of interest in the subject of souls after helping heal Victor.

“It was as if it was too clean!” Ruby frowned as she tried describing it. “I am not sure because I don't have much experience, but it was like… How can  I describe it?” she pondered. "Like you expect something to be there, but it is missing..."

“Like the clean browser history of a tech-savvy teenage boy?” Mina interrupted, making Alpha glare at her. The girl was learning some really bad habits from that bitch, Margret.

“Ah…” Ruby frowned, figuring out what that meant. “Yes…Kinda like that… It was all in order, but something was too clean about it!” she nodded.

“How does it compare to Mona’s soul?” Alpha asked. Mona too, had some lost memories.

“As far as I can tell, Mona’s soul is normal,” Ruby said, shaking her head. Victor made her inspect it back then in Vein City.

“What about the other girl… Tala?” Alpha asked.

“She had that strange feeling around her, but it was way less obvious than Christopher!” Ruby said.  

“I tried asking her the same thing, but she denied having a porn stash even after we made her drink another bottle!!” Theta said. “She only confessed to liking Christopher ever since she met him 7 years ago!”

“I see…. WAIT!” Alpha flipped through the folder in her hand. “Tala must have met Christopher 3 years ago when the Justice Ring was formed, not 7!” she said.

“Yup… The same with Christopher, she quickly changed her words, not falling for it again!” Theta said.

“Did you try to confront them about their past together?” Alpha asked. Christopher and Tala’s past was all in front of her. From his birth until now, there has been no period of time where both of them have been a disciple in some sect. In fact, Christopher never left this city while Tala came from an orphanage.

“Yes… Nothing strange there… Their sayings matched our data…” Theta sighed. This was clearly giving her a headache.

“What does this all mean?” Mina asked.

“No idea…” Alpha frowned. “Let’s go with the protocol and call Lily,” she sighed as she took out her phone and made a call. 

“Oh…” Mina said, looking at her sister who looked back at her as they waited for the call to connect.

THE PERSON YOU ARE TRYING TO REACH IS UNAVAILABLE, PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER.

The reply came quickly…. Lily was not available. Then the next one in the chain of command was Margret.

Alpha had no idea why the fuck did Victor create this chain of command? But when something got bad, at least she knew who to call!

The only problem she had with it was that her name came 5th, after Lily, Margret, Elise, and Theta!

…

“So… Let me get this straight….” Macil said as he looked at Meril, Victor, and then at the strange sky all around him. “Your master dragged me here to this alternative dimension to protect me?” he asked.

“Ah… Yes…" Victor nodded. “As I told you, your stupid sisters seemed to have made a deal with the demons, they were planning to use you as bait to harm the light lord!” Victor, who sat beside him explained. 

“You mean his lordship, the sun lord?” Meril who was beside him corrected.

“Ah… yeah… That’s the one…  Sorry, my mistake…!” Victor quickly said quickly. “He was so impressed with my master that he hired him to investigate the situation. That's why the demons attacked, they wanted to stop him!”

“Oh… Then... ” Macil frowned.

“The plot was discovered... The lord, in a fit of anger, decided to change the entire Royal family…” Maril intervened. She couldn’t believe she was helping Victor scam Macil, but this was for his own good. “He was about to order the guards to imprison you too!”

“WHAT?”

“Victor’s master begged his lordship to give you another chance, saying that you had no idea you were being used, but the lord refused to budge, deciding to expel you…” she said as she looked at her brother.

Victor sighed and nodded as he took an envelope and gave it to Macil.

“This is?” Macil asked, then gasped as he noticed the lord’s sign on the envelope. 

“No idea… My master told me that the lord ordered him to give it to you. Maybe it is your punishment certificate or something…!

Macil nodded as he politely grabbed the envelope and then bowed to it before slowly opening it. 

Inside there was an empty paper that burnt as soon as Macil touched it and the lord’s voice reverberated in his mind.

MACIL! THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO PROVE YOURSELF. I HAD TO DO A LOT OF PREPARATIONS IN ORDER TO FOOL THAT DAMON HUNTER, DON’T DISAPPOINT ME!

FOLLOW MACIL AND VICTOR INTO THEIR REAL WORLD, THE LANDS OF HUMANS, FOOL THEM INTO THINKING THAT YOU HAVE NO OTHER PLACE TO GO, AND DO WHATEVER YOU NEED TO EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO ACT AS A SLAVE! 

YOUR MISSION IS TO FIND OUT ABOUT THE SECRET OF THE NUTCRACKER AND HIS DEMONIC PLAN TO CONQUER OUR WORLD, ISMERALIA!

YOU CAN ONLY RETURN ONCE YOU FIND SUFFICIENT INFORMATION ABOUT HIS PLANS!

CALL MY NAME LOUDLY, AND IF THE INFORMATION IS CORRECT, I WILL GRAB YOU BACK AND MAKE YOU THE KING OF THE SUN ELVES!

Macil, who heard the message, felt as if his bloodline boiled. YES THOSE WERE THE LORD’S WORDS!

“I will follow the lord’s will!” he said in a fanatic voice that made Meril look at him worriedly.

“What’s that? Why did it burn?” Victor asked.

“Ah… it is a symbolic gesture…” Macil said nervously, looking at Meril with an apologetic look. “It means I can no longer return to the elven lands!” 

“Oh…”

“Victor… Your master did say he would bring us back to our original world right?” Macil turned to Victor and asked directly. 

“Yes…” Victor nodded.

“Can I go too… I have no place here… you know how expelled elves end up around here… No one really likes us!” he said. Everyone envied the elves. That’s how the lord preached!

“Ah…” Victor frowned. “I don’t know… You must understand, my world has this strange rule about strangers… They can only be there if they were the followers or slaves for someone else, otherwise the world would obliterate them!”

“Oh… That’s easy! I can become Meril’s servant!” Macil said directly. That’s why the lord told him to be a slave! The lord was wise.

“Ah…  young master… Are You sure?” Meril asked nervously. Why did her young master’s IQ drop this quickly? Did it have something to do with the sun lord or was it the wine Victor made him drink before he woke up? Her intuition was telling her that it should be both.

“Yes, I am sure…'' Macil said with determination.

“Let me then draft this contract for you…” Victor sighed. “I will leave enough loopholes for you to gain your freedom later if needed!” he added as he winked at Meril and made her blush. The said loophole was becoming her husband!

…

"ALL FOR THE EMPRESS!"

"WE SERVE THE EMPRESS!"

"THE NUTSLICER EMPRESS!"

"HAIL THE EMPRESS!"

"PRAISE THE EMPRESS!"

"FEAR THE EMPRESS!"

In a gloomy forest, a platoon of fat girls ran in order while screaming stupid slogans.

Above them, they were holding a large metallic palanquin where a pretty young woman and a handsome young man sat leisurely eating grapes.

“Are you sure this is training?” Yulian asked his sister as he watched the girls below him sweat buckets. He was not complaining, but it was not a pretty sight. And those slogans were stupid. His sister seemed to be trying to compete with someone using those, but he couldn't tell who.

“IT IS!” Lily spat as she cracked her whip. “TAKE THE THIRD PILL!” he ordered, making the fat girl quickly take a pill from their pocket and eat it. “This kind of training will be used for the imperial army in the future, although it is a little cruel, it is perfect for building up muscle quickly!”

“Oh… What do you plan to…” Yulian wanted to ask something, but Lily raised one and made him stop. He frowned, knowing well that she must be talking to someone using telepathy or something.

She finished moments later.

“Is there anything?” he asked, watching her expression grow sour. Very sour.

“Trouble of the major kind!…. I need to meditate a little to collect my thoughts… You command the girls, don’t let them overexert themselves!” she spat as she sat in a meditative pose and closed her eyes.

He nodded with a frown… His sister had developed a habit of Meditate a lot lately. Whenever she was not training or supervising the girls, she would be doing that, waking up very refreshed and in a good mood after it.

Maybe he should pick up this habit too!