The Young Master in the Shadows

“We might have a problem,” Lily, who sat next to Vector in the soul pendant, said.

“When didn’t we have one…” he sighed. Seriously, he thought after his regression, he should live a pampered fulfilling life, but things kept happening so fast that he had no real chance. Now, he was going against entities that he didn’t even know existed in his past life!

“Oh… You sound worried about something?” Lily asked.

“I am waiting for the next sync from the other world… I am doing this big heist there and things might get tricky…” he sighed again. “Now tell me, how was the situation on your side?”

“Everything was going fine, then…” she sighed.

“Then what?” he asked as she paused, clearly hesitating whether to tell him.

“It’s about Mona…” Lily said and began telling him what happened watching his facial expression change.

She didn’t miss out on a single detail.

“Is that all?” he asked with a deep frown.

“Yeah…” she sighed.

“She just vanished?”

“Aha…”

“The tracker on her?”

“According to Margret, it was destroyed!”

“I see… What does System node mean?” he asked, this was the first time he heard of such a thing, easily exiting a dungeon without some kind of a bug was unheard of!

“No idea…” she shrugged; she hadn’t even heard of such a thing in the other timeline.

“Could it be that her memories mixed with that of the demon? Or some kind of false memories…”

“It didn’t seem like it… And how could she know that name Liliara… You must know, my mother never mentioned it to my father, just naming me Lily when I was born.” she paused. “I only learned about it by knowing that I was named after my great-grandmother’s name and looking her up!”

“Oh… Could her memories be from some other timeline?” he proposed. He still had one talisman from back then that was unaccounted for.

“I died back then,” she corrected him.

“Yeah, butt you told me Mona sounded surprised you were still alive right?” he frowned.

“I never got to meet her before… Let alone teach her the origin of my name!” Lily shook her head.

“Then?” Victor frowned. “Could it be that she is some reincarnation of someone who knew your great-grandmother and mistaken you for her?” he asked.

“That would be absurd,” Lily spat. “Why would she mistake me for her? I look like my grand aunt Venus… She is from my father’s side. She and Liliara couldn’t look the same!” Lily said.

“Oh…” he frowned. “Then I can only think of three possibilities…”

“What?”

“The first is that Mona might have gained some prophetic skill, and she learned your name from it…”

“And the system node thing?”

“She might have got it the same way… It can only be a skill, right?” he frowned, clearly not sure.

“The second possibility?” Lily shook her head, from the way Mona acted, it was clearly not that. It was like she was someone much older and wiser.

“It’s bad… Yulian might have eliminated the wrong soul and Mona is a demon now… Demons have some crazy powers….” he said, remembering the memory when he escaped that Sun lord. It was a close call!

“Not likely! She wanted me to protect Mina and Mana… A demon wouldn’t care!” Lily said, shaking her head. Demons were some very scheming folks though, so she was not sure. “If she were a demon, it would have been better for her to play along…”

“Yeah… Well, I just added that to make it so that I have three explanations…” Victor shrugged. “That last one is the one I suspect the most and the one I also dread the most!” Victor said, sounding troubled.

“What?” Lily asked.

“That she might also be a time traveler or some reincarnated person!” he said.

“Reincarnated? Like in novels?”

“Come on, the system is already absurd, why wouldn’t reincarnation be too?” he asked. In fact, he had never heard of anything like this in his past life, but he had long learned that the world was a far stranger place than he anticipated!

“Again, she would never have met me…” Lily paused. “Unless…”

“Yeah, another timeline… One that is vastly different from powers! It would be quite a mess…” Victor hesitated. He didn’t like that idea. But it would work.

“Nothing like that was on the imperial record… If there is truly some other timeline, some secrets would have leaked!”

“Maybe it wouldn't normally happen, but Mona might have regained such memories since you used your time reversal to fix her soul! And in that world, your name might have been Liliara…”

“Oh…” Lily frowned. “I don’t like that possibility…”

“I know, butt… I did manage to time travel using the time book, someone else might have done it too!” he said, sounding a little unsure. The way he discovered that loophole in activating the time book was by pure chance. “Why don’t we do an experiment…”

“You want me to try to fuck up some guy’s brain then heal him up?” Lily asked, raising her pretty eyebrows.

“Yeah…” Victor nodded. This girl could easily read his mind.

“Will try it, but I will have to wait until my skill cools down in a week or so, and by that time I might be back at my family’s base… They already sent agents to wait for me and Yulian outside the dungeon!”

“Oh, there is that…” he sighed. Lily’s return was a must for their future plans. “Well, I bet you have a lot of guys that you don’t mind to ‘fuck up’ there…”

“...” she glared at him. “Sure… Things might get tricky there, though!”

“Oh, don’t worry, I already have a few plans to help you out, butt sadly I still have no idea how my plot on the other side is progressing so I am still not sure…” he sighed. “By the way did you tell Margret that Mr. X might be in the Armain Federation?”

“I did, the plan is to just act on the lookout and see if Mona would appear there… “Lily sighed. “Is it just that Margret decided to send Alpha instead of going there by herself?” Lily complained. “Seriously, all the other girls are already doing their best! And the Armani Federation is not even that far, is she planning to keep acting like a mistress or something…”

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“She might have her reasons…” Victor sweated a little, apparently Lily had no idea about Margret’s pregnancy yet. Better not be the herald of that ‘good news’. “Wait… Wasn’t Alpha with you?” he asked, quickly changing the subject.

“Same with the Moon dungeon, she seems to not be able to enter any dungeons for some reason…” Lily frowned, just now Victor’s reaction was a little strange, but she couldn’t figure out what. “You will need to check on her when you go back…” Lily suddenly paused as she watched Victor’s soul begin to shake valiantly.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaa…..” he screamed in pain as he collapsed to the floor. It was as if someone had just kicked his balls!

“Are you ok?” she asked worriedly as she hurried to his side.

“Ah… What? … Yeah…” he said as he sat straight up, scratching his head as if nothing had just happened. “I just got synchronized with the part in Ismeralia!” he said.

“Ah… Does it happen like that every time?” she asked with a frown.

“Yeah… Don’t worry about it!” he shook his head. The pain of this process was so severe that he didn’t dare to do it unless some very important info needed to be submitted. “I got some very good and some very bad news!”

“You expanded your harem again?” she asked, gnashing her teeth. This damn pervert! The last time he got a new wife, and although he explained it to her and she sympathized with Aerith, she didn’t like it one bit!

“This time, sadly no…” he sighed, then quickly dodged Lily’s hand that was about to pinch his thigh. “Let’s start with the good news, I found a way to kill scions!” he quickly said.

Lily stopped trying to pinch the life out of him and looked at his eyes. “Really?” she asked.

“Yeah, I was not sure at first, but the other world has some kind of a rule where scion’s fates are limited to an A rank and the world doesn’t actively try to save their asses so I pulled that guy Lazarus, the Lord’s disciple who had a grudge against me, into the cauldron and made him kill himself when he stabbed his hand by a poisoned nail that was sticking out of a log… He thought it was my neck!” he explained.

“He died? Just like That?” Lily asked as she smiled. The girl seemed a little crazy but she had every right to, she had seen how impossibly hard it was to kill a scion.

“Yeah! On top of it he dropped a Partial Storm Spark!” he said with interest.

“Oh… You can’t give that to the lord…”

“I will use it to run some experiments!” he quickly said. “I am also planning to establish a hidden gate between our world and Ismeralia! Imagine the possibility…”

“Yeah, just send a scion there, and bam! Kill him…” Lily nodded.

“Sending them there would be the problem though…” he said.

“Still, it will be easier than killing them here!” she sighed. “Just dangle some treasure there and they would come flocking like flies!”

“Yeah, good idea, now to the next piece of good news,” he smirked. “In addition to a lot of treasures and souvenirs for each of the girls, I got the fate Artifact! I think it is the one the fate sect sent people to get from Ismeralia!”

“Oh! What is it?” Lily got interested.

“A hammer!” Victor said. “It is called the Dharmic Crystal Hammer, it has the ability to force retributions for one's action…” he said.

“A… What?” Lily frowned.

“It is like if someone punched you before, you can make that punch go right back at him by using the hammer on yourself! It is not limited to the user though!”

“Oh! Like demanding a payback?” Lily’s eyes began to sparkle. “And if someone cucked you what would happen?”

“...I would cuck him?” Victor hesitated. He was not sure how that would work. “Look! I am not sure how it would work in all cases or affect fate itself. And it has some limits... The payback is in reversed order with the cost doubling each time. If you were to punch someone who punched you, you would have to get your punch back before he gets his!” he sighed. This complicated things. “It also has limits to the target’s authority…”

“Oh…”

“Its usage is so problematic, that I am pondering if I should just eat it and see if my Fate Weaver class would level up!”

“Oh… What is the cost of using it?”

“It drains all my mana completely, costs 100 order points per activation at the base level and I will be vulnerable for 1.2 seconds multiplied by the karmic level after using it. It was locked to only be used 3 times a year, but after I fixed it up, I can only use it 4 times… There is one use left in it!” he said, sighing again. That damn Lazarus must have been actively using it. Still, the stronger the artifact, the harder the conditions to activate it. “Adding to that I don’t dare to openly use it in Ismeralia as it might link me to its owner’s ‘Mysterious death’. That capital is in a big mess at the moment…”

“...” Lily glared at him. Her husband had a habit of causing chaos wherever he went.

“Look I had no choice…” he shrugged.

“Oh… I believe you,” she sighed. “I think you should just eat it, and do it ASAP!”

“Why?” Victor asked.

“I heard there are ways to track rare artifacts… I am not sure about it though,” Lily said. “And if you get a skill similar to how the hammer worked, its cost would usually go down. And as you said, if you manage to upgrade your class, that would be even better!” Lily said.

“Those are exactly my thoughts…” he sighed. She was right, now with the Lord stuff and everything going into a mess, he really needed some trump card, and he was betting on his fate weaver class giving him that!

“So… What’s the bad news?” she asked after a brief silence.

“Oh… I got info about the system Node thing!” he said.

“What? Really?”

“It is some kind of abnormal status called ‘WORLD SYSTEM NODE CONNECTION ACCESS PERMISSION’ A demon had it… “he frowned.

“Ah… Then Mona is a demon now…”

“That possibility is minimal…” Victor shook his head. “That demon tried to interfere with my method activation when I made Astran my slave, and the sun lord did the same, so I think it has something to do with the power of the system over the world!” he said. “Mona might have such power…She might even be a lord, although that is highly unlikely,” he pondered. There were too many variables here. “At the moment, we need more data. It is still worth keeping an eye on info about it though!”

“... “Lily nodded. “The Skeletal Green Jade Dungeon might have info about the system… I heard my father mention to mother that the hateful son of his got something like that in the other timeline!”

“Oh… Crown Prince Perez?” Victor said, calling that guy crown prince out of habit.

“Yeah… I don’t like him one bit…” Lily puffed her cheeks. Although the guy was not a traitor as far as she knew, and there was not really anything wrong about him, Lily didn’t like him. He just acted too self-righteous and for some strange reason, always right in everything he did! It was infuriating!

Victor sighed; he had nothing against the guy as he only met him twice. The reason he didn't like him was because Yulian kept badmouthing him when they drank.

“We might have to fight against him in the dungeon…” he pondered. “Well, that is already within our plans, and I think you can find a way to put a tracker on him at that time…” he sighed.

“...I will find a way,” Lily nodded. “By the way, who is Astran?” she suddenly asked.

“Ah… Right, it is the cosmic demon I got to be my blood slave… The one in the Von Rosen base…I told you about it before!”

“Oh… And you just gave it a nickname?”

“Duh… Of course!” he said. Who wouldn’t want his own pet cosmic horror? Sadly, Victor was not sure if he could take it out of the dungeon yet even with his cauldron as it would be useless there only taking up space! … Maybe after the reckoning?

“What’s its gender?” Lily asked.

“.... Is that really important?” he who was considering his plans turned to her and asked.

“Obviously…” she nodded.

“I am not sure yet, and even if I did… I am not into that thing…” he quickly said. “Seriously, are you getting jealous over a damn tentacle monster now?” he asked.

“...With how things always work for you, one can never know….” she looked away as she whispered.

***

“Keep the change!” Alpha said as she paid the taxi driver and then stepped down next to a tall building... There should have been a tall building but it was no longer there, a pile of rubble was in its place.

“What happened here?” she asked a man who was picking through the rubble.

“...” the man just shrugged and shook his head, not answering her.

BAM!

He was sent hurling to the ground as his shoulder was hit by a metal bat that appeared in her hand out of thin air.

“Hey, what are you…” he screamed.

BAM BAM BAM… “ANSWER YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” she yelled as she stuck at his arms and legs. “WHAT…” “HAPPENED…” “HERE…” she yelled, clearly doing a little venting.

“CRAZY WOMAN! HELP”

BAM! BAM! BAM!

No one came to help him. The passersby totally ignored him!

“WAH… PLEASE STOP!! I WILL TALK! I WILL TALK!” the man finally screamed as he felt his arm break.

“SAY! WHAT HAPPENED…” Alpha asked again.

“Ah…. Yesterday… An explosion happened, and the building fell…” the man replied as he grabbed his arm and tears fell from his eyes.

“The cause?” she frowned, it seemed she was a little too late!

“Ah…. I don’t know…”

BAM!

“Ah…. STOP! I don’t know… I only heard that they were shooting a movie with people fighting in midair… Maybe something went wrong with the effects!”

Alpha glared at him then turned and walked away, disabling the isolation talisman in the process.

She headed to a nearby building that had a LOANS sign on its windows. Clearly some kind of a loan shark business. A few minutes later, after causing a few grown men to cry like little girls, she walked out while wiping blood off her hands and watching a recording on her smartphone.

It was of a masked woman with red hair, Mona, she was flying on a large sword while using another to fight in midair against a slick-looking man in a suit who seemed to also be using some flight artifact. He was fighting with a long staff.

In the end, the man who was at a disadvantage flicked his finger and caused the building to explode in order to escape Mona’s clutches…. He used some kind of talisman and disappeared into the distance, Mona following right after.

Alpha sighed and then sent the recording to Margret. Random mess kept getting messier…

Anyways, with this her job here should be complete, it was time to go meet her grandmothers again and ask them about this lord thing!

Hopefully, she would no longer have to marry Victor after that!