The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 310: The Wedding Continues

The hall was silent for the next five minutes after Caspian left. No one knew what would happen next until Victor spoke.

“Shall we continue?” he asked as Mike let go of him.

“Continue your ass!” Theodore scolded, “Don’t you see how ruined the hall is?”

“There is another hall three floors below… I did it first but didnʼt like the decoration so I switched to this one… That one would work too!” Victor said.

“WHAT? Then what about your dead friend?”

“Who?” Victor asked with a frown.

“Alex! Wasn’t he your brothel pal?”

“Brothel buddy, not pal.... and No… I barely knew him. Sure, we only went to a brothel once, but the bastard took all the girls for himself! He even used those toys to…”

“Enough… I got the idea!” Theodore said. “You sure want to continue?” Theodore asked to make sure.

“Exactly… It would be a waste to stop the wedding now after everything!” Victor said, begging his father. “Please, Please, Please… I have been waiting for my wedding night for ages….”

Theodore frowned, the situation was a mess… No, it wasn’t… he paused.

He was upset earlier about the mess, but in a way, the current situation was not bad at all!

His shameless son had magically managed to get rid of marrying the troublesome Nova without breaking the family rules… On the contrary, he bravely tried to stop Caspian.

Theodore smiled as he looked at Olaf and then at his son “Fine…” Theodore said then looked at a table to the side. “Master Harvey… Can you help me to wake everyone up?” Theodore finally decided on what to do, so he looked at Harvey and asked.

Harvey who was also relieved nothing bad happened with Caspian nodded and then threw a talisman up that shone with a worm red light. Those things were very common in his auction business, to get rid of snoopy journalists.

One minute later, the non-players invitees began to wake up one by one and then look around with lost eyes, not knowing what just happened. They just looked in dismay as the brides retreated from the stage in a row. Was the wedding finished already? What the fuck happened?

The attendees were quickly calmed down by the pretty maids who went straight back to business as soon as they woke up, serving the newly woken guests with cups of freshly brewed coffee. It was as if they were not asleep, to begin with!

“Sorry about that everyone… One of the brides wanted to escape, so she threw a shock grenade…” Theodore who stood on the stage said pointing to the opening in the wall. “No one was hurt, but most of you lost consciousness for a few minutes… Don’t worry, it was not dangerous!” Theodore added as the attendees looked at each other.

“What now?” Elena, who was having a headache, asked.

“We will take a 30-minute break for the maids to check on anyone then continue with the ceremony afterward!” Theodore explained as he looked at Amelia.

“Yes…” she nodded. During that Caspian fiasco, she wanted to help, but her aunt kicked her leg and ordered her to stay put. This was not their family’s problem.

Now that everything was solved, continuing the wedding is the only way to save face. And Lin already had the parasite.

“Good,” Theodore said, then turned back to the attendees, “Now, you can take your time and sample our exquisite dishes as we get things prepared… The wedding will continue at another hall and the maids will guide you there afterward the place was arranged…However, if you feel unwell, you are free to leave. We will arrange a ride for you!” Theodore said finally.

Some people were a little scared hearing him and wanted to leave. No one stopped them on their way out, but when they saw the gilded cakes and delicacies that began to be brought from the kitchens, they quickly returned to their seats and decided to stay. Those things were so rare, that every dish would cost millions! They were not going to miss this no matter what.

Yes… Other than the few real VIPs and some special guests. Most of the attendees were bootlickers or money worshipers. Those were the only ones who dared to risk their reputation and attend Victor’s perverted wedding.

“What just happened? Where did that nosy guy go?” Elena asked in a lost tone as Theodore returned to his seat.

“He left with Nova…” Theodore said with a sigh. As he glanced at El and Lara who were acting lost.

“What? That bride? Wasn’t he saying that she was a fake?” Luna asked.

“Nah… This was a scheme so that he could escape with her!” Theodore explained as Lara looked at him with shock. Her esteemed father was lying with a straight face!

Yulian on the other hand wondered why his jaw hurt… Alice seemed to be distracted, so he looked around and noticed that James Trove was glaring at him.

“I need to go to the bathroom… my lip is bleeding for some reason…” he said.

“Oh… go then…” Alice said with a blush. It was her fault… She was feeling relieved that Caspian left and totally forgot about Yulian.

Yulian sighed then slowly left the hall and headed to the nearest restroom, but to his dismay, it was out of order. He quickly found the next nearest one. James, as expected, was waiting for him there.

....

“Young master Yulian… What the f*ck are you doing here?” James asked as he activated an isolation talisman.

“Just got out of prison and wanted to check on my little sis…” Yulian said, “I got a chance to sneak in here and I took it!”

“That’s not the problem… What are you doing with that slut Alice!”

“A slut? She doesn’t seem like one…” Yulian said, “I am acting as her boyfriend, her brother wanted to indicate her to some guy and she didn’t want that, so she paid me $1,000,000 to act as her shield!” he said.

“Ohh... What?” James frowned.

“Yeah… I guess I will be able to relax during the rest of my family test!” Yulian said.

“Young master… You know well that there is no free lunch in this world right?”

“... I am paying for it with my handsomeness…”

“... Young master… If you excuse my vulgarness, but you are in deep sh*t!”

“What? Why do you say that?”

“First, Alice is a pervert….. “

“Really?” Yulian smiled unknowingly.

“Ahhhh…. Not in the way you think!.... I will tell you about her later.” James said, not wanting Yulian to reveal a thing here. “The most important thing is that by being with Alice, you have been marked by that man Caspian… He already put a curse on you!”

“WHAT? A curse?” Yulian asked, although he wasn’t a player, he had some knowledge about talismans and curses due to his education.

“Yes! Caspian was rejected by Alice before and he held a grudge, although he can’t hurt her because he fears her master, it is easy for him to kill you!” James said as he took a talisman from his pocket and put it on Yulian’s head.

“What? Wasn’t that guy just a madman?” Yulian asked as the talisman began to smoke.

“That’s what the Von Weise family wanted those idiots at the Venue to believe… This is a close call. Thankfully Yulian was only after one of the brides!” James said as he watched the talisman turn black and fall to the ground seconds later.

“Is the curse gone?” Yulian asked.

“I only locked 90% of it. Thatʼs the best I can do following the family rules!... “ James said with a frown, “You will suffer some bad luck for the next few months or two so you better stay lowkey… When you finish your test, the family can easily remove the curse entirely.”

“Oh…”

“Now let’s go… Victor will need to replace the missing bride to complete the 8 Brides ceremony, and hopefully, it will not be your sister!” James said.

“And what if he chose her?”

“I have my ways to manage this! We just have to keep her away from the stage!” James said.

…

“Victor!” Marlie ran to her cousin as soon as she noticed him. He instructed the maid. “Have you seen Archie?” she asked him.

“Your boyfriend?”

“Yes… Some people saw you talk to him…”

“Yes, before the ceremony… Wasn’t he with you?”

“No! Some stupid maid locked me in the ladiesʼ room, when I managed to escape and return to the hall, he was gone!”

“Did you search the other tables? He may be courting some other girl!” Victor asked with a frown. Archie should have been with Officer Lea’s family.

“He wouldnʼt dare to do that! And the ceremony started he was nowhere to be found.”

“Oh… I will ask the hotel manager to check the security tapes… just relax with your family!” Victor said.

“.. Ok…” she nodded and left.

…

Victor frowned after looking at his distressed cousin. WAsn’t she supposed to be fighting with Lea over Archie now?

“Where is Archie?” he asked Alpha through the telecommunicator. He totally forgot about him as the ceremony started, he had too many variables to keep track of, and Archie was not one of his priorities.

“Oh….huhuhu….”

“What?”

“Well… Let me phrase it like this… The shard that caused the libido effect, is a little more effective than we expected….”

“Oh…” Victor said. He didn’t really get to thoroughly test it before deploying it. “ Didn’t you tell me that it is as strong as 1% concentrated red tulip aphrodisiac?”

“It is… But what I didn’t expect is that its effect is cumulative! It adds 1% per Minute!”

“Oh… Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh,ʼ Victor finally understood why Caspian and Tom didn’t show any sense of resistance. Victor initially told the girls to start applying the effect on him as soon as they entered the hall, to make them feel a little distracted. He didn’t expect that they would have been holding it all this time! “So…. Archie….”

“He took Lea and opened a room…”

“... Well, here goes the faithful guy…”

“All men are cheaters..” Alpha spat coldly.

“...I am not a cheater… I do it openly…” Victor clarified.

“Yeah yeah… whatever suits your sick ego…. “ she said, “Why did you order Yin to reduce the effect of her banishment skill at the last moment? Werenʼt you planning to make him reveal something about him being a demon?”

“Not anymore… “ he didn’t explain. “I have some new data after appraising him, killing him now is very disadvantageous! I just need him to stay low-key for now, at least until the tournament!”

“Whatever… We got something from when he was placing that plague array in the restroom! You may be interested…”

“Didn’t you tell me he used a blocking talisman?”

“When cleaning the restroom, we found a damaged drone in one of the toilets… Some idiot tried to sneak it in but fell from him when he went in to do his business…”

“Oh…”

“Apparently, the water in the toilet shielded it from Caspian’s talisman, maybe some elemental conflict… Anyway, It doesn’t have a picture and just sounds. We had to steal its decoding device from a van outside…”

“What’s in it?”

“Caspian was telling his servant Trimon to transfer the girls they got to a new warehouse,” she said. “They seemed to have bought them from some black market trader…”

“Oh… Go save them… You were planning to do that anyway.”

“I am just letting you know… shall we release the audio?”

“No… There would be no need for that!” Victor said as he turned off the telecommunicator.

He sighed and looked around the hall before quickly walking toward Harvey who seemed to be expecting him to come.

“Master Harvey…. I will need to add Elise to the wedding after all!” Victor said, “I need the brides to be 8!” he added just as James and Yulian walked back into the hall. They heard him so they looked at each other and then nodded in relief.

“I am ok with it!” Harvey said, “Do you have a dress for her?”

“Yes… I have an extra!” Victor said as he held Eliseʼs Wheelchair. “Let’s go!” he said.

She didn’t reply.

…

Elise was utterly and completely shocked!

During the events earlier, she could see everything.

She had no idea why she did it, but she acted as if she lost consciousness as Victor instructed her, and watched the show.

Others could not see it, but she could. As Victor acted as a pervert, everything around him was a stage.

Alex, the one everyone thought was fighting Caspian, was standing still most of the time, and only attacking when Victor gestured to him!

When Alex was supposedly killed, he was simply dragged away by Victor moments before Caspian attacked… Even the attack itself was secretly manipulated to be aimed at an empty spot so that no one was hurt!

The biggest surprise was that girl Nova. She was a man in disguise! And that guy Caspian was completely fooled, kissing her with passion!

She was not stupid as she realized that Victor was showing her this to convince her of his ability. And she had to confess that she was convinced. Everyone in the hall fell for his schemes, including her smartass grandfather.

How did he do it?

She had no idea. But she had one more test for Victor.

“Why didn’t you kill him?” Elise suddenly asked as Victor dragged her out of the hall. This was the first thing she asked, making Victor smile. Like in his previous life, this girl was as smart as a fox and as curious as a kitten.

“Which one?”

“That Caspian… Your fake bride was just toying with him all this time, and that other guy disguised as a woman was probably also yours… You had many chances.”

“True, but why should I kill him?”

“He seemed like a dangerous guy who knew how to hold a grudge… he had his eyes on your sister and he would have probably killed you if he got a chance….”

“You are correct… But it is not like he can hurt me in public, the same goes for me…” Victor chuckled. “I will not ruin my wedding for him! The wedding must go on! It is vital!”

“You could do it behind the scenes… You seem to be proficient in that…” she said, wondering if he made her get to see all of those on purpose to test her.

“I could have done that…”

“Oh… Then that guy disguised as a woman. The one Caspian took away… Will he kill him now?” she interrupted, she was clearly having fun.

“That was the plan… It would have been very hard though… Caspian has many hidden cards! “ Victor nodded, “I planned to make him drag Caspian into an inescapable trap then finish him off!”

“Then… What made you change your mind?” she asked

“ He he he…..You would need to promise me a favor if you want to know that!”

“Ok…” she answered straight ahead.

“Arenʼt you going to ask me what is the favor I want?”

“You will get what you want sooner or later…” she said in her stoic voice. “So… Why didnʼt you want to kill him?” she asked.

“You see, I have this skill called Appraisal… It is an SSS ranking…”

“Oh… You saw something… What is it? What did you find out?” she asked curiously… She was no longer whispering as a lady but as a normal girl her age.

“It will be hard to explain it simply but... Let me phrase it like this. That Caspian’s position is very good. It would be a waste to just kill such a good piece…”

“Position? Like in where he lives….NO… Class…No…. Politics… Also no…” she paused. “Like in chess?”

“Exactly…”

“...” she frowned.

“...”

“You plan to do a castling?” she asked after a long pause. Victor was taking his time pushing her around. Both figuratively and literally.

“Yup… I just planned this scheme on the go, and it still has many things to iron out…”

“Oh… That explains why you still sent that guy with him…” she said.

“Yup… He will be my eyes!”

“When would your turn be?”

“Very soon… I need to collect all the game rules first, I am not very familiar with this pieceʼs moment patterns after all… There can’t be any mistakes!”

“I see…” She went silent again, making Victor smile. She was completely snared!

Elise Von Geldstadt, the worldʼs most amazing legendary strategist was now in his hands.

He didn’t expect to get her this early after his return, but he didn’t mind it. At least she still had her childish spirit. Not yet corrupted by the world!

In Victor’s past life, after Harvey died due to his poisoning, the new patriarch who hated Elsie’s mother kicked her out mercilessly. Forcing her to live in the streets as a beggar for a few years… According to the recorders, she went through hell. Literally.

She went off records after that after the brothel she was imprisoned in was burnt… Probably her doing.

She only reappeared after the reckoning as an aid to one of the strongest scions at that time. With that guy, they formed an army of survivors who were able to grab many cities back from the monsters and demons who flooded the world. Creating a de facto kingdom of players before any other power could stabilize the situation.

Of course, no one knew about her role back then. Only after that idiot, Scion challenged the newly established Imperial family were her true powers revealed.

The von Krone really suffered a lot at her hands, half of the army was decimated before they paid a great price to recruit an army of scions who forcefully destroyed everything using brute force. Although she made them suffer a lot, In the end, no plans could stand in their way.

After that, the scion who protected her lost an arm and a leg getting apprehended.

As a scion, executing him was a very hard thing to do, so they chose to exile him to another world as they did to others before him.

In exchange for sending him to a good world instead of Hell, the demon’s dimension, he revealed everything about her and her plans…

Blaming her for the loss of armies that the imperial family suffered and saying that he wanted to surrender from the start.

She was quickly brought to the throne room after that, where the emperor, Lily’s uncle, was enchanted by her beauty. He offered her to join the imperial family as a concubine and she accepted, probably knowing that she didn’t have a choice.

On her wedding night, she was poisoned to death by the queen who feared her… That’s the official story, but according to what Yulian told him, after she was killed, her corpse mysteriously disappeared. Most likely she faked her death and escaped.

After a year, the emperor was killed in a duel at the hands of his brother, Lily’s father who took his place as the emperor.

Victor heard Yulioan say had a theory that she had a hand behind this, but he had no proof!

If Victor met her back then, he would have surely been manipulated and killed without knowing what happened. But right now, she was still a naive little girl, only a little smarter than others.

“... That would leave your last rank unguarded…” Elsie suddenly said. She had been analyzing his plan. And without knowing everything about it, She found its major weak point.

“Not if others planned to do the same to me!” Victor said, “I just learned of this scheme a few minutes ago… I couldn’t have hoped for a better chance!”

“... Oh…. Ohhhhhhh….” she just nodded as her little brain began to turn again. “Still… It would be a risky move…” she asked, still using chess terms.

“There would be a risk… But what if all my pawns were to be promoted?”

“Ohh… so that’s why the mass wedding! It is to upgrade pawns to queens!”

“Exactly!”

“... An amateur king would be screwed…”

“Yup… A professional one would be too,”

“That would need you to sacrifice a queen…”

“Not if that queen is a slut!”

“...”

“...”

“I will marry you…” she suddenly said. “But you better not lie to me or betray my trust…” she added, making up her mind.

“Sorry, I will definitely lie… But I would never betray you!” he said, “You don’t have a choice about marrying me anyway!” he added.

“Who knows…” she added as she lifted her hand holding a poison bottle.

“You would not have taken that…” he said as he grabbed it.

“Like I said,,, Who knows…” she repeated with a smile.

One had to say that some people fall in love with others at first sight. Elise was not like that. But after seeing Victor in action and having this conversation with him, for the first time in her life, she felt a strange feeling in her little heart. It was racing like a small pony!

It was not really love, that’s what she told herself… Elise had no concept of what love was anyway.

But Victor was the first guy she met who could understand and respond to all her questions in a satisfying way without being an old fox like her grandfather. And she really liked that feeling of being with him! He made her feel safe.

And, in a way, he was very handsome…