The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 478: The Auction House Mayhem (5)

“What was that about?” Theodore asked as he eyed Axel and Max who just came out of prison. They were both sitting in his office.

“He started it for no reason!” Axel said, feeling a little wronged. He was on his way to go get Gloria and Xue before leaving to go to that dungeon when Max appeared and dragged him to have a drink. 

After that, he began to ask him about the past and when Axel told him that he was suffering from amnesia, Max punched him in the face for no reason, and as a man who was not afraid of trouble he punched back! In the end, the police came and dragged them away.

“Father, I suspect that he is not my real brother!” Max flared. “During the ceremony earlier, he went into a trance and began mumbling that he is not the real Victor, but a fake!”

“Eh… What?” Theodore frowned and looked at Axel with vigilance. His acting was not bad at all!

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Axel frowned, he didn’t expect Max to come forward like that. Was their plan of no use? Could it be that Max was innocent? “I really don’t remember…” he said.

Theodore frowned, inspecting ‘Victor’ for a moment before turning to face Max. “Is that why you took him for a drink?”

“Yes, I wanted to check if he was a fake before making a report just in case it was a hallucination…”

“Then?”

“The moment he told me that he had amnesia my suspicion intensified and I punched him in the face, I wanted to see if he was wearing a mask!” Max said, making up an excuse. “In the end, it turned into a brawl,” he scratched the back of his head.

“Eh… Really?” Theodore asked. “Max, perhaps you didn’t know, but we already did a DNA analysis on Victor, and he is the real one!”

“Ah... What?” Max frowned. “He could have been changed after that though… He is definitely suspicious!”

“Oh…” Theodore nodded. “George!” he called, making his faithful servant materialize behind the two young men, storytelling the shit out of them.

“You called, Master?”

“Take a DNA sample from Victor just in case… He will be spending the night here until we confirm the results!” he looked at Axel. “I hope you don’t mind!”

“Eh… I don’t…” Axel frowned; he had a dungeon raid to catch up with. Damn it! What’s wrong with Max!

“Max, you stay here too, I will inform you of the results in the morning!”

“Fine!” Max nodded. “If you are the real Victor, I will owe you an apology!” he turned and told Axel.

“... “Axel just looked away.

***

“Now to the last three items!” the handsome auctioneer announced. “Those three boxes are the strangest in our collection… Can you tell why?” he asked the audience as he pointed to the boxes on stage.

No one replied, but their interest was piqued as they eyed the items!

No1 was a large cubic wooden ornamented box with a strange floral design engraved on it, showing no signs of tools being used. There was also no apparent lock on it, but it could be magical!

No2 was a small unadorned metallic box. It had a lock but the keyhole looked very archaic.

No3 was another Large wooden box, but this one was very basic and unadorned with all kinds of scratches on its surface, its only feature was that it was tall and thin, probably containing some kind of a sword! It also had a small hole where the key should fit.

Watching the audience’s reaction, the crafty auctioneer laughed. ” Well, although it is against the rules, let me tell you a secret… Those three boxes were brought to her by a very powerful figure who was at his witʼs end trying to figure out their secret!” he said.

The Auction manager backstage looked at the auctioneer fabricating all kinds of lies with a frown. Those three boxes were brought by three different people with very weak backgrounds. Adding to that, These boxes were either found in a ditch, dropped from a demon, or a family heirloom. Although it was a bit strange, it was not unheard of for a few similar things to appear at the same time.

Still, that was not the problem, what made him feel a little shocked was how competent this auctioneer was! The way he was selling useless stuff was amazing! He should really give him a raise after this!

The auctioneer, who didn’t know what the stupid Manager thought, continued to tease the audience before finally revealing the secret. “Look, those three boxes all have one thing in common… No one can open them!” he said. “If anyone doubts what I am saying, feel free to try and open them!” he said. “Anyone?” he asked.

A fat man jumped from the audience and walked upstage, heading to one of the boxes.

“Before you try, listen up!” the auctioneer stopped him. “Let’s set some rules first to make this more fun!” he said.

“What?” the fat man asked.

“You can only try if you bid on the box… If you can open it, you take it for free, and if you fail your bid stands!” The auctioneer said with a wicked smile, “You can only choose one box, butt the price increase would carry to all other three, and the boxes that will be left unopened would be sold to the last one who bid on them!” he added, making the Manager behind the curtain raise his thumb up to him as tears welled in his eyes. What a good scammer! The boxes couldnʼt even be opened by him and he doubted anyone but the Lord’s disciples would be able to pull it off! And if one of those guys would really give it a try and succeed, they would definitely pay its full price regardless to save face and not owe the auction house a favor!

This was excellent! He should really try this hands-on approach in the future!

“Can we bid without trying to open the box?” one old cloaked guy from the auction asked.

“Of course, you can! But where’s the fun in that…” the auctioneer said, frowning a bit before turning to the fat man. “Are you playing?”

The fat man hesitated for a moment then nodded. Since he was the first, it was ok!

“Let’s start with 100 Coins then!” the auctioneer suggested. “Choose a box!”

“OK!” the fat man said choosing one of the boxes, an ornamented one. He grabbed it and shook it a little.

Although it was very heavy, he managed to hear the sound of something muffled inside of it. It was not empty. Thinking for a moment, he grabbed its lid and tried to yank it open.

Nothing happened!

He tried again, his face puffed bright red, but still it couldn’t be opened.

“Please return to your seat!” the auctioneer said. “You thought it could be that easy!”

The fat man shot him a glare and then walked downstage while shaking his head.

Another guy walked up. “200 Coins…” he announced as he grabbed the little metal box and tried to pull it open.

He also failed.

“Can we use weapons?” someone suddenly asked, she was a nasty-looking woman.

“Ah…” the auctioneer hesitated then looked backstage. “Boss, can we get permission to use weapons on stage?” he asked.

The manager thought for a moment then nodded. “Don’t break anything!” he said. Those boxes were made of very strange materials, the big ones out of wood, while the small ones were unknown metal! Nothing can penetrate them, not even the strongest weapon he had!

“You will have to increase the bid by at least 10,000 COINs, you get one try… and if you fail you will pay for the damage!” the auctioneer said, making the manager nod again. What a good guy! When he first hired him, it was for his looks, but it looked like he had some hidden talents!

The woman nodded and walked on stage. “10,200 Coins…” she said as she walked toward one of the big boxes, first she tried to open it normally, then brandishing her sword she struck it.

BAM!

A loud sound reverberated, the box Shook hard, but still, it didn’t open.

“Too bad…” the auctioneer sighed.

The woman nodded then walked back down.

After that one-by-one people tried, including a teenage girl called Lyra who failed miserably and even shot the auctioneer a glare when he told her that she needed to drink more milk to get stronger in the future!

After half an hour the unopened boxes’ price reached 1,000,400 Coins for each one and the manager was about to faint out of joy. The auction house would get 10% of those! Damn it, he should have been greedier and demanded a 15% share of that poor boy!

“Anyone else?” The auctioneer asked but it was clear that the people downstairs were no longer that enthusiastic, “Maybe one of the gentlemen upstairs? Duke Lazarus?” he asked.

His words made one old cloaked man squeeze his hand angrily but relaxed a bit as he looked at the balcony above. He clearly was not planning on making a move here, but probably waiting for an opportunity.

This guy was so wary of traps, that one might think he was a professional scammer himself!

The auctioneer ignored him and looked up toward the balcony as if waiting for an answer. Things were going according to plan!

Lazarus thought and just before he could make a move a chuckle could be heard.

“Let me try it…” Atma, the lord’s first disciple, said as she turned into a gust of wind and then appeared on stage. She gave the auctioneer an inspecting look before turning to the boxes.

“Choose one…” the auctioneer who was cursing at her for ruining his plan said. “You can only try one, we have to leave something for the others!”

“Ha-ha… You are a brave one, arenʼt you?” she asked.

“Maybe…” he nodded as switched to plan D3.

“You can also be an idiot…” she said as her face went all cold.

“That is also a possibility, but as the auctioneer here, I have to keep the rules!” he didn’t flinch.

Atma raised one eyebrow as the Manager who started silently cursing the daring auctioneer almost fainted. How dare this guy be rude to Lady Atma! HE WAS SO FIRED!

“Oh… Fine then...” Atma who was taken aback by the auctioneerʼs bravery didn’t say anything anymore. She just smirked and turned to inspect the three boxes, finally choosing the thin tall one. “I will try this one!” she said as she grabbed it. “2,000,000 Coins…” she declared as her hands began to be covered with frost.

The box began to quickly be covered with ice as Atma frowned a bit and then intensified her power, 3 seconds later the box’s wood all froze and moments later it shattered like glass.

PAM!

From inside of it, a golden sword appeared shining with a very bright light.

“Holy shit…”

“An SSS weapon?”

“Really?”

“Yeah… I heard of those!”

“SHIT! GETTING THIS FOR 2,000,000 COINS WHAT A BARGAIN!”

“DAMN IT!! WHY NOT ME!”

Atma was shocked as she slowly grabbed the sword and gave it a look. This thing was old, very old she could tell from the engravings on it, but for some reason, it was as if it was polished just yesterday!

“I will be taking this…” she said winking at the shocked auctioneer before dissipating and appearing back at her balcony.

“Ah… Sure… Lady Atma sure is strong…. I think we should wrap…”

“I WILL ALSO GIVE IT A TRY!” Lazarus, who was clearly enraged by Atma taking his chance, jumped down. Seeing how she did it, he quickly found a way to break that wooden box. They just needed to disintegrate the wood from inside by breaking its fibers and he had more than one way to do it!

“Ah… Butt of course…” the auctioneer replied nervously. “Please choose…” he said.

“I will take Number 1!” Lazarus said. “5,000,00 COINs!” he spat arrogantly as he walked toward the ornamented cubic big box.

The auctioneer secretly sighed as he watched Lazarus grab the box and first try to open it by hand then grab it and begin to channel wind energy into it making it begin to shake Violently.

It took him 15 minutes… But still, the audience that watched didn’t dare to stop him. Only Atma seemed to be taking the chance to make fun of him.

“Maybe this is the most I have seen you focused on in ages…”

“Do you have to work that hard?”

“It is only a box… Come on… “

“I am beginning to wonder if you were this serious with your wife…”

Lazarus, who was clearly getting angry, ignored her. The auctioneer on the other hand was secretly smirking. The angrier he became the better his plan would work.

Finally, the box began showing signs of deteriorating and in front of everyone, the wood shattered.

Before anyone could see what was inside a black light filled the entire auction house and in a blink of an eye it disappeared. In the place of the Box, there was a strange-looking urn.

“What the…” before anyone could understand what happened and as Lazarus bent to grab it a sudden scream could be heard from behind him.

KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Glancing around, he saw that the auction hall was filled with all kinds of demons.

“HELP! DEMONS!” the auctioneer screamed as he backed up stumbling and falling in the process.

The guards hurried to fend the demons off.

The audience began to panic.

In a split second everything became chaotic.

Lazarus paused for a second to realize what had just happened before grabbing his sword that materialized from thin air and using it to parry a sword that came aiming for his neck.

Around him, 5 cloaked men had appeared seemingly crawling out of the urn, and with strange-looking sharp swords they all attacked Lazarus all at once flipping all the tables on stage, including the one with the simple metallic box, making it tumble toward the floor.

Still, no one cared about it... No one expects two scheming guys!

***

“WHAT?” Margret frowned as she read the note a little maid handed her before scurrying out of the study.

“Anything wrong?” Elise asked as she looked up from the table full of folders, she was working in the study with Margret to arrange their new properties.

“Axel sent a word telling me that he will spend the night at Theodore’s mansion because Max suspects him to be a ‘Fake’ and that his ‘Trip’ would be delayed until they check his identity with a ‘DNA Test’.”

“DNA test? Ah! Max didn’t fall for the scam? No…” Elise paused. “Holy shit, he must have grabbed a sample and tested Axelʼs DNA by himself, and then after confirming he was his real brother, he reported him just in case it was a trap by his father!”

“Most likely… “Margret said absentmindedly.

“It can only be one of two, he is really innocent, or he works for the same group who are using Axel and they told him not to do anything…” Elise continued her analysis. “And if it is the latter, it would mean he was just a disposable pawn.”

“Yeah…” Margret sighed.

“It might also mean that Max may have realized that and acted on his own accord. This guy might be smarter than we expected… We need to be careful!” Elise said as she wrote Max’s name on a new list, elevating his danger level.

“Aha…”

“What’s wrong?” Elise asked. Margret was acting strange.

“The dungeon raid was delayed…”

“Oh, about that…  You think there will be danger there?” Elise asked. Axel was a scion and if his trip was delayed it might be for his own good.

“If there was, Axel wouldn’t have gone in the first place…” Margret said. “The current situation would mean that the danger is temporary!”

“Eh… This wouldnʼt make sense; the dungeon is not yet open! Its situation can’t change!” Elize frowned. “It could be just a coincidence!” she suggested.

“Yeah…” Margret sighed.  “But… My intuition is telling me that there is something very wrong here… “

“Oh…” Elise didn’t know what to say, but Margret’s intuition had proved to be very accurate lately. “Still, I can’t find anything in the data, it is all normal…” Elise paused and quickly flipped through the files.

“What?” Margret asked.

“We might have a problem…” Elise said as she unlocked her tablet PC and began to check a certain file on it.

Margret just raised one eyebrow as she watched Elise swallow hard and look up to face her. “What?”

“After Calvin reported the area, why didn’t Victor send a team to check it?” Elise asked.

“Eh… There was no need to, he suspected it was a dungeon, and Lily confirmed it, telling him its level was E!” Margret said. “That area is under Sunriseʼs command.”

“Still… Didn’t he tell us to always be careful before leaving? Wouldnʼt it be strange for him not to send a survey team to at least check the parameters…”?

“Maybe he didn’t think it was needed…”

“That’s the problem! Look at the file, it doesnʼt contain the dungeon’s gate exact location at all, how can Lily not report it?”

“Eh…” Margret paused and quickly flipped through the files. True, the dungeon’s exact opening point was not written. It was just the general area.

“Adding to that… Victor usually decided who was to unlock the gate and get the benefits… Why didn’t he specify it this time?”

Margret frowned.  “Let’s contact Lily and ask her if she forgot to report that info!” she said.

“Right!” Else thought for a moment then closed her eyes and contacted Lily. 

Margret did the same. Their Wifeʼs connection allowed them to hold a conference to plot how to reign over their scheming husband. That’s how they perceived it anyway.

Three minutes later both of them opened their eyes and looked at each other in shock.

“Eh?”

According to Lily, the dungeon should already be open. It was that way the last time they asked her about it.

Looking at the document in her hand Margret frowned. It definitely stated that it was closed here!

“Could it be that she remembered wrong?” Elise asked.

“She would never do that, the first Skill she asked Victor to give her was Eidetic memory!” Margret said as she began to bite her fingernail.

“It can only be like that time…” Elise said nervously after a brief pause. “The same thing about that guy only Lily remembered… It was as if something had changed in this world, and no one realized it…”

“Yeah…” Margret frowned wondering why Lily was not affected. The last time they presume that it may have something to do with the moon dungeon, but it may not be it. 

“Let’s wait until Axel goes to check it for us… We might find something out!” Elise suggested. Axel was a scion; nothing could harm him.

“Did Lin finish disposing of Morris?” Margret asked.

“She should be at the Fragrant Shadow’s base by now,” Elise said. “She told me that she wants to watch the gender-swapping operation…”

“Let’s make her head to the dungeon ASAP… I want her to keep far away and summon some Specters to secretly put cameras around that area!” Margret said. Although it would be a little dangerous, the info that Lin would be able to provide would be crucial for the future of their movements!

An enemy that you couldn’t even remember wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

***

“What happened here?” Lily asked as she entered the small barred room followed by Yulian, whose crazy sister changed their plan and dragged him here through a very dangerous zone one hour ago after talking to herself for a while.

“LILY!” Mana, who looked really haggard after fortifying herself and her sister in this safe zone, exclaimed as signs of relief appeared on her face. “As I told you through the link, I was following Victor’s order and praising her in front of her when she suddenly screamed and used her sword to pluck her own eye, taking out that strange bird demon before collapsing…” she explained, summarizing what happened as she pointed to Mona who was lying motionless on a sleeping bed with her eye bandaged. “I had to drag her here as the smell of her blood caused many rats to suddenly attack!” she added, “Also I found this on the tip of her sword!” she said, pulling out a small pea-sized bloody eggshell in a plastic bag.

“Is Mana still with Donald and Opal?” Lily asked as she inspected it. It looked like some kind of a bird’s egg, except that it was too small. She had never seen anything like this before!

“Yes, I just contacted her and they are still too far away! You were the closest to my location!” she answered nervously.

Yulian squinted his eyes. Contact? Could it be that his sister had a way of remotely contacting others? Most likely! So, she was not going crazy after all!

“Oh…” Lily, not aware of her brother’s thoughts, nodded as she crouched next to Mona to check her pulse. She was still alive, just unconscious and pale! Her breath was very weak!

“I wanted to find Ruby, but I donʼt know where they established their camp! And Mona kept getting weaker and weaker!”

“Theta’s team is far from here, that zone is the safest in this dungeon!” Lily replied absentmindedly as she removed the bloodied bandage and checked Mona’s eye. There was an ugly wound in its place. “Did you give her a healing pill?”

“Yes, a supreme one, but it is not working!” Mana answered nervously. The bleeding, although lessened, didn’t stop for some reason. “I also tried to use a dispelling talisman in case she was cursed, but nothing happened!”

“Wait… This girl is not your twin sister who was at the wedding?” Yulian, who didn’t know what was going on, suddenly asked a totally unrelated question. 

“This is Mona, that one was Mina. We are a triplet!” Mana replied dismissively as she watched Lily take a strange-looking pill and feed it to Mona.

“Hsssss….” Yulian gasped. A triplet? “Is she Victor’s wife too?” he didn’t know why he asked that. Jealousy maybe? Absurd!

“No yet…”

“Eh… Yet?” 

No one answered him as they watched Mona worriedly. There was no change in her state at all, even the bleeding didn’t stop!

“What’s wrong with her?” Mana asked nervously. After Victor, Lily was the most knowledgeable person she knew.

“Not sure, but I have a suspicion… Are you sure she mentioned that name, Mr. X?” Lily asked as she frowned. According to Victor’s investigation, which included him making Mona drunk with soul wine right after he captured her, she had a problem in her past.

When she was young, she escaped from home and found herself in the Armain Federation, a very dark country where the mafia controls everything. It seems like she was searching for news about her father’s past, but ended up in some bad position after being forced to work with the dark media industry as a minor. The only report about her from that period was the contract she was made to sign and a police report when she breached her contract and ran away from the ‘Idol training’ facility. In short, there were 3 months where nothing was known about what she was doing. 

For her, it was only a very embarrassing period, but when Victor asked her about the details, she couldn’t give any concrete answer. It was as if she not only lost her memories about that time but also didn’t even realize that she had forgotten!

Sadly, after inspecting her a few times, even inviting Yin and Ruby to take a look, nothing out of the ordinary was found. In the end Victor decided to just keep an eye on her. He was a little busy at that time after all and since she was a Scion, he was not that worried that she would be harmed.

“Yes! What does it mean?” Mana asked.

“Demons…” Lily replied, remembering what Victor told her about Margret’s history. That name Mr. X was Margret’s revenge target. “If my guess is correct, someone might have planted this thing inside of her… Some kind of a demonic egg and since Yin saw nothing, that thing must still not be alive... Maybe an embryo!” Lily made a conclusion as she glanced at the eggshell. Embryos have very weak souls, so Yin might have missed it. A CT scan might have discovered something though, but no one expected anything like this!

“Then what happened earlier?” Mana asked as Yulian failed to understand what his sister was talking about. Wait, Demons now? When did the setting of this world change from RPG to Horror?

“That thing you saw was probably a demon hatchling…” Lile paused, collecting her thoughts as she looked at Mona. “Why would someone hide a demon inside someone else… Couldn’t they just possess her? Or was it some kind of breeding method?” she asked, talking to herself. “Even so… Why take the trouble to erase Mona’s memory and let her go…”

“They were hiding it from someone?” Mana suggested.

“...Yes…  Probably from the world itself!” Lily opened her eyes wildly as she felt that she might have figured it out.  “She is a Scion… That Mr. X might have known that!”  

“Ah…” Mana didn’t interrupt. Yulian wanted to ask what the fuck were they talking about but also decided not to interrupt his violent sister.

“So… He planted a physical egg inside of her… Waiting for the right time to strike, maybe…  After she had fulfilled her destiny?” Lily frowned, feeling a shiver run down her pretty spine. “That should be it!” the world would not help a scion after his or her destiny was fulfilled on the contrary, it might expel them. No one knew why that was though!

“Then…” Yulian who was baffled by all this asked.

“The memories about this demonic egg might have been erased or obstructed from her mind… Maybe through a chemical that the egg secretes. It is just that as she leveled up, she might have been able to regain momentary clarity due to the leveling healing effect… She might have remembered before but decided to not tell anyone before forgetting again… This time, she realized what was wrong and decided to free herself up!” Lily said.

“Ah… But…. Mona is using the old system like me; she can’t level up in the dungeon!” Mana interrupted with a frown.

“Old system, What?” Yulian asked.

No one replied.

Lily frowned, then took out a fruit knife and pressed it against Mona’s arm, making sure to carefully control her strength as she did so, measuring how much pressure it took until it penetrated her skin.

That never happened. The knife failed to even leave a scratch!

“Eh… How much was Mona’s level when she came in here?” Lily asked in shock.

“25…” Mana replied as she watched Lily take another knife, an F-ranked sharp one this time.

She tried again. This time it really cut her, but the wound was very shallow.

“Your sister is at least level 50…” Lily said as she pulled the knife out and looked at the blood on its edge, smelling it for a moment and then frowning. “Her system must be the new one!”

“Ah! HOW!” Mana was shocked.

“No idea…” Lily frowned. Victor didn’t get to see her after she had awakened, so it was not clear if the level-up happened at the old dungeon now or if she had come across some kind of fortuitous encounter at some point here.

“Then… What should we do now?” Mana asked again nervously.

“Mona’s soul is damaged, and I think she might have some kind of a demonic poison in her system stopping her body from fixing itself,” Lily said, it smelled rotten.

“Ah… I already gave her an antidote pill…”

“It is a soul poison, so the pill would do nothing…” Lily shook her head.

“Then… What can we do?” Mana bit her lip as her eyes grew teary. She didn’t want her sister whom she had just reunited with to die.

“Scions are really amazing, you know!” Lily smirked as she patted Mana’s head. “In the world only, a few people can heal her, and one of them is right here…”

“Ruby?” Mana asked as she wondered why Lily was acting like some kind of an old grandma.

“No… If Ruby were to try and do that, although it would work, Mona might get some bad side effects as the chaotic remnants of the demon’s soul in her, would merge with her own soul and this is never a good thing!” Lily replied. “Ruby would also get poisoned!”

“Then who?”

 “Me and Yulian!” Lily said with a confident smirk.

“Me too?” Yulian asked.

“Yes… You are a Soul Paladin after all!” Lily said, then turned to Mana “Rest for a bit now, I will need you to defend us as we heal her, I will not be able to move for a while after that!”