The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 520: Jim

“Nervous?” Victor asked as the plane approached Tetraquad City Airport around dusk. 

“Yeah… “ Elise sighed as she looked out. They left Vein City a bit late as Victor had to go and say goodbye to each of his wives alone. Thankfully, he took his father’s private jet, so they managed to get here on time.

“Don’t worry, if anyone in your family dares to bully you, I will send the nutcracker after him!” he said.

“Please don’t, I don’t want the Ven Geldstadt to be known as a family of eunuchs!” she chuckled a bit. Her sense of humor has evolved considerably after a few months of living with Margret. “You should be the worried one, Charlotte will be at the wedding!”

“Who is Charlotte again?”

“My cousin… Gary’s sister… The one you humiliated before… That woman can hold a grudge!” Elise warned.

“Oh… That one, I will be waiting then…” he smirked. His purpose of coming here was to take care of that bitch, as this timeline has already diverged quite a bit from the original one, and he was worried that someone would make a move on Gary ahead of time. “The nutcracker’s offer extends to your family, too, Robin!” he thought for a moment, then looked toward Theta, who was sitting with Ruby in front of him.

“...” Theta nodded nervously, acknowledging that she might need it. She was fine with her stupid family becoming eunuchs!

“Alpha, go wake up Lin and let her prepare… We are almost there!” Victor ordered the maid, who sat behind him, pouting the entire journey. She was taking Alexʼs old role now. “After the plane lands, you take the girls to the hotel, I have a bachelor party to attend!” he said with a smug smirk.

***

The huge yacht was ablaze with fireworks, loud music, drinks, and all kinds of exotic dancers who shook their scantily dressed butts around a different group of young masters who sat drinking and socializing to celebrate one guy’s wedding.

Near the end of the yacht, four such young men sat on deck in a place that was clearly meant for VIPs.

“Gary! I didn’t expect you to be the first to do it, man!” one blond guy with earrings said as he threw himself at the chair with a glass of wine in hand.

“Yeah, totally, you never liked girls at school, I thought you were into men or something!” another short one added.

“What do you mean by something?” Another red-headed one asked with a chuckle as he tested Gary.

“One might never know… Remember old Jim?” the short one said.

“Damn it, why would you bring that filth bag now, ruining the mood!” the redhead cursed

“I think he might try something…” the short one said.

“What makes you think that?” Gary finally asked as one of the girls finished a ‘lap dance’ routine on top of him. He was not into such things, but his damn friends insisted. Really, it was as if he were some kind of bad guy magnet. 

“Well, I heard he’s out of prison…”

“Who is out of prison?” someone asked from behind the three. It was a dashing young man with silky black hair. Dressed in a pure white suit that was walking toward them while being hugged by two hot strippers.

“Ah… Just an old pal, no one you should care about!” Gary quickly turned and said.

“This guy is?” the bold guy asked as he inspected the newcomer from head to toe. He didn’t recognize him, which meant that he was not from around here. Still, the regal air around him was not something that could be faked! Even with the girls swooning over him like flies over a dead pig.

“Let me introduce you guys, this is Yulian vo…, Yulian Crown, an heir from the Crown family up north in the Crow islands. He was here to do business with my grandpa, but after we met, we really hit it off. I invited him to attend my wedding, and as the host, it was my duty to get him to this gathering!” Gary said with a dry smile. He only met this guy this afternoon when his grandfather ordered him to not only befriend him, but also show him around town. 

Gary was surprised back then, as he did recall meeting this guy at Victor’s wedding and knew that he was the latter’s brother-in-law. Still, he had no idea that he was also from some supreme family! He asked Yulian about this, but the latter chuckled in response.

“Nice to meet you, I am Lars Flame, the heir of Firerat,” the red-haired guy said quickly. Since Gary showed respect to this guy, he was clearly not someone to be ignored! “Those are Raul Bloom, his father is the CEO of Bloom Hedge Fund, and this is Glint Bloodflint, from the Bloodflint banking family!” he added, introducing the short guy, then the blond one, respectively.

“Nice to meet you, I am, as Gary introduced, Yulian Crown…” Yulian said, letting go of the strippers to shake hands with the young man.

”I have never heard of the Crown family. What do you guys do?” Lars, the red-headed guy, asked as soon as Yulian returned his hands to hug the backs of the two strippers, who, upon hearing the question, also perked their pierced ears to listen.

“My family used to do all kinds of business about 30 years ago, but nowadays, we are mainly in the marine industries and precious metals mining… We also have some oil transports or something, I am not sure, as only recently was I allowed to participate in the family’s business!” Yulian clarified. 

“Oh… You were studying abroad or something?” the blond guy asked.

“Yeah… Something like that!” Yulian chuckled dryly. “Back then, I also had an unfortunate accident where I was wrongfully thrown in prison, so I couldn’t help but ask what you guys were talking about…”

“Oh… Well… It is an old ‘acquaintance’ of ours,“ Lars explained. “He used to be a rich young master and everything with his father being the CEO of the MLF company… The one that makes cars!” he explained as he noticed Yulian’s frown.

“The ones that make those MLF dodgers?” Yulian asked. He didn’t know a lot about cars, but he does remember that one, as its name was not only a total joke but also one of the most successful advertising stunts in the last few years.

“Yeah, that’s the one… Anyway, about 2 years ago, that guy had just become the youngest CEO in history… You should have seen all the news about him…”

“No…” Yulian said. “Wait… I do remember something like that, the one whose father died all of a sudden in that ominous Bloodflint accident?” he asked,  as his newly acquired memory skill activated, filling him in. Slowly, he turned to look at that Glint Bloodflint. He remembered seeing this in a magazine that he was using to wipe his butt. He usually reads the articles on them before using them to avoid whipping his butt with the photo of someone from the royal family or some religious figure…. Not that he cared or anything, but it brought trouble if someone saw him. He learnt that the hard way.

“Yeah, many good men died back then…” Glint sighed. All of the direct male heirs of their family were having a ‘Party’ on that plane and perished in that accident, leading to the current fight between the branch families over the succession right. “Anyways, that guy was left with a sickly mother and a younger sister, so he had to take the company reins at a young age… And to tell the truth, the pal was pretty good, releasing one successful product after another: the MLF Lover, the MLF Ranger, and the MLF Banger… He was rolling until he made the mistake of his life and crossed our Gary here!” 

“Crossed him?” Yulian asked.

“His mother turned out to be from my ‘Goldmann’ family. She seemed to have run away with a family ‘artifact’ a few years ago, and we had been tracking her eversense,“ Gary explained. Only someone like Yulian would understand the meaning of the word, Artifact. “They seemed to have located her when her photo was leaked by some reporter after her husbandʼs death, and my first task as an heir was to capture her!”

“Oh!” Yulian sighed. He knew how dark aristocratic families could be.

“It was not easy, as that woman knew how to hide, and no matter what we did, we couldn’t find her, so after consulting my friends here, we turned to a less conventional way…” Gary said.

“Targeting her son…” Yulian said.

“Exactly. But we had to do it in a way where she was forced to reveal herself, so the guys here took care of it...” Gary sighed.

“We spiked Jim’s drinks, and then took him to a pigʼs barn and let nature take its course!” Glint explained.

“Eh….” Yulian raised one eyebrow as he got what they did.

“It was not pretty, but the next day the news broke out, and Jim was arrested for bestiality, public indecency, and Animal abuse. That woman had no other way but to make a move herself… Gary, who managed to sway the Vice Ceo’s and tap her phone, was able to trace that woman’s phone call and then find her!” Lars said.

“Oh… Now that woman…”

“She is under house arrest in the family!” Gary said. “But with Jim out now, he might try something!” he sighed. Seriously, any other time would have been good, but it had to be right before his Wedding!

“In court that day, he shouted something about revenge…” Lars added. 

“Oh…” Yulian sighed. “Why didn’t you take care of him in prison?” he asked.

“The family made a promise to his mother not to hurt him in order to retrieve the artifact!” Gary said.

“I swear this guy’s life is very tenacious, he is like one of those cockroach action movies that always finds a way to survive…” Lars said, shaking his head.

“Don’t jinx it…” Yulian said as he realized something.

“I am just saying… But don’t worry, that guy has no money or status, even with him out, what can he do?” the redhead said.

“A lot of things, and I might know something about that…” someone said, making the five young masters all look behind them as no one usually dared to approach them this closely due to the status difference.

There, in all of his purple glory, stood a handsome purple-haired guy in his signature purple suit. He was holding a glass of wine in one hand and leaning back on the yacht’s rail as if he had been there all along.

“VICTOR!” Yulian and Gary exclaimed at the same time.

“Victor White?” the other guys also exclaimed after taking a moment to recognize the newcomer. Victor was an A-list celebrity! Many young masters take him as their idol nowadays! Especially after his harem wedding that showed them the way forward!

“When did you arrive here?” Gary asked as he stepped forward to shake hands with Victor, who pulled him in a hug.

“A while back! Elise made a call, and one of your family butlers brought me here directly!” ” Victor said as he raised his glance toward another group of young men who sat nearby.

“Woo! Young master Victor is the best!” they all called as they also raised their glasses with large smiles.

“I just figured I would greet everyone before coming here to see you!” he confessed. Securing the perimeter before showing up was a new rule he set for himself. “Itʼs just that the guys there were arguing about who would take which girl with him tonight, so I had to take my time and introduce them to a little game that I play with my wives…” Victor chuckled. That game would be all the rage in a few years.

“Oh…” Gary swallowed, hearing him, so did Lars and the others.

“Anyways, nice to meet you guys…” he said to the young masters before glaring at Yulian. “And you… Nice to meet you, brother-in-law!”

“BROTHER IN LAW?” The young man turned to look at Yulian, then at Victor again.

“Nice to meet you again!” Yulian sighed. He was here mainly to meet Victor, but knowing the latter’s relationship with Lily, he didn’t know how to act around him. Secretly, he was her husband, but in public, he was her nemesis! Damn it, this was complicated! “It’s been a while… “

“Yeah… My sister had been searching for you…”

“I know… Can you spare me some time later tonight?” Yulian asked directly.

“I can, but I have to make sure just in case… Do you like to be over or under?” Victor asked with a frown as the other young men paused for a moment to get what he meant.

“...”

“...”

“I meant I need to talk to you about something!” Yulian explained as he silently cursed at this pervert. 

“Ah…Sorry, I misunderstood… ” Victor sounded disappointed. “Fine, come find me at the White hotel, I will be in the presidential suite,” Victor said dismissively, turning to the young men who began to introduce themselves one after another. He knew what this was about…

“You heard what we spoke about, Jim, earlier?” Gary asked after Victor finished shaking hands with everyone, then took a seat. Although he acted as if he didn’t care. Jim’s situation made him worried about his wedding tomorrow. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to April!

“Not from the start, but I heard about him before, and I knew a few things!” Victor said. He knew about this from his past life simply because that Jim guy was a part of the plan that ruined his life. He was the main actor behind Gary’s demise and getting him kicked out of his family. Also, Jim was destined to become Charlot’s husband, taking on her surname to enter the Von Gledstadt family. 

In the other timeline, Jim not only managed to go back to the family, climb up the ranks, but also became one of the main heirs after Harveyʼs death, joining the fight to become the patriarch. Too bad his happiness didn’t last, as the family’s internal struggle, then Reckoning, and Caspian’s sudden betrayal of humanity had weakened them a lot, so in the end, the family was absorbed by the Von Zwei, and that guy disappeared. “According to some news I got, that guy might be way more dangerous than you think!!”

“What do you mean?” Gary asked.

“First… Let me confirm three things that you guys totally missed…. “ Victor said. “What happened to Jimʼs sister?” Victor asked as he squinted his eyes.

“She should have been captured with her mother…” Gary said. After locating that woman, her case no longer had anything to do with him.

“This, you are mistaken… That girl was not that woman’s natural daughter! Only Jim is!” Victor explained. “Remember how his father died… That guy was a womanizer!”

“How do you know this….” Lars asked.

“My family has its own network!” Victor said as he glared at Gary. “... Right?”

“... Damn it…” Gary cursed. He totally believed Victor, and without the family bloodline, that little girl must have become a servant in his clan. If she were lucky, she might not have suffered a lot, but if she was not… Jim would definitely come for blood if anything were to have happened to her. He quickly took his phone and sent his butler a message. “What else?” he asked Victor. This guy was exactly as his grandfather described, a very smart person who knew how to hide deep! Still, he was sure that Victor was helping him, maybe in order to demand something later, but he didn’t mind….

“Jim is technically a part of your family… His mother is!” Victor said, making his point. Although many things had been lost after the Von Geldstadt was destroyed in his past life, he still managed to gather a few things while creating his time travel plan.  For Gary, he even went out of his way to ask for Yulian’s help to figure some things out!

“The family would never accept him back, not after what that woman did! She was technically disowned!” Gary said.

“But his ‘Bloodline’ still belongs to your family… Getting the surname was not hard if he knew who to marry!” Victor explained. In the coming years, right before the reckoning, the research about bloodlines would bloom a lot, leading to many findings, and all the families would start paying attention to it!

“Bloodline?” Lars asked. “No one still cares about archaic things like those…”

“No, my family might…” Gary nodded as he thought about his recent conversation with his grandfather, then sent another message to his butler. Due to the current tense fight in the family, many guys would try different things, so if some parties were to try to use Jim to take care of him, things would be troublesome. “What is the third thing?” he asked Victor as Yulian, who listened from the side, squinted his eyes, confirming that Victor was indeed his sister’s husband! It needed skill to rein in that crazy woman!

“Well…. “ Victor hesitated. “This can only be shared in private…” he finally said. That last thing was only a hypothesis for now, but Gary needed to learn about this ASAP.