The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 522: Zer von Trie

“There was an accident?” Harvey, who sat at his desk late at night, asked. He was just having dinner with one of his illegitimate daughters, enjoying the look on her face when he told her the truth about their relationship. And just when things got good, and she began to warm up to him, he was interrupted by such news.

“Yes, master…” a servant who knelt to his side replied. “Our first theory is that it was a bomb… but we….” 

“Spare me the details. Anyone hurt?” Harvey asked. Having someone attack his family was not something new. He would find out the one behind it sooner or later, and naturally, their end would not be good.

“Thankfully, Young master Gary and the others were saved on time, with only two missing persons!” the servant. “Someone called Yulian Crow, and… Your grandson-in-law, Victor Von Weise!”

“WHAT?” Harvey asked. “Are you sure?” 

“Yes… We are extending our search, but….”

BEEP

A message on the phone alerted him to quickly glance at it. 

“Young master Victor was rescued a few miles away… “ the servant said with a strange expression.

“What?” Harvey asked, noticing the servant was holding back something.

“When they found him, he was covered in shit… Apparently, he was in the restroom when the yacht flipped, so he hung onto the toilet and everything in the wastebox below….” the servant said, holding his laughter.

“...” Harvey shook his head with a smirk. ”That would never happen in the olden days when we flushed those things into the water... I told Gary he should have gone with my traditional carpenter instead of buying one of those new Woke yachts...” he sighed. ”Anyways, that Victor kid is just unlucky, I swear sometimes I think…” he paused. Knowing Victor, that bastard must know something. “I heard Elize in town… Tell her to come see me with her husband first thing in the morning!” he said after thinking for a moment.

“Ah… Yes, master!” the servant nodded.

“And continue the search for now…  Hopefully, nothing wrong will happen to that Von Krone heir, or things would be troublesome!” Harvey added with a sigh. His guts had been warning him that something big was going to happen, and it seemed they were right again!

***

When Yulian opened his eyes, he was in a very strange situation. Not ‘Unheard of’ Strange, but ‘I can’t fucking believe this is happening to me’ Strange.

Simply put, he was lying with someone over him, hugging him in a very intimate position. Adding to that, both of them were naked.

“Ehm… Excuse me... miss?” he cleared his throat, then said while crossing his fingers, please be a girl!

The one on top of him, resting on his chest with her body intertwined with him, slowly raised her blushing head and let her blond hair drop as she locked her crystal clear eyes with his.

He gasped. She was a beauty, a total beauty. Except that across her face, she had a strange spider tattoo that he could feel some ominous energy coming from. Well, all of that was not important right now…

“...”

“...”

“Eh… A… “ Yulian hesitated, not knowing what to say as he tried hard to remember. How the hell did he end up like this? Looking around, he could make out that he was in a stone hut that had a wooden roof, illuminated by three candles. He was lying on a hard bed with the girl technically riding him. And his exhausted little brother down there was telling him that he just completed his ‘reson de etre’ successfully… 

Shit… Not again! Was he the type who got women to rape him?

Who was this one anyway?

The last thing he remembered was attending the bachelor party on that yacht with Victor and Gary…. Was she a stripper? No… There was more… RIGHT! There was an explosion, the yacht flipped… The next thing he remembered was barely escaping to find himself in dark, cold water, then the feeling of falling down, then something bit him… Right… Back then, he felt immense pain, and just before he lost consciousness, he remembered seeing the shadow of someone swimming toward him!

“You saved me?” he asked.

The girl shook her head as she slowly sat up and got off him with difficulty, covering her body with a coarse bedsheet as she looked toward something behind Yulian.

“I was the one who saved you…” Someone said in a low, old voice. “My daughter just thought you were pleasing to the eye, and decided to take you as her husband! Feel honored!”

Yulian quickly turned back to see an old man with long white hair and a clean-shaven face walking into the hut through the curtain that acted as a door. Although he was dressed very poorly in some leathery garbs, Yulian could tell that he was way stronger than him. He also had that strange spider tattoo on his face.

“You are… This….” he said as he sat up, then scumbled to cover his body with something, but he had none, and for some reason his storage ring was not working…. Wait why…

“My name is Zer, this one is my daughter Anastasia. She likes to be called Ana…” the old man explained, pointing to himself, then to the girl who slowly put on a simple dress to cover her body, then smiled toward him. “How may I address you, young fellow!”

Yulian squinted his eyes. “Yulian…” he said, hesitating about how to report his last name.

“Yulian Von Krone?” the old man asked as he squinted his eyes a bit as if to inspect Yulian’s little brother.

“Eh… Yes...Wait, how did you know…” Yulian exclaimed as he pulled his legs together. Did his little brother say his name? Wait… Can his brother talk?

“He he… I can see your bloodline quite clearly! You must be from the main line!” the old man chuckled as he pointed to his forehead, where suddenly a third eye opened, then closed. It was super creepy. “No wonder Ana took a liking to you, searching for a good husband in this shit hole is not easy for someone with her high standards… And just when it was getting troublesome,  you, whose bloodline should match well with hers, appeared… Fate really works in strange ways.”

“What…”

“From today forward, Ana is your wife!” the old man said. “If you dare bully her, I will flick your fucking head off…” the old man said with a very cold voice.

“Wait… Wait… Just wait... This is…. “

“You plan to back away after doing that to her?” the old man scolded as the girl looked away bashfully with some guilt in her eyes.

“No… I would never do something like that…” Yulian said. “It is just that I already have someone…” Yulian quickly explained, eyeing the old man, then Ana, who just tilted her head, looking at him as if she was finding what he was saying amusing.

“Don’t even try your friend’s story to run away!” the old man said with annoyance. 

“Friend? What… Who?”

“That Von Geldstadt guy… He already told me that he was supposed to get married today, poor guy!”

“Right! Gary’s wedding… I…” Yulian quickly tried to stand up, but remembering his embarrassing situation, he could only look around the room for something to cover up.

“Relax, that wedding has already been canceled!” the old man said. 

“What…When… Why…”

“The groom is now locked in some unbeatable dungeon, you see… And will not be able to leave for the foreseeable future,” the old man sighed.

“Locked in…” Yulian paused as things ticked into place. 

Wait…

Finally, Yulian understood what was going on and took notice of the strange window blinking in the corner of his vision for a while now, like a nagging old wife.

SIDELINE DUNGEON ENTRY WAS SUCCESSFUL.

WELCOME TO - EONIC’S EXPERIMENT MAZE #A-5436-1122-V3 -

WARNING: THIS MAZE IS EXPERIMENTAL… REPORT ANY IRREGULARITIES TO EONIC THE HERMIT. IF YOU CAN’T FIND HIM, THEN IT IS YOUR FUCKIN’ PROBLEM.

HINT: THE GAME IS NOT ABOUT THE RULES; FUCK THE RULES!

SPECIAL CONDITIONS : 

STORAGE SKILLS ARE DISABLEDCOMMUNICATION SKILLS ARE DISABLEDSPACE WARPING SKILLS ARE DISABLED
TARGET:

REACH THE BOSS’S ROOM

DEFEAT EONIC’S AGENT

Yulian swallowed. 

“This is a dungeon?” Yulian asked. He had to ask; this was a bit unbelievable. Did a dungeon open up in the lake under the yacht… No, it might be someone who pulled them into a dungeon!

“Finally figured it out hah… Yeah, it is a ‘Dungeon’ if you want to call it that… Follow me…” the old man said, then walked outside without waiting.

“Ah…” Yulian hesitated. Should he walk out naked?

“...” Ana seemed to want to hurry to his side with a long, tattered garb that looked like her father’s, but as soon as she stood up, her legs gave in, and she fell.

“Ah…” Yulian quickly hurried and grabbed her in time, knowing fully well that it was his fault. He had no idea why this girl ‘chose him,’ but since she slept with him, she was his wife! He was that kind of traditional man. “Don’t worry…” he said as he took the garb in her hands and quickly put it on.

It was clumsy as he didn’t know how this thing should be worn, but with a blush,  Ana slowly helped him, then tied the strings that held it together. 

“You can’t talk?” Yulian asked as he noticed the girlʼs strange silence.

Ana shook her head, then pointed outside as if telling him that this was not important, and that he should go with her father.

Yulian sighed, then patted her head, ruffing her blond hair a bit before he walked outside under her observing gaze. He decided to take care of her matter after figuring out his current situation.

As he stepped outside the hut, it was really a totally different world.

He was standing on a cliff, overlooking a village that was built on the side of a huge lake that, by itself, was formed by a humongous waterfall that fell from high above in a great splash. Even from more than about a mile away, Yulian could hear its sound.

“When you arrived, you fell from up there!” the old man said, pointing up.

“Oh…” Yulian nodded as he looked up following the waterfall, only to see it disappear above in the luminous fog that seemed to provide the light to this place. Averting his eyes from it and looking around, Yulian confirmed that this place was in some kind of huge cavern, yet he could only see one of its walls behind the village, where an arched gate was built.

Looking down, he could see people going about their daily business, some fishing on the lake, while some women were busy processing something that he couldn’t make out.

“How many people are there….”

“Our village has 217 residents… You and your friend are number 218, 219…” the old man sighed. “The other 4 villages around the lake should be the same, it’s quite prosperous! “

“Oh… “ Yulian nodded. So this place was really huge. “Were we the only ones you rescued?” Yulian, thinking about something, quickly asked.

“Were you with others?”

“We were having a bachelor party so…”

“Oh… Well, this is a dungeon, so only players can enter!” the old man said. “I didn’t see any other people with you when I rescued you… But if your friend is really here, youʼd better forget about him!”

“Why?”

“If I didnʼt manage to save him, it means he was grabbed by one of those insects that live in the lake, and his body is lying in a cocoon somewhere deep, getting used as a breeding ground for the things down there…” he pointed to the lake. “If that means anything, though, he should still be alive… He will be for a long time, maybe even outlive both of us, as those monsters like their eggs to stay warm and know how to take care of their nesting hosts!”

“...” Yulian swallowed. What kind of horrific things were those!

“Aha… I am kidding…” the old man chuckled.

“Like hell such things exist!” Yulian sighed in relief.

“No, they really do… I just meant that your friend is really not here, nothing can escape my eyes, and you and that stupid von Geldstadt were the only ones here when the dungeon threw you in!!” the old man said, pointing to his third eye that blinked once.

“Oh… Are you sure?” Yulian asked.

“Yeah! I have seen this many times already…. Once the gate activates, all people get pulled in at once, so if he is not with you, it means he was not pulled in!” The old man sighed.

“Oh… How long have you been here anyway, old man?” Yulian finally asked.

“Measuring time here is tough, but from the info your friend provided, it should be about 290 years, give or take… Let me introduce myself again… “ the old man said with a smirk. “My name is Zer Von Trie, the Third Duke of Bilzivar!” he said with a smirk, revealing a line of some very crooked and ugly teeth that would make any dentist cry.

“... Where is Blizivas?” Yulian squinted his eyes. He never heard of that place. As for the old man’s age, he could believe it. Although not common, those with very pure bloodlines tended to live long. Even in his family, if it were not for some secretive accident that led to many of the elders getting lost, they would have had a few such people.

“It’s Bilzivar...Never mind…” the old man sighed. It seemed like his family was really gone.

“Where is Gary anyway?” Yulian asked as he began to look around.

“Oh, your friend? After realizing where he was, he went berserk, wanting to conquer this place and leave… I had to put him down for his own safety…”

“Put him down?”

“With some drugs… He should already be awake now, let’s go see him!” the old man said as he walked toward a side building that looked like some kind of a cellar. “I understand his position, but he would never be able to leave by the time of the wedding, and acting rashly would only lead to his death!” the old man sighed, shaking his head.

Yullian quickly followed. “How much time passed since we arrived here?”

“I can’t be certain, but it should be about 13 hours!” the old man said after pondering for a moment.

“Oh…” Yulian frowned. This time would mean that it was already 8 in the morning outside, and everything should be in chaos over their disappearance!