The Young Master in the Shadows

“Aria, how are the preparations here?” Victor asked as he looked around, observing the workers who were busy adjusting the decorations.

“As you can see, everything is on schedule!” She said, “Why are you here? As far as I know you are too lazy to take care of trivial things?” she said jokingly. After knowing Victor for more than a month, she confirmed that her first impression of him was true. He was a lazy bastard! A handsome brave and cool lazy bastard!

“Did you print the invitations?” he asked.

“Not yet!” she said.

“Good, I sent a design to your email this morning with a list. Did you see it?” he asked.

“No…” she quickly checked her mail and there it was. The message contained a drawing of a strange gilded design with floating dragons, it was very domineering. A list was attached to it with many names.

“That many?”

“Yup, make sure to print and deliver them ASAP. For the names marked with an asterisk, I will deliver the invitations personally!” he said.

“Ok… Anything else?”

“I need you to make a small change in the wedding theme…” he said as he looked around.

“What? Are you telling me this now? Do you know how much work we have already done?”

“It’s not my fault! I just had an inspiring moment in the Dungeon when I saw the greatness of the old murals!” He told a partial lie. After witnessing the great misfortune curse, he realized that his initial plan was too naive. He needed something more secure. That’s why he was changing things to build plans upon plans, scattering red herrings all around for spies to latch on.

“What kind of excuse is that?” she asked as she gestured to the workers to stop, “Whatever, it is your wedding, What do you want to do?”

“You are doing a Wiren-style, royal wedding here. Right? That won’t work for me,” he said. "It is totally not my style!"

“What do you want then? What is your 'STYLE'?” she asked with a frown, hoping that it would not be anything perverted.

“I want you to plan the wedding more exotically! I need a grand stage to show off!”

Aria frowned. “Do you want a nude wedding?” she asked coldly as Margret looked at him with expecting eyes. This sounded fun!

“Um... Not that exotic!” he answered firmly after some contemplation, disappointing at least one girl and a few dozen workers who were listening in. “I meant to do an old wedding ceremony!” he said.

“How old?”

“Ancient! I heard it was a trend lately to perform weddings using old ceremonies!” he said carefully.

“A trend between perverts!” she scolded. She heard about a wedding that was performed about a year ago where the couple sat on a volcano to imitate an old sacrifice ritual… The Volcano, probably being jealous, exploded as the wedding wrapped up.

“I want to try that ceremony I read about in the history journal…. What was it called…. Yes, The Black mountain dragon ceremony…” he said as he struck his hands together.

“Black mountain?” Aria frowned before she began to search her phone to look it up then she started to read as Victor watched with some amusement. Carefully manipulating what she was reading to make her say what he wanted her to say.

“This ceremony is too old, based on an ancient folklore tale of brides being offered to a dragon…” she breathed in relief when she didn’t see the word nude anywhere as she completed the first page… Did Victor think of himself as a dragon perhaps? Yeah, probably.

She continued to read a few more lines before suddenly stopping, “This wouldn’t work! Even if we ignored the restriction on the number of brides. The law of the Wiren principality requires a priest to be present to validate the marriage… If you used none, that would be a political scandal!” Aria said as she read the article. "father would not approve, especially after the..." she didn't continue.

“I can throw a priest in the mix, no one would care! He just has to stand to the side, And that guy would probably sleep during most of the event anyway!” Victor shrugged his shoulders.

“Whatever… Are you planning to take concubines too? The ceremony requires a dragon, and at least seven brides to complete!” she suddenly asked in shock. This ceremony could accommodate up to 33 Brides, what pervert designed this?

“Yes… I will be the dragon!" he said confirming her assumption, "In addition to the two main wives Lin and Nova, I will also marry the twins, Margret, you, and maybe Mira or someone else… I still haven't decided yet.”

“I see……………………. pervert…. Wait… What? Can you repeat that last sentence?” Aria frowned and raised her head from her phone to look him in the eye. She was unsure she heard him right.

“I said that, I still haven't decided yet...” he said loudly.

“The one before it,”

“Mira or someone else? Yes, I plan to tell Mira later…”

“THE ONE PRIOR!” Aria interrupted.

“Oh that…. The twins, Margret, and You… Yes, You will be one of the brides!” he clarified, making her gasp, “Didn’t you always dream of marrying me?” he added as if this was an established fact.

“Who said that I want to marry you?” she asked angrily. As Margret shook her head. All the girls were having the same reaction. Did Victor need to do it like this, in front of all the eavesdropping workers who had nothing better to do but listen and gossip?.... Haa! Margret, who was frowning, gasped as she realized something, then kept her silence.

“It is all your fault! You have to take responsibility,” Victor said stubbornly. “You told me that every time you kicked my poor balls in bed!”

“No I didn’t!” she lied with a blush… She knew that she talked a lot in her sleep, but she was not sure what she could have said.

“You did! You have no choice in this matter anyway… I already decided for you and told father,” Victor lied as he turned around to make his escape. Margret quickly followed.

“BASTARD!”

Victor could hear Aria yell behind him as he reached the elevator…Her voice was not angry though, it was a little high-pitched with many expectations mixed into it. Many of the workers began to look at her with strange eyes after that.

“Find a good dress!” Victor said with a smug smile as the elevator door began to close, totally enjoying Aria’s appearance as she tried to look angry with her blushing pretty face.

…

“...” Margret sighed. “In the end, you were really using us…. You only wanted to marry us now so that you can do that perverted ceremony,” she said with some annoyance as they left the hotel, she didn’t notice how Victor was carefully observing the doors and windows during their flash visit here.

“Not really, I would have married you all later no matter what, but this ceremony has two main points! The first one is that it allows the brides to cover their faces, which will help me cover my tracks, and the second point is that all of the brides would be official brides, regardless of what the paper says!”

“Oh!” Margret was surprised, totally unaware that Victor didn’t tell her two additional crucial points that only a few knew in this day and age. This ceremony was not just a show. Like many ancient ceremonies, it had ancient roots. This one was based on a system binding marriage ceremonies. It was so binding that breaking it was impossible if it were to be done correctly. The second point to choosing this ceremony among myriad others was the fact that it was meant for dragons!

In ancient times dragons were walking in this world, and this ceremony was one of the things that survived the ages.

“I should probably be shopping for a dress too,” Margret said after some thinking.

“You can do that tomorrow,” Victor said casually, “Today you must help me with my mission!” he added with an evil smile.

…

After leaving the Hotel, Victor looked at his watch and confirmed that it was still 10.20 Am, so he quickly hurried to his car, intending to go visit the crime scene and finish the stupid council mission as soon as possible.

Reaching the hotel’s parking lot with Margret, he was confronted by a group of 10 hooligans hammering his car with metal bats as two young men were watching to the side. One of them was the guy with dyed blonde hair that the Nutcracker kicked earlier.

Several Hotel security guards were standing nervously to the side watching, seemingly threatened by the other young man who wore an expensive white tuxedo.

"Thank you, big brother!" The blond guy said to the young men respectfully. "That bastard deserves this for kicking me after I told him to give his girl to you!"

"Is that girl really that pretty? Is she any good?" the young man asked casually. “The last time, the girl you got was very inexperienced…”

"Her face is 8/10, but... The slutty air around that girl is absolutely something big-brother would like!"

"We will see,"

"See what?" A very cool voice asked from behind

"The girl…" the big brother began to speak, then stopped and looked behind to see Victor's smiling face.

"You….. Y...Young m… ma… Master...Vi...Victor?" The young man began to speak then started to stutter nervously when he recognized Victor’s face.

This guy was the son of the newly appointed CEO of White investments LTD. A few days ago, His newly appointed father told him the reason for his new appointment. The old boss Alvin had seemingly been cut into pieces and fed to the fish after his stupid son offended someone from the “FAMILY”.

After that, the new CEO showed his son the photos of two handsome youths. Young master Victor and Mistress Iris, telling him to avoid angering those two at all costs! And to find a way to gain their favor if he could.

…

"The one and only," Victor replied, confirming the young man’s thoughts. "Why are you beating my toy?" He asked in a very casual voice as he looked at the poor car that was wailing non-stop for her young master to help her.

"Is that car…." Before the nervous big brother could reply, the blond guy began to yell

"It's his big brother! The one who kicked me! He even cursed at you. Saying that you are a piece of sh*t….ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." he screamed in pain as his big brother kicked him in the freshly healed balls.

" Big brother, it is him, not me…… Ahhh."

The big brother didn't respond, he just took a metal bat from one of his stunned men's hands and began hitting the Blond guy until he stopped moving. Totally ignoring his fading-out pleas and the thick stream of blood that began to seep under him.

"Young master……" the big brother turned to Victor and began to speak but was stopped by a gun barrel pointed at his head.

"Freeze and drop the metal bat! " A group of police officers seemed to have arrived just in time and drew their guns. They were headed by none other than officer Lea!