The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 361: THE JUSTICE RING

“So… Basically your kids were kidnapped by some other gang over some influence dispute, and your late husband only managed to save Mona and Micheal before he was assassinated…” Victor asked, putting down the porcelain teacup on his desk after the reunion drama that he was forced to watch for an entire hour finally finished.

“Yes…” Vanessa, who sat between the twins, hugging them answered. “We tried to search for them after we managed to eliminate that gang, but they were not where to be found, and we didn’t have the personnel to spend in an extended search…” she confessed.

“I see… They must have sold them to some traffickers who brought them here and sold them to the family who took them after that. According to my report, those guys had been trying hard to get a baby for a few years before someday a miracle happened and they got twins…” Victor nodded reading from his report.

“That’s how it went, it seemed….” Vanessa nodded. Back then she had to deal with her husband's death, and couldn’t really focus on the twins.

“Then I guess that’s it…” he said looking up. “You are free to stay here with your daughters for a few days… You are technically my mother-in-law! “ he said after noticing the desire in the twins' eyes to get to know their family. They couldn’t hide the smiles on their faces. “You could also ask Hilda about anything you want… She knows about the twins more than I do…”

“So… You are letting us go?” Mona asked.

“You were never my prisoners… I just wanted to scare you a little because you dared to kidnap me..” Victor chuckled and said.

“Thanks…” Vanessa signed in relief. From the way the Twins were looking at Victor, she could tell that they were totally in love. “Can I ask you about the men who were with me?”

“Oh… Don’t worry, they are probably still asleep in that warehouse… They will wake up in a few hours at most, hopefully, no weirdo will get to them before that…” Victor said.

“Oh… Can you let Michael go check on them?” Vanessa asked. She didn’t want to leave her son in a cage.

“Ok… I will send someone to escort him out then drive him there…” he said.

Venessa nodded. She had to confess, Victor was right to leave Micheal locked up. Perverts like her son should never be allowed to roam a mansion full of girls like this alone… The poor boy would begin to question his own existence!

“Ah… Young master…There is one more thing…” Vanessa said, seemingly remembering something.

“Call me Victor… You are my mother-in-law!” he interrupted.

“Victor… I want to ask you about something privately…” she said, seemingly hesitant.

“Is it about my secret stash of porn?” he asked nervously.

“Eh… No…” she answered with a strange look on her face.

Victor sighed in relief. “Then ask the twins… They already know the answer to the thing you want to ask…” he answered. He knew she wanted to ask about Players. “And keep what you learn from them a secret if you value your and their lives…” he added as he stood up. “I have something to do now if you excuse me…” he began to leave.

“Wait!” Mona yelled. She was sitting to the side this entire time, not knowing what to think. She was clearly annoyed that the sisters she thought in peril were in fact happily married to a pervert.

“What?” he asked.

“What about the stuff you took from us?”

“Oh… I almost forgot!” Victor lied, clapping his hands twice and making two little maids who were waiting outside enter the study with trays, holding Vanessa’s and Mona's stuff.

“This is not my phone…” Vanessa said after taking her knife and 3 phones.

“This one is Gloria’s… It is already unlocked, I wanted you to see what kind of people your son hired… She had been recording the entire time!” Victor said. He already downloaded everything on the phone, so he didn’t mind giving it to Vanessa.

Vanessa frowned and quickly opened the phone, opened the camera app, and reached for the last couple of Videos.

There she could see her children’s entire operation, the planning, how they kidnapped Victor, then their entire conversation at the warehouse…

“THAT BITCH! See! That’s why I told you that Gloria can’t be trusted!” Vanessa told Mona, who casually nodded. She didn’t really trust Gloria, it was all Micheal’s fault. She had more important things to worry about.

“Where is my belt?” Mona suddenly asked nervously.

“Belt?” Victor frowned and asked.

“Yes…a hi-tech looking azure colored belt…” Mona said, gushing her teeth.

“I remember taking something like that off you… It must have fallen somewhere… Let’s go downstairs and look for it…” Victor said then looked at Mina. “Why don’t you go take your mother on a tour around the grounds while we finish…” Victor said as he gestured for Mona to follow him.

Vanessa eyed the two of them as they left then sighed. This was not her business. Who knows, he might be able to rein in her rebellious daughter.

…

Mona kept her hand on her dagger as she followed Victor who walked back downstairs to the basement.

This time they didn’t head to that room with the cells, but to a side room that looked like another study with a huge meeting table.

“Come in… We need to talk…” he said seriously as he walked in.

She followed.

Inside, three girls were sitting around a wooden table eyeing her belt that was placed on a tray in the center. The atmosphere around it could only be described by the word. Icy!

Mona wanted to hurry and take her treasured belt but suddenly she felt heavy hands push her down into a chair. It was Victor.

“Sit down…” he said coldly as he took his chair beside her.

Mona frowned but chose not to resist as she looked at her belt and then at the three other girls who hadn't even looked at her but kept their eyes on Victor.

One of them was very young, but unlike the maids outside she had some sophisticated air around her. The second one had crimson red hair, and the air around her screamed Bitch with a capital B… Those two didn’t make her feel threatened though.

That feeling came from the last girl, who was wearing a veil to hide half of her face. She was sitting with one leg raised on the chair as if she were the mistress of this mansion.

She had some Very cold air around her as she leafed through a leather-bound notebook while using a pen to strike here and there on it.

“HSSSSSS….” Victor suddenly gasped. “Dearest Lily… Where did you find that notebook?” he asked very nervously as if he finally realized the cause of the weird atmosphere.

The answer came very quickly as Lily threw the notebook at Victor, almost hitting him in the head if he didn’t catch it in time using both hands… Still, the chair he was sitting on couldn’t handle the force of the throw and was toppled back. Sending Victor to the ground.

“Ahh… DON’T MURDER YOUR HUSBAND!” he screamed.

“Shut up! I thought I smelled something fishy behind one of the cabinets…” Lily said, pointing to a broken wooden wall behind her. “Look and behold what I found there… My late husband’s future brides’ index!” she spat angrily.

“I am not late yet… And a man can dream!” Victor scolded as he stood back up and dusted his pants.

“A dream would not include a detailed plan on how to get each girl!” Lily scolded, striking the wooden table with her hand.

“What did you do to it?” Victor asked as he began to flip through his treasured notebook. “Why are all those strikes…”

“I fixed it for you…. Some of these girls are not good for you! “ she spat angrily, making Victor quickly check it again.

“Fixed?” he asked. True… of the 514 girls inside, only 40 remained…. “ he asked as he looked up, feeling hurt.

“Shut up… It is…” Lily paused. For a split second there, Victor’s face displayed a smile that he quickly hid… Others might not have seen it, but how could she miss it. Shit, she fell for his trap

“YOU BASTARD! YOU MADE ME FIND THIS ON PURPOSE!” she yelled as she grabbed a cup of tea from the table and threw it at him. THAT BASTARD WAS MANIPULATING HER!

No wonder the first girl in the book was some big slut, while the next one was very innocent and good. This bastard wanted her to make the comparison and then remove the bad ones for him, in a way gaining her tact approval for the ones she left out.

“YUP!” he said as he smiled while dodging, no longer trying to hide. “Ow, I have a lot of new wives that got your approval!” he said as he began to laugh like a maniac.

“BASTARD!” Lily scolded as she threw a boiling hot teapot this time. He still dodged it. But this forced him to bend his body at a strange angle to avoid the dripping hot tea and this caused him to take the next thing she threw in the face. Her shoes. It hit him straight in the face.

Mona, feeling a little awkward, decided to use the chaos to get up and grab her belt. Too bad the little girl beside her put her hand on Mona, forcing her back down in his chair.

“They will finish in seconds…” she said with a smile that didn’t reach her ears.

Mona was shocked…

How strong was this girl? Could she be one of ‘them’? She wondered as she put her hand on her dagger again, not noticing the strange fragrant smell that filled the room.

“We have guests now… Can we talk about it later?” Victor finally said after dodging no less than 37 projectiles including some very sharp objects and an R-rated vibrating item that was conveniently placed under the table in case it was needed.

“Fine…” Lily spat as she sat back in her seat. “Damn pervert…” she cursed.

“Sorry about that…” Victor said to Mona. He looked ridiculous with a shoe mark on his face, but she couldn’t tell him that. “Let me introduce you… This is Mona…” he told the girls. “And those are Elise, Lily, and Margret… My wives…” he added with a bright smile.

“Ah… Hi… Can I have my belt now?” Mona asked. Not caring about the girls.

“No…” Lily was the one who answered. “Do you know what this thing is?” she asked directly.

“It is a belt…” Mona answered nervously as she began to formulate a plan… Damn it, her mother and sisters might be taken as hostages upstairs. And her stupid brother was still locked up.

“Where did you get it?” Victor asked.

“The market…” Mona answered.

Victor shook his head.

“This belt is not a good thing. It seamlessly incorporates a pre-closure demonic artifact with modern tech… It uses your soul energy to grant you great power in return.” he said. “Allowing you to become the vigilante and a part of the masked Vigilante team, THE JUSTICE RING who has been active around Armain Foundation recently…” he said directly.

Mona tried to stand up and take her belt at that very second. She realized that she needed to leave this place.

"Ahh..."

She couldn’t move at all. SHIT… THOSE GUYS MIGHT BE VILLAINS… She had been warned that something like that might happen. She needed to find a way to activate the distress signal…

“Two years ago, you escaped home, went to the Armain Federation… You worked there as a waitress at a club for a bit and were forced to witness some dark shit. After that, there is a hole in the info for three months before you appear again as a part of that team…” Lily said. “The one who is operating you is very smart, keeping your power level at a human acceptable range…” she said.

Mona kept her silence.

“Do you know anything about them?” Margret asked.

“On the surface, they are just a vigilante team who hunts dangerous criminals, they capture them alive as they have a strict no-kill policy, acting like the good guys…” Lily said. “The rumors on the streets are that they have created a big underground prison to house those criminals away from society!”

“They are collecting specimens, Aren't they?” The one who asked was Margret.

“Precisely… ” Lily said. “In a few years, they will disappear after questions will begin to be asked…” she said, not clarifying.

“Who is behind them?” Elise asked.

“The Von Zwei family,” Lily answered. “They used them to collect candidates for their monster army project in their labs… They need a lot of able-bodied people for their experiments, and criminals are perfect.”

“Oh… Those labs are like the one you nuked?” Margret asked, making Lily glare at her and then look away. That’s the one.

“They have two others around the world…” Lily sighed.

“What to do now?” Margret asked as Mona tried hard to understand what they were talking about.

“We have two choices, to either ignore them for now, to expose them, or assemble a team and finish them off and take their data…” Lily said, looking at Mona.

“We will see about them later… We are not in a hurry,“ Victor said mysteriously, “Now what should we do about this idiot? Her soul is already 30% damaged from using this belt, she might have developed an addiction…” he added.

“Watch your tongue!” Mona threatened. They all ignored her.

“Can’t Ruby help her?” Margret asked.

“No… Ruby can’t increase soul energy… “Victor said, then looked at Mona. “Did you understand anything from what we said?” he asked.

“... You are claiming that the overseers are evil and they are using me and my pals to collect criminals and do experiments on them…” she answered she was not stupid like her brother.

“Yes… Do you believe us?” Victor nodded.

She looked away.

“What if we give you and your pals true superpowers? Victor asked. “Like for real, flight and shit. Not just increase in strength like this belt does?” Victor asked. “You just have to start working for me instead…” he said.

“Do you think I am a 3-year-old child?” she asked.

“You already have seen what the belt does… Why can’t you believe me?” he asked, pondering if it was still a little early to teach her about the existence of players.

“This belt is built on advanced tech….” She didn’t continue as Lily used her bare hand to grab the belt and then crush it.

“Ahhh…” Mona yelped as from inside the belt something flew out and tried to hit Lily, but seemed to have hit an invisible barrier, so it turned around and headed to the room’s ceiling. Too bad Victor grabbed it in midair, then in his fist, a cracking sound could be heard followed by an otherwordly scream.

“A cursed devil bone… This thing was supposed to kill the one closest to the belt and capture his soul in case it was let free… ” Victor said, opening his palm. Inside, there was a small cracked bone fragment that had many ominous symbols painted on it. “Do you believe us now?”

Mona didn’t answer. She was in shock… Was the bone always on Victor’s hand? Is this one of their tricks? Damn… The overseers are going to be angry now the belt is damaged.

Wait… Didn’t this happen before? She… Why can’t she remember? No… Wait… No…

Her head began to hurt.

She felt that she had forgotten something important. But she couldn’t tell what…

“They must have used some memory replacement technique on her…” Lily said.

Mona frowned. Not knowing what to think.

“How about a bet…” Elise suddenly asked.

“What?” Mona asked.

“We will create some fake criminal for your team to fight and defeat… And then we will follow this criminal secretly…. “ she said.

“Ah…” Mona didn’t know how to respond. She was supposed to keep the overseer's existence a secret. Why did she say their name?

“If your ‘Overseers’ are really as good as they seem to be, I will not only apologize, I will also donate a few Billions to your cause!” Victor said. “However… If what we were saying was the truth, you and your superhero team will have a new boss…” Victor said, completing Elise’s suggestion.

“Why should I accept?” Mona asked.

“If you don’t, I will tell your mother and brother about everything you did when you left home,” Victor shrugged, making his point.

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