“MASTER!” a servant ran into the patriarch's chamber, startling him and waking him from his nap on the dragon leather seat he wanted to sit on for his entire life.

“What? Did Ann return?” Marcos asked as he sat up abruptly.

“Ah. No, it is about young master Bruno, you told us to keep an eye on the Life Jades!”

“What about him?”

“One hour ago, his jade cracked…”

“WHAT!” Marcos stood up.

“Elder Tolin is already in the jaded room… And Bruno’s Mother, Lady Bruta is also there…”

“I will go join them…” Marcos said with a heavy voice as he grabbed his clock and headed out.

Bruno was his and Tolin’s son, one of five. Although not the best, he had a great future in front of him. He was the one who bravely volunteered to help trap Ann.

Damn it…

…

Besides the already died-down campfire, Victor slowly opened his eyes, looking tenderly at the two half-elf girls who hugged him from both sides with satisfied smiles on their faces. All of them were covered by his black cloak as they lay on the dirt.

He was surprised they lasted that long last night, but they really tried earnestly to prove their worth and he was completely satisfied. Although they were very weak and technically useless, he decided to take care of them from now on.

He slowly gave each a kiss on their forehead, deciding that they were now a part of his collection…Ehm, harem. After that, he slowly slid up then covered them back tightly with his cloak, leaving them to their dream, they would not wake up till noon.

Standing up, he walked to the side, where he took a storage ring and from it, he poured some water onto himself, taking a quick shower. Since he had a lot of storage rings, he made sure to stuff them with all the necessities he might need. Including more than a few gallons of water.

Finishing, he took some new black garments from his storage space and put them on, hiding his muscular build.

He sighed, thinking about what he learned yesterday.

From Bruno’s drunk mouth, he managed to get the gist of what was happening in the family.

It all started with Tolin, who was working for the Poison lord. He seemed to have given her the mission to control the Von Weise family more than 50 years ago when in the hall of secrets she accidentally found an artifact that allowed her to talk to him.

Ever since then, she and her lover, the patriarch, had been secretly building their forces and setting things up for a grab. In fact, for the last 20 years or something, half of the servant Awakening ceremony participants belonged to their faction, and many of those were not servants, but full-fledged heirs!

They have been using the mines for years as a breeding ground to harvest the bloodlines of those suitable female miners there.

The patriarch and his men who went there once a week to check on things were responsible for impregnating the suitable mothers. And there, they allowed those heirs to grow secretly, away from the prying eyes of Ann and her men, faking it as if they were good seedlings that were getting promoted!

A few years ago they even managed to secure an awakening artifact and no longer needed to rely solely on the family’s orb.

Although it cost a lot of Gems, could only give 2 Authority max, and killed the participants 50% of the time, it was very useful to create an army of slaves over a 10-year period!

Ariana, the supreme elder back then, being responsible for the mines, seemed to have figured out something coincidentally after one heir naturally got purple hair since birth.

This prompted Marcos to get rid of her before she could put things together, and just by chance the gate incident happened, allowing him to use it!

Yes, and the gate did vanish back then, but it was found about a month later in a deeper chamber, but they kept silent about it, fearing that Ann would send an army to conquer the dungeon and let Ariana out!

Everything was ready for the grab when Ann died naturally from the poison they gave her. As the only thing they really feared were the hidden Protectors who were tasked to oversee the succession.

Sadly, it all began to crumble when Ann was cured overnight, and the second problem arose when the orb broke and Ann ordered the exploration of the mine and seemed to want to replace Tolin. They knew it was only a matter of time before she discovered something, so they decided to put their backup plan into action!

Marcos quickly convinced her to do the trials for the tournament in the mines, and at the same time, they prompted the second branch to move to use them as a smoke screen and try to reduce their power as that they might try to revolt after Ann was gone. This would also make Marcos who would lose his back support appear weaker to the other branches so that they would not fear him grabbing power.

Victor sighed… In the other timeline, their initial plan must have worked… This explained why his father was severely weakened back then, and why Mike, the prime heir was killed and no real investigation was launched afterward.

Victor suspected that Bill and the other elite heirs must have had similar experiences but it was all wrapped up nicely.

IT would also explain why the protectors didn’t intervene when the family was destroyed. Tolin must have secretly poisoned them at some point to avoid getting discovered…

He was not sure, but this was the only logical explanation.

Well, all of this was not his problem. His grandma would probably clean things neatly in a few days, once she figured out the entire plot... If she didn't by the time he was back, he would have more work to do.

Victor sighed as he slowly flexed his muscles then turned to the captive slavers. It was time to deal with those.

They were still knocked out, except for one who had been awake since last night, trying to get out of her rope but kept failing miserably so she could only watch the show while pretending to be asleep… He was right, those with pure bloodlines were less susceptible to poisons.

“Litar, right?” Victor asked as he took a wooden rocking chair from his storage space and then relaxed on it. After last night’s action in the dirt, his back hurt. “I didn’t expect to see a pure castaway sun elf in my lifetime… ” he said, revealing that he already appraised her.

She opened her eyes, not caring to pretend anymore.

“You are pretty impressive for an old man… A human nonetheless,” she said, checking his body with her haughty eyes. Hidden deep within was a hint of disgust, not because he was old, but because he was a human!

“I don’t need you to tell me that,” he replied, smiling arrogantly.

“You have three old injuries … One on your back from wearing heavy armor for years, an arrow scar on your left knee, and lastly a hidden injury when a barbed whip penetrated your chest barely missed your heart, and damaged your lungs. Combining all of this with the dragon breath on your body… If I had to guess, I would say you used to be one of those human Paladins who survived the sacking of the Empire of Zaramai when the demons first arrived… I didn’t think any of you would survive,” she said, proving that she knew his identity and testing him at the same time.

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“...” Victor paused. It took him a few seconds to comprehend what she said. “I don’t know what you are talking about…” he replied stoically. He needed to go visit the ‘sacked’ Empire of Zaramai, which might have some dragon artifacts. Shit… His to-do list kept getting longer.

“I believe you do… I guess it was my bad luck meeting an old foggy like you in the middle of nowhere…” she sighed. She knew how bad her luck was better than anyone.

“No… I was the one who sought you, you have a guy I was hunting,” Victor replied. “He was your bad luck!”

“That Barbarian?” she asked, her eyes shining with a strange light.

“A barbarian? No, that guy was an otherworlder, I could smell it on him!” Victor shook his head. “I felt his arrival when I was meditating in my cave and hurried here to catch him, too bad you got him before me…”

“Oh…” Litar frowned. Seeming she already knew, but wanted to test Victor and his answer was logical. “What do you want with him?”

“Nothing that concerns you… When you caught him, did he have any artifacts?” Victor asked directly.

“No, he was naked…” she replied truthfully. “And you already took all our belongings…” she added, some anger in her voice.

“True… Damn… Well, at least I got his heart… Still need 3 more…” he whispered to himself.

“Three what?” she asked, as if she didn’t hear the previous sentence.

“Nothing… What did you do, for your tribe to make you an outcast?” he asked, changing the subject. “ I thought you guys were really protective of your own…”

“I…” she hesitated. “About Twenty years ago, I disregarded my orders to retreat and decided to help one of the moon elves' tribes when the demons advanced…” she said, stubbornly.

“I have a lie detection skill you know…” he said in a cold voice.

“...” she looked away, her plan to play the feelings card failed. How high was his authority exactly to be able to use his lie detection on her? This was troublesome. Her only way out was to convince him that he needed her, then wait for a chance to strike…

“Then I guess you guys are no longer useful… It is time for you to move on…” he said as he stood up.

“If you kill me, my tribe would definitely come after you… I might be an outcast, but the Sun Elves covenant still protects my life!” she said. “I am more useful alive…”

“Who said anything about killing?” Victor frowned. “I am going to sell you in the market…”

“WHAT! You can’t do that!” Litar lost her cool for the first time. She knew what it meant to be sold in a frontier.

“You were going to sell the other girls though…” he said.

“They are filthy halfs!” she screamed. “And even if you try to sell me, no one would dare to buy a sun elf here!”

“There are always buyers for exquisite goods… I just have to go out of my way to search for one…” he said. He was right, for every forbidden good, there would definitely be a buyer!

“No! Wait… This is not legal….” she began to stutter.

“Regardless…” he said, taking a heated branding iron that he left in the campfire all night and bringing it toward Litar. This was the slave branding Artifact he found in their luggage. Pretty useful.

“WAIT.. WAIT…. WAIT JUST WAIT!” she quickly yelled. “I know something that might interest you…” she quickly said.

“What?” he asked impatiently.

“You have to promise to let me go first… You have to make an oath!”

“Depends on the info… What is this about?”

“I know the place with some otherworlders!” she said nervously, making him pause. “I can tell you everything… Just let me go…” she said in a hoarse voice and watched as his eyes showed interest. She just needed to spin her words carefully from now on. If she didn’t tell lies, he would not be able to know if she kept some important details…

“Well, this would depend on the credibility of what you will say…” he paused, putting away the branding iron with interest. “Let me get you a drink first, so we can talk clearly…” he added.

…

“Thank you again, officer!” Abe sat up in bed and told the police officer who helped him out. For the last three days, he had been locked in a warehouse and seemingly suffered a case of dehydration and lost consciousness.

He woke up in the hospital.

“It is our duty, young man…” the officer said. “Don’t worry, we will check on Lady M, if she is as notorious as you said, I will make sure to arrest her myself!” he said as he stood up.

“Please do catch that bitch!” Abe said.

“Don’t use that kind of language young man…” the officer scolded lightly, he seemed a little offended. “Now rest up… I hope you get well soon!” the officer said leaving the room and closing the door behind him, then slowly left the hospital.

He headed to his nearby parked police car and drove away until he reached a lakeside on the edge of the city where he got out, then found a brick, putting it on the gas pedal, he let the car go into the lake.

Making sure the car was below the water, he turned and walked away, not as a man, but as a hot redhead young woman known as Margret or Lady M!

“Finished already?” Lin, who was waiting for her in a nearby car, asked.

“Yup… The brainwashing drug seems to have worked perfectly, hopefully, nothing bad will happen,” she said, looking at the backseat where Hana was sitting.

“It will be ok, I don’t know where you guys get that wine, but by using it with normal memory manipulation pills, they would be enough to permanently change the memory of a mortal like that bastard!” Hana said. “You could have used a normal brainwashing talisman though, it had already proved useful as the player’s council had been using it to erase witnesses' memories for ages! Why go the extra mile?” she asked.

“Brainwashing talismans might not be strong enough if the other side decided to dig deep and use some kind of super skill or an artifact…And we are modifying memory, not erasing them! I just hope that all of our preparations would not be necessary…” Margret sighed as Lin started the car.

…

“So, your tribe found a few otherworlders about two decades ago?” he asked.

“Yes! They were lost in the desert and we easily fooled them and then captured them!” Litar, who was now unchained, sitting on a table against Victor said as she drank another gulp, this was the best wine she had ever had. She needed to recommend this pub to her friends... “Did they really expect us to help them? Damn, filthy humans! No offense!” she said, raising her cup to him.

“None taken…” he said, feeling a little sad about the amount of wine he had to use to drug her. She was a really heavy drinker! “So, what did they do to them?”

“We killed the men while keeping the women for breeding… Halves might be filthy, but they have their uses…” she explained. “It was a mistake though…” she sighed.

“What do you mean?” he asked. He was sure that the group from his family who crossed the portal two decades ago must have appeared somewhere in this desert. Although the portal threw people at random locations due to its movements, it couldn’t be too far. For example, he found Bruno earlier after walking just for 2 hours.

“One of them managed to get hold of one of our locking artifacts when she was in the breeding chamber, not only did she kill the guy who was impregnating her, she managed to free the others and they escaped!” she said. “Damn it… If it was not my shift at that time, I wouldn’t have been punished!”

“It was bad luck…” he said.

“Damn it! That's what I said! I just happened to have gone out at that hour to get something to eat… But those old witches only told me that Bad Luck shall be my curse for the next 100 years! DAMN IT!”

“Couldn't you get them a few replacement slaves or something?” he asked.

“No, those guys were special, they had some kind of dragon bloodline… Those became extra rare after the sacking of Zaramai,” she sighed.

“You guys helped the demons back then, right?” Victor asked as he thought of something.

“Ah... Don’t say it like that… We would never band with the demons!” Litar said, looking around, making sure no one was listening. “We just let our warriors who were in the palace to ‘help’ take the royal family to a ‘safe place’ to protect them…. IT would be a waste for their bloodline to die…” she said.

“This caused the empire to fall…”

“It was only a matter of time,”

“What if the demons attacked you next? Didn’t you think of that?”

“Don’t blame me… I was still young back then… And no one would ever help a human!” she sighed. “The elders didn’t expect that the demons who were pretty weak would be so treacherous, hiding their true strength…” she sighed. “Well, they got punished for their mistakes in the end when the moon elves failed to defeat the demons… We just wanted to weaken them a bit, we didn't expect the surge to be so fierce and by the time we sent out men, the moon elves were already defeated, ” she shrugged.

Victor looked at her with disgust. The elves' stupid pride and racism was their downfall.

“So… Where are those otherworlders now?” he asked.

“They escaped into the human lands in the west…” she said. “Though I heard that some demon General appeared somewhere on an island there, so I guess they will soon regret not staying in our hidden forest!”

“They will…” Victor said, “Well, I guess I have to go catch them before the demons get to them… What can you tell me about them?”

“Five women… very strong, I didn’t get their names though… Human names are stupid…” she said. “And why would I care for mere breeding slaves?”

“You must know that this info is not enough…” he said.

“Well, I know something…” she said, whispering now. “One of them… She was pregnant when we got her… She gave birth in the forest to a very beautiful girl even for a human. She had a strange bloodline or something, apparently. One of the prince liked her at first sight, and decided to take her as his personal toy… If she is still alive, that girl must still be in the inner palace…” she said, making Victor frown and activate his fate eyes again.

All the fate threads were still pointing to the west, but one of them was slightly to the north… This must be it…

“Can you remember her mother’s name?”

“I told you… wait… I think it is something like a flower or a rose…”

“Rosette?” Victor asked.

“Yes! That’s it!”

Shit… That girl was probably his half-sister! Another damsel in distress for the ever growing list!