Black Online

It was a lot of shouting coming from behind the door. Much of it was hard to understand, as it all came out as muffled sounds.

"L-Lord Raon, y-you have to believe me that I really didn’t do anything!"

Juniper sounded panicked.

She sounded tearful, but everyone just looked at her with nasty expressions, and no one was moved by her tears.

Fang Raon tried to ignore her, but then, she grabbed his arm, pleading for him to listen.

In that moment.

Anna slapped her hand away with a furious expression on her beautiful face, and Juniper looked shocked.

"You’ve already done enough, you cheating whore. How dare you touch my brother with those filthy hands of yours?"

She screamed angrily.

"..."

Fang Raon almost rolled his eyes at her outburst as both of them knew that Juniper actually didn’t cheat on him.

Anna was just acting, but some part of him felt like she was being genuine with her insults towards Juniper.

"I—"

Juniper tried speaking, but then Sebastian stood between him and Anna and made them go in separate ways.

The male servant was still sitting on the ground with the two bodyguards making sure that he wouldn’t move a muscle.

"You... YOU LIAR!"

Juniper noticed him and screamed at him, but then bodyguards shot a powerful gaze at her that completely silenced her.

"W-We’ve already been caught, Miss Juniper... I-It is over..."

The male servant whispered, and he then looked away with blood dripping down his face.

"We’ve been caught? I didn’t do anything with you. I don’t even know who the hell you are!"

Juniper screamed hoarsely.

BANG~ At that moment, the door of the study was opened by furious-looking Ronin.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!"

He shouted at his daughter, and then slammed the doors shut, as their talk inside the study was interrupted by her scream.

"Hmph. Don’t you know the saying—liar, liar, pants on fire? You better be careful that you don’t end up like that."

Anna said with a threatening tone, and she then changed from hostile to happy as she turned to look at her brother.

"Raon, mind if we have a chat?"

"...Sure."

Fang Raon’s voice sounded hoarse.

As if he’d been really holding back his tears and pain—it even surprised him how well he was acting.

They stepped away, away from everyone, where they could talk in private, and they found an isolated place at the staircase.

"Did I do good?"

Anna leaned close, her breath almost tickling Raon’s face, and she asked with a proud smile on her face.

It looked like she was really happy with how it all turned out, and it even went better than she expected!

"Yeah, you did good. How did you do all of this?"

Fang Raon asked.

"It was pretty easy. I already planned to create a cheating scandal. So, I needed a male servant to act the part.

"I found him over at the courtyard, completely wasted, and I put on a dark blue wig, about the same length as Juniper’s hair. And I acted as Juniper.

"I ’seduced’ him, and he was so drunk that he couldn’t tell his shoe from his hand. I got him to follow me all the way to Juniper’s room.

"She was already there asleep, so I just undressed both of them and put them in the bed together, and I snapped a picture.

"Easy peasy."

Anna chuckled.

"So the male servant actually thinks all of that cheating actually happened?"

Fang Raon said.

"Yep. He tried escaping from the village. I guess it must’ve come to him as quite a shock to wake up naked next to the next lady of the house, Juniper.

"He must’ve been terrified out of his mind. And it looks like he remembered last night somewhat."

Anna said with a giggle.

"Aren’t you afraid that he will remember your face?"

Fang Raon asked.

"I am not worried. I never showed him my face directly. He will only remember the dark blue hair that Juniper is famous for. He’ll never realize it was me."

Anna said.

"And Juniper didn’t wake up at all during the whole thing?"

Fang Raon asked.

"She is a deep sleeper."

Anna said.

"...I gotta say, you did excellently. You saved my skin."

He said with a smile, and he felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders, as he didn’t have to marry that horrible woman now.

"Hehe~ You better hold onto your promise. I’ll get you the game card, and we’ll start... Hmm, shall we start tomorrow night?"

Anna asked.

"Sure."

Fang Raon nodded.

He didn’t plan on going to Black Online today, as there was still some stuff left to do, but tomorrow sounded like it was a good time.

He was going to head over to the training camp with Rock and Della, and then later that day, he would hop onto the second character to play with Anna.

’I wonder how it will all work. This Virtual Reality Pod is somehow able to change my real body, so I wonder if playing with a secondary character has any effects.’

Fang Raon rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

...

The time moved at snail’s pace, but before the breakfast coffee turned cold, the study room’s door suddenly opened.

"...Enter."

Aizen informed everyone outside, and everyone entered the room and noticed that the atmosphere in the room was tense.

Aizen was red-faced. It looked like he’d been shouting a lot. Ronin was slightly sweating. Nero looked normal.

Nero and Aizen had a small battle of aura, which almost shattered the windows and made Ronin pass out.

He was able to cling to consciousness just long enough for it to stop.

"We’ve come to the decision."

Aizen sat down behind the desk and said.

Everyone listened.

"...Juniper will no longer be engaged to my son, Fang Raon."

Aizen said.

It came as not that much of a surprise to anyone, but there were still few happy faces among the people present.

Juniper wasn’t smiling.

She never wanted to marry Fang Raon, and in any other circumstance, she would be happy, but not now.

She was going to be in a world of pain once they went back home—hell, she might not be allowed to go back home at all after this.

’That’s one obstacle cleared. I wonder what will happen to this alliance of Fang Family and Rain Family.’

Fang Raon thought.

It was an important partnership for two families, so he doubted they were just going to let it die over the stupid actions of one person.

"Therefore, there will be some changes regarding the future of the partnership.

"My son, Fang Raon, will still get married to a daughter of Rain Family."

Aizen revealed a bomb of the news.

It confused everyone. Juniper was the only eligible one to be married. Her older sisters were already married to other people.

’...’

Fang Raon stayed quiet.

"...Grrr."

Anna gritted her teeth and growled like a wild animal.

"To whom?"

Aizen asked the question for everybody in the room, as he knew that it was in everyone’s mind—for whom, indeed.

"To Juniper’s younger sister, Phoebe."

He said.

"What?! But she is only sixteen!"

Juniper screamed.

’What the hell are you doing, Father?’

Fang Raon frowned.

"I know that. You aren’t allowed to talk. I do not allow you to speak inside my house."

Aizen said coldly towards Juniper, and she shrunk like a wilting flower, her spirit crushed under his icy demeanor.

"They won’t get married. Yet. We’ll wait until she is of age, so in two years. She’ll marry my son, and this partnership will ensure our business thrives for years to come."

Aizen said.

’...Two years.’

Fang Raon sighed.

It was fine, he thought, as he had two years to think of a solution to get out of this arranged marriage.

"...If that’s all, I think it would be better if we take our leave now. In two years, we shall meet again, hopefully in better terms."

Nero tipped his hat, and he then left with Ronin dragging Juniper out of the door.

"...Father."

Fang Raon approached Aizen, but he then raised his arm and stopped him from talking another word.

"I’ll talk with you later. For now, I want everyone to leave except Sebastian."

Aizen said.

Hearing him, everyone nodded and slowly started leaving the room. Anna stomped away in anger. The bodyguards dragged the male servant away.

It was only Aizen and Sebastian left.

"...Yes, master?"

Sebastian asked.

"I need you to try to find out if one of the servants took the photograph, but I have a hunch of who it was."

Aizen said.

"Who?"

Sebastian asked.

"Anna, obviously."

Aizen said.

"...Why do you think that? Didn’t she prove already that it couldn’t have been her?"

"She believes that I am completely oblivious when it comes to technology. It was very convenient that she already had proof ready that could prove her alibi.

"I don’t buy it.

"My daughter definitely had some hand in this. Maybe the whole cheating thing was fabricated altogether."

Aizen said.

"...You really think that?"

Sebastian said with a surprised look.

To him, it sounded like Aizen was grasping at straws, as everything just pointed to Juniper cheating with the male servant.

The male servant’s testimony was the strongest proof of that.

"Maybe. In the end, it doesn’t matter. This works better for us. We have now the upper-hand in this partnership.

"We’ll keep it at low that Juniper ’cheated’ on my son, but if the Rain Family tries something, we can use it as a weapon to destroy their family’s reputation.

"I never fully trusted the Rain Family, as even if I help them, they might turn their backs on me if their game really does succeed.

"This ensures that it won’t happen.

"Also, we have now two years. I’ll go with my son, Raon, to the Rain Region in upcoming months to scout the game.

"We got two years now to think whether this partnership is really worth it or if we should end it."

Aizen laughed.

’...What a shrewd old man.’

Sebastian thought.