The ancestral hall was not just one hall as its name suggested, but a complex array of buildings, preparation rooms, and vaults. It housed many of the family's ancestral treasures and artifacts. It was attended around the clock by many guardians and family elders.
After stepping into the entrance hall that was carved out of marble, Victor's father, Theodore, and his uncle Patrick had to leave with the elder to prepare for their roles in the ceremony. Victor and the other participants had to wait for a while.
Before leaving, Theodore gave his son one last examining look. Then without saying anything he turned around and followed his older brother through one of the maze-like branching corridors.
After the elders left, the ceremony participants were quickly guided respectfully by one of the staff into a grand hall with many tables filled with food. They were supposed to wait here.
The hall was already full of other candidates who arrived earlier from other places. Some were sitting on lavish chairs around round tables discussing the ceremony and sipping on their drinks, while others were standing respectfully to the side and waiting nervously.
In the family, there are two types of people, Players, and non-Players. Players are usually ranked according to their Authority, level, and skills into core elders, normal elders, elite members, inner members, and outer members. Like sects do.
While the non-players had five levels, First was the unawakened elders followed by the pure-bloods of the main and the side branches who didn't have their ceremonies yet. After that comes the family offspring who did not have pure bloodlines, and after that comes the disciples and the servants.
Of course, within each tier and even between different tiers different levels of power exist. Like the punishment hall disciples who only answer to their hall's master.
From every part of the family, there would be members participating in the ceremony.
Participation for those of pure blood was mandatory, as for the rest, it was optional because their mortality rate was too high and they were not expected to achieve great results anyway. However if some of them managed to succeed and become players, they would add great power to the family, and they would be like the carp jumping over the dragon gate.
When Victor and Ron entered the Hall. All the candidates gathered there looked at them and tensed up, then everyone stood up and respectfully saluted the main branch heirs.
In this hall, other than Victor and Ron who belonged to the main branch and exerted tremendous pressure on the others, there were at the moment 40 members and disciples sitting around the tables in addition to about 120 servants standing in the back.
Acknowledging the salute with a nod of his head, Victor found an empty seat and sat down casually while ignoring his cousin, who passed him with a glare, then went on to find another seat at the other end of the hall, followed by the rest of their convoy. They seemed to have made up their little minds to be on Ron's imaginary team.
Victor grabbed the hand petite servant girl whom he had just acquired and gestured to her to sit on his lap. She didn't get it at first, but after he patted his knee a couple of times with a wretched smile she got it.
Her ears turned red in shame, but she knew that she could only obey. She would die in the ceremony anyway… That's what she thought.
"I am sorry, I am a little dirty," she said politely as she directly sat on his lap under the astonished look of the audience who were pretending that they were not observing him.
Victor smiled as he saw the look on their faces. He was actively confirming the rumor that he is a perverted young master to everyone around, and that was exactly his plan.
"That does not matter," he said as carefully inspected her "What is your name anyway?" he asked, he didn't know her name… No, he knew it, but it was not the same name.
"Lily, young master," she answered in a barely audible voice. As a servant, she did not have a last name...
"Why do you want to participate in the ceremony so badly as to break the rules," he asked, "And why does your hall master forbid you? Looking at the spider tattooed on your neck, I can tell that you should be from the assassins' hall. You don't seem to be that great of talent that he would not want to sacrifice you," he questioned while gently caressing the tattoo on her small white neck making her blush… It's not like her neck was not touched before by the men who trained her, but somehow, this young master's touch, made her feel as if an eclectic jolt passed through her body. It made her feel very strange, and she had no idea why.
The girl took a deep breath to calm herself, then answered his question after some hesitation.
"The hall's master intended to gift me to his son after the ceremony. But I…. I hate him, he is a vicious and merciless beast. I was tortured by him many times during our training. If I ended up in his hand, my destiny will be worse than death. So I thought if I was able to succeed in the ceremony and was valued by some elders, The hall's master would find it hard to force me," she lied, "Y…Young master, you can look at him. He is also participating in the ceremony today. He is there in the back glaring daggers at you!" she said while pointing with her pretty eyes.
He smiled knowing perfectly well that she did not tell the whole truth. She was trying to use him to eliminate her enemy! He had too much experience to be lied to by a little girl, but he did not care, because he could guess what she wanted to do, and he did not mind helping her a little to gain her trust, so he did not expose her.
Victor casually looked at the back of the room, matching his eyes with a remarkably normal brown-haired young man sitting lonely on a side table. Really fit to be the heir to the assassins' hall, if Victor didn't know about this guy, he would have never suspected that he wanted to murder him, let alone notice him at all.
But Victor knew him! His name was Guy, and he would betray the family with his father, the assassins' hall master, in the future, in about ten years probably. Victor knew that he had to find a chance to get rid of them sooner or later.
Victor slowly returned his eyes to Lily, who was trying to act calm. Her shaking leg gave her away though.
"This ceremony is very dangerous, and the Assassins' hall's master is a branch family member. His son does not seem to have the bloodline, is he really willing to sacrifice him for a chance of better status? using his connection he can easily arrange a manager or a supervisor position for him," he asked Lily, whispering in her blushed ear.
"Young master, that is exactly what I thought!" she answered in a serious tone, "He is his father's only child, and he is an evil person. Many of my sisters have suffered in his hands" she had a painful look in her eyes that made Victor nod, this girl was trying to make him hate Guy on purpose. Not bad!
"But, .. " she lowered her voice, "... I might have heard some things… One night while one of my sisters was accompanying him, he was very drunk and because he had to keep his virginity for the ceremony and couldn't sleep with her, he could only vent by abusing her. One time she was very hurt and told him that he should die in the ceremony, so he rebuked her and had a slip of tongue. He said that his father has acquired some kind of a rare pill and fed it to him, and he was pretty assured of his success. Luckily, he was very drunk back then and could not remember what he had said the next day. If not, my sister and I would have already been long dead by now!" she shivered a little while saying that.
"A pill !?" Victor thought with surprise. "It can't be! No wonder they betrayed the family back then. It seems the family found out, so they had to escape and seek refuge with other families!"
Victor knew exactly what kind of pill it was, as there are only a handful of pills that can increase a candidate's awakening chance. And there is only one kind that can be feasible if not cheaply acquired by them if they utilized the resources in their hall.
But he couldn't accuse them without solid proof, and he didn't really need to. There were always many methods to get rid of some annoying ants. This would have to wait till after the ceremony though.
Wait, couldn't he just interfere with Guy's ceremony? He will have to use a little trick, and if his conclusions were correct, this would be the end of him!
Looking at Guy, Victor smiled then whispered in Lily's small ear "Do you want him dead?"
"I dare not! young master!" she answered while keeping her face down, but he can hear the desire for revenge in her voice.
"How about this... I will help you get rid of him, but you need to do exactly as I tell you to! And you might need to suffer a bit!" he said and waited for her to nod before he continued whispering in her ear, "The plan is composed of two steps!" He said and began to whisper multiple things in her ear.
"I don't mind suffering a bit but…" she listened as he explained.
"Only this? but…" she asked after she finished hearing his plan. She had a hint of doubt in her voice.
"No buts!" he replied. "Just do as I tell you!" he said, fully knowing that she did not understand how the ceremony worked nor what his plan implied. Even the family only had a very rudimentary and experimental knowledge about it.
But he understood it too well. He didn't spend all those years researching in vain.
While he has no idea to what degree this would be effective, if Guy was unlucky, he would end up in a coffin.