Josef's New Thoughts

'Now I have eyes in the Castellan family.' Asher thought as Josef left the room.

This entire plan of his was risky but came with huge benefits that would prove to be very useful in time. It was only until early in the morning did Asher finish making the preparations for it, which was why he didn't enact it the previous day.

Due to the impressive ability of the Eye of Saul and with Josef's determination to complete his task, Asher had only three options: leave the Arnhaunt domain secretly, kill Josef, or have him drop the mission.

Leaving secretly would be strange and, without a doubt, attract more suspicion onto him. Killing Josef was even more out of the question unless Asher could prove it wasn't him who did it. However, even if he did, the suddenness of Josef's death would raise alarms and would give the Castellans more justification to invite him for questioning.

As a result, Asher settled for the last option, but then came the problem of accomplishing it.

When he was thinking of a solution the previous day, Asher suddenly felt like this was an opportunity to have a spy in the Castellan family. There's no reason to emphasise on he benefits of such as it was very obvious, so Asher begin plotting of a method to do so.

To pull it off, Asher needed Josef's consent. This as because with his current strength, Asher was incapable of controlling Josef's mind with a mental spell such that no one would notice something weird with him. Hence, Asher concocted a plan.

Asher spent the previous night going through his memories for the suitable skills before writing letters for Ol' Fang, Luther, and Aaron.

The plan was quite simple: Asher would use a mental spell and isolate Josef's consciousness within his body. In an isolated state, it would be hard for Josef to identify what was real and fake since his consciousness would be cut off from his body's senses.

In that state, Asher would project an illusion into Josef's isolated consciousness, where he had taken control of Josef's body and made him do as he wanted. This would instill a fear inside of Josef and make him believe that not only could Asher kill him, but he could do so without any repercussions.

For example, if Asher had controlled him body and made him murder himself in the presence of the other soldiers from the capital while taking some other factors into consideration, the case would be termed as suicide and nothing could be done about it.

Knowing full well that this was a possibility, Josef's only choice would be to give up and swear loyalty to Asher.

To make sure everything ended as he wanted, Asher had requested Ol' Fang's aid in suppressing Josef; he also had Aaron and Luther engage with the reinforcements from the capital in a practice battle to keep them busy, and even fortified the room with spells and formations from his previous life.

Apart from those, he had also purposely mentioned the Eye of Saul to cause a shock in Josef's mental state. Asher had further had Ol' Fang hide and only reveal himself at the last moment to add to this shock. This would in turn destabilise Josef's mental state and increase the success of the mental spell Asher planned to use and isolate his consciousness.

All these preparations were made and put in place to assure that the plan was successful, because if it wasn't, Asher's action would have been termed no different from treason; after all, Josef was an envoy of the king and disrespecting an envoy was the same as disrespecting the king, much less attempted murder.

'But it worked out well.' Asher smiled.

To be certain that Josef wouldn't betray him, Asher made him sign a special magic pact and had also embed inside of Josef's soul a slave sigil. As long as the sigil remained, Asher could determine Josef's life and death with a thought and if harm came upon his life, Josef would automatically die. The crowning of this all was the agreement they had made. Iexchange for information on the Castellans and the king's movements, Asher would reward Josef with more knowledge on the Eye of Saul as well as some potions, although to him, those potions weren't anything special.

"A mind spell, cunning wits and a daring nature." Ol' Fang suddenly said as he stared at Asher.

Asher had been busy preparing for his plan after the previous night's drinking, and apart from the letter, he had not communicated with his uncle prior to all this. To prevent any possibility of the details leaking, Asher had not explained the reason for his arrangements and so, Ol' Fang only managed to understand everything now.

"Isn't that what the family needs right now?" Asher looked back at Ol' Fang.

"Don't tell your father about the drinking incident and I'll be quiet too, for a while though." Ol' Fang said.

"Deal." Asher smiled.

Both Asher and Ol' Fang knew that if he found out, Darius would oppose this idea and even punish the two for it. Whereas Asher wanted to take down the royal family due to their threatening nature and conspiracies, and Ol' Fang wanted the same since if the royal family was taken down, he could kill Lucius with his own hands, Darius thought differently from the two.

In war and battles, he might be known as the White Fox, but when it came to matters concerning the kingdom's internal situation and his family's relationship with the royal family, Darius took a wait-and-see approach, strengthening himself in the background but not making any daring moves. This was a personality totally different from Ol' Fang, who retaliated when attacked -irrespective of the identity of his attacker-, and Asher, who had the thought pattern of a celestial sovereign and would bow to no one even if he was being forced; although exceptions such as his father now exist. As such, both figures knew that if Darius got heed of this act, not only would they be in trouble, but they would also be denied an opportunity to stick true to their nature.

. . .

"Sighs."

Josef leaned by the door of his room and glanced at the ceiling.

Right after Asher had implanted the sigil and let him go, Josef retreated to this place to rest his and organise his thoughts.

'As it stands now, I'm pretty much an enemy of my own clan. I've allied with our enemy, but is it worth it?' Josef thought.

'No. Whether it as worth it or not doesn't matter. My life was at risk and getting out of such a position is what's most important. In the end, what has the clan done for me?'

Josef recalled some of the memories he had locked deep within the recesses of his mind. The memory of his life in a low society due to the low impurity of his bloodline, how his father had to lower himself to become a servant of another high blood Castellan, and how his mother ended up as the target of abuse by his father.

Josef also recalled how, even though his life changed with he discovery of his Eye of Saul, it wasn't entirely for the better. While he did live in a better location now, he was still subjected to various treatments. For example, Josef would have to periodically be present for an experiment on his body to understand the features of the Eye of Saul and its relation with his body.

Even though he was now special, Josef was still at the lowest level of the pyramid called the Castellan family. The only difference with his early life was that he was now truly a part of this pyramid.

'But now, I can ascend.' Josef's eyes changed as he activated the Eye of Saul.

'And not only that, I can do better. The Arnhaunts have been greatly underestimated by the royals. They have a chance of subverting power now but they refuse to and instead are growing in secret. What's more, the royals are unaware. This is a chance.' Josef's eyes glistened.

'If I play my cards right, I can earn a spot in the new era. Just like the Saunters and Wesley ancestors; I can become the ancestor of a great family in the new era.'

A wild thought began brewing in Josef's head; the thought of betrayal.

'I just need to make sure that the Arnhaunts aren't found out and learn more about the royals. The more I know, the higher the chances of success, and the more he trusts me. Yes. That's what I'll do.' Josef smiled.

Unknown to him though, these thoughts of his were sponsored by the sigil within his soul. This was a secondary effect of the slave sigil Asher had planted within Josef. There was a reason why Asher had picked this out of the other slave contracts from his memory and it was for this secondary feature.

The slave sigil would slowly begin to affect the thoughts of its target, changing it with time till the point the target only thinks of how to please their master.

Usually, it takes time for this to happen but in Josef's case, he already had some negative sentiments towards the Castellans, who happened to be Asher's enemy. As a result of this, the sigil's secondary feature had appeared sooner than expected.