Josef

"You'll grow up to be a fine young man like your father. If it weren't for your physique, you might have even been better."

Ol' Fang murmured a short while after Asher had left.

. . .

The next day, Asher appeared out at his usual times as if nothing had happened. He also made his mana flow erratic to prevent getting caught off-guard by Josef. Finally, he had his mental energy spread all over the place. Currently, at the fifth-stage of the Guardian realm, his mental sense was strong enough to even spot a sixth-stage Guardian mage. The reason for this was quite simple.

Although each progression in the mana stage implied an increase in physical and mental faculties, it wasn't to the level of being capable enough to contend with one who trained solely in either of them and had advanced to the same level.

One might wonder why Asher simply didn't stay hidden all day and the answer was quite simple. Though he now understood why Ol' Fang behaved that way towards Lucius, he had no choice but to handle the envoy and the reinforcements himself. Asher also couldn't designate this task so easily to Luther or Aaron, and while Isabella was a possible candidate, he decided to take care of this himself. This was because Asher had figured out a solution.

"Young master." Isabella and Luther greeted him at the doorstep.

"Luther, hand this letter over to uncle Fang for me. Tell him to be ready before noon." Asher pulled out two letters and gave Luther the letter wrapped in a blue envelope.

"Read this one once you're in a quiet spot and get Aaron to follow the instructions."

Asher then handed over the second letter which was wrapped in a black envelope.

"Understood, young master." Luther bowed before departing.

"Isabella, how was the task I gave you yesterday? Are the supplies for the mages ready?" Asher asked as he began walking forward.

"I made arrangements last night and everything is being sorted out as we speak. Due to the lack of time on our hands, however, they aren't all done with. But rest assured, young master, it would be set in the next two hours." Isabella replied while following just a step behind him.

"That's good. The soldiers by the border have been under intense pressure and occasional battles. It's best we get the reinforcements over as quickly as possible." Asher nodded.

While Josef wanted to delay as much as possible, Asher wanted to get them to leave quickly.

'The academy's break would soon be over. I can't spend that running around here.'

Asher suddenly stopped at a large French window and glanced outside.

From the height and angle he stood, Asher could overlook a large part of the estate and even a portion of the city. With his physical attributes as a third-stage Guardian mage, he was capable of seeing things clearly even from this distance.

The multitude of faces and emotions belonging to the pedestrians, the elbow-benders who had just turned sober and were finding their way home. The children playing on the streets, the storekeepers opening up for a new day, and many more.

He could see the servants working on the estate and cleaning the place up, the guards overseeing the premises, and monitoring the foreign forces. He could see the scouts, the gardeners, and many more. Even the younger and older relatives of the Arnhaunt family. Albeit from the angle he stood couldn't see every one of them, Asher could still see a majority of them from here.

'One day, I'll have to leave here. But before I do so, I have to make sure that the family and its legacy can weather all troubles and exist for as long as possible.' Asher thought.

The reason for this oath of his wasn't because of the family itself, because in truth, Asher didn't have many emotional entanglements. It was for his father, his uncle, his cousin, and all those he cared about, who in turn cared about all of this. Since he was going to leave them one day, specifically for the Upper land and to understand how he came to be here, Asher wanted to make them a heaven on earth; a peaceful paradise where they would be happy and safe even without him present.

'And for that, all enemies have to be crushed.'

Asher's eyes narrowed as a murderous sensation leaked out from them.

. . .

Josef didn't come out looking for Asher straight away once he woke up as he felt it would be weird to do such. Instead, he acted normal and checked up on the soldiers from the capital during which he warned Lucius about his behaviour and cautioned him not to push Ol' Fang or Asher too much. He then returned to his room, wrote some information in his journal, and then left once again just an hour before noon.

During his second stay in his room, Josef was thinking of what to do in case the situation didn't develop as he hoped. The mission assigned to him was of grave importance to the royal family as it related to the possibility of there being a potion that can defy the limits of what it means to be a null. If such a potion was taken straight up or modified for regular mages, the effects would be incredible.

No matter which angle he saw things, as long s it turned out that Asher was hiding his strength, then Josef would have made a huge contribution to the royal family and would be promoted.

One might think that as a clan, they would consider familial ties, but things were different in the Castellan estate. Apart from the main family and the side family (the family of the Castellan head's siblings), members of the branch family had to fight intensely and make contributions for their spots and even resources. The lesser one's bloodline gets, the lower their rank drops unless their contribution is apparent. This in turn makes them weaker till get relegated to handle all low-rank duties in the family or even expelled from the family.

In Josef's case, his direct family's rank was low and his contributions were nothing to speak of. Furthermore, they had been expelled from the main family estate and had to live in one of the family's branches in a different province. If it weren't for the fact that he had unlocked the Eye of Saul, giving Josef a better chance at life, he would have lived a regular life or maybe a slightly better one such as running one of the stores owned by the Castellans in some backwater location.

'But now, I can change all of that. With these gifted eyes of mine.' Josef glanced at the clouds and clenched his fist tightly.

The circle within his black pupil turned amber, showing that the Eye of Saul was active.

After his short stop, Josef deactivated the eye as it consumed much mana, before continuing on his way to finding Asher. Surprisingly, it didn't take him that long to do so. Just after a turn, he found Asher walking towards him.

"Oh, young lord." Josef smiled cordially, appearing like an average envoy standing before a higher authority.

"Mr. Envoy, I was looking for you." Asher smiled.

"Oh?" Josef was a bit surprised.

He studied Asher a bit to check his mana movements. After being familiar with the Eye of Saul since birth, Josef could easily pinpoint whether someone's mana was in a calm state or not from a single deep glance.

Josef noticed that Asher's mana was still moving in an erratic form which would prevent his eye from having any effect, but he never presumed that it had anything to do with Asher knowing about his secret power. On the contrary, he presumed that Asher was on alert in his presence or his mana flow being 'erratic' was due to some sort of technique he was practising.

The lack of doubt was after all thanks to the fact that the royals had done their best to ensure that the news of the Eye of Saul never spread past the Castellan estate, with only the upper echelons knowing this. In fact, even Josef's parents only knew he was special but not the details.

"Come with me for a bit. I have something to discuss with you." Asher said, with the same smile plastered on his face.

"Alright." Josef agreed.

Josef felt that this was a good opportunity. This was because he believed that Asher would most likely take him somewhere he (Asher) felt safe. In such a place, Asher would inevitably drop his guard and his mana flow would return to normal. Even if it would raise suspicion, Josef would utilize the Eye of Saul then and collect whatever information he needed.

As an envoy of the king, there was no way Asher would harm him on the basis that his eyes changed colour. So long as he got the information without threatening or harming Asher, Josef was confident that he would be able to leave this hornet's nest safely. And once he did so, his rise to power would begin.

'It's now or never.'