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He lingered for a moment, raising his hand to feel his neck. Then, noticing it was still firmly attached to his torso, he scrambled away, cutting through the wind at top speed to unfasten the horses. Riding one, he disappeared into the forest, disturbing its peace with the ruffling of leaves and the breaking of twigs.

Gaston looked at his departing figure before entering the cave.

His smile broadened to reach his ears.

He honestly didn\'t think that his mood had ever been brighter than today. After all, he got his weapon back, took revenge on his father, and was about to double-cross Eleanor, foiling her decades-old master plan in the process.

In fact, he did something quite unusual because of his exhilaration. He let Smith leave, forsaking an occasion to revel in his screams, tears, and despair. Well, ending him brought no benefits, anyway. Even if the knight found the courage to report what had transpired the previous night, he didn\'t care. The man known as Gaston would cease to exist before the sun sets.

But first, he had to prepare the kid.

With swift movements, he retrieved thick metal chains from a box lying by the bed. Then, he bound Julius\' hands and feet, sealing his movements before he got the chance to awaken.

However, his gaze didn\'t linger on the unconscious boy; instead, he focused on the ethereal, even spectral silhouette of a man in his late twenties.

A shroud of swirling grey mist engulfed the ghost, obscuring his frame from prying eyes like a mantle. Impenetrable darkness pierced by two dim eyes veiled his face, suggesting he lost consciousness along the way.

"Those sixteen years of research and preparations were not in vain. Hahaha. Serves you right, snake woman! I\'ll be the one benefiting from this anomaly."

Boisterous laughter echoed in the dimly lit cave as memories of everything he had gone through to reach this point flashed in his sparkling blue eyes.

****

A young boy used an elegant guandao to hone his skills in the Riverwood courtyard. His sweat glistened under the bright sun\'s rays as his clothes stuck to his firm muscles. He had just turned eleven a few days ago and strived to prove his worthiness to his father.

His piercing blue eyes lit in yearning at this thought as he imagined the talent he would unlock and what magic he would wield in the future.

However, he didn\'t know how cruel fate could be... and how he could benefit from it.

After lunch, he spent some time with his father, his pregnant mother-in-law, and her visiting father, an old noble he wasn\'t really familiar with.

Nothing seemed to deviate from his dull routine... until this evening.

Hidden in the grass, behind the garden\'s vibrant flowers, as he usually did to enjoy nature\'s fresh scent, murmurs carried by the wind reach his ears.

Intrigued, he rose to his feet, silently approaching the garden\'s edge to listen.

"We got new information from our oracle. Nine years from now, a child possessing two souls and incredible potential will be born in the village."

Eleanor\'s father, a man in his sixties with gray hair, spoke, adjusting his luxurious three-piece suit and caressing his well-trimmed moustache.

"Sigh... I can\'t believe you married me to this low-ranked noble because of someone\'s elucubrations. Are you sure he can truly see the future? I heard many mediocre apprentices used these techniques to extort nobles like us," Eleanor said, a smile that didn\'t reach her eyes gracing her lips. After all, she was the second daughter of Marquis Gabriel Ashford, the freshly retired king\'s councillor.

"Humpf... Will you still say that knowing that his second soul, the nexus of his potential, could be stolen and assimilated... By your unborn child, for example?" Gabriel revealed, humming his tea\'s fragrance as his lips curled upward.

"Are you serious?" Eleanor\'s smile vanished, replaced by a conflicted expression.

"Yes, his second soul should be defective for over a decade. Sadly, we have no more details. No matter what you do, I give you free rain to get it. Then, we\'ll place it inside your child to empower him..." His voice lingered before his next revelation cracked like a thunder strike against Gaston\'s mind. "He\'ll become an archmage with ease. Perhaps even the second magus, if luck is on our side!"

His pupils constricted, and a sensation of weakness assaulted his young legs. He stood rooted for a moment. Then, a vicious smirk stretched across his face as his heart hammered his chest, menacing to leap out at any moment.

It was a secret for no one. Young Gaston was a famous genius, possessing both a bright mind and the determination to train relentlessly. Yet, he was equally infamous for his absence of empathy... even cruelty and unrelenting hunger for power.

So, when he overheard Eleanor\'s discussion, he raced to his room, a raging torrent of thoughts battling in his head as schemes, each more insidious than the last, formed like poisonous fishes in his mind.

\'She has been manipulating my father since the beginning, showing a straightforward character while being as cunning and toxic as a viper,\' he thought, his smirk distorting into something more eerie, more malevolent... more inhuman.

\'I can imitate her. Hide my true goals behind a mask of madness and bloodthirst...\'

The outline of a plan began to unfold like a painting in his calculative mind. He analysed everything, down to his entourage\'s most improbable reactions, as he planned to play the entire barony like puppets dangling at his fingertips... for decades.

*****

Nine years later, expelled from the manor after his failed assassination attempt on his younger brother, he became a well-known womaniser with a weird fetish. Indeed, he was notable for courting women who had recently given birth.

Yet, the general opinion didn\'t matter to him. He had to find the baby before the Ashfords.

To his amusement, a royal order delivered to the village soon after made his investigation much smoother. But also more dangerous. If the royal family meddled, he would have to flee with the baby and continue his research in isolation...

A few days later, acting under Max\'s orders, he met a strange bony woman named Rachel. Intrigued by her bizarre affirmations, he listened to her, understanding she had awakened a rare affinity to soul. However, she had felt the second soul in Alina\'s child and was about to reveal its presence to Max. He had to stop her before she shared this crucial information...

With only two babies left to check, thanks to her, he concluded his investigation in a brief month. But the situation allowed him much more freedom than initially expected. Since they missed the child, he could focus on his research in peace before returning to conclude his grand puppet show, unheard, unseen, and forgotten.

Yet, he would mark history as the first and only supreme sorcerer!

******

Four days ago, he left the cave he had lived in for the past seven years, dragging a stiff corpse out with him: the previous owner.

He was an old rogue acolyte. Too afraid to be hunted by the kingdom, yet too engrossed in magic to give up, he led a solitary life in the mountain, dabbling in alchemy and dark magic.

However, he needed expensive ingredients to progress in this art.

That\'s why, fifteen years ago, he broke his only rule and ventured into the village. There, he sold his Compendium of Forbidden Alchemical Potions to an apothecary whose vivid dreams of alchemy filled his head.

Unfortunately, he also exposed his existence to Gaston...

As the demonic man\'s slave, he developed a never-before-seen magic ritual involving souls for seven long, torturous years. He also modified the gem used to detect the summoned to give its wielder the ability to see ghosts.

And once he finished his work... Gaston offered him peace... an eternal one.

However, Gaston wasn\'t satisfied with the Ashford family\'s initial plan. He could get more. He wanted more.

"I\'ll eat everything and leave nothing behind, not even my old self!"

His words thundered, breaking the forest\'s calm. The muffled sound of his boots pressing on the soft snow echoed as he lowered his hood over his head, grabbed his stick, and walked to the village.