The Titan's Throne

I Can't Guarantee I Will Answer

Bastian and the girl were rather surprised by this response. They didn't quite understand what he was implying.

"Are you not happy? Why are you displeased? Are you not honoured by being your master's servant?" said the girl.

Ben scoffed at this remark. "Servant? I'm not even worthy to be an ant under my master's boot! I am angry because you could have connected my soul to yourself, you little wench! Now, Master has forever lost the opportunity to gain one more servant worthy of his greatness!"

Bastian and the girl were speechless. They never expected the ritual to work so well. Not only was Ben very loyal to Bastian, but his reverence also did not cloud his reasoning. This was definitely a good thing.

The girl snorted and looked at Ben in contempt. "Why should I contract a worm like you? It is far beneath me. Bastian was just dumb enough to agree. It's as simple as that."

Ben was furious. She not only called him a worm, but she also insulted his master. That was courting death!

The girl was smiling. Looking awfully pleased with her work, she looked at Bastian like she had gotten one over him. Earlier on they had agreed that Bastian would become the Meister.

Due to the fact that she knew how to awaken a mark and taught it to Bastian, she might have been a Mark Bearer herself. Yesterday the girl had made Bastian make an oath to the heavens that if Ben were to arrive, then he was supposed to make Ben into his Soul Sworn.

Bastian easily agreed to this. The girl initially thought she would have to convince him, but she never thought he would agree so easily.

An oath made to the heavens was taken very seriously, if broken it was believed that you will be severely punished with a lot of misfortune for you and those closest to you, in this life and for your next five lives.

No one on the Sovereign Continent breaks an oath made to the heavens. It is a fate worse than death.

So after Bastian fulfilled his oath the girl was rather pleased with herself. She was feeling smug because she thought that she had gotten one over Bastian that was until Bastian said something that made her face extremely ugly.

Bastian: "Hey I have a question for you girl."

The girl sat leisurely against her pole (authors note: I could not think of anything else. That's the honest truth) and looked at the two men who she thought she had fooled.

"Sure go ahead. Although I can't guarantee I will answer.

Ben cracked his knuckles but Bastian calmed him with a wave of his hand.

Bastian: "In your house, is it against the rules in your house for a custodian to have Soul Sworn?"...

The girl stuttered, "Y-you! How did you?"

Bastian replied, "You can ask me whatever you want, but I can't guarantee that I will answer."

Ben saw that his master had thrown the girl's words right back at her. He was very pleased with seeing her distressed look. There was something, however, he didn't quite understand.

"Master, what did you mean by 'House' and 'Custodian'?"

Bastian leisurely took time to explain how the Mark system truly functions.

These were the basic applications of it but it went further than that.

Bastian was about to talk when he was interrupted by the girl, "Don't you dare tell this filth anything, or else!"

"Or else what?" Bastian looked straight at the girl, as he challenged her. "I can keep quiet if you want, but in return I want you to answer a few of my own questions. Of course, I will take an oath to the heavens to never tell anyone!"

The girl looked very unhappy. Her brows creased as if she were contemplating something. After a few breaths worth of time, she sighed.

"Very well, I will answer your questions, but first you have to tell me how you got to know about this." said the girl in resignation.

Bastian replied, "Sure, but I'm going to have you take an oath also!"

The girl responded, "Fair enough, I will keep whatever secret you reveal."

Bastian grinned mischievously, "Nope, the nature of your oath will be slightly different to what you think."

The girl didn't know why, but Bastian's grin gave her a bad premonition, like the calm before a storm.

...

Let's go back to the events that occurred the day before

"Are you, or are you not, a Mark Bearer?"

Bastian was surprised by what the little girl had said. He never expected her to know about the whole Mark Bearer thing. Heck, even the previous owner of this body didn't know, although truth be told, he was a sheltered brat so, he didn't know a lot of things!

"Yes, I am." Bastian didn't really care whether or not she knew, he was however curious to know what made her ask. "What made you think I was one?"

This knowledge could be useful in the near future, to prevent anyone else from knowing. Although Bastian didn't understand the situation of mark bearers, he couldn't help but be careful, should this information be valuable.

"Your hair, most Mark Bearers from the Southern Grasslands have purple hair." The girl looked relieved when she heard that Bastian was indeed a mark bearer.

Bastian was surprised, "That's it? Just from my hair?"

"Purple hair isn't as common as you would think, besides I didn't know, I was just trying my luck, and it seems my hunch was right."

Not to mention the Incado grass didn't affect you. Only beings with a powerful soul could survive such a thing...

Bastian was not pleased, it seems he was overthinking. The girl had simply taken advantage of his lack of common knowledge. He also felt that this girl was keeping something from him. Plus he also had the feeling that she was not easy to deal with, so he temporarily brushed that thought aside.

"So why do you want to know whether or not I am a Mark Bearer?" he asked the girl

Quietly she told him, "I have a plan, one that could get us out of this situation, and it requires you to be a Mark Bearer."

Bastian couldn't help but look confused, "How would it help?"

"It seems you have only recently become a Mark Bearer, otherwise, you would have known the advantage the Mark has over normal people," said the girl, her eyes looking bored, almost as though she didn't want to explain herself, but had no choice. She continued, "Once you become a Mark Bearer you gain many abilities, some of which I'm sure you know already."

Bastian nodded.

"Others you will discover over time. One such ability is the suppression effect. If a normal person sees the Mark there is a chance that they will be suppressed by the Mark's aura, the weaker their cultivation the stronger the suppression. Under this state of suppression, you can easily order any weak-minded beings around, if it is done right of course!"

Bastian was stunned this information was not given to him. Heck, he didn't even know the tattoo could show itself again! This state of suppression sounded very useful, if he had known how to use these powers, he would not be in this situation.

If this is true then, this Mark is...

"Don't get too happy yet." The girl interrupted Bastian's thoughts, much to his annoyance. "Bringing out the Mark is easy but using its suppression is difficult. I estimate it will take a few days for me to teach you how to bring out the Mark, and many more, to be able to utilize its abilities. That is assuming we will still be together for that long..." The girl bit her lower lip, nervousness over their unknown future gnawing at her heart.

Bastian on the other hand was quite happy. Although he didn't like the idea of being a slave, he was positive that with this ability, his life should be much easier from this point on. This ability sounded similar to hypnotism, something Bastian knew all too well.

At this point, Bastian's only worry was whether or not this girl was also a Mark Bearer. If she was, why didn't she just use her own Mark? And if she wasn't, how could she know this ability well enough to teach it? As to whether or not Bastian could learn the technique then, he wasn't worried. He was confident that with time he could teach himself. As long as he could learn how to bring out the tattoo, he would be fine. As to why he was so confident, Bastian wasn't quite sure himself.

"Okay then, time is of the essence, teach me as much as you can." Although Bastian was curious to know whether what she was saying was true or not, he also realized they had bigger fish to fry.

The girl explained to Bastian that to bring out the Mark, all he had to do was to picture the Mark on his chest the more defined the image, the better. Bastian had a very good memory, although it wasn't eidetic, it was far above average. This exercise was therefore simple for him. His intelligence, it seems also came along with his soul, into this body.

Bastian revealed his chest and began immediately. The girl had forgotten to mention that he needed to have his eyes closed, and she was about to mention this to him when the tattoo suddenly appeared on his chest. It was incredibly detailed, down to the tiniest scale. According to the girl's knowledge, the more detailed the picture in your mind, the more detailed the tattoo on your chest would be.

The fact that Bastian could reproduce it almost perfectly on his first try, with his eyes open no less was astounding. There was only one explanation, genius! Pure genius! This was not simply a matter of cultivation, but a matter of the soul.

The tattoo would only remain on one's chest, for as long as one can picture it. This meant that, if the picture in one's mind began to fade, then the tattoo would become vaguer and vaguer until eventually, it disappeared...

 This wasn't simply a matter of memory, the picture of the dragon was etched onto one's soul and was very profound. Even if one had a good memory, bringing it out requires a lot of Soul Force, not to mention maintaining it.

The girl had planned for Bastian to at least be able to have the ability to bring out the outline of the tattoo by the end of the day, yet he had managed a near-perfect image on the first try, being able to maintain the image, even with eyes open!

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