Seeing as part of the deal for him to keep his life was to join the military system in Count McKinley's territory, Gaston was confident that he would have access to plenty of fresh corpses with which to speed up his cultivation with.
In this way, the biggest downside to practicing the Bone Peak cultivation technique would be minimized as much as possible, leaving him with only an exceptional technique that he can confidently practice not just all throughout the 1st stage, but even in future stages.
This did leave a very sour taste in his mouth however.
Princess Marika was someone that had quickly risen up on his list of people that he couldn't stand. In fact, in just a few weeks, she had surpassed everyone he had ever known and climbed up to the top spot. The idea that he would have to work as her subordinate, albeit from a very long distance away from her, was frankly something he couldn't accept. Something he wouldn't accept.
Even back then, when he had first heard of this, he could barely stop himself from thinking about how to take her life as quickly as possible, but without compromising himself both in the present and in the future.
Unfortunately, even now, he was still finding it hard to come up with a solution for the shorter term. No matter how much he thought however, he simply saw no such possibility. Not without giving up on his ambitions.
The fact that she was the daughter of a Stage 5 being was a nearly insurmountable mountain to climb in and of itself. Under the protection of at least one Stage 2 being, Gaston had no way of handling the matter himself, not in the short term anyway. And by the time he himself reaches the next stage, who is to say that the princess, with access to resources far beyond what he could possibly imagine, would not match his cultivation pace, or even exceed it?
Aside from this, even if Gaston succeeded in breaking through to the foundation building stage before her, it would take him at least twenty years, possible even longer, to accomplish this feat. Meaning that even under ideal circumstances, his timeline for taking revenge on her would span decades.
Something he had working in his favor however, and the reason that he even had thoughts of revenge on his mind so soon, was the fact that he had successfully managed to convince her to keep his identity as well as existence from everyone else around her a secret.
Whether it be her siblings, who he convinced her would only thwart her plans if they found out, or her parents, who he also managed to convince her that they would be more impressed if they found out about her plans after they were successful, no one was to know.
The only people aware of his existence and identity as a spy for the Thurstan Kingdom, were the princess herself and her bodyguard, the Stage 2 Blue Ape that captured him, who only knew of his existence and nothing more. If he could somehow manage to get both of them killed, he would completely free himself of his identity as a spy.
In truth, if this was all he had to do, the matter would not be that difficult.
All it would take was get princess Marika to step foot across the border between the two kingdoms, and to then anonymously leak out the news that a Stage 2 being from the Thurstan Kingdom was at a precise location anywhere inside the Wright Kingdom, and there was a good chance that he would get his freedom thanks to the ensuing actions of the unknowing Wright Kingdom's forces.
Even then, this would be a very difficult task to accomplish, but in comparison to his present situation, it at least seemed possible. Unfortunately, ending their lives was not all that had to happen for Gaston to regain his freedom.
After giving him the Bone Peak cultivation technique, princess Marika made sure to observe the process of him cultivating according to the technique's instructions. Only one full circulation of magical energy according to the technique, and his cultivation path would be forever locked into the technique.
Helpless, he had no choice but to do as he was told, getting a smile in return from princess Marika after his first full circulation of the technique was done. From then on, unless Gaston by some miracle managed to get his hands on the complete version of the Bone Peak cultivation technique, he would forever remain in the palm of her hand.
As if the daughter of a Stage 5 being didn't have enough power to force him to be obedient just because he was in the neighboring kingdom, she also went to such lengths to really ensure that he was under her thumb.
In reality, even without using any of her influence, the simple fact that she could anonymously place a bounty on his head was enough to leave him helpless. As a level 1 Qi Refining cultivator with no connections to speak of, even such a simple measure would be enough to guarantee his death.
The fact that she thought she needed further insurance by way of controlling his cultivation, to the point where she even provided him with one of the cultivation techniques from the royal treasury, was completely overkill and spoke to her youth.
It was in this situation where Gaston found himself wishing that she was someone more experienced. Albeit inadvertently, her lack of experience had really caused him a lot of trouble.
Putting his own hatred and desire for vengeance aside, Gaston now found it not only nearly impossible to exact revenge on her, short or long term, but he also couldn't help but delude himself into thinking that there were also some positive aspects of keeping her alive, at least temporarily.
If his development in Count McKinley's territory was more difficult than he had been expecting it to be, he could always fall back on his partner and get cultivation resources from her. After all, the stronger he was the better it was for her.
It wasn't like he would be able to reveal to her anything she didn't already know whilst he was still at the first level. If that was the case, then he would have to seriously reconsider just how capable his partner was.
As long as he could help it however, Gaston would not resort to this. Not only would his worth in the eyes of his partner fall if he did this, but he also wouldn't trust that the cultivation resources he got from her wouldn't be tampered in some way.
For someone as paranoid as her, this was more than just a possibility.
Even with everything about him under her control, from his identity, to his cultivation, to his future location, this was still not enough to completely put her at ease. What Gaston didn't know at that exact moment, was that his life would be forever changed just a few seconds later.
Everything that happened afterwards was too painful for him to even recall.
That damned dagger that he was now in possession of, was the same dagger with which she had skinned him time and time again. It was also the same dagger however, that she used to, under his shocked eyes, stab herself in the heart!
Yet despite how it appeared at first glance, princess Marika slowly and calmly removed the dagger afterward, revealing only a singular drop of blood on the tip of the blade.
How what she had just done was even possible was beyond him. Rather than take the time to think about those things however, he found himself attracted to the drop of blood she extracted from her heart, mesmerized to the point that he failed to notice her approach him.
Before he knew it, she used the dagger to stab him in the heart, just as she had previously stabbed herself.
That woke him right up, but the pain he was expecting didn't register. While his pain tolerance whilst under her "care" had been built up to exaggerated levels, he was sure that it wasn't to this point.
The reason for this lack of pain, was because instead of a knife entering his chest and piercing his heart, he felt as if it was the gentle caress of Mother Earth herself, naturally penetrating into his body without damaging it, and reaching the heart.
His first thought at that time, was that it made sense why princess Marika was so comfortable in stabbing herself in the chest. This sensation felt like anything but being stabbed.
The comfortable sensation was short-lived however, as the moment the drop of blood came into contact with his heart, everything changed.
Pain assaulted his senses like never before, completely paralyzing him from the neck down, and making the pain of being skinned alive feel like a joke. Before he could even make a sound however, he briefly saw princess Marika take the magic knife out of his chest, and then use it to slice his neck open, ending his life.
The shock he felt at that moment was something he would never forget in his life.
In what he thought would be his final moments, he discovered that the cliché of having your entire life flash before your eyes was as real as it got. Aside from unwillingness to have his life cut short in this manner however, he also found himself at peace with who he had been, having no regrets over his actions.
This peace lasted for a very short time, as the voice of princess Marika brought him back to reality, and brought the excruciating pain back alongside with it. "Relax, little human. Your slumber will be a short one, and once you awaken, you will be one of us."
He couldn't help but remember the way she delivered those words to him, the manner in which she looked down on him. It was only now however, that he realized the true meaning behind those words.
Despite being a blue-skinned ape, unlike the rest of her kind, she was extremely special. Special, but not unique, as all members of the Thurstan Kingdom's royal family shared this secret alongside with her.
This secret, much to Gaston's surprise, was that the beings ruling over the Blue Apes turned out to be Vampires in disguise!
Unlike what he had speculated about before, it turned out that it was princess Marika, his new "partner" that took away his humanity from him. Worst of all, the idiotic little thing had done it simply as insurance that he would never turn against her.
If killing the daughter of a Stage 5 being, alongside with her bodyguard, as well as somehow obtaining the complete Bone Peak cultivation technique from her in the process was a task that could make a lesser man despair, than becoming a Vampire was the straw that broke the camel's back.
There was no coming back from this now. Not even if he managed to accomplish all of the above would he ever be able to step back into humanity's fold.
The reason for this, was naturally because of his new identity, and it was related to an issue that dated back to possibly more than a few billion years ago, yet it was an issue so severe that it remained relevant to this very day.
Even though information on the Poisoned Continent had been more than scarce, some general knowledge of the history of their planet was still preserved.
If this history was to be believed, which, now that he had actually become a Vampire, he was far more inclined to believe, then Vampires, as the royal race of the Demons, alongside Ophanim which was the royal race of the Angels, were the eternal enemies of the human race.
It was said that once upon a time, the entire universe was ruled over by the Angels and the Demons, working together in tandem to harvest the souls of all lifeforms, perfectly split between them as each took those who fit their criteria.
The rise of humanity however, had completely broken this balance and freed the entire universe from their enslavement.
Before either of the two ancient races could realize, due to both Stage 9 Eternals taking a "quick" rest, three Stage 9 Eternals emerged from within humanity's ranks within the span of only four billion years.
There is no mention of the terrifying war that ensued afterwards, only a brief note that humanity had emerged as the final victor. Judging from the fact that they were still alive, Gaston would have to agree with this point, but pyrrhic didn't even begin to describe the so-called victory if this planet's state was the result of it, and all that was left of humanity.
At some point, Gaston had begun to unknowingly hold onto the wooden chair he was sitting on with a lot more force than he intended to.