The Peculiar Alchemist

66 || A Terrifying Liar

A few unexpected things occurred when Kellen accompanied Marc to go see Briar.

The first unexpected thing happened when they finally arrived at the wooden door that led to the chapel's basement Briar used as a hideout. Kellen couldn't feel anything warding him off, and he walked straight in without any trouble when he couldn't do so before. Not without making someone remove the wards first. It sure made things easier, and Marc was none the wiser to it all as he followed Kellen in to descend down the stairs.

Strangely – or maybe it wasn't so strange – only the wards that affected necromancers like Kellen were ruined. It was something that was easy to miss, especially with how many wards were drawn on the walls, but Kellen noticed it immediately since it affected him, and the removal of these wards was not his doing.

He was unaware of them being gone, but it did save him the trouble.

Still, he did have a few guesses and he didn't like the one where Briar somehow knew about Kellen. It was improbable, especially when he made sure to hide it from every ghost that was around him. If a ghost happened to accidentally stumble on that knowledge, or be told the way Sammy was told, they'd be dealt with by a simple command from him.

No matter how skilled or powerful Briar's necromancy may be, she is still just a human with a fractured soul. She cannot get that information out of the ghosts, Kellen could make them lie to her and anybody else. Even if she compelled the truth out of them.

But Kellen didn't have much time to think of that when he finally caught sight of a white-haired woman who was looking at him and Marc with a somewhat skeptical face. The skepticism was mostly directed at Kellen and that was mostly because she didn't expect him to be the guy Vincent had sent to her.

She wasn't sure why, but she had expected someone a lot more refined and serious. Briar had also expected someone older, but that wasn't much of an issue to her. Something about Kellen made her feel uneasy, that was her main issue. She couldn't exactly tell what it was about him that made her feel that way, it wasn't a matter of finding him untrustworthy, she didn't care about that, it was a matter of feeling something akin to dread when he got close.

A feeling she had difficulty shaking off, but it went away slowly as she forgot about it.

The contrast was clear between this Kellen guy and Marc Abbott. Marc was exactly the rich son Briar had pictured in her mind. The resemblance to his father was clear, and she had no doubts about his identity.

The first thing he did the moment he saw her was speak to her in a nervous frantic manner. "Where is he?"

"Your father is unharmed," Briar told him with a small amused smile as her followers closed in on the two, it was then that Marc had realized he had walked into a trap and all Kellen could do was sigh. "You'll be with him soon."

Marc had no choice but to go with them, looking around before giving Kellen a worried look. Nobody had even glanced at Kellen as they took him away, and he didn't know what to expect as he let himself be pushed to where his father was supposedly kept. All he hoped for was to see him alive and well, that was all he cared about. The rest he could figure out later.

It was a dumb thing to do, but he had to do it.

Meanwhile, Briar walked over to Kellen feeling like everything was going well considering the circumstances, but she couldn't help but notice the concealed shrewdness in what seemed to be a reckless idiot. In truth, that was the impression she got when she first saw him walk in. He was too confident and apathetic, acting as if he was invincible, but he didn't seem so bright.

But Briar could tell that the blank look he had on his face was because he was studying his surroundings and taking note of everything.

Her suspicions were confirmed by the question he asked, and he asked it so casually as if it was something so obvious when it was not. "You're relocating?"