Chương 124: Chapter 121: Unraveling

The air was thick with tension. The knights had righted the toppled dining table, and Lord Alardice now sat on one side, hand gingerly rubbing at his neck where a tiny bead of blood had formed from the spear point. Behind him stood Agnes, who'd sheathed her rapier and now wore a completely blank expression as she overlooked the table. One hand still rested on the hilt of her sword, and Pyre could tell that she was prepared to step in the moment anything went awry.

Henry and the other knights remained on guard just behind her. Across from Lord Alardice sat Daphne with Pyre and Callan on either side of her. Originally, some of the knights had moved to take position behind them. But after Daphne had snapped at them to "stay the fuck away from me," they'd sulked away, thoroughly abashed, and moved back to the other side of the table. Their little scuffle just now had already proven that the regular knights couldn't do shit against Pyre, anyway.

Both groups had formed an unspoken mutual agreement to stay on their respective sides to maintain the tentative "peace." The one exception was Llyr. He sat a few seats down from Pyre closer to the head of the table where Agnes or one of the other knights could easily grab him, and his hands were still chained together. This, according to Lord Alardice, was non-negotiable. Even now, multiple knights kept eyeing him with no small amount of unease.

Llyr himself was staring down at his hands on the table, fiddling with the chains binding both his movements and his magic. His jaw was tense, and while his expression was technically blank, the look in his eyes was positively murderous. Pyre had to wonder how many of the alarmed looks the knights sent his way were because of the mer (siren, but they didn't need to know that) revelation, and how many were because of how different he currently looked from his previous saintly image.

Either way, she kept a close eye on him in her peripheral vision even as she lounged casually back in her chair. On the other side of the table, Lord Alardice was staring intently at Llyr, contemplative. He rubbed his neck again, his other finger tapping absently against the table as he attempted to come up with the words to say. They'd been sitting in silence for a few minutes now. Daphne's arms were crossed, and she leveled the other noble with a sharp look, perfectly happy to wait for him to explain himself.

It was obvious even below the lord's stoic mask that he was starting to grow antsy, Pyre noted in mild amusement. Finally, after what felt like hours, Lord Alardice cleared his throat.

"I've suspected that Llyr may not be human for some time now," he began slowly. The siren in question tensed at that. The noble continued.

"When the disappearances began, I noticed, of course, that they started a few months after Llyr's arrival in Serindell." He pursed his lips.

"I couldn't say for certain that they were related, but the timing was… suspicious. He had both the means to move throughout the city without suspicion as well as an easy disposal method for the victims given his location. Considering I already suspected he wasn't human…" His voice trailed, and he coughed.

"Well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time that a monster infiltrated the city to lure in victims," he muttered. Llyr's eyes narrowed while a few of the knights shifted uncomfortably. Lord Alardice continued, frowning.

"This was mostly conjecture on my part, however. I had no concrete evidence of his involvement or even that he wasn't human. Certainly not enough evidence to arrest him or detain him for questioning without becoming a social pariah. He's quite popular, as I'm sure you're aware." Lord Alardice snorted and shook his head.

"It would've been political suicide. I was planning on waiting until I had more conclusive proof before acting." Pyre listened silently as the man spoke, digesting the words. She raised an eyebrow as a thought occurred to her.

"That why you were so obsessed with getting him to work for you?" she drawled. Lord Alardice rubbed his neck again, the action seemingly unconscious. Under the chandelier light, his dark eyes gleamed.

"If he stayed at the estate, I could keep a closer eye on him. Determine if he really wasn't human." He cocked his head.

"And if I turned out to be wrong, I would still have a very powerful healer under my employ." Well, that certainly put a new light on the noble's persistence. A few seats away, Llyr's lips thinned. Lord Alardice met his gaze.

"It seems," the noble said pointedly, "that I was correct." Llyr snorted, the sound harsh in the enclosed dining hall.

"Only that I wasn't human." His eyes flashed, and the chains clinked lightly as he shifted his bound hands.

"The rest was wrong."

"If you were suspicious of Llyr, you should've informed us before the interrogation began," Daphne added, sharp gaze fixed on the other noble. She scowled.

"Your ambush was entirely inappropriate and completely unbefitting of your position." Lord Alardice frowned at that.

"Inform you? When you could very well have been connected to the disappearances yourselves?" Daphne's eyebrow twitched, and she opened her mouth to respond. Before she could, however, the man continued.

"Do you have any idea how suspicious your little group is?" He gestured vaguely to her, Pyre, and Callan.

"You arrive in Serindell with no prior notice and only two household members accompanying you. Why not send a greeting beforehand, as any noble of your standing would, or inform the city so we could prepare accommodations? Why the secrecy?" His eyes shifted to Llyr again.

"You might not be aware of this, but Llyr has never allowed anyone to stay long-term before. When he takes overnight patients, he either heals them in their own homes, or he brings them to a city infirmary after the initial treatment. Allowing strangers into his house is unprecedented. You clearly had some sort of connection that you weren't disclosing." Based on Llyr's lack of response, this seemed to be true.

Pyre hummed, thinking back to her fight with the siren as well as what Daphne had said about her initial confrontation with him. From what she could tell, the main reason Llyr had let them stay at the mansion was to keep an eye on them —Pyre, specifically, who he'd thought was involved with the weird cultish group. But to Lord Alardice, who'd been tracking all of Llyr's movements and already thought him suspicious, their closeness would seem like evidence of possible cooperation.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Another thought struck her.

"When you were warning me after that dinner," the demon remarked, recalling his brief, but extremely suspicious words at the time, "you were warning me about Llyr."

"I couldn't be completely certain that you knew what he was," Lord Alardice muttered.

"I warned you on the off chance you didn't know." He scowled.

"And I maintain that you poke your noses around too much. Either way, I was not going to tell you of my plans without ascertaining your role in this."

"That tattooed guy," Callan muttered, half to himself. The ghost's brain had probably been moving a mile a minute this whole time.

"You escalated after that." Lord Alardice turned to Callan for the first time since they'd sat down at the table.

"The man was killed by a slow-activating spell that was placed before his arrival at the hospital. The timing aligns with when Llyr examined him, and he has the skills necessary to cast a spell of that nature while remaining undetected." Pyre's eyebrows rose. The demon turned to face Agnes, who inclined her head slightly—the first real movement she'd made since this conversation had begun. Well, the knight captain had clearly lied about having no idea how the tattooed man had died.

All her weird questions about Llyr made a lot more sense in retrospect; she'd been interrogating the demon to get more information on him. Maybe even trying to determine if she was an accomplice in his perceived crimes. All the while, Agnes's face remained perfectly neutral and unreadable. It was hard to gauge what she personally felt about all this beyond acting on orders.

"Considering that Llyr has, indeed, been hiding his identity," Lord Alardice continued, facing Daphne again, "I can't say I regret the 'ambush,' as you so put it." His eyes narrowed.

"For all your sanctimoniousness, I would remind you that you yourself have been concealing the identity of a mer. You claim that Llyr is not involved with the disappearances, but what evidence of this do you have? Am I to believe that a mer conveniently infiltrated Serindell right before they began?" Daphne opened her mouth, then closed it. She didn't fully trust Llyr herself, Pyre remembered. The way her eyes darted briefly over to him, then back seemed to confirm this.

"He's been investigating the disappearances as well," Daphne finally settled on.

"And so have we."

"Yes, it would seem so," Lord Alardice muttered. His eyes landed on Callan, who froze slightly.

"I still wonder how you managed to search my mansion undetected. You're fortunate that we have more pressing concerns." His eyes moved back to Llyr for emphasis. The healer met his gaze coldly. Pyre noted the tension still lingering in all the knights, the way they kept glancing at Llyr like he would explode or something.

She got a few wary looks herself, but it spoke volumes that even after her display during the scuffle and literally holding Lord Alardice at spear-point, they were primarily concerned about the siren. His non-human status was an automatic marker of guilt in many of their eyes. The demon suspected a good chunk of the knights were convinced Llyr was behind the disappearances, solely on account of his species, and were itching to arrest him.

Which would be inconvenient and cause them to lose access to his information on the mysterious group. Pyre hummed in thought, considering.

"He's a reincarnator." Every pair of eyes in the room snapped to her at that. Pyre kept going, completely nonchalant as she jerked her head at the healer in question.

"Him. He's not just a mer, he's a reincarnator," she repeated, perfectly calm. Llyr narrowed his eyes at the demon, but she just arched an eyebrow at him. This was what Callan had told Daphne in the sanctum, and it had worked (at least somewhat) to de-escalate the situation back then. Reincarnators were mythical heroes in this world, after all. Their positive reputation could counterbalance any negative feelings about Llyr being a siren—or a mer, as the knights were calling him.

Llyr seemed to recognize this, too, because his jaw simply tightened, and he looked away again. Lord Alardice's eyes darted to him. Behind the noble, a few of the knights murmured amongst themselves.

"Is that true?" Llyr nodded stiffly, still fidgeting with the chains. The tips of his fingers were starting to turn red with how much he was picking at them.

"I am," he muttered. Some of the knights shifted at that. Clearly, they hadn't been expecting this. Daphne used the opportunity to continue her own line of questioning while they were off-guard.

"I'll acknowledge that our actions thus far might have been cause for suspicion," she began, albeit begrudgingly, "but I could say the same of you." Her eyes narrowed.

"We're investigating the group responsible for the disappearances, and we have reason to suspect that they're working closely with Serindell's nobility. You are the most central figure in the city." Lord Alardice's eyes flashed at that, genuine anger lighting up his expression in a way that was distinctly different from his usual haughtiness and irritation.

"I would never harm the citizens of Serindell." His voice was frigid.

"You don't know anything." Before the two nobles could get into another argument, Pyre turned to Callan.

"Kid, you said he wasn't responsible earlier," she began.

"What did you find?" Callan cleared his throat.

"He has extensive notes in his office tracking the disappearances," he explained.

"Letters to various city officials, knights, even shopkeepers questioning if they've seen anything. Newspaper clippings, maps, different theories…" His voice trailed, and he glanced at the man in question, who'd gone still in his chair. Callan looked thoughtful.

"I even found letters to all the families of the victims. Multiple drafts for each one. Though it doesn't look like any of them were sent." Daphne spun around to face the other noble in disbelief. Lord Alardice sat stiffly.

"I didn't want to overstep," he muttered, quiet enough that Pyre had to crane to hear him. Callan coughed.

"Of course, it's possible the notes and letters were faked," he continued carefully, "but I really don't think so. They got messier with time, too. Like—like he was getting more and more desperate." Desperate enough to finally resort to forcibly revealing Llyr's identity, it seemed. And this interrogation had been the ideal time to do it—especially since he could use it as a test for them as well. Pyre leaned back in her chair, using her leg to stop it from tipping over.

The knights and Lord Alardice still looked wary, but less so than before. Both the revelation that Llyr was a reincarnator and the evidence of their own investigation on the disappearances seemed to have knocked them off balance, and now, no one knew what to do. That Henry guy kept glancing at Llyr, then away, then back like that would somehow help him make sense of things. Going from "beloved healer" to "dangerous mer possibly kidnapping people" to "mythic reincarnator" was probably a lot to take in.

She could only imagine how bad the reaction would be if they knew about her as well, the demon thought in amusement. Her gaze shifted. Agnes, Pyre noted, looked thoughtful. Some of the careful blank mask from earlier had dissipated, and she now seemed to be seriously contemplating the situation. Her hand was no longer resting on her sheathed rapier, either. Pyre wondered if her earlier questioning hadn't just been about trying to figure out Llyr's identity, but also about potentially clearing his name.

She certainly seemed the least hostile right now.

"You mentioned that a group was responsible for the disappearances," Agnes said, breaking the silence. Her brows were furrowed, considering.

"You sounded familiar with them. Do you already know who they are?" Daphne and Callan exchanged looks, then turned to Llyr. The healer's shoulders were tense, fingers still picking at the chains in increasingly sharp movements. His blue eyes scanned the other side of the table—probably trying to figure out if it was worth telling them what he knew. The distrust clearly ran deep, and Pyre couldn't exactly blame him for not feeling particularly charitable after the spell fiasco.

Still, this was an opportunity to possibly get a lead on the group's location. Lord Alardice would have access to many resources they didn't, and after what Callan had said, she was pretty convinced that he genuinely wasn't involved. The ghost was too cautious to get something like that wrong.

"If there're nobles involved, he might know more," the demon pointed out. Her voice was casual and even.

"Might as well put everything out on the table." Llyr's lips thinned. For a second Pyre thought she caught a hint of that frenzied look from their fight, but slowly, he nodded. It seemed logic had won out. The siren turned to Lord Alardice and Agnes.

"Remove these chains first," he muttered, "and then we can talk."