Chapter 220: Richard
Beatrice walked out of the house. She took out a cigarette and lit it.
"Want some?" Beatrice handed him the aluminum case.
Richard shook his head. "Not interested."
"So? What is your answer?" Beatrice said.
"We'll think about it. A mutual beneficial relationship doesn't sound too bad. But I don't know if we really need it. The vampires and the necromancers are duking it out in Luandon. But we don't care about that territory no more. It was simply just dangerous now."
"The Princes you mean? Doesn't matter what you want. They would find you if they want to."
"Is that what you saw in the future, witch?"
"Mmm." Beatrice hummed but didn't answer. She squinted her eyes at the carriage rolling into the ranch.
She spotted Leah and Dorothy there with some stranger.
"Sigh." Beatrice blew out a smoke. "Those two girls are troublesome. I just left them for an hour and they already found a boy."
"Young kids. They are at the age to dream." Richard said.
'This is the Alpha that the Wolfman entrusted themselves to? He seems... uninteresting.'
The two young witches approached the house once more, this time accompanied by Carter.
"Didn't think you still have male witch left." Richard said. He thought the scrawny man was one of them.
"We don't."
Leah and Dorothy seemed to be very fond of the man. He was polite, kind, and smart. And he kept a great distance at the two girls. A rare sight to see since the usual men would fawn over them.
"Who is your new friends there?" Beatrice said.
"This is Mister John Collins." Dorothy said.
Carter removed his hat respectfully. "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."
Beatrice looked to be in her thirties. The same age as Frankenstein. While John Collins was very young, the same age as the young witches, the twenties.
"What's your business here, stranger?" Richard said.
"Yes. I am here to look for a woman named Primrose Quinton. Do you know her?" Carter said.
Richard pretended to not having a reaction. But that couldn't escape Carter's eyes. He saw the subtle shift in Richard's expression.
'This Wolfman... Isn't he the Alpha that ran away? Pathetic coward.'
Carter attacked the Wolfmen with the Eldritch Skeleton Knight. The Alphas all died so that the other Wolfmen could escape. Their skeletons were still guarding the City of Ghosts as Delilah's pet dogs at the moment.
Only one Alpha survived. Richard Manley. Because he ran instead of fighting.
"Sorry, stranger. I don't know the person you're talking about." Richard said.
'Such an obvious lie.' Carter thought to himself.
His gaze and Beatrice met. Beatrice dropped her totem on the ground. A black piece of coal wrapped around by many jewels and discolored cloth.
She saw something inside him that she couldn't explain. It wasn't a vision. It was simply a feeling.
The antidote to vampire was the man in front of her.
'How can this be? He is simply an ordinary man?'
John Collins's power was so good that Beatrice didn't notice he wasn't a human.
"What did you say your name was, young man?" Beatrice said.
"John Collins? Is something wrong, Miss Cavendish?"
Carter picked up the totem. Only for it to ignite and burned to ash.
The scrawny man sweated. "I... I don't know why it caught on fire."
"Don't worry. It's just a magic trick."
"You're a magician, Miss Cavendish?"
"Something like that."
Magician was referring to simple circus magician that used illusion to trick people. It was purely sleight of hands or tricks to the eyes. Not actual magician. That kind of magician didn't exist in this world... Yet.
'That totem... It is an alerting totem that would only burn if great danger is around. This man... Whoever he is... Is not simple.'
"Master Manley. I would like to stay in your ranch for a few days. Would that be alright?" Beatrice said.
Richard smiled brightly. The man was purely fawning over the matured witch. "Of course, Miss Cavendish. I will have my men prepared the best room for you and the girls."
"Prepare one for Mr. Collins as well. I have a feeling that he will be of great use to us."
"This skinny kid?" Richard looked at Carter again. He couldn't see what was so special about him. It was just a book nerd.
"Alright then."
For some unknown reasons, Carter managed to slip into the Lanely Ranch. If he didn't have all those enlightenment skills, he would have thought it was coincident.
But nothing was a coincident around him. All the ascended paths that he had were Transcension, Descension, Primal Spiritualization, Wicked Spiritualization, Prince of Blood and Soul. Each of them was created using Otherworldly Intervention, a skill that Shrine Maiden had.
Carter would not be surprised if reality operated differently around him because of the pure Otherworldly Intervention stacks he had on himself and his skin.
'It almost feels like... The world favors me in some way.'
The ranch was not a five star hotel but its guest rooms were pretty good. Wood cabins with warm, leather sheets. These would have been a great vacation spot back on Earth.
Carter acted naive and clueless as John Collins. He went into his room obediently.
'Primrose... That girl just disappears without trace. The Shrine Maiden saw that I can find her on my trip to Lanely Ranch. But where exactly is she?'
It wasn't long before there was a knock on the door.
"Yes?"
"It's Dorothy. We want to ask if you would like to accompany us to dinner."
"Of course, Miss Dorothy."
The dinner was quiet and long. Beatrice didn't move her gaze away from the scrawny man. The man was obviously stress.
"Trix... You shouldn't be looking at him like that."
"What? I'm not taking your boyfriend. I'm just interested in him."
Dorothy rolled her eyes, "I just find him interesting. Don't ake it weird."
Dorothy was being honest.
Suddenly, there was a scream in the ranch. A woman scream.
The three witches and Carter looked at each other.
"Stay here, I'll go look." The skinny young man stood up and left.
"Heh. Look at him go. So weak and yet, so eager." Leah found the man's personality to be contradicting.
Carter frowned. He saw a cattle lay dead on the ground, bloody. It was split in two.