The Deceitful One



After entering the house, he sat on the main seat by the study table and then gestured for Claudia to sit across from him, "Please sit down, Miss Wilson."

However, she didn't bother to sit. Instead, she released her spiritual force pressure on Bryan and asked coldly, "What do you want with Grace?"

Seeing the blatant animosity displayed by Claudia, Bryan removed his sunglasses and looked her straight in the eye, his lips slowly curling up into a mischievous smirk.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play games with me!" Claudia roared, "Tell me, what the hell do you want from her?"

Bryan's smile turned even wider, "Keep your voice down, Miss Wilson. The guests downstairs might get alarmed."

Claudia scoffed, "I've already deployed sound-canceling beetles."

Bryan's eyes narrowed. He looked around the room after applying spiritual force to his eyes. And indeed, he saw small metallic beetles hovering in the air. They had completely surrounded the entire study room!

And the study room was actually very big in size since it contained a small library inside it as well. And the beetles, they would not be visible to a regular human. Even a Transcendent would have difficulty locating them unless they proactively searched for them.

After Bryan's physical transformation, his senses naturally improved. And now when he applied spiritual force to his eyes, he was able to see even better.

He could see the minute runes carved atop the metal beetles and could even see the gears rotating and working in tandem inside them.

"I see…" Bryan nodded. He then looked back at Claudia, "So, you're an Artisan Path Transcendent. Well, I guess it makes sense that everyone in the Wilson household is an Artisan. Everyone except Grace, that is."

"Bastard!" Claudia gnashed her teeth, "You even seem to know what Path Grace is a Transcendent of."

"Why wouldn't I?" Bryan displayed an amusing expression, "I'm quite good friends with her, you know."

"This is my first and last warning to you. Stay away from Grace from this day forth. She's not someone the likes of you can hope to marry." Claudia stated coldly.

"Eh?" Bryan was puzzled, "Why would I want to marry her? Besides, doesn't she have a thing for women?"

Claudia's eyes widened in disbelief. This was something that her family had been keeping under strict wraps. And only the family members and a select few trustworthy maids and servants were privy to it.

For a stranger to know of such information would surely cause a scandal in the upper echelons of the nobility in Nadir if word got out.

Seeing Claudia's reaction, Bryan's lips curled up into a smirk, "You pretend that you don't care about Grace at all, always giving her the cold shoulder. But deep down, you have nothing but love and affection for her."

Bryan walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window with his arms clasped behind his back. He looked at the setting sun outside and continued, "I don't understand, your feelings and actions are quite contradictory. I wonder why that is…"

Claudia lowered her head and didn't speak for a long time. She then removed the two bracers she was wearing and put them together as she muttered, "You… know quite a lot about us."

The bracers came together and melded with each other. Within a few moments, they had transformed into a sharp short sword!

Claudia tightly grasped the handle of the short sword and then looked at Bryan with killing intent, "You must die."

Bryan calmly turned his head and smiled at Claudia, "If there's a battle, the guests will be aware of it. Or can these beetles of yours fortify the room enough for a Transcendent fight to take place?"

Claudia nodded, "That's right. Even if you die, no one will bat an eye. And the guests will naturally be taken care of. You have severely underestimated the power of the Wilson Family."

Bryan turned around and removed his suit jacket. He rolled up his sleeves and then looked at Claudia with a smile, "But what makes you think you can kill me?"

Claudia was about to reply, however, the next moment she was taken aback because Bryan had completely disappeared from the spot.

She couldn't help but think incredulously, 'So fast! He didn't even produce a sound!'

The following moment, her spiritual sense was triggered. Alarmed, she turned around and instantly raised her short sword horizontally to block the incoming attack.

Bryan appeared out of nowhere and brought down his right hand as if he was swinging a sword downward. Except, he was using his palm as a sword!

Just as Bryan's palm was about to collide with Claudia's sword, he dissipated into gray smoke. And the next moment, he appeared beside her and grabbed her sword-wielding wrist!

He pivoted inside and then delivered an uppercut punch to Claudia's elbow! Her elbow snapped in half, the bones jutting out from the wound, and the sword she was holding fell to the ground!

Claudia eye's widened in utter shock. Everything happened so fast that she couldn't even ready a counterattack. Furthermore, Bryan's illusion techniques felt so real that she couldn't even perceive it in her spiritual sense.

Before she could think further, she saw Bryan, who was still grabbing onto her wrist, turn his hips and land a solid roundhouse kick to her abdomen!

Claudia spat a mouthful of blood as she flew across the room and crashed against the bookshelves.

BAM!!

"Hehe, are you cocky or just that weak?" Bryan chuckled as he saw Claudia fall to the floor miserably. He then looked at her short sword which was laying by his feet and picked it up.

As he looked at the sword, he marveled, "Nice sword! It can change shape and transform into a bracer, huh? Reminds me of another weapon I possessed for a brief period of time."

Claudia got to her feet and looked at Bryan who was now wielding her sword, her eyes narrowed. She then looked at her broken arm and then back at Bryan,

"Your illusion techniques are the best that I have seen. Were you the one that introduced Grace to this Path?"

Bryan simply smiled, "Who knows?"

Of course, he wouldn't admit to that. After all, it was Bryan who had given Grace the meditation technique and the potion formula for the Illusion Path, not Anthony!

He took up a fighting stance again and aimed Claudia's short sword at her, "Let us continue, shall we?"

Claudia removed her earrings, the bracelets on her wrists, and four rings from her finger. She brought them together and they transformed into a pair of gauntlets!

Bryan raised his eyebrows, "How interesting!"

The next moment, he rushed toward her and slashed his sword down right on her head! Claudia simply raised both her hands and blocked the attack with her gauntlets.

CLASH!!

"Ughh!!" She grimaced in pain as the damage intensified on her already broken elbow. However, now was not the time to back down.

She raised her right leg and aimed to knee Bryan in the stomach. However, the latter was already prepared. He raised his left leg and blocked her attack.

He looked at her and mocked, "Weren't you going to kill me? Where did all that confidence go?"

Claudia saw the mocking grin on Bryan's face and her eyes narrowed. The next moment she screamed in her mind, 'NOW!'

Bryan's smile froze on his face. The sword that he was wielding, suddenly grew dozens of spikes on its handle and pierced his hand!

"Aaaagghhhh!!!" Bryan drew back a few steps and tried to get rid of the sword but was unable to. The next moment, he was shocked! Quite literally.

The sword produced a ridiculous amount of blue-colored lightning that instantly ravaged his body. Bryan's skin was burnt to a crisp as he finally fell limply on his back.

The sword withdrew the spikes on its handle and flew back towards Claudia!

She caught her short sword and then laughed, "Hahaha, you fool! How can you even think of wielding your opponent's weapon in the midst of battle?"

As she walked towards Bryan's body which was still trembling from time to time as slight bolts of electricity ran across the body surface, her grin couldn't help but turn wider.

She looked at Bryan's eyes and muttered coldly, "This is what you get for trying to fool my little Grace. I will not let what happened to me ever happen to her.

You thought you could seduce her and take advantage of her? You thought you could have access to the wealth and influence of the Wilson Family through her? What a joke!"

She raised her sword and pointed its tip at Bryan, "You'll never get what you want. Now die!"

The next moment she ferociously brought her sword down as she aimed to pierce Bryan's heart and kill him once and for all. However, just when the sword tip was a few inches away from his chest, Claudia caught a glimpse of Bryan's eyes.

His eyes which were darker than the abyss suddenly began to rotate. Initially, his pupils rotated slowly, but they gradually picked up speed.

When Claudia saw his eyes, her heart began to pound harder and harder. She felt as if it was going to tear out of her chest. Suddenly, she felt lost. She didn't know where she was or what she was doing.

Right at that moment, Bryan's voice drifted into her ears, "Please sit down, Miss Wilson."

Claudia snapped out of her daze and looked at Bryan who was sitting at the study table and was gesturing for her to sit. Cold beads of sweat began to form on her forehead as she stuttered, "W-What is h-happening?"

She looked around the study room and found that everything was normal, nothing was broken. There were no signs of any fight having taken place at all!

Her back was drenched in cold sweat as she stumbled a few steps back. Suddenly it dawned on her and she looked at Bryan with sheer horror, "T-That was all an illusion!!?"