16 Trapped in Briggs
Burne instantly cursed himself for his slip up but all Mira did was raise an eyebrow at him. While Buccaneer and the rest of the soldiers had their eyes wide open.
"He is the spy?" Mira asked, not impressed by the boy in front of her. She has always been surrounded by strong and reliable men and the boy in front of her seemed nothing more than a teenager in her eyes.
"That's what we think." Buccaneer said making Burne roll his eyes, which went unnoticed by everyone.
"As I said before, sir… I am not a spy. I am merely a travelling alchemist that happened to stumble upon that chamber by accident." Burne said. "I have no relation with Drachma."
Mira neither denied nor agreed with his claim, she was already informed about the chamber by Buccaneer. "Where are you from?"
"I am from the far east near the Granhest mountains. I decided to explore the world after my grandfather passed away." Burne said. "After travelling for weeks, I decided to visit the famous altar… and somehow ended up in he—"
Even before Burne was able to finish his sentence a sword stabbed through the couch he was sitting on and barely missed his head.
"If I find out that you are lying, your head will be displayed at the top of Fort Briggs." Mira said in a cold tone, making Burne gulp thickly.
'This woman is strong. Stronger than many alchemists.' He thought and nodded vigorously.
"There is going to be a meeting between Drachma and Amestris in less than four weeks, till then transportation will be blocked from Briggs." She said, shocking Burne. "You cannot leave before the meeting is settled." She frowned. "We cannot keep you as a prisoner as we can neither deny nor affirm your claim. You will be given a room to stay till the meeting is over. But remember… you will be under heavy surveillance."
Burne didn't like it, he definitely didn't like it.
"I have done nothing that could prove that I am a spy or someone that is trying to harm Amestris. I don't think you guys have the right to hold me here." He said in a firm tone.
He wasn't going to fight but if needed, he wasn't afraid to face them either. The woman was strong but with a bit of planning, he could easily defeat her.
Buccaneer was enraged by the man's statement but Mira stopped him before he could say anything.
"True. You haven't done anything wrong but we cannot allow anyone to enter or leave Briggs before the meeting is over. It is something that both the representatives of Amestris and Drachma have decided. There is nothing much that you… or even me can do about it." She sighed. "You will have to stay in here, for the time being, boy."
He frowned. He hated the fact that he was going to be trapped here for four weeks because of a political quarrel between two nations that he didn't care about. And he hated the fact that the woman called him 'boy.'
"My name is Burne Adley." He said. "And the only way I agree to all this is if you allow me to practice my alchemy. For an alchemist, there is nothing more wasteful than the wastage of time."
Mira thought about denying his demand as there was not much he could do even if they rejected him. But she also felt bad for the boy. She had dealt with countless spies and she had far more experience in identifying them compared to Buccaneer. But despite that, she couldn't break the rules and neither could she take the chance of letting him leave.
And she was confident enough to be able to deal with an alchemist. She had faced off against multiple state-level alchemists. She believed that she could defeat the boy in front of her with ease. His previous reaction speed was almost non-existent and she knew that it gave her an edge over him.
"Very well." She said before turning towards Buccaneer. "Buccaneer, give him one of the rooms at the top floor and make sure that he receives three meals a day." She then turned around to look at Burne. "You are allowed to use the room to stay and practice your alchemic experiments. And if those experiments require a large space, you can use the training hall— when the soldiers are not using it."
Burne honestly thought that the woman would deny his demands so it surprised him a great deal when she accepted.
He nodded.
"Do not try to act smart or I will deal with you myself. You are given freedom but you are not allowed to enter the restricted areas of the fortress and if I find you sneaking around— trust me that you will regret it, boy." Mira warned, putting a heavy emphasis on the word 'boy'. "Research his background while he stays here, Buccaneer."
Burne found the proposal acceptable as he needed some time to practice the things that he learnt from the tablet. The only thing that bothered him was that he wasn't going to be able to go to the library of Amestris.
'Well, at least I can focus on mass conversion till then.' He thought. 'I should first improve my existing knowledge before trying to learn more.'
Mira nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Buccaneer alone with Burne.
"Follow me." He said to Burne, who nodded before getting off the couch.
Buccaneer took him to the upper floors through the staircase and arrived in front of a room with oak wood flooring.
"You will be staying here." He said. "But don't try anything funny, or you will regret it."
Burne found this whole ordeal both funny and annoying— but he wasn't going to voice it. He was getting both free food and shelter along with a training area. The only thing he lacked was alchemy books but he was sure that the mass conversion theory will keep him busy for the time being.
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'The woman is quite strong.' Burne thought as he laid on the bed. 'But it makes sense considering she is the major general. As for the Buccaneer guy… he does look strong but he is too cynical for his own good.' He sighed.
'Maybe I should focus on alchemy.' He thought before getting off the bed and walking towards the desk. He liked the room quite a lot. It had a little office area with enough space for him to experiment with a few theories.
They delivered his food to his room which he was glad for. And looking at the food, he smiled as he knew exactly where to start his experiment from.
He ate the food while keeping a tiny bit of it away for his experiment. After finishing his food, he looked at the leftover portion.
He took a deep breath before transmuting it. He took out the boron from the food and instantly transferred it to a glass.
'I really hope this works.' With the utmost focus, he started working on the boron. He transmuted the atoms, smashing them together. And soon the boron turned into gas which made a massive smile appear on Burne's face.
Boron is known for being very heavy even in its gaseous form, but the gas that he was holding in the glass was fairly light.
"That's it!" He nearly yelled as he looked for a nearby source of electricity.
As his eyes went towards a socket, his smile grew bigger. He rushed towards it— but paused upon realising that he had no conductor with him.
So he tore the insulation of one of the wires and shoved it inside the glass— and within a second, the gas inside the glass glowed orange.
He just made neon using boron.
He laughed at his success. Previously, he had been using fluorine to create neon as it had mass closest to neon but as the tablet said, that used to waste a lot of energy. But when he used boron, which had an atomic mass of ten, he only needed two boron atoms to create neon which had a mass of twenty. He barely felt any energy consumption and he was certain that even if he used the conversation on a massive scale, he wouldn't lose much energy.
He kept on grinning like an idiot at his successful conversion.
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[A/N: Wasted the entire day and wrote this in half an hour🙃🙃🙃🙃.
Anyways… Him being stuck here is merely for plot convenience. (cuz we need him to be here when the war breaks out. No, it's not cuz of the romance as romance is the last tag… there won't be any romance for a long time.)
Like always, leave paragraph comments next to errors and mistakes for me to fix them later.]
[Discord Link: https://discord.gg/DXwDzxSAED]
