Chester Arlington

An old man living on the edge of town in a somewhat rundown old cottage who used to work for the kingdom as an alchemical researcher. He's known as "the Professor" for the amount of books one person claimed to have seen when originally welcoming him six years ago when he moved in, and Snarly Arly by the children for his pretension to do just that, right before shutting the door in your face. Until Sammy spilled the beans, no one quite knew what he did. All they knew is that he got money from the government every month, he grows a small and frighteningly fertile vegetable garden, and that he occasionally gets a very expensive looking ceramics from the potter Catherine Lecuyer. No one really knows what he uses it for, not even Catherine, who just follows his specifications.

Eventually, after Alabaster died, his daughter, Sammy started carrying basic mail in his stead at ten. When bringing his government pension to him for the first time, she witnessed him practicing alchemy through a window to his basement. after weeks of building her courage, she finally asked Chester to teach her the trade with his next money bag. He responded like he did to everyone else, a door in the face. Refusing to be beaten, Sammy did his outdoor chores that he had trouble with, like gathering firewood, drawing the well, and going grocery shopping for him. Eventually, after finding Sammy asleep from exhaustion one early summer afternoon, he caved in with what he would later write in his journal "One part pity, one part aggravation, and one part endearment."

Apart from his slightly callous dealings with others, there seems to be a rather odd additional animosity between himself and the town mage Martha Lavigne.