What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

“Rena?” When Leon was about to finish speaking, he noticed Rena reacting as if she had been petrified in place.

He waved a hand in front of her.

“Miss Rena?”

Rena finally came back to her senses.

She blinked twice, lifted a hand to smooth her hair, and forced herself to appear calm as she said, “This isn’t the time for jokes. Hurry and find a way out!”

“I wasn’t joking.” Leon spread his hands and said very seriously, “Otherwise how do you explain this passage? And what role that Doppelganger played here?”

“I’ve never heard of this kind of sacrificial method since becoming a witch!” Rena shook her head vigorously.

“Do you think your grandmother would have told you about things like this even if she knew?” Leon asked in return.

Rena was momentarily speechless.

Indeed, when her grandmother had taught her how to become a witch, even if she had known such useless knowledge, she would never have told her.

“Actually, Church art and folk legends both mention things like this. The prototype should be the traditions of the Ancient Ailanders, though there were definitely elements of exaggeration and slander,” Leon said.

In stories created by the Church and in folk accounts passed down among the people, witches were always linked with all kinds of lewd acts.

In the stories, witches took pleasure in tempting people into depravity.

No matter how noble a knight was, once he succumbed to lust before a witch, he would fall into becoming a lackey of heresy.

In folk legends, witches would also lure people to heretical territories, hold grand revelries, and thereby recruit followers of Moilai.

Even Johnny Wellman, who had once been a Church knight, believed that the Earth Mother Goddess Priestesses of Ancient Ailand would hold wild celebrations with tribal heroes at outdoor altars.

But judging from Leon’s investigation, the place where such rituals were truly carried out should have been this cramped Chamber of Ritual.

From its layout, it could hold at most two people.

Large-scale orgies were unrealistic; it was even possible that only the priestess and her chosen partner were allowed to conduct that kind of dual-cultivation ritual here.

But if that Doppelganger was meant to be used for a ritual performed by a single person, then the idea of dual cultivation with a magical beast still seemed a bit too ahead of its time.

“B-but—this—this—” Rena’s face flushed red, her gaze darting everywhere as she fell completely into confusion.

“Calm down, Rena. We have to think of a way out!” Leon pressed a hand on Rena’s shoulder and said with burning intensity in his eyes.

“Y-you mean, the way out you’re talking about wouldn’t be—” Rena’s voice grew so tense it went off pitch.

“We have to find a way to escape, right? Since there’s a method right in front of us, we should—at least—try it?” Leon chose his words carefully.

Rena stared at Leon.

As she looked at him, a trace of suspicion suddenly appeared on her face.

“Are you really just thinking about escaping?”

“Of course! This is a matter of life and death. I think this isn’t the time to worry about minor details!” Leon said righteously.

But the suspicion on Rena’s face did not fade.

Instead, it grew heavier.

After a long while, she threw him a soul-searching question.

“Then why are you smiling?”

Leon’s heart jolted.

He hurriedly adjusted his expression.

“A- am I?”

“You couldn’t even hold back the corners of your mouth!” Having confirmed that Leon harbored selfish motives in this matter, Rena pushed him with some embarrassment and irritation.

“All right, I admit it, I admit it!” Leon raised his hands helplessly.

“I did feel just a tiny bit of anticipation, but that was also so we could escape! Otherwise, do you really want me to do it with that Doppelganger—”

Hearing this, Rena and Leon both glanced at the Doppelganger pinned down by the demonic wolf.

After being restrained by Rena, the Doppelganger was extremely obedient, not moving at all.

“—” The two fell into silence.

Both of them felt some resistance toward this plan.

Naturally, Rena did not want Leon to take such a risk.

The idea that the Doppelganger was meant to assist in a ritual performed by a single person was merely Leon’s speculation.

Doppelgangers were magical beasts that approached humans in the guise of loved ones and then killed them.

Who knew whether it would suddenly do something dangerous during the ritual? Even if it cooperated, it was hard to say whether close contact between a human and a magical beast would cause illness, curses, or other adverse effects.

Even setting that aside, most people could not accept watching their lover copulate with someone else, let alone a magical beast.

“Maybe… maybe there’s another way?” Rena said as she thought.

“This Doppelganger was automatically generated by this room. Maybe it knows other exits or rules?”

She stared at the Doppelganger, focused her will, and issued an order to it.

“Take us out!”

The Doppelganger showed slight movement, as if taking time to comprehend her command.

Then it began rapidly changing its form, gradually turning into Leon’s appearance.

“—I think you really want to die!!” After a moment of silence, Leon suddenly flew into a rage, drawing his gun and aiming it at the Doppelganger’s head.

After understanding Rena’s command, the answer the Doppelganger gave was still the same as Leon’s deduction.

Only this time, after failing to transform into Rena before, it chose to read Rena’s memories and transform itself into Leon.

Although this was merely a programmed response to the command, in Leon’s eyes, this Doppelganger was truly courting death!

Sensing Leon’s fury, the Doppelganger instantly reverted to a black, humanoid shadow-like form, letting out shrill hissing cries as if begging for mercy.

Rena awkwardly glanced at Leon.

The Doppelganger’s reaction further confirmed Leon’s deduction—if they wanted to leave this place, the only reliable method was to complete the ritual.

Leon noticed Rena’s gaze and turned his head.

After remaining silent for a moment, he sighed, put away his gun, and looked into Rena’s eyes as he said, “Rena, I understand that being forced by circumstances like this can make you feel a bit repulsed—”

“I-I’m not repulsed.” Rena instinctively denied it upon hearing this, her voice growing softer and softer.

“I’m just—afraid. This kind of thing, it’s my—first time!”

“Don’t worry, leave it to me. I have abundant—” Leon adopted a reassuring tone.

“You have experience?” Rena widened her eyes and looked at Leon.

Of course she couldn’t not care about something like this.

If Leon said he was battle-hardened from countless past experiences, that sense of estrangement would only grow.

“—theoretical knowledge.” Leon spread his hands and continued.

Rena stared blankly at Leon, not reacting for a moment.

Feeling embarrassed under her gaze, Leon could only smile awkwardly.

“You’re nervous. Actually, I’m nervous too.”

Based on the knowledge accumulated in his previous life, he dared say he had already mastered dragon-slaying techniques—he just had never found a dragon.

Only then did Rena react.

In the dim lighting, Leon’s face was actually just as flushed as hers.

Realizing that the other person’s feelings were much the same as her own, most of the tension in Rena’s heart dissipated.

The two looked at each other and smiled awkwardly.

Then Leon grew serious, looked at Rena, and said, “Rena, I—”

He felt he should say something—vows of eternal love, sweet words.

Many candidate phrases flashed through his mind, yet all of them felt somewhat strange.

Saying them under such special circumstances seemed like nothing more than laying the groundwork to take advantage of the situation.

Rena seemed to sense this.

She hesitated, then finally mustered her courage and gently raised her hands to cup Leon’s face.

Leon looked at Rena in surprise.

She was clearly even more nervous than he was.

Her gaze flickered constantly, like a skittish kitten, yet she still stared straight at him.

From this angle, the firelight reflected in Rena’s pupils, making her eyes brighter than ever before.

Leon saw resolve in Rena’s eyes.

Just like the moment when Rena had gathered her courage to tell him she wanted to leave together, he suddenly realized he didn’t need to think so much.

A single look was already enough for them.

Without a word, he wrapped an arm around Rena’s shoulders and slowly leaned his face closer.

Rena tensed up all over in nervousness, but in the end, she obediently closed her eyes.

However, just as the atmosphere was reaching its peak, the two suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the direction of the door.

Leon and Rena’s expressions both changed as they instinctively looked toward the stone door.

The door had not opened, but the noise had indeed come from there.

Besides the noise from the door, there were also rustling sounds within the room.

The two followed the sound again and were both stunned.

They saw that the demonic wolf was no longer pressing down on the Doppelganger.

At some point, the Doppelganger had transformed into a demonic wolf of the opposite sex and was rubbing ears and cheeks with the demonic wolf.

Seeing that the two demonic wolves were about to begin mounting, Leon suddenly understood.

This Doppelganger was still trying to carry out Rena’s command to get them out.

After the previous options were rejected, it had moved on to option three—completing the ritual with that demonic wolf!

Judging from the sound from the door earlier, this method actually seemed to work.

Once they finished mating, the door would open on its own, and then they could leave safely!

Almost without thinking, Leon grabbed the test tube containing his Blood Sample again, opened it, and was about to splash it toward the two magical beasts.

How could this be allowed? After all the effort to build up the atmosphere, how could he let them ruin his big moment?

But then he caught sight of Rena staring at him fixedly, and he hesitated.

If earlier there had still been half-willing hope, the situation was now completely different.

They no longer had to complete the ritual.

If Rena did not agree, forcing it would be meaningless.

Thinking of this, Leon stopped his hand and let out a soft sigh.

Seeing him stop, Rena hesitated as if wanting to speak, then finally muttered softly, “Y-you’re not going to do it?”

Leon looked at Rena in surprise, then understood.

He immediately splashed his blood toward the two magical beasts.

The demonic wolf and the Doppelganger were still entangled, unable to react in time.

Splashed by the blood, they let out startled cries.

Leon seized the chance to activate his ability, turning the blood splashed on them into Cursed Blood, with thick clouds of Purple Smoke billowing out.

Accompanied by a series of shrill screams, the two magical beasts separated and rolled on the ground in agony.

The Doppelganger reverted back to its shadow form.

Before long, both the demonic wolf and the Doppelganger lay rigid and motionless.

The room returned to silence.

Leon turned to look at Rena.

She met his gaze, then looked away, then cautiously looked back again.

Leon could no longer restrain himself.

He leaned in close and kissed Rena.

Rena wrapped her arms around his neck and responded with an embrace.

After some time, the stone door emitted a rumbling roar as the Hidden Chamber opened once more.

However, the sounds inside the room continued for quite a while, and no one came out for a long time.