What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

“You see! None of them ended well, did they!” Rena finally found something to seize on.

“But at least they enjoyed life while they were alive. You’re already bearing the risk of being a Witch—then you should at least strive for benefits worthy of that risk. Make good use of a Witch’s abilities to live well for a few more days. That way, even if you get caught, you won’t regret it too much.” Leon was still trying to coax her patiently.

“What kind of twisted logic is that?!” Rena did not let herself be led astray.

“You do realize you can no longer rely on Mrs. Hannah Weisland to sell Mana, right? Other than that, do you have any other source of income?” Leon suddenly asked.

Rena was momentarily left speechless.

Mrs. Hannah Weisland had always purchased her goods at a low price; in truth, her income had been very small, with hardly any savings.

Now that her income source had suddenly been cut off, even eating normally in the future might become a problem.

“I’m guessing you’ve been living pretty frugally, huh? Your clothes are worn down like this, and that red shawl is almost faded into rags, yet you still won’t throw it away…” Seeing that this tactic worked, Leon said casually.

“What does that have to do with you?! My grandmother made this for me!” Rena suddenly became unusually forceful, gripping the shawl on her shoulders that had already faded to a pale red.

She glared at Leon, her voice rising.

Leon froze for a moment, then suddenly realized that this item held special meaning for Rena.

The moment she finished shouting, Rena calmed down and was instead seized by fear, worried that her attitude might anger this Inquisitor who, in practical terms, held her life and death in his hands.

“That was my slip of the tongue. I’m sorry.” Leon apologized immediately.

“Huh?” This time it was Rena who was stunned.

She had not expected him to take the initiative to apologize to her—let alone so decisively.

This Inquisitor actually showed her a minimum level of respect?

“All right, maybe you don’t value profits that much, but I need money—desperately! No matter what, I have to earn at least three million. If you want to get rid of me sooner, then cooperate with me to achieve this goal as quickly as possible. We must expand production. On this point, I will not back down!”

Leon gave up on trying to motivate her indirectly and stated his demands bluntly.

“Why do you want money so badly?” Rena asked, then immediately realized something.

“Is it to treat the aftereffects of the Cockatrice venom you mentioned before?”

“Yes. I need money for medical treatment. Money is too important…” As he spoke, Leon looked off into the distance with a trace of melancholy.

“With money, you can secure your livelihood. You don’t have to swallow your pride just to scrape together a meal. Money isn’t omnipotent, but without money, you absolutely can’t survive. With money, at least you don’t have to worry about things that money can solve. Isn’t that right?”

Rena studied Leon for a moment, lowered her head to think, then let out a long breath.

“Breeding pool.”

“What?” Leon did not understand at first.

“We need to find a place and dig a larger breeding pool, then add two layers of breathable covers on top to prevent the Magical Beasts from escaping—like here, for example.” Rena walked back and forth around the camp, stepping on a patch of soft soil.

“As for the workbench, the table left here could be raised a bit and should barely be usable. It’s best to buy a new set of tools—I’ll give you a list later. With such a large space, we also need to solve the lighting issue. And whether this labyrinth is safe—I hope you can help me carefully confirm that deeper inside.”

Leon was surprised by Rena’s sudden cooperation, but since she was willing to work more closely with him, it was naturally exactly what he wanted.

“Alright. Anything else?” Leon nodded.

“Since we’re going to be partners from now on, you can’t keep interacting with me like this, can you, Inquisitor?” Rena looked at Leon and pointed at her cheek with a finger, signaling him to remove his mask.

“At least tell me your name?”

Leon thought for a moment, then raised his hand and removed the mask, revealing his true face.

The poison-proof capability of this bird-beak mask was actually not very good; it mainly served as physical protection, preventing the face from being splashed directly with dangerous substances like acidic liquids or lime.

“Leon Set.” Leon reported his name.

Using the lantern light, Rena examined Leon’s face and gave her assessment.

“You’re younger than I imagined. Judging by your voice, I thought you were some middle-aged man.”

“Do I really sound that old?” Leon frowned slightly and deliberately extended his gloved hand.

“Then can we consider our cooperation officially established now?”

Rena hesitated for a moment, but in the end still reached out and carefully shook Leon’s hand.

“Then there’s no time to lose…” Leon turned around and picked up the shovel.

“Let’s get to work right now!”

……

Over the next two days, Leon shuttled back and forth between Hamel Town and the back mountain of Estuary Village, carrying out construction for the new workshop inside the labyrinth and purchasing the items Rena needed.

By the third day, after handling most of the physically demanding labor, he left part of the organizing work to Rena and returned to the Inquisition to resume work—he had been absent for far too long, and if he kept skipping, he might not even be able to keep his job.

“Hey, look who’s back? Five whole days without a word. I thought you were going to die of illness.” The Captain greeted him as soon as he saw him in the duty room.

“Still looking that pale? You didn’t go fooling around with women in back alleys and catch something, did you?”

“If I had that kind of spare money, that’d be nice.” Leon brushed off the joke.

“Considering I just recovered from a serious illness, go easy on me with the workload, Captain.”

“In your dreams! Have you thought about who’s been covering your shifts while you were gone? Today you’re making up every bit of the work you missed!” As he spoke, the Captain pulled out a stack of IOUs and slapped them onto the table.

These were all debt-collection assignments issued by the Church to the Inquisition.

“Looks like this day of fieldwork is going to last until night.” Leon forced a bitter smile at the thickness of the IOUs.

“Here. This one was supposed to be collected two days ago. I saved it especially for you—don’t say I didn’t look after you!” The Captain took out the top IOU and handed it to Leon.

Leon froze when he saw it.

On the signature and seal section of the IOU was a name he was very familiar with: Melissa Hesh.

As for the amount owed, principal plus interest had already exceeded eight hundred Thaler Silver Coins—nearly one hundred and seventy thousand Fenni.

Among this stack of IOUs, amounts this large were rare.

For an ordinary household, this was already an enormous sum.

“Leon, sympathy is sympathy, but you have to tell her she can’t delay it this time. At the very least, she has to pay the interest,” the Captain said earnestly.

“Otherwise, next time I won’t be able to leave it to you to handle.”

“Thank you, Captain.” Leon carefully put away the IOUs, inwardly glad that he had returned to work in time to deal with this.

“I’ll get to work now.”

“Mm. Go on.” The Captain waved him off.

After leaving the Inquisition, Leon quickly arrived at the destination of the first IOU—a modest residence located in an alley near the cathedral.

He let out a long breath.

Instead of knocking, he took out a key and directly opened the door.

Someone inside clearly heard the sound of the door opening.

Light footsteps sounded in the stairwell, and a girl’s still-youthful voice greeted him:

“Brother Leon?”