What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Rena stared at Leon in disbelief when she heard that, then immediately blushed and frowned.

“Vulgar! What do you mean by asking me to watch this kind of thing with you?!”

“Copulation means they’ve started reproducing. The faster they reproduce, the closer we are to profit. What else could I mean?” Leon raised his eyebrows.

“You’re the one in charge of breeding. Isn’t this something you should be used to? It’s not like I was teasing you just because I mentioned it once, right?”

Rena was left completely speechless.

After a moment, she cleared her throat and deliberately changed the subject, pretending to be calm.

“Well, I already noticed it yesterday. The Head-Hunting Rabbits started showing signs of going into heat again as soon as they were moved here—much earlier than before.”

“Does that mean the entire reproductive cycle will shorten? I’ve seen in some materials that Magical Beasts have more active life functions inside labyrinths,” Leon asked, confirming with Rena.

“That still needs to be observed for a while before we can draw any conclusions.” After saying that, Rena lowered her head again and returned to compounding her potions.

“Oh right, Rena, have you ever heard of Saltification Disease?” Leon abruptly changed the topic, bringing up a thought that had flashed through his mind that morning.

Rena’s hands suddenly froze mid-motion as she mixed the potion.

She turned to Leon with a look of astonishment.

“Do you have any secret formula for treating or alleviating that disease?” Leon asked casually, without much hope.

“How did you…” Rena stared blankly at Leon.

“How did you know that I’m researching this?”

“You’re researching what? Saltification Disease?” Leon looked at Rena in surprise, then suddenly thought of something and widened his eyes.

“Don’t tell me all these potions you’ve been preparing… are meant to treat Saltification Disease?”

Rena hesitated for a moment, then silently nodded.

“You have medicine for it? These can cure Saltification Disease? That’s an incurable illness!” Leon found it hard to believe.

“At present, I’m only experimenting on animals. It has some effect, at best, but it’s still far from a cure.” Rena gently shook her head.

“Could it be that you became a Witch in order to research magical potions to cure Saltification Disease for someone?”

Leon had always been puzzled about Rena’s reason for becoming a Witch.

Now, he felt that he had finally found the answer.

“……It was my grandmother.” Rena fell silent for a while before answering softly.

“Then she…” Leon asked instinctively.

He had always been certain that Rena lived alone in that wooden cabin.

Could it be that her grandmother had been bedridden inside, like Mrs. Hesh?

“She passed away three years ago,” Rena replied gloomily.

“At that time, I hadn’t managed to produce any decent results yet.”

“And you’ve continued this research ever since?” Leon asked.

“This is an incurable illness. I personally witnessed the suffering my grandmother went through, and I personally experienced that kind of powerless despair. So I thought, since I’ve already become a Witch, I might as well continue this research. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to completely eradicate this disease.” Rena spoke slowly.

“From what you’re saying, does that mean the medicine you’ve compounded now counts as having achieved results?” Leon asked tentatively.

“At least it has some effect on the mice I use for experiments. As long as you feed mice food mixed with Saltification Disease crystals over a long period of time, there’s a certain probability of inducing Saltification Disease. I then use those diseased mice as test subjects. The most effective formula so far can alleviate joint stiffening symptoms and restore mobility to the affected individuals…” Rena explained to Leon.

Leon listened in a daze.

He hadn’t expected that Rena could actually provide a secret formula for treating Saltification Disease!

Once he came back to his senses, he immediately proposed, “Then do you want to try it on a human?”

“You…” Rena scrutinized Leon carefully.

“Do you have a family member who has this disease?”

“It’s my landlady. She’s already reached the point where she’s completely bedridden and unable to move. Besides her, there’s only her thirteen-year-old daughter left in the family. Because of this illness, they’ve accumulated a huge debt and are living very hard lives.” Leon sighed involuntarily as he spoke, then continued persuading her.

“If you’re really researching a specific medicine for Saltification Disease, then testing it on patients is also a very important step, right? It’s rare to have such an opportunity. Why not… try using your medicine?”

“Well…” Rena hesitated a little at this point.

“Would they be willing to use a Witch’s medicine? And I’ve never used my potions on humans before. I’m not sure if something might go wrong.”

“Their situation can’t get any more miserable than it already is. If it works, what’s wrong with using a Witch’s medicine? That lady has long been seeking death as a release. Relying only on the Church’s holy water just slightly prolongs the suffering—it’s already completely hopeless. Your medicine could at least give them a glimmer of hope, right?” Leon tried his best to persuade her.

Rena was somewhat moved.

Testing medicine on humans was unsettling, but it was an inevitable step in developing a specific cure.

Still, she had her concerns.

“If I’m going to prepare medicine for a person, it would be safer to diagnose them in person first. If people find out that I’m a Witch, that would be very troublesome for you too, wouldn’t it?”

Leon frowned deeply.

Indeed, even if they could persuade Sally and Melissa to accept treatment from a Witch in advance, there was no guarantee that there wouldn’t be an accidental leak.

If Rena were discovered to be a Witch, she would be arrested for a serious crime.

It was normal for her to be concerned about such a risk, and Leon—who was currently pinning all his hopes of making money on her—naturally didn’t want anything to happen to her either.

“Speaking of which, you’re really strange. You’re an Inquisitor, yet you actually believe that a Witch’s medicine can cure diseases?” Rena looked at Leon as if she were examining a freak.

In this world, the vast majority of people were extremely wary of Witches, let alone those who served the Church.

“What’s wrong with believing it?” Leon replied casually.

He came from another world, so his views were naturally different from those of this world’s natives.

Not to mention that the idea that a Witch’s medicine could cure illnesses also had the endorsement of an authoritative figure like Bishop Weiss…

At the instant Bishop Weiss’s figure flashed through his mind, a spark of inspiration appeared in Leon’s head.

“I’ve got an idea!” He snapped his fingers.

……

The next evening, on a street near the Hamel Town Cathedral, Leon and Rena walked side by side.

Rena looked extremely uneasy as she glanced toward the church bell tower that rose far higher than the surrounding buildings in the distance.

As a Witch who lived alone in the mountains, she rarely even came to town, let alone near Church facilities.

“You’re insane. You’re really insane!” She started muttering complaints again in a low voice.

“Impersonating the Church’s… what were you even thinking?!”

Leon was wearing his usual clothes for fieldwork, while Rena had changed into a robe commonly worn by devout believers of the Church of the Four Gods when attending rituals or going on pilgrimages.

It was said that many clergy members who concealed their identities while embarking on pilgrimages also chose to dress this way.

Leon’s idea was to have Rena disguise herself as a bishop of the Church who was traveling incognito on a pilgrimage and happened to pass through Hamel Town.

When visiting the local Church, she would coincidentally hear from Leon about Mrs.

Hesh’s situation and, by chance, be researching Saltification Disease, thus coming over to diagnose her.

As for the magical potion Rena had compounded, it could be passed off as “holy water still under development,” allowing them to test it on Mrs.

Hesh openly and legitimately.

“Then why did you still go along with it? Instead of complaining, you might as well adjust your acting and look a bit more holy,” Leon replied in a low voice.

“What does ‘more holy’ even feel like?” Rena was dumbfounded.

“Just be natural,” Leon answered casually.

He wasn’t expecting Rena to display the kind of aura Bishop Weiss had; as long as she could fool ordinary people, it would be enough.

“How much farther?” Rena still looked around uneasily.

As a Witch, disguising herself as a cleric while walking down the street—this kind of utterly upside-down situation made her feel like she was sitting on pins and needles.

“Just turn into the alley over there…” Leon said as he led Rena through an intersection.

Suddenly, a mix of crying shouts and loud laughter came from straight ahead.

“Give it back to me, give it back!!” A frail girl cried as she chased after two loudly laughing boys.

Her hair was cropped so short that only a thin layer of golden buzz cut remained.

As for the two boys, one of them was waving a headscarf like a victory flag.

The two laughed wantonly, completely unaware as they ran straight toward Leon.

Seeing this scene, the expression on Leon’s face vanished.