What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

“Alright, shall we stop here?” Rena suddenly spoke while sitting on horseback.

Leon, seated behind her, pulled the reins and slowly brought the horse to a halt.

“This spot is fine?”

From here, the village entrance was already visible, but it was still quite some distance from Rena’s house in the mountains.

“There are still quite a few people in the village who recognize me. Wearing this outfit isn’t appropriate, and it’s best not to let anyone see me together with you.”

Supported by Leon, Rena dismounted.

She immediately removed the nun’s robe draped over her body and put it away.

“That’s true,” Leon agreed.

After all, what they were jointly doing was illegal business.

Letting people who knew Rena witness the two of them acting together near the village carried a certain amount of risk.

Even when they usually worked in the back mountain, they tried their best to avoid drawing attention.

“Thank you for treating me today. Dinner was very delicious,” Rena looked up and thanked Leon.

“No need to be so polite. After all, it was paid for with the money from selling Mana. You could say we each paid half,” Leon replied with a smile.

“Hey, you didn’t discuss that with me!” Rena protested, then relented, “But… fine, I guess that works.”

“I’m joking. Of course this meal was on me. I already split the money as soon as I got it. Just like we agreed—twenty thousand Fenni per gram of Mana, eight hundred per Head-Hunting Rabbit. That’s twenty-two thousand four hundred Fenni in total. This is your half.” Leon handed Rena the pre-divided money pouch.

“Count it.”

Rena took the pouch and opened it.

Inside were five Gold Shields and six Silver Wolves—no more, no less, fifty-six Thaler Silver Coins, which was eleven thousand two hundred Fenni.

In the past, when she accumulated four months’ worth of goods and sold them to Hannah Weisland, she would receive about this much money.

This time, she had merely killed three Head-Hunting Rabbits, and she had earned over ten thousand!

Rena stared blankly at the money in the pouch.

Earlier, she had harbored some doubts about Leon’s promised purchase price of twenty thousand per gram, but now Leon had fulfilled his promise with real gold and silver.

“Thanks,” Rena carefully put the pouch away.

“We’ll earn a lot more money from here on, but be careful not to spend too extravagantly. Showing wealth easily attracts attention,” Leon reminded her.

“That’s something you should be telling yourself. Who was it that went and bought a feast the moment money came in?” Rena frowned and stared at Leon.

“It was just a one-time celebration. Don’t make it sound like you didn’t eat any. You really should’ve looked in a mirror back then—you were practically drooling!” Leon teased her.

“W-What drooling! It was only because you insisted on inviting me…” Rena lowered her head shyly and muttered softly.

“No matter what, it was really great that you stayed to eat together. I haven’t seen Mrs. Hesh and Melissa that happy in a long time. That’s all thanks to you.” Leon looked straight into Rena’s eyes and said seriously.

“I was just researching my own medicine.” Rena avoided Leon’s gaze slightly.

“But no matter what, thank you.”

“You’ve already thanked me,” Leon reminded her.

Whether it was for the meal or the money, Rena had already expressed her thanks.

“I’m thanking you for giving meaning to my research. All this time, I’ve been worried that what I was researching would end up being useless—just like back then, when I couldn’t save my grandmother… Leon, meeting you might not have been entirely a bad thing.” Rena said earnestly.

Seeing her medicine help the Hesh mother and daughter escape the shadow of illness—even if only temporarily—somewhat made up, for Rena, the regret of not being able to save her grandmother back then.

Leon stared at Rena for a while, then said, “So you always thought meeting me was a bad thing before, right?”

“What do you think? What else could it have been?” Rena snorted back.

Leon shrugged, then asked, “By the way, I wanted to ask—at the current pace of your research, is there actually any chance that Mrs. Hesh can be cured?”

Rena thought seriously for a moment, then replied, “I can’t guarantee that. Judging from the current effects, the general direction of the formula should be correct. It’s just that the medicinal effect needs to be improved. One direction is to find more effective ingredients, and the other is to use higher-purity Mana.”

“Higher-purity Mana?” Leon immediately perked up at the mention of this.

“Is there any way to increase Mana purity?”

“I don’t know. Right now, the limit I can purify to is seventy-five percent. That’s already higher than what my grandmother could achieve back then. Maybe there are more powerful Witches who can extract Mana of even higher purity,” Rena answered.

“Once the next batch ships out and we have funds, maybe we can try buying some higher-purity Mana through underground channels to test it. If it’s just for research, the cost won’t be too high. But as far as I know, Hamel Town doesn’t seem to circulate goods with purity higher than yours,” Leon pondered.

“I’ll ask around first.”

Hearing Leon say this, Rena smiled softly.

Purchasing higher-purity Mana would be an extra expense for Leon, and he was doing it both to help Sally and Melissa, and to help her research.

“Then I’ll leave it to you,” Rena smiled with narrowed eyes.

Then she turned around, lifting her lantern.

“I’ll head back now.”

“Be careful on your way.

See you tomorrow,” Leon said.

“Mm, see you tomorrow.” Rena bid Leon farewell and walked all the way to the village entrance.

When she looked back, she saw Leon still standing in the distance, holding the lantern and watching her off.

She laughed, raised her hand, and waved.

Only then did Leon mount his horse and turn back.

“Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm…”

Rena softly hummed a little tune as she passed through the village and returned to her mountain dwelling.

Her research medicine had achieved the expected results on patients, giving her a strong sense of accomplishment.

Coupled with the slight buzz from two cups of apple cider, her mood was better than it had ever been.

That was, until she saw Hannah Weisland sitting in front of her house, holding a lantern.

“Granny Hannah?” Rena froze in place, caught completely off guard.

“Ah, Rena, you’re finally back.” Seeing Rena, a smile appeared on Hannah’s wrinkled face.

She stood up, dusted herself off, and walked over to Rena.

“Granny Hannah, it’s so late. What brings you here?” Rena asked, forcing herself to stay calm.

Seeing Hannah visit her at such a time meant to avoid attention gave her a very bad premonition.

“I haven’t seen you much lately. The tomatoes and cabbages in the field are growing well, so I brought some over for you.” Hannah smiled broadly and pointed at the vegetables in the cloth bag at her feet.

Ever since before, she would occasionally come to visit Rena, who lived here alone, and would bring vegetables harvested from the fields.

Rena had always been very grateful for Granny Hannah’s care, but after Leon told her about the possibility that Hannah had been deceiving her all along, Rena’s view of her inevitably changed.

“Thank you, Granny Hannah…” Rena thought for a moment, then looked seriously at Hannah.

“Is that the only reason you came?”

Hannah rubbed her hands together and pondered for a bit.

In the end, she still spoke her true purpose: “Rena, how about trying to… do that business again? The two of us, together. Let’s start over.”