What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Hamel Town, Black Rye Tavern.

A little past nine in the evening was the noisiest time in the tavern.

The tables were covered with overturned cups and scattered plates, and the drunken customers shouted loudly, raising their glasses and drinking to their hearts’ content.

The large round table in the corner was especially lively.

Five young men each held a mug of alcohol, laughing boisterously.

The man at their head had a scar at the corner of his eye.

He slapped the table as he cheered, while beside him, Melissa held a cup and, with a pained expression, downed an entire glass of grape wine in one go.

That day, just like any other, she had been working the evening shift at the Black Rye Tavern as a waitress carrying trays.

Three hours of night work earned her fifty Fenni, making it one of the better-paying jobs among her various part-time employments.

However, near the end of her shift that night, someone among a group of customers suddenly recognized her.

“Well, well, isn’t this little Melissa?”

“Mr. Garcia?” Seeing someone she knew, Melissa was also surprised.

Garcia was a debt collector employed by the wealthy merchant Potter in town.

Potter owned a casino and a pawnshop in Hamel Town.

The pawnshop ran a moneylending business.

Aside from collecting debts for Mr. Potter, Garcia was sometimes responsible for watching over the casino.

And the largest sum of Melissa’s debts was precisely the loan issued by Potter’s pawnshop—money her father had borrowed back then to operate the theater.

Garcia came to collect debts once every three months and had dealt with Melissa before.

Sally Hesh often reminded Melissa that Potter’s debts had to be repaid first, because the methods used by these debt collectors were notorious.

Melissa herself disliked Garcia as well.

Every time he came to her house, the greedy look in his eyes when he stared at her… always sent a chill down her spine.

And now, as Garcia looked at Melissa wearing a waitress’s apron, his gaze became even more undisguised.

“Didn’t expect such a coincidence. Come, come! Sit down and take a break with us. Have something to eat together.” Garcia reached out and grabbed her slender arm, pulling her over to the seat beside him.

“N-no, Mr. Garcia, I still have to work…” Melissa naturally wanted to refuse, but he did not loosen his grip at all.

Instead, he tightened it, making her arm ache with pain.

“I take such good care of you, and you won’t give me face? That makes it hard for me in front of my brothers! What’s wrong with resting for a bit?”

As Garcia spoke, he shouted toward the middle-aged owner behind the counter.

“Hey, Old Frank, it’s fine to let your little girl sit with us for a while, right? Huh?”

Seeing the situation, the middle-aged owner quickly forced a smile and replied, “Haha, of course it’s fine, of course it’s fine. Melissa, just sit with Mr. Garcia for a while!”

Garcia was a genuine underworld figure.

The owner did not dare provoke people like him—otherwise, his tavern might mysteriously be burned down one day.

Melissa could only sit down at the table helplessly.

After that, Garcia and his lackeys ate, drank, and joked, frequently egging Melissa on to drink with them.

With her limited experience, Melissa could not withstand these men’s mix of coaxing and pressure.

After a few drinks, her head began to feel dizzy.

It was long past the time she was supposed to get off work.

Several times she tried to leave, but each time Garcia forcefully pressed her down.

The owner ignored what was happening altogether.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Garcia, I really can’t drink anymore. I really have to go home…” Melissa tried to stand as she spoke, but the moment she rose, a wave of dizziness hit her and she nearly fell.

“Hey, hey, hey, what’s this? You’re going to be a buzzkill already?” Garcia grabbed her again.

“Sit for a little longer.”

“Please, I really have to go… My mother, she… will worry…” Melissa pleaded haltingly.

Hearing her slurred words, the men at the table burst into laughter.

“Oh, mother… right, right, Mrs. Hesh who’s been lying in the attic all this time!” Garcia laughed as if he had just remembered.

“I really miss her days on stage. Melissa, you really look just like her.”

After thinking for a moment, he picked up a bottle of strong liquor, poured nearly half a small glass with a glug-glug sound, pushed it in front of Melissa, and said to her,

“How about this— we’re about to wrap things up anyway. Drink this last glass and sit with us for ten more minutes. How does that sound?”

With bleary, drunken eyes, Melissa looked at the small half-glass of liquor that did not seem like much, and at the men around her who were jeering.

Under the influence of alcohol, she could barely think anymore, but a primal sense of danger kept warning her that no matter what, she should not drink this glass.

“I’m sorry, I really can’t drink anymore…” Melissa refused with all the strength she had left.

“Oh no, Melissa, that really makes me sad.”

Garcia shook his head.

“In a few days it’ll be debt-collection day. Do you know how much you owe? Every time your family scrapes together just the interest, I have to give you several extra days. Have you gathered the money this time?”

“I… I…” Melissa suddenly found herself unable to speak.

“How about this—drink this glass and sit a little longer, and I’ll delay going to your house to collect the debt by one month this time. What do you say?” Garcia coaxed her with a smile.

Melissa stared dizzily at the glass of liquor.

Everything before her eyes seemed to blur into a single mess, and the smiling faces of Garcia and his lackeys became grotesquely twisted.

After a long while, she silently reached her hand toward the glass.

The owner looked away at this scene.

None of the other customers spoke up either.

Everyone knew what kind of end awaited the girl after she was drunk senseless by this group tonight, but here, no one dared provoke Garcia and his men.

At that moment, a figure dashed in from the entrance, weaving between the tables, and rushed to the table.

A hand reached out and grabbed Melissa’s hand just as it was about to touch the glass.

“Melissa, your mother is worried.”

Leon spoke as he pulled the unsteady Melissa up, sweeping his gaze over the others at the table.

“Sorry, gentlemen, she needs to go home!”

With that, he supported Melissa and prepared to lead her out of the tavern.

“Brother Leon?” Melissa raised her head in surprise.

She could not see his face clearly, but she recognized the voice.

“Hey, hey, hey!!” Garcia immediately shouted, raising his hand.

His men reacted quickly and stood up, two of them blocking Leon with unfriendly expressions.

“I say, friend, who are you?” Garcia spread his hands toward Leon with a false smile.

All his men had stood up, yet he himself remained seated.

“You grab our table’s little girl and try to leave—what are you trying to do, hmm?”

Leon looked back and forth at the people present.

From their bearing alone, he realized they were not good sorts.

In the end, his gaze settled on Garcia at the head.

“I live in her house. Her mother asked me to find her and bring her home. Is there a problem?”

Garcia looked at Melissa in surprise.

By instinct, she had already pressed close to Leon’s side, tightly clutching the corner of his clothes.

“Ah… I see. You’re the tenant renting the ground floor of the Hesh house, right? I’ve never met you before.”

Garcia suddenly understood.

In the past, he usually went to Melissa’s house during the day to collect debts, and Leon would be at work at those times.

“If there’s no problem, then please step aside.” Leon glanced at the two men blocking the way.

The two lackeys did not move and instead looked toward Garcia.

Garcia continued to smile at Leon, then tapped the tabletop with his finger.

“Alright, little brother, there’s no need to worry. We all know Ms. Sally and little Melissa. Melissa will just have one more drink with us, and then we’ll send her home. You can go back and tell her mother that. Is that okay?”

As he spoke, he gave a look to the person beside him.

That lackey quietly lifted the hem of his coat toward Leon, revealing part of a Gun grip at his waist, making sure Leon fully understood that they were not ordinary street thugs.

Five against one—if this man dared ruin his fun today, he was going to suffer a bit.