What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

After a period of time, at a relay station in the East District of Hamel Town, a disguised Leon got down from a carriage that had come from outside the town, carrying a large chest.

He walked down a street and arrived at a nearby tavern.

It was morning, and business at the tavern was sparse.

There were no other customers inside; the bartender was wiping glasses behind the counter.

“Do you have wine from the York Winery?” Leon asked as he sat down by the counter.

“White wine or red?” the bartender asked casually.

“Gin, with a bit of age on it,” Leon replied.

“I’ll bring it right up.”

The bartender turned around, took a small tin flask, poured him a little less than half a cup of liquor, and slid it over.

Leon did not drink.

Instead, he asked, “I have a friend who asked me to meet here today. He said he’d be waiting for me in Private Room Number Six. Has he arrived?”

“He’s already here. Please go up the stairs to the second floor and walk along the corridor—you’ll find it,” the bartender explained.

Seeing that there were no other customers around, Leon did not touch the drink.

He picked up the chest and went upstairs.

He quickly found Private Room Number Six and carefully opened the door to go inside.

The room was arranged like a reception lounge: two long benches were placed on either side of a tea table, with a console table and spare chairs along the wall.

There was also a decorative statue by the wall.

Someone was already waiting inside.

When he saw Leon enter, he raised a hand and waved.

“You’re pretty early.”

“Father Auden?” Leon frowned slightly and sat down opposite the priest, setting the chest down.

Sitting on the bench inside was Father Auden.

Behind the bench stood a gang member Leon had never seen before, keeping watch.

After the old shop owner of the junk shop died, Potter had sent people to clear out that store, then set a new trading location with Leon—this very tavern, which was also one of Potter’s properties.

“You seem quite surprised,” Father Auden greeted him.

“I just didn’t expect the person handling the meeting to be you,” Leon replied, placing the chest on the tea table.

“I’m the one under Potter who handles the accounts, and I also know appraisal. I’m undoubtedly the most suitable,” Father Auden said, his gaze fixed on the chest.

“Let’s take a look at the goods first.”

Leon opened the chest.

Inside were the magical beast materials from this shipment, as well as mana divided into two test tubes.

One appeared light red, while the other was a faint, barely perceptible light blue.

“This one has a purity of around seventy-eight percent, forty-six carats. It’s leftover stock from before. This one is the same as the last sample—purity close to eighty-five percent, thirty-nine carats,” Leon explained.

The slime was now being used to process Caron’s corpse, and the mana refined from it was clearly of higher purity than that from the head-hunting rabbit.

At present, he and Rena basically handled them separately.

“Mm, we’ll need to test it,” Father Auden said, then raised one hand in a gesture.

The gang member behind him took out a prepared balance scale, brought over the two test tubes, and weighed them in front of both men.

The weights matched what Leon had stated.

After that, the priest took out two tubes of reagents.

Using a glass rod, he dipped into the mana from both sides, mixed them with the reagents, and conducted a colorimetric test to check purity.

The testing method he used was the same as Rena’s, and he looked more professional than the old shop owner Roddy had been.

“The goods are fine,” Father Auden said.

“What about the things I asked for?” Leon asked.

Father Auden signaled with his eyes to the person beside him.

The gang member took out a sealed canister containing a dark red liquid, placed it on the balance scale, and weighed it for Leon.

“The purchase price for seventy-eight percent purity is thirty-five thousand per gram. High-purity is fifty thousand per gram. Then add these materials, and subtract the refined demonic wolf blood you want—hm…” Father Auden’s pen flew across the ledger as he calculated rapidly, soon reaching a result.

“Seven hundred fifteen thousand Fenni.”

Father Auden handed his calculation over to Leon for confirmation.

Leon spent quite some time checking before finishing the verification.

With the old shop owner gone, Leon was now supplying Potter directly, cutting out the middleman’s markup.

In addition, the increase in purity had raised profits.

The revenue from this shipment was nearly double that of the one from the first half of the year.

“What denominations of gold vouchers do you want?” Father Auden asked as he opened a locked chest.

“The denomination doesn’t matter, as long as the source is safe,” Leon answered.

“Before laundering, there’s no such thing as safe money here,” Father Auden said as he began counting the gold vouchers and coins.

“You’ve already earned close to a million this year, haven’t you? Cleaning up such a large sum will take some effort. You’d better start early.”

“I’ll think about it,” Leon replied evasively, then took the money Father Auden gave him and counted it once more.

Auden packed the goods and money back into the chest, locked it, and had the underworld member beside him take it away for safekeeping.

Only Father Auden and Leon remained in the room.

Then Father Auden spoke again.

“You sold less than I expected.”

“I ran into quite a few accidents this year. Being able to reach this transaction volume is already pretty good,” Leon replied.

Originally, Leon had planned to keep some magical beasts to ensure next year’s production scale, but the changes within the Inquisition and Father Auden’s reminder had both made him sense hidden dangers.

By raising magical beasts inside the labyrinth, their breeding cycles shortened, and production growth exceeded Leon’s expectations.

Moreover, magical beasts could actually be repurchased through certain channels.

After considering it, he simply slaughtered most of the adult magical beasts before winter to extract mana, gathering close to eighteen grams, and sold it all in this batch.

Including the various transactions large and small with the old shop owner Roddy, this direct deal with Mr. Griffin, and the one hundred thousand from selling the previous sample, their total transaction volume this year had exceeded one million Fenni—far beyond Leon’s own expectations.

Splitting the money with Rena this way, they each received more than five hundred thousand.

Leon had also previously seized a sum of money from the old shop owner Roddy, and together with the funds he already had on hand, he now possessed savings of seven hundred eighty thousand.

Caron’s petrified corpse had already been crushed and processed by Leon.

After petrification, the corpse had unexpectedly become suitable for long-term storage, which meant that feeding it to the slime in batches should allow continued production of eighty-five percent high-purity mana for quite some time.

Maintaining transactions with Mr. Griffin over the next year or two this way, Leon should be able to reach his small goal.

“I told you that you should sell as much as possible. Frankly speaking, every transaction now could be the last,” Father Auden said slowly.

“The Inquisition has new directors, both principal and deputy, hasn’t it?”

“You’re quite well-informed,” Leon remarked.

“At my age, even if I don’t hold much status, I still have my own connections within the Church. I can at least get this kind of information. I don’t yet know exactly who was appointed, though. Let’s exchange intelligence—maybe I’ve heard those two names before,” Father Auden said, looking at Leon.

Leon thought for a moment and told Father Auden about Director Aaron and Bishop Beckett.

“Bishop Beckett—the Bishop Beckett of the Church of the God of War?” Father Auden murmured.

“You know him?” Leon asked.

“I don’t know him personally. A few years ago, he underwent an internal investigation. An old friend of mine in the Church Disciplinary Order handled it, so I have some impression,” Father Auden said.

“An internal investigation—did he violate Church doctrine?” Leon asked.

“He was only suspected. Nothing was found in the end. That doesn’t really prove anything. Caron was also investigated once, and I myself have been investigated five times, with no issues found. As long as you have connections, many things are easy to resolve.

“There are many factions among the Four Great Churches. Mutual impeachment is not uncommon, and the Disciplinary Order has long since become numb to handling such matters,” Father Auden said lightly.

“But you and Caron really did have problems, okay?” Leon replied.

From this perspective, that Bishop Beckett was not necessarily a clean figure either.

“The biggest problem now lies with the young noble you mentioned, the one surnamed Dias. Hmph, Dias,” Father Auden suddenly laughed and shook his head.

“You also have some idea about this Aaron Dias?” Leon asked.

“No. And that’s exactly the problem. For someone so young to climb to that position without sufficiently famous achievements, the only explanation is that he comes from a powerful family. As for the Empire’s aristocracy—aside from newly risen nobles in frontier lands—I basically know them all. There is no family with the surname Dias among them,” Father Auden concluded with certainty.

“That’s a fake name. At least the surname is very likely fake.”

“A third-rank knight using a false name within the Church—is that even possible?” Leon found it hard to believe.

“If his background is big enough, and he has sufficient reasons—such as being the illegitimate child of some major figure—there are many possibilities. But someone like that being transferred at this time has only one purpose: achievements. Caron’s disappearance is a major case. The people behind him will pour in resources to make it easier for him to solve it,” Father Auden said.

“So you’re advising me not to sell for now?” Leon asked.

“You’ve already shipped your last batch for this year. We won’t have any transactions next year. The problem lies with Potter,” the priest said.

“What about him?” Leon asked.

“I actually advised him—after taking your goods, he shouldn’t rush to move them, and shouldn’t draw the attention of the Church and the Earl’s forces. He should lie low for a while. But he wouldn’t listen. Those two grams of samples you sold have already been turned into magical potions and peddled to clients,” the priest said, shaking his head with a sigh.

“He’s too eager to compete with the Earl. You shouldn’t have egged him on.”

“I didn’t come here today to listen to your complaints. I have no way to help you persuade him,” Leon said.

“Potter isn’t my first employer. To be honest, based on my evaluation of him, charging ahead so rashly under these circumstances makes it very easy for something to go wrong. If something breaks in his chain, it will be very easy for the investigation to trace back to us. You’d better leave yourself an escape route as well,” Father Auden said seriously.

“You’re hoping I’ll survive in his place and continue being your client?” Leon asked.

“At least you look a bit more likely to survive than Potter,” Father Auden commented.

“Thanks for your concern. Money and goods are settled—I should be going,” Leon said as he stood up to leave.

“Wait a moment. Take this key with you,” Father Auden said, handing Leon a key.

“What’s this?” Leon asked.

“If I remember correctly, you’re renting a place with the Hesh family, right? This is the empty house next door to theirs. The owner defaulted on a loan from Potter’s Pawnshop and lost the property. The house has since changed hands a few times as collateral. In name, it’s no longer part of Potter’s assets, but it’s under our use. It’s suitable for hiding stolen goods or evidence, or for use as a meeting point. It should be fairly convenient for you,” Father Auden explained.

“Alright, thanks.”

Leon did not fully trust the other party, nor did he plan to use that empty house, but he still put the key away for the time being.