What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

“You want me to hire you, like Potter did?” Leon quickly grasped Father Auden’s intention.

In fact, when he came to see the priest, he had already anticipated that Father Auden knew he had now latched onto the Earl’s connections and might propose something like this.

“That’s right. If you want to replace Potter and take charge of the business here, it’s best to have someone by your side who’s familiar with local dealings. I can also provide you with plenty of reference opinions,” Father Auden replied.

“How much would it cost to hire you?” Leon asked.

“Potter didn’t pay me a separate consultancy fee. Each year he let me handle at least five million in assets, from which I took a ten percent handling fee. For my biggest clients, I provide advisory services for free. Or, if you don’t feel comfortable letting me handle your money, you can just pay me five hundred thousand a year to hire me directly,” Father Auden said.

“So in other words, I’d be spending five hundred thousand to hire someone to share my situation and point fingers around me all day?” Leon said in a joking tone.

“You’ll need me—no, more accurately, you already need me. You’ve boarded the Earl’s ship. The Earl wants you to supply goods, but he hasn’t helped you resolve the source of the Magical Beasts. I’m guessing something went wrong at that link, right? So not only do you have to spend your own money to acquire Magical Beasts, you also have to hire people to handle the conflicts,” Father Auden said.

“Father Auden, are you implying that if I don’t hire you, you won’t be willing to help introduce me?” Leon asked in return.

“No. I’ll still make money,” Father Auden replied.

“I thought so.” Leon nodded.

“You don’t have to trust me, but you need at least one person by your side who has nothing to do with the Earl. If everyone around you is arranged by the Earl, you’ll be constrained by others. Your power of life and death will forever be in someone else’s hands. Maybe you’re valuable to the Earl now, but who knows about the future? You need channels that belong solely to you so you’ll have a way out.

“I have some intelligence I want to share with you. Not long ago, over in River Valley County, one of the Earl’s subordinate cadres disappeared—vanished without a trace. That guy had been fighting Potter for a long time without gaining any advantage over us. Then the Earl directly sent people to deal with everything, and he was immediately discarded. There are even rumors that this person was related by blood to the Earl and was highly trusted, yet this was still his end. Working under the Earl isn’t that easy.”

Leon recalled that when he met the Earl, it hadn’t been in South Harbor County, but in River Valley County.

The intelligence Father Auden mentioned was no small matter.

It would be easy to test its truth with a little probing, and from what Leon knew of Father Auden, he shouldn’t be the type to tell a lie that could be exposed so easily.

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

“That’s one of the benefits of letting me be your advisor,” Father Auden replied.

“I understand everything you’ve said, Father. But you worked for Potter for money, and now you can work for me for money. In the future, if someone offers a higher price, you could just as easily work for them too,” Leon directly voiced his concern.

“If you don’t trust someone, you keep them under your nose. I want money, but at least I’m not shortsighted. If we can have a long-term mutually beneficial relationship, ordinary temporary offers won’t be enough to make me betray you. You need me right now, so you should put some thought into reducing the risks of using me, shouldn’t you?” Father Auden advised.

“All right. To be frank, Father, from the very beginning my personal impression of you hasn’t been very good. That may have something to do with the Hesh family—after all, what happened to them has a lot to do with you,” Leon said.

“You sent Mrs. Hesh into prison, and now you’re accusing me—isn’t that a bit inappropriate?” Father Auden retorted.

“They reached a deal with me precisely because of the debts you forced them to bear. You were purely harming people. You’ve done quite a lot of things like that, haven’t you, Father?” Leon asked.

“I really am a person without a conscience, but I only act according to my employer’s wishes. Potter needed me to screw people over, so I became the most shameless litigation hack in your words. If you prefer to do good deeds, I can of course passionately argue on your behalf in the Tribunal as well. How I act depends on what you hire me to do. Not presupposing a stance is the virtue of my line of work,” the priest replied calmly.

“I have to admit you’ve convinced me, but unfortunately I don’t have spare money to hire you for now, nor do I have that much money that needs you to handle,” Leon replied.

“When will the first batch of profits come in?” the priest asked.

“Within a year, if nothing goes wrong.”

“Then I can provide you with a trial period of service first. When you get the money, if you’re willing to renew, you can pay for this period then,” Father Auden proposed.

“That sounds like quite a generous discount,” Leon smiled.

“I told you, I focus on long-term benefits. For you to board the Earl’s ship under those circumstances, I have ample reason to believe in your future,” Father Auden said.

“All right.” Leon agreed much more readily this time.

“Since you’re willing to give such a big discount, why not just throw in something extra for me?”

“What else do you want?”

“Potter’s client list. You must have it.”

Potter controlled the underground market of South Harbor County and had already built a very stable client base.

For Leon to replace Potter and take over the business here, he had to inherit his clients and understand their demand for Magical Potions in order to adjust production.

“You’d planned to come for that from the start, hadn’t you?” Father Auden sighed.

“The sooner I have income, the sooner you get paid. Why not?” Leon said.

“Fine, I’ll give it to you. Before that, let’s talk about the matter you mentioned of seizing goods. Tell me the situation—maybe I can give you some advice,” Father Auden suggested.

“Sure.” Leon nodded.

……

That evening, on a stretch of open fields outside Hamel Town, Leon met the liaison responsible for transporting Magical Beasts, accompanied by Bishop Becket.

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Fenrir. We’ve already done our best. Transporting living creatures sometimes results in situations like this—no one wants it,” the head of the escort apologized to Leon, though his face carried a careless expression.

“These Magical Beasts clearly weren’t properly fed. A journey of just a few days shouldn’t have turned out like this,” Leon said.

“I’m truly sorry. I’ll fully relay your opinion to Mr. Bar,” the person in charge said, mentioning the name of his superior cadre.

Cadre Mr. Bar was responsible for a territory on the western side of River Valley County.

There was a Labyrinth within his domain, and he had a group of Labyrinth Hunters under him.

The Magical Beasts Leon was using for breeding this time were precisely those the Earl had ordered him to deploy.

Bishop Becket listened silently to their conversation from behind.

There was a problem with the Magical Beasts sent by Bar, and it was clearly intentional.

The Earl viewed Leon as a candidate for a cadre in South Harbor County.

Now that Jay in River Valley County had been purged by the Earl, the territory there hadn’t yet been reassigned and was only temporarily managed by Johnny Wellman, who had originally been responsible for foreign trade transportation.

Naturally, Bar didn’t want this outside cadre candidate to be valued and take a share of River Valley County’s territory as well.

If Leon’s task was thwarted, Bar would have a chance to seize River Valley County for himself.

As long as it wasn’t too severe, the Earl usually turned a blind eye to open and covert struggles between cadres.

Mutual checks and balances effectively prevented any single party from growing too strong and developing unnecessary ambitions.

Once a cadre showed weakness or signs of betrayal, the others would immediately fix their sights on him.

“Does Mr. Bar have some issue with me?” Leon asked bluntly.

“That’s a strange thing to say. Mr. Bar hasn’t even met you—how could he have an issue? This is the Earl’s directive. We’ve been doing our best; it’s just that an accident occurred,” the escort leader replied perfunctorily.

“Please send another batch of Magical Beasts. This is important to the Earl’s business. If necessary, I can send people to handle the transport,” Leon said.

“Sorry, Mr. Fenrir. Our goods can only be transported by us. I’ll pass on your request, and we’ll handle it as soon as possible,” the person in charge replied.

“These small gifts—please pass them along to Mr. Bar.”

Leon beckoned, and not far away, a man he had recruited through the priest immediately stepped forward, carrying over a small chest.

He opened it in front of everyone, revealing rows of small bottles neatly arranged inside.

The person in charge picked up one bottle, opened it, and sniffed it.

“Longevity Potion?”

This was the most common product on the Magical Potion market.

“This is a potion made using Mana refined on my end. Please tell Mr. Bar that if I can maintain stable Mana output, he can also obtain stable raw materials on his side. Everyone benefits,” Leon said with a smile.

Hearing this, the smile on the person in charge’s face became subtle.

“All right. I’ll be sure to pass it along.”

Leon watched as they loaded the goods onto the carriage and departed.

At that moment, Bishop Becket spoke behind him.

“I hope you didn’t do something stupid like poisoning the potions or trying to report them.”

If Leon tampered with things here to go after Bar, it would be far too easy to leave evidence behind.

And whether destroying the market or betraying the organization, both were things the Earl could not tolerate.

“How could I do something like that?” Leon spread his hands.

“Then what you just did had no meaning other than telling them that aside from submitting, you have no way to deal with them—that they can ride roughshod over you however they like,” Bishop Becket warned.

Even without Leon’s supply, the business in Bar’s territory could continue operating steadily.

In comparison, River Valley County offered him the greatest benefit.

Leon trying to negotiate on so-called mutual benefit would only make others see weakness, and Bar would inevitably press harder.

In this world, weakness only meant being ridden over.

“It’s fine, sir. I’ll handle this matter myself,” Leon said with a faint smile to Bishop Becket.

……

Three days later, as Bar’s escort carriage was about to pass through a mountain path in River Valley County, two people lay hidden on the hillside, concealing themselves with grass and trees.

One of them observed for a while with a spyglass, then said to his companion, “The route’s confirmed. Set things up according to Mr. Fenrir’s instructions!”