What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

“Simply put, I hope you’ll join forces with me and kill your father,” Leon stated his demand bluntly.

Ophelia stared at Leon in astonishment, then burst into a silent laugh.

“Have you truly gone mad? Why do you think I would agree to that? You think pointing a gun at me is enough to force me to help you kill my father? If I help you, won’t I die all the same?” Ophelia sneered.

If she helped Leon kill her father, no matter how sentimental her father might be, he would not show her mercy.

With her father’s strength, crushing them would be as easy as crushing ants.

And even if she had a chance to kill her father, the man before her would not necessarily give her a chance to live afterward.

“Your father would never imagine you’d kill him. He has openings when he’s in front of you. By the time he tries to kill you, he’ll already be dead.

“After your father dies, the entire underworld structure will undergo a drastic change. Those cadres will either want to avenge the Earl or view me as a threat. I need someone to resolve that problem.

“You are the Earl’s heir. The Earl must have paved the way for you. There will always be loyal subordinates willing to listen to you. Cooperate with me, and I’ll support you. Together, we’ll unify the organization. So I won’t kill you either. You’ll have a chance to survive,” Leon said slowly.

“You’ll support me?” Ophelia looked Leon up and down as though she had seen some rare animal. “Just because you have a production base on Arend Island, you think you’re capable of controlling the structure of the Underworld? Labyrinths can be controlled by others too. I can produce Magic Essence as well. Why must I rely on your support? What do you think you are?”

“Then can you produce this?”

As Leon spoke, he took out a test tube from his person.

Inside was a crystal-clear Magic Essence crystal.

Ophelia’s expression changed slightly.

Leon tossed the test tube toward her.

Ophelia caught it and examined it carefully.

She was also a Witch, and her teacher was the Great Witch Arachne.

Naturally, she could tell that the purity inside the test tube was something she had never seen before.

“This purity... ninety-five percent?” Ophelia estimated.

“Ninety-six point seven percent,” Leon corrected.

Mass-producing Magic Essence with over ninety-five-percent purity required two conditions.

One was a stable supply of Level-Four Magical Beast Materials.

As Lord of the Labyrinth, Leon could use the Labyrinth on Arend Island to produce Drake eggs.

The other was Weiss’s extraction ability and technique.

This was something only he and Weiss could steadily produce together.

Of course, after testing, producing Drake eggs consumed an extreme amount of the Labyrinth’s magical output.

The Labyrinth’s mana needed several days to recover.

Producing this top-grade purity Magic Essence came at the cost of total Magic Essence output.

But having such a cliff-like lead in purity and not having it were two entirely different strategic concepts.

It was like comparing any number of pistols to a single nuclear bomb.

“I also have the Magical Potion formulas held by Saint Rosalia Research Institute. With this Magic Essence, we can produce Magical Potions of unprecedented effectiveness.

“With these top-tier goods, the highest-level clients will flock to us.

“As long as we set a purchase threshold for these top-tier potions and allow only the most loyal and highest-spending clients to buy them, we can make them purchase as many ordinary-quality Magical Potions as we want. We can make them use their power to provide us with as much convenience as we need.

“With this, do you still think it isn’t enough to control the structure of the Underworld?”

Leon stared at Ophelia as he questioned her.

“...”

This time, Ophelia no longer sneered.

Holding the test tube, her expression turned grave.

Of course she understood the competitive power of someone capable of producing Magic Essence of this purity for the market.

If she and her father had encountered an opponent like Leon back when they had just started out, the Magical Potions they produced would never have been able to compete with his.

The seat of Underworld Emperor would never have fallen to her father.

In terms of supply, Leon had already surpassed them.

“All this time, you’ve relied on cooperation with the Witches’ Assembly to obtain goods. In truth, your supply is restrained by them. If they provide only eighty-percent goods, then you can only obtain eighty-percent goods. If they cut off supply, you can’t produce anything.

“You must also know that the Witches’ Assembly has always wanted to persuade your father to rebel against the Empire. That’s why your father wanted to test my production model.

“Of course, perhaps in the future you might use other Labyrinths to replicate my production model. But don’t even dream of achieving this purity.

“Your supply system is already outdated. In terms of market competitiveness alone, there is absolutely no possibility of surpassing me,” Leon said.

“You didn’t have this purity before. So this is Weiss Rogers’s technique?” Ophelia immediately understood. “We actually knew long ago that she could extract purity above ninety percent, but we didn’t know the upper limit was this absurd.”

“Weiss Rogers is currently under my control, but your father wants to kill her. Your father doesn’t need purity this high. He has already become the Underworld Emperor. He wants to fulfill his desire for revenge more than anything. He also won’t tolerate an unstable element like me.

“But I think there’s still room to negotiate with you.

“You can’t control all of the Earl’s power. His noble title and his connections within the Church are things you cannot inherit. After he dies and you inherit his underground business, even if some people remain loyal to you, there’s no guarantee others won’t covet your position.

“And I can help you.

“Your father once arranged for me to assist you. Doesn’t that mean I’m the best candidate?”

Leon stared at Ophelia and spoke slowly.

“Is there perhaps another possibility?” Ophelia asked in return. “That Archbishop Rogers drove my mother to her death back then, and I also want revenge?”

“Regarding that, I have some new intelligence to share with you.”

Leon took out a roll of parchment and tossed it over.

Ophelia accepted it suspiciously.

She unfolded it and glanced over it.

Her brows immediately furrowed.

What Leon gave her was a case file.

It concerned the capture of the Witch Elena Garrett in the Foyle Region twenty years ago.

The Witch Elena had been Earl Foyle’s former lover back then.

She was Ophelia’s biological mother.

This was an excerpt from the case file.

According to the file, Bernard Rogers, who had been an Inquisitor at the time, had already discovered that Elena had accomplices.

After multiple interrogations failed to make Elena reveal her accomplices, he eventually proposed a deal to her.

The terms of the deal were that the Church would publicly guarantee that, so long as Elena provided information about her accomplices and persuaded them to confess truthfully, the Church would give Elena and her accomplices the lightest possible sentences and guarantee their families’ livelihoods in the Church’s name.

By this standard, although Elena, as a Witch, would no longer have the opportunity to live with her family, she would still be able to see her husband and daughter alive.

Witches who were willing to cooperate with the Church and live in shelters were allowed to receive visits from family members.

The case file described Elena showing clear hesitation and stating that she needed to consider it carefully.

However, on the very night she was supposed to think it over, she committed suicide in prison.

“I secretly contacted Archbishop Rogers and obtained the contents of this case file from him. With your intelligence, you should be able to understand what happened, correct?”

Leon looked at Ophelia, whose expression had turned startled, and continued speaking slowly.

“Your mother most likely did not commit suicide. I’m afraid your father, who was an Apprentice Knight back then, silenced her. This matter was humiliating to your father. He sought revenge against Archbishop Rogers to erase that humiliation. But you don’t have such a reason.

“If you insist on avenging your mother, perhaps the one you should take revenge on is the Earl.”

Every word Leon spoke was a lie.

Even the case file was forged.

He had not risked contacting Archbishop Rogers.

With his authority as Director of the Inquisition, it had naturally been easy for him to retrieve the case records from back then.

But in truth, there had been no such passage.

This was a case file he had altered.

It had not required much effort.

Turning Ophelia against the Earl was not necessary for him, but there was no harm in trying.

“You expect me to believe you based on one lousy piece of paper?” Ophelia quickly restored her expression to normal and tossed the case file aside.

Nothing Leon said had any evidence.

She had also grown up in the underworld business world.

How could she believe something like this just because he said so?

Moreover, even if it were true, her mother had died when she was three.

Her father had accompanied her for twenty-three years.

In those twenty-three years, the Earl had not only raised a father-daughter bond with her, but also instilled in her the logic of the underworld.

If she could choose to abandon her father here, then why would she be unable to understand her father abandoning her mother?

Under those circumstances, even if her father really had done that, it would merely have been a forced choice.

If she had to hate someone, then of course she should still hate Bernard Rogers, who had forced their family into that situation.

“Then don’t consider any other conditions. Just consider the greatest bargaining chip in my hand.”

Leon shook the gun in his hand.

“Your life. Your life is currently under my control. In your eyes, which is more important—your life, or your father’s?”

“Can you afford to throw away that bargaining chip?” Ophelia raised an eyebrow. “If you kill me, what card will you have left to use against my father?”

“If I can’t use you against your father, then why should I let you live?” Leon asked in return.

Ophelia stared at Leon for a long while, seemingly lost in thought.

Then she suddenly raised her brows and spread her hands.

“Fine. It seems I really don’t have any other choice. So be it. The old man was going to let me inherit his things sooner or later anyway.

“But first, let me hear what plan you have. As things stand, I can’t see your side having any chance of victory.”

“Before hearing my plan, drink this.”

Leon tossed over a crystal test tube filled with his own blood.

This time, Ophelia did not catch it.

Instead, she backed away two steps as she watched the test tube fall onto the desk.

“What is that? Cursed Blood?” she immediately sensed something.

“Will you drink it yourself, or should I shoot it into your body?” Leon asked bluntly.

“...”

Ophelia did not answer.

She stared silently at Leon.

As their eyes met, both of them gradually removed the last traces of their pretense.

Leon’s gaze was cold and dark.

Ophelia’s eyes turned disdainful.

“You never considered my proposal at all, did you?” Leon said coldly.

Even at the end, Ophelia had pretended to agree, trying to bait out his plan.

But in truth, Leon had never intended to let Ophelia participate in the plan to kill the Earl.

Whether Ophelia cooperated or not was far too uncertain.

His plan only required him to make use of the Ophelia he had captured.

However, if Ophelia could be tricked into cooperating, it would at least save him the trouble of fighting his way out while dragging her along.

“And you never intended to spare my life at the end either. Do you take me for a three-year-old child!?” Ophelia snapped.

Even if Leon truly intended to use her to unify the Earl’s underworld forces after his death, once that unification was complete and she lost her value, why would Leon leave alive an underworld princess who bore the vengeance of a murdered father and share power with her?

And as the daughter of the Underworld Emperor, how could she ever be willing to become a puppet bridge for a dog once raised by her own family?

A dog that dared bite its master deserved to be beaten to death!

In that instant, Ophelia activated the Blessing she had prepared.

The moment her words fell, Ophelia’s desk suddenly erupted with a violent crack.

A ferocious beast resembling a Demonic Wolf seemed to appear out of thin air beneath it, overturning the desk and lunging at Leon.