What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Deep within the Arend Island Labyrinth, Leon carefully inspected the Labyrinth Breeding Pool.

Two months had passed since the losses incurred during the battle with the Earl, and the number of Magical Beasts had already recovered considerably through reproduction.

“……Mr. Fenrir, judging by the current trend, we should be able to resume our previous level of production starting this month, and output should catch back up very soon.” Simon respectfully reported while following beside him.

Leon thought for a moment, then shook his head: “No, for the second half of the month, keep things the same as before. We still need to focus on expanding the breeding scale, with increasing the number of Magical Beasts as the priority.”

When he had served as a Cadre under the Earl, his production strategy within the Labyrinth had been to maintain the scale and control the number of Magical Beasts. Once there were too many, they were slaughtered as quickly as possible and processed into Magic Essence, while breeding and reproduction were limited strictly to what was necessary to maintain their numbers, keeping the Labyrinth’s Magic Essence output at a relatively stable level.

On one hand, back then only Rena could extract Magic Essence, and he could only occasionally help out, so there had been an upper limit to Magic Essence production. On the other hand, during that period, because the Earl’s restrictions had existed over him, he had subconsciously disliked that situation and had never developed any intention of expanding further.

But now, he had to prepare to absorb the Earl’s remaining territory. That meant that in the future, he would have to rely on production from this Labyrinth to satisfy demand across all of that territory. If a commercial war had to be fought during the process of absorption, then sufficient output would be even more necessary.

And now, among the Witches who could participate in production, besides Rena, there were also Weiss and Sally. In theory, Magic Essence output could be increased to three times its original level.

For now, he had to seize the time to expand the breeding scale and lay the groundwork for increased production first, otherwise the future production shortfall would only grow larger.

“But our Magic Essence reserves are already running low.” Simon said.

“It’s fine. I’ve checked. Prioritize slaughtering the Magical Beasts that are surplus to the breeding plan. That should be enough to hold out until next month. Arrange things as I said.” Leon instructed.

“Yes.” Simon lowered his head and answered.

“That’s enough, go get back to work.”

Leon dismissed Simon back to his post and strode into the Temple.

By now, the interior of the Temple had also been renovated by Leon and divided into many areas and rooms. Three laboratories with supporting facilities and different functions had been built, while the Altar section had been separately enclosed as the largest area, a large laboratory specifically used for extracting Magic Essence and conducting ritual research.

Besides that, Weiss and Rena each had their own office, along with a shared lounge. Washrooms had also been constructed according to the Temple’s original facilities, as well as a conference hall for storing books and materials and for holding meetings, research, and discussions. Basically, even living inside would not have been a problem.

Leon first went to the laboratory where the Altar was located, only to discover that not only were Weiss and Rena inside organizing experimental equipment, even Sally had come.

Rena did not specifically greet him, because she had actually come from their residence together with Leon that morning. Leon had simply gone to inspect the breeding area first.

When Weiss saw Leon enter, she nodded in greeting, and Leon nodded back in response.

“Good morning, Mr. Leon.” Sally greeted Leon with a cheerful smile.

“Mrs. Hesh, you came this early today too?” Leon was somewhat surprised to see Sally there, “Why not spend a little more time at home with Melissa?”

He had only brought Melissa back to live together with Sally yesterday, and it had been nearly two months since the day they had reunited. After the New Year, Melissa would have to leave for the Archdiocese to study. Leon had originally thought Sally would stay home with Melissa today.

Although Sally had said that she wanted to formally work for Leon, she had only recently recovered from a serious illness, so Leon had almost no requirements for her. He merely asked her to occasionally come to the Labyrinth to study or help out, provided that her physical condition allowed it.

“Melissa said she wanted to properly review her lessons before going to study in the Diocese. I can’t really help her with that, so I came here first.” Sally smiled somewhat embarrassedly, “If my daughter is working that hard, I feel like I should study properly too.”

“I see.” Leon smiled as well.

“Melissa asked about a lot of things yesterday. She also……mentioned your marriage before. She was very surprised.” Sally deliberately brought up the topic.

Yesterday, Melissa had talked with her about many things. After telling her about life in the Reformatory and how she had been admitted into the Church school, Melissa had suddenly hesitated and awkwardly brought up Leon’s marriage, asking Sally for details.

Sally had tried asking Melissa why she cared about it, only for Melissa to immediately blush and change the subject.

From that alone, Sally had basically understood Melissa’s feelings, since she had already noticed her daughter’s intentions long ago.

But regarding this, she knew that if she openly pointed it out, she would most likely only hurt her daughter. Nor would persuasion work. She knew exactly how stubborn her daughter could be. Everything Leon had done for them all this time had been seen by Sally herself, and she could fully imagine just how much weight Leon carried in Melissa’s heart.

If she were simply considering her daughter’s future stability, Sally actually knew very clearly that Leon was absolutely not a suitable choice for Melissa. But given her own position, as well as her impression and assessment of Leon, she truly could not bring herself to deny Leon in any way either. She understood her daughter’s feelings very well.

In fact, without Leon, she would not even have had the chance to live until now and enjoy the happiness of reuniting with her daughter.

But under the current circumstances, Melissa’s chances were truly far too slim.

Given Melissa’s age, it would be at least another two or three years before marriage could even be discussed. But waiting two or three years in an environment surrounded by so many “formidable rivals”……that would probably be difficult to say.

Sally did not even dare mention to Melissa that there was also a Miss Weiss.

“Mm, her reaction yesterday was a little intense. I told her too suddenly.” Leon nodded.

Rena quietly glanced at Leon upon hearing this, but said nothing.

“Speaking of which, how are you getting along with that young lady from the Viscount’s family?” Sally tentatively asked.

“Mrs. Hesh, why are you asking about that?” A wry smile appeared on Leon’s face, and he could not help glancing toward Rena.

“What, there’s nothing wrong with talking about it, is there? Didn’t you just say before that she was going to help you with Money Laundering and procedures?”

At the mention of Adele, Rena did not react particularly strongly.

Ever since personally meeting Adele, Rena had more or less accepted the necessity of the situation and had stopped sulking over the Fake Marriage.

Leon had also explained to Rena that Adele had voluntarily proposed handling procedures and managing the territory for Leon in order to buy back her family.

“Right, that did happen.” Leon answered.

“You mean she’s started working for you too?” Sally was somewhat surprised.

“Mm, she wants to work for me in order to buy back her family.” Leon replied briefly.

“Does she know that this is……” Sally asked cautiously.

“She knows very clearly that it’s a crime, so I suppose she really did make quite a significant decision.” Leon said.

“From the way you evaluated her before, she didn’t sound like someone capable of doing something like this.” Sally said.

She had chosen to work for Leon mainly because she herself had already borne criminal guilt and had “died” once, so there was not really anything left for her to lose.

But even so, she had still needed considerable resolve before deciding to accept her identity as a Witch, begin a new life, and repay the debt of gratitude she owed Leon.

So she could more or less empathize with just how much determination was required to do something like this. Judging from Leon’s earlier negative assessment of the Viscount’s daughter, that noble young lady had precisely been looked down upon by Leon because she had been unable to muster this kind of resolve.

“Mm, it feels like she’s changed a little too.” Leon casually said.

“Then does that mean your impression of her has also changed?” Sally continued asking.

“A little.” Leon assessed.

The fact that Adele had mustered the courage to step into his Underworld business, along with the way she had negotiated with Father Auden, had indeed made him view this noble young lady somewhat differently.

“Oh? Your impression changed a little……” Rena stopped what she was doing, crossed her arms, and teased Leon.

Even Weiss, who had been silently busy preparing the experiment not far away, looked over with some interest.

Sally quietly took all of their reactions in.

Under Rena’s fixed gaze, Leon tried to add something: “But whether she can actually pull it off is still very hard to say.”

“In other words, if she does pull it off, your impression of her will become completely different?” Rena said with an ambiguous smile.

Leon helplessly raised both hands in surrender, then turned toward Sally and said: “Mrs. Hesh, let’s talk about something else. This feels like you’re trying to coax information out of me.”

“Sorry.” Sally lowered her head apologetically and stopped probing.

“Hmph.” Rena also stopped there and, for the moment, did not pursue the matter further.

Sally observed everyone’s reactions from the side. She was, after all, somewhat older and more experienced, so there were many things she could see more clearly.

Miss Weiss was probably also fond of Mr. Leon, and Miss Rena had noticed this as well. But Miss Weiss was currently extremely important to their enterprise, and Miss Rena understood that very clearly too.

It was just that if things continued like this for a long time……the current stability might not necessarily be maintained.

Leon would still take Rena’s feelings into consideration. From Sally and Melissa’s standpoint, they had not only received Leon’s kindness, but Rena’s as well, so they could not destroy this relationship. If things continued like this, then if Melissa truly wanted her wish to come true, perhaps……it would be impossible unless Sally found an opportunity to obtain Miss Rena’s acceptance.