What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

On the ferry from Arend Island to Caster City, Leon sat together with the Priest. The Priest wore a grave expression, one that could even be described as gloomy.

“You look terrible right now. Did Adele taking away part of your business really hit you that hard?” Leon said to the Priest.

“I’m just seasick.” The Priest replied with a taut expression, “Miss Adele even drank that stuff. There’s nothing for me to envy about that, either. I concede wholeheartedly.”

“That’s for the best.” Leon said.

“You clearly knew for certain that I wouldn’t drink it, yet you still tested me like that?” Father Auden said.

“Of course I never thought you would drink it. I was only testing Adele. At first, I thought she was merely a young lady who rigidly followed the rules, but now it seems……she really does have a bit of an adventurous streak. Someone willing to board the pirate ship of their own accord is definitely a little more trustworthy than someone forced aboard.” Leon said.

“Yet you don’t necessarily trust someone like me who lives aboard the pirate ship either.” Father Auden said.

“I actually trust you quite a lot, Priest.” Leon smiled faintly.

“Spare me the nonsense.” Father Auden replied.

“No, I really do trust you. I trust that if I’m ever in danger, you’ll definitely run, and when you’re in danger yourself, you’ll definitely sell me out. Conversely, you definitely trust that I’ll drag you down with me without the slightest guilt whenever necessary.” Leon said.

“That doesn’t sound like there’s a single element worthy of mutual trust.” Father Auden did not deny Leon’s assessment.

“But we both trust that neither of us will casually abandon our partner unless absolutely necessary. Fully understanding the other person’s way of doing things, how is that not a kind of mutual trust?

Only when you believe someone won’t betray you will you feel angry when they do. If I believe someone will definitely betray me at a critical moment, then if he really does betray me under those circumstances, he’s merely living up to my expectations. I won’t resent him.” Leon explained.

“Then would you forgive that person?” Father Auden asked.

“No, I’d kill him.” Leon answered without the slightest hesitation, then added, “Kill him without resentment.”

“……” Father Auden responded with silence.

“But if we really have to get into it, old friend, strictly speaking, I actually don’t know you that well.” Leon studied Father Auden as he slowly said, “There’s actually one question I’ve always had. Why exactly do you want to make so much money?”

“How many people in this world don’t like money? Why do you yourself make money?”

“I’m young, with plenty of life ahead of me to enjoy. It’s normal for me to want money. But you seem……a little different. I really can’t see any reason you’d need to spend that much money.” Leon said.

Father Auden was already in his fifties this year. Judging by the average lifespan of this era, he absolutely counted as an old man. Even optimistically, he could only expect another decade or so of good living, and that was while dragging around an aging body.

Leon also couldn’t see Father Auden as someone with particularly strong desires. He had investigated the Priest before. The Priest had little interest in seeking rank or authority within the Church, and while his lifestyle could not be called frugal, it was by no means extravagant either. His slightly more expensive interests amounted to sampling fine food and wine or collecting small antiques, but he was not particularly obsessed with those either. Overall, he was quite self-restrained.

Father Auden had previously made illicit money working with Potter, and together with his other clients, having several million in savings should not have been a problem. That was already enough for him to live out the rest of his life quite comfortably.

Yet Father Auden still actively threw himself into making money, even going so far as to board a dangerous pirate ship like Leon’s, which left Leon somewhat puzzled.

“Do I absolutely have to tell you why I make money?” Father Auden asked in return.

“Whether you tell me is your choice. I’m just curious. Only by understanding someone’s motives can you cooperate with them better, right?” Leon said.

“You mean exploit them better.” Father Auden replied, “There’s actually nothing much to say about where I spend my money. Even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Saying that only makes me even more curious.” Leon raised an eyebrow.

“Forget it. If I don’t tell you, it’s not like you couldn’t find out if you wanted to.” Father Auden sighed, “You know there’s an orphanage west of town, right?”

“Renia’s Home, the one built beside the Public Cemetery? I heard from one of the people working for you that you go there once every month.” Leon said.

“Seems he talks a little too much.” Father Auden shook his head.

“You never deliberately hid where you were going either. You even took the bodyguard I assigned you along. So why do you go there, do you scam orphanages too?” Leon said.

Father Auden frowned upon hearing that: “I admit I’m somewhat lacking in principles when I do things, but surely you don’t think I’m that utterly deranged? What money could possibly be squeezed out of an orphanage like that?”

“Then what do you go there for, don’t tell me you donate money there?” Leon said half-jokingly.

“Mm.” The Priest nodded.

“Hahaha.” Leon cooperatively laughed a few times, then looked at the Priest, “Seriously, what exactly do you go there for?”

“……” The Priest said nothing and merely looked back at Leon with a perfectly serious expression.

They stared at each other like that for quite a while, then Leon frowned: “You’re serious?”

“I told you that you definitely wouldn’t believe me.” Father Auden had expected as much.

“How am I supposed to believe that? You drove Adele’s family into bankruptcy, nearly drove Melissa to the point where her only future was selling herself, and there are plenty of other people you’ve ruined just as badly. Now you’re telling me you fund an orphanage?” Leon spread his hands as he spoke.

“Establishing that orphanage wasn’t originally my idea……” Father Auden shook his head.

“You established it too? Then why is it called Renia’s Home instead of Raymond’s Home?” Leon asked curiously.

“Renia was my wife’s name.” Father Auden said.

“You were married? I don’t think I’ve ever seen your wife.”

“I was married three times. She was my last wife. She died of illness seventeen years ago.”

“I didn’t expect you to have such a colorful romantic history.” Leon said.

“When someone is a little smarter than the people around them, it becomes very easy to look down on everyone else. That was how I was when I was young. I went around deceiving people everywhere. Money was easiest to take from those fools. It was the same with women. I could casually deceive them into my hands, then abandon them once I got tired of them. Perhaps even the gods couldn’t stand watching me. Despite marrying three wives, I never had a single child. But that suited me just fine. Someone like me could never take responsibility for a family.” Father Auden said.

“You old bastard, so you were a scumbag even when you were young. Then why did you build an orphanage named after your wife? To commemorate her?” Leon asked.

“Because I lost.” Father Auden said.

“What do you mean?” Leon did not understand.

“I married her merely because I wanted something fresh, along with her family’s savings, but she was an extremely troublesome person. She was always urging me, as someone who served the gods, to walk the righteous path and do more good deeds, so that after death I could be summoned by the gods to the Blessed Land. Otherwise, my soul would fall into the Abyss and be tormented by Moilai for all eternity. Heh, she was even more devout than I, a Priest, and actually wanted to change me.” Father Auden smiled.

“That was probably just because you were especially irreligious.” Leon said.

The Holy Scriptures indeed contained teachings that urged people toward goodness, as well as concepts similar to Heaven and Hell.

“A foolish woman actually thought she could restrain me. Less than two years after we married, I started to detest her. Just as I was considering leaving her, one day she suddenly asked me for a divorce, saying she could no longer tolerate my conduct. I was delighted and immediately agreed. After the procedures were finished, she told me that if one day I was willing to go back and find her, I had to promise her that I would mend my ways. I told her not to worry, because I would never go see her again. She told me, you will.” Father Auden said.

“And then?”

“Then just a few days later, she fell ill. Even today, that disease would still be terminal.” Father Auden said.

“She already knew she was sick, so that was why she chose to divorce you?” Leon realized.

“Yes. Then, at some point, rumors began spreading around town that a scumbag like me had abandoned his sick wife, and that was when I learned about it……” Father Auden said.

“You were already like that. Did you even care about that kind of reputation?”

“If I really had abandoned her, I wouldn’t have cared. Honestly, if I’d known beforehand that she was sick, I might actually have done exactly that……but the truth was that she left me of her own accord so she wouldn’t burden me. That woman decided everything on her own, acting as though she was thinking of me and making me owe her something. She always knew exactly how to make me hate her!” Father Auden slowly said.

“And that was what you couldn’t accept?” Leon raised an eyebrow.

“I can’t really explain it either. Perhaps my pride simply couldn’t accept it. So I went looking for her again. By then she wasn’t far from death. She was nothing but skin and bones, so ugly you wouldn’t want to look at her twice. But when she saw me come, she actually smiled and told me, you still came.” Father Auden suddenly looked away as he spoke. Only after remaining silent for quite a while did he continue, “She was just as detestable right to the very end!”

“Then you really did lose.” Leon finally understood what Father Auden had meant by “lost.”

“She told me that since I had gone back to see her, I had to promise her one thing. She wanted me to find a way to establish an orphanage. It was something she had always wanted to do. She said only then could my sins be forgiven and I might have a chance of going to Heaven.” Father Auden said.

“So you did as she asked?”

“I raised the money and built the orphanage, but handed its entire management over to others. That woman played a little trick on me. I lost the wager, so I accepted the loss. But I named the orphanage after her. If it counts as a good deed, then she gets credit for it too.

I’m only responsible for providing the money. Every bit of it is money she won from me, so it goes under her name. Then every month I check the accounts to make sure no one is cheating me out of my money. Whether those children are doing well has nothing to do with me. She was the kindhearted one, so if anyone’s going to Heaven, she can go. But I’ll still walk my own path. If the Blessed Land and the Abyss truly exist after death, and going there would mean seeing her again, I’d rather go to the Abyss and meet Moilai!”