What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

“You want to meet Lamia?”

In Weiss’s office inside the Temple of the Arend Island Labyrinth, Weiss revealed a surprised expression after hearing Leon’s request to meet Lamia.

“Yes, I want to ask her for intelligence about the Witches’ Assembly.” Leon said seriously.

“The Witches’ Assembly……have they made a move?” Hearing Leon say this, Weiss could not help growing worried.

The Earl had colluded with the Great Witch Arachne. After the Earl’s death, the Witches’ Assembly should also react.

“There aren’t any signs yet, but we need to prepare ourselves. Right now, we have too little intelligence. You’ve had contact with Lamia before. How much do you know about the Witches’ Assembly?” Leon asked.

“Lamia actually didn’t confess very much intelligence about the Witches’ Assembly. The Church’s Tribunal spent a very long time coaxing and pressuring her, but she was basically only willing to reveal a small portion every once in a while, so the Church still doesn’t actually know very much.” Weiss answered.

After thinking about it, Leon did not find that strange. From Lamia’s standpoint, she had defected to the Empire’s side because she had been held accountable by Moirland, but here she was still considered a Heretic.

Even though she possessed tremendous power, the Church could not employ her because of Church regulations. At most, she possessed some research value.

Once she revealed all the important intelligence she knew to the Imperial Church, she would have almost no capital left for negotiating terms with the Church.

She was a Third-Tier Great Witch. In theory, even the three Cardinals who possessed the Blessing of Omniscience would be unable to completely peer into her information.

As long as she held something back while maintaining the minimum degree of willingness to cooperate with the Church, the Church could only prioritize cooperation with her rather than use Judicial Torture to force a confession and trigger her rebelliousness, much less kill her or directly turn her into a research subject.

“How much do you know?” Leon casually asked.

“I only remember that Lamia confessed that when she escaped twelve years ago, there were seven Great Witches in the Witches’ Assembly, including herself and the Queen. Of course, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that others have advanced during these years.

All of the Great Witches had either already broken through to a Third-Tier Blessing or had already opened the upper limit of the Third Tier. As for anything beyond that, she seemed to have only revealed part of it to the Cardinal sent by the Tribunal. The direction in which our research departments questioned her for intelligence was different. The rest was information the Church already possessed on its own, such as Arachne’s Parasitic Infection Blessing.” Weiss explained.

Leon also knew this. The Church knew that Arachne possessed the Third-Tier Blessing of Parasitic Infection because Arachne acted far too conspicuously and had even fought Church personnel head-on, allowing the Church to obtain a considerable amount of intelligence about her in return. Leon had also extracted quite a lot of related intelligence from Ophelia.

“In that case, do you think we can pry intelligence out of her?” Leon said.

“Well, if there’s an opportunity to speak with her, it isn’t impossible to negotiate with her, but the prerequisite right now is that you need an opportunity to contact her alone. Unless there’s an investigation project formally established by the Tribunal, there probably isn’t any way to secretly interrogate Lamia.” Weiss said.

“Is there no way around that problem? What procedures do you normally use to contact Lamia? Is there no back door we can take?” Leon asked.

“Well……” Weiss’s slender brows furrowed slightly as she fell into thought.

“As expected, it’s still very difficult.” Leon had already begun thinking of giving up.

Ultimately, he had not held much hope in the first place.

Speaking with Lamia alone was never going to be easy. She was a serious criminal imprisoned by the Church. As a First-Rank Intermediate Inquisitor without any formally established Priority Investigation case, what qualifications did he have to ask Saint Rosalia Prison to allow him to meet Lamia alone?

“It might not necessarily be impossible. I have to tell you the truth. Among the Rose School scholars at Saint Rosalia Research Institute, quite a few people, including me, have secretly contacted Lamia for research purposes. Strictly speaking, all of it was against regulations……” When the topic reached this point, Weiss immediately lowered her voice.

“What a coincidence, an unofficial route is exactly what I’m looking for!” Leon grinned, “Have you met Lamia alone before?”

“I have.” Weiss replied cautiously, “Actually, the techniques I use to control Witch’s Blessing and refine Magic Essence were all taught under Lamia’s guidance. To a certain extent, she could actually be considered half my mentor.”

“Are you close?” Leon asked.

“On the surface, we got along reasonably well, but if you insist on putting it that way, ultimately we weren’t in the kind of relationship where we could trust each other.” Weiss said.

“But you had the authority to meet her alone?” Leon asked.

“I didn’t. It was simply that someone was willing to open a back door for me.” Weiss answered.

“Who?”

“Archbishop Kulik. He’s one of the supervisors of Saint Rosalia Research Institute. The material requirements for Lamia’s cell are approved by him, and the personnel assigned to positions that come into contact with Lamia are also scheduled by him. So if he uses his authority, someone can enter Lamia’s living area under the pretext of delivering meals and daily necessities to her.” Weiss said.

“Archbishop Kulik……” Leon remembered that refined-looking and amiable Archbishop. At the Holy Spirit Festival gathering, he had proactively approached Leon and even had Weiss introduce them to each other.

Archbishop Kulik was also a key member of the Rose School. According to Weiss, he was also one of the mentors who had guided her academically.

When Weiss had been framed and Bishop Beckett attempted to attack and provoke her, he had even stepped in to protect Weiss.

But precisely because of that, after Weiss’s incident, he had also undergone a strict investigation by the Church.

Weiss had also been concerned about the situation of her colleagues in the Rose School and had asked Leon to keep an eye on their circumstances.

Judging from Leon’s investigation, the Church internally understood fairly well that Weiss had been framed. They had also uncovered evidence connecting Arachne to the incident and publicly announced that everything had been a Terrorist Incident launched by a Heretical organization from Moirland.

There were still many circumstances from the incident that had not been explained clearly, including the report from Bishop Beckett and the Knights under his command that a Werewolf had abducted Weiss. Most Church personnel believed that the Werewolf who appeared had also come from the Heretical organization and had abducted Weiss in order to interrogate her for intelligence.

This also meant Leon could not easily let Weiss return, because this part was very difficult to explain clearly. For an incident this large, if a Supreme Investigation Warrant were invoked, then even if Weiss kept silent or fabricated a story, merely using her as a breakthrough point to investigate what had happened at the time could expose Leon.

Weiss had no intention of returning to the Church either. She had once transformed into the appearance of a Witch in front of the public and had even been suspected by the public of being the culprit who killed numerous civilians.

As far as the Church was concerned, she could no longer appear publicly. Only by keeping Weiss out of public view and allowing the incident to cool down could its impact be minimized. It could even be said that the Church had basically concluded Weiss was already dead and would prefer that she truly was.

Considering her father’s connections, even if she returned to the Church, she probably would not actually be secretly disposed of, but she would likely be sidelined and placed under house arrest.

For her, by comparison, remaining with Leon and continuing her research career was actually preferable. Besides, she had already promised Leon that she would stay.

However, some among the Church’s upper ranks still blamed the incident on the Rose School allowing the Saintess to personally experiment with the forbidden power of Witches, thereby giving the Heretics an opportunity, and had issued some internal disciplinary measures.

Fortunately, the Church apparently did not want the outside world to learn that the College of Cardinals had once passed a confidential resolution allowing a Bishop to obtain a Witch’s power, so the disciplinary measures were not particularly severe. They were basically handled lightly, and the Bishops of the Rose School were neither dismissed nor detained.

Instead, to quell public criticism, the principal punishment fell upon those responsible for security in the Archdiocese at the time. Even Cardinal Zeven, the Archdiocesan Leader, voluntarily resigned from his position as Archdiocesan Leader and was transferred down to another post.

As far as Leon knew, Archbishop Kulik had merely received a temporary suspension. Calculating the time, it should already have ended by now.

If he was still in his original post, perhaps he would still have the authority to let someone contact Lamia the way he had before.

“If Kulik still has the authority to open this back door, how do I persuade him?” Leon asked Weiss.

This was the first difficulty. Archbishop Kulik had been willing to open a back door for Weiss, who was likewise a key member of the Rose School, but that did not mean he would open one for Leon.

“If you can provide a reason for contacting her that interests him, I think there should be a chance. For example……Heretical literature confiscated from somewhere?” Weiss suggested.

“You have something like that?” Leon asked.

“No, you have it here.” Weiss stood up, went to the bookcase, searched for a moment, and took out a book.

Leon glanced at it. He could not understand the writing on the cover, but he could tell it was very similar to the writing carved into the walls of this Temple. It should have been Ancient Ailander or Moirland writing.

“I remember this was……” He had a slight impression of it.

“You confiscated it from Ophelia before. There are quite a few Heretical books and documents like this, and they should all have been brought over from Moirland. I’ve already copied this one and am still deciphering it. It’s research material concerning a theological branch related to Moilai. The ancient writing in it is extremely obscure, and ordinary Witches can’t decipher it.

If you say that you confiscated this while investigating a Heretical organization and want a Great Witch like Lamia to identify what it is, I think Archbishop Kulik should be fairly interested.” Weiss said.

“Archbishop Kulik was implicated by your incident. Would he still be interested in this kind of research?” Leon confirmed with Weiss.

“Archbishop Kulik has always been a key figure in the Rose School. He has always firmly believed that only by incorporating Moilai’s essence into research can the origins of theology be explored. The Rose School has been constrained everywhere within the Church. If people like him hadn’t persisted, this school would have disappeared long ago. So I think he probably won’t abandon his research. Even if he wants to avoid risks, I don’t think there’s any harm in probing him.” Weiss answered.

As an Inquisitor, there was nothing particularly suspicious about Leon taking confiscated Heretical materials to someone for identification.

“Alright, then I’ll give it a try.” Leon nodded, “But even if I get past Archbishop Kulik and manage to meet Lamia, how do I make her give me intelligence? From what you said earlier, there’s some way to negotiate with her?”

When the conversation reached this point, Weiss hesitated slightly for some reason: “Well……perhaps you could try bribing her.”

“Bribe her? What does she want?” Leon asked.

“……” Weiss fell silent.

“Weiss?” Leon was somewhat puzzled by Weiss’s reaction.

Weiss turned around, tore off a note, wrote down a list, and handed it to Leon: “If possible, go to a bookstore and see whether the authors of these books have written any sequels or new works.”

“《Memoirs of the Pleasure Quarters》、《Lady Rod’s Confession》、《Miss Regis’s Lover》……these are all novels?” Leon read down the list and raised his eyebrows.

The titles somehow seemed rather suggestive.

“This is Lamia’s personal interest. She previously asked me to bring her some books like these as a condition for teaching me knowledge about Witches……” Weiss awkwardly averted her gaze as she spoke, “Anyway, go look for them first.”