What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Four days later, on Arend Island, Leon returned to his nominal estate.

Amid the respectful greetings of the servants, he went straight upstairs and strode into the study.

It had taken him less than two days to travel from here to Saint Rosalia Prison because Johnny’s ship had given him a ride. But on the return journey, he could only make his own arrangements, and the trip suddenly became much longer.

He had been away for nearly a week. After returning, there were already matters piled up on both the Inquisition side and the Labyrinth side that required his confirmation and handling.

However, when he had stopped to rest at a contact point after returning to Southport County, a subordinate had delivered two letters left for him, one from Adele and one from Father Auden. Both had left messages asking him to come to the estate on Arend Island as soon as possible after returning to discuss something.

Considering the possibility of the letters being leaked, neither of them had mentioned the specific matter in writing.

So Leon simply had someone go to Hamel Town to notify the priest, while after a short rest, he continued by ship downstream along the river between Southport County and River Valley County, directly reached Arend Island, and then returned to the estate.

As soon as he entered the study, Leon saw Adele sitting behind the desk, while Father Auden was already seated in the guest chair waiting.

When they saw him return, both of them stood up.

“You two left messages for me at the same time. Are you missing a judge for another debate?” Leon looked back and forth between the two.

The most likely possibility Leon could think of for Adele and Father Auden asking him to come discuss something together was that the two of them had once again developed differing opinions over some matter and argued endlessly, with neither willing to yield, until finally they needed him to arbitrate.

“Before you left, you said several sums of money might be delivered here afterward, and told us to keep an eye on them and handle them.” Father Auden slowly said.

“What? Did the money not arrive, or are you two arguing over how to allocate the funds?” Leon frowned.

This time, after finalizing the takeover of the territories belonging to the Earl’s other cadres and the Mana quotas for each territory, Leon had sorted out Mana and Magical Potions from the Labyrinth base, mixed them into ordinary cargo, and handed them over to Johnny’s fleet to transport separately.

After Johnny’s fleet delivered the goods to the territories of the various cadres, the other parties would first pay an initial installment according to the current order situation in their respective territories, which Johnny’s fleet would bring back to Arend Island. When the end of the quarter approached, the remaining balance would be settled, and the payment situation would affect the quota for the next quarter.

Logically speaking, during the days Leon had been away, Johnny should already have delivered the initial payments from most of the territories.

“It’s that you never told us there would be this much money.” Adele said somewhat helplessly.

After saying that, she pulled out a small chest and opened it. Inside were neatly stacked Gold Vouchers, all with a face value of one hundred thousand Fenni.

Then the priest bent down and opened the two chests at his feet. One was filled with neatly stacked Imperial Gold Shields, while the other contained rows of smelted gold bars, gleaming brightly enough to dazzle the eyes.

“We both organized the accounts and already checked them against each other. Do you want to look them over?” Adele carefully took out an account book she had recorded herself.

Father Auden also silently took out a ledger.

“No need. Just tell me how much there is in total.” Leon found it troublesome and directly had the two report the figure.

“If all these gold bars are valued according to the current official gold price, then there should be roughly twenty-seven million Fenni here.” Father Auden said.

“Is that so?” Leon nodded.

With income like this, it should be more than enough to cover the cost of hiring Johnny, along with all the other expenses.

“Leon, from now on…… are you going to bring in this much money every quarter?” Adele asked cautiously.

“Of course not.” Leon immediately replied.

“I see……” Adele actually breathed a sigh of relief.

“This is only the first time collecting shares from the other territories. Considering their financial situations, I allowed them to pay in installments. This is only the initial payment. There should still be a final settlement at the end of the quarter.

From now on, everything will be collected in a single payment each quarter. It should be about twice the amount here every time. Besides, we’ve only just formally gotten started. We still need to continue expanding the business!” Leon replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

Adele froze on the spot.

“Is there a problem?” Leon asked.

“There’s nothing particularly wrong, it’s just…… the workload is a little beyond imagination.” Father Auden raised his brows.

This money was only the share from outside territories. It did not include the income from Leon’s own territory, nor did it include the actual income from the various businesses Leon had now purchased.

“What’s wrong? Haven’t both of you handled more money than this before? Is this difficult for you?” Leon asked in confusion.

Whether it was the previous Viscount Arend or Mr. Griffin, at their wealthiest they certainly possessed assets worth tens of millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions. Adele and Father Auden had each handled their assets before, so logically speaking, they should not have been shocked by an amount at this level.

“Potter’s large fortune was something he accumulated over many years. But you, my friend, at this rate, it probably won’t take you two years before your assets surpass Potter’s.” Father Auden commented.

“Grandfather spent half his life weathering so many storms before he managed to save enough money to buy a territory.” Adele also said softly, “Is the Mana business really this profitable?”

Only after she began handling Leon’s accounts did she gradually come to understand just how outrageous Leon’s business income was. Gold seemed to pour forth continuously like spring water, and it had even earned Leon the status that her grandfather had failed to secure despite desperately forcing his way into noble circles.

More importantly, the foundation her grandfather had spent half his life building had vanished in the blink of an eye after several upheavals and then a scheme targeting the heir.

But Father Auden and the Watcher Merchant Consortium, who had dared to set them up, absolutely would not dare make a move against Leon.

Leon’s underworld business had brought an enormous shock to Adele, who came from a background of legitimate commerce.

Not long ago, she had still been full of ambition, thinking she would earn clean money through her own business, then openly and honorably redeem everything belonging to the Viscount Arend Family from Leon.

But now, whenever she thought about the unimaginable scale Leon’s assets would reach by the time she saved enough money, her once-spirited goal suddenly seemed insignificant in comparison before Leon.

“I’m afraid that right now, only he can make this much money from this business.” Father Auden answered Adele’s question on Leon’s behalf.

By now, Leon had already become the de facto giant of the Mana business in the Eastern Region of the Empire. Although there was still a gap between him and the Earl at his peak, at the very least, no one could surpass him in terms of business scale anymore.

“If it wasn’t profitable, would the Church need execution stakes to stop people from doing it?” Leon laughed.

“We discussed these funds and decided that we still need you to confirm how they should be handled.” Father Auden said.

“I’m not saying you have to launder all of this money. You only need to cover the expenditure I mentioned before.” Leon said.

“That’s still an extremely outrageous amount.” Father Auden said.

“All right, my friends. We’ve already committed crimes that could get us beheaded. The returns should match the risks. That’s better than them not matching.” Leon clapped his hands, “Prepare all the accounts you can as soon as possible. I’ll allocate the funds to you afterward. I’ll store the remaining money first, and from now on, both of you need to be mentally prepared accordingly.”

“On my side, I’m afraid I’ll need to form a team to handle your business from now on. I know some reliable people I can hire.” Father Auden said.

“That’s fine. Remember to let me evaluate the people.” Leon replied.

“Do you need me to introduce some assistants to you, Miss Adele?” Father Auden then suggested to Adele.

“No need. I’ll find a way myself.” Adele replied thoughtfully.

“Then, if there’s nothing else, I’ll head back and deal with other work first.” Leon said.

“Wait a moment. There’s one more thing I need to show you.” Father Auden suddenly stopped Leon, “Do you remember asking me before to help hire a group of experts to improve firearms according to those ideas you gave them?”

“Oh, right, there was something like that. What, did they produce results?” Only then did Leon remember. Some time had already passed since that matter. He had been constantly busy in the meantime and had nearly forgotten about it himself.

“The day before yesterday, they produced a prototype. This is a good opportunity for you to take a proper look.” As Father Auden spoke, he took out a sandalwood box he had brought with him and opened it in front of Leon.

Leon looked over. Lying inside the box was a revolver that somewhat resembled the ones from his memories of his previous life, yet was also different in certain ways.