What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Leon heard the undertone of interrogation in Dorothy’s voice.

“Compensate you?” Leon thought for a moment before saying, “Miss Dorothy, right now, it’s you and me negotiating. For you personally, has this matter really caused any loss?”

He was implying that Dorothy establishing trade with him would effectively mean taking the position of the Witches’ Gathering’s agent for the smuggling route into the Empire away from Arachne.

In that respect, his killing of the Count and even taking the initiative to seek Dorothy out for negotiations had not caused Dorothy any loss at all. On the contrary, it was beneficial to her.

For Dorothy to question him like this on behalf of the Witches’ Gathering seemed a little too “selflessly devoted to the greater good”.

Dorothy studied Leon and sighed softly: “Mr. Fenrir, I thought that since you came all this way specifically to find me, and I waited here for you, we should at least have some basic mutual understanding……”

“Mutual understanding? I certainly never imagined you’d have an army lying in ambush waiting to beat me up before we even talked.” Leon spread his hands.

“We should put that matter behind us. Since you didn’t understand what I meant, I’ll say it plainly.” Dorothy looked seriously at Leon, then raised a hand and lightly pointed, “Just as you thought, for the time being, I’m on your side. Since you intend to continue purchasing goods from us and chose to approach me first, naturally I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

“Then……” Leon gestured for Dorothy to make herself clearer.

“The problem is, I’m not the one who makes the final decision. Our Queen does. I support you, but there will likewise be people who oppose you, such as Arachne, and she isn’t the only one. By killing the Count, you harmed the interests of all of us, not to mention the fact that you’re producing mana yourself. None of these issues can be avoided.” Dorothy spread her hands, “You……all right, we need to find a way to convince Her Majesty the Queen before we have any chance of making this cooperation happen. Do you understand what I mean now?”

Hearing this, Leon nodded. He completely understood Dorothy’s meaning.

Arachne was not the only one who held a negative impression of him for killing the Count. There were also other Great Witches whose interests were tied to the matter, and even Queen Alice herself.

He truly was the most suitable person to rebuild the smuggling route, but to the Witches’ Gathering, as a trading partner, he was still nowhere near comparable to the Count, who had built up his position over ten years. If Leon had had nothing to do with the Count’s death, they might have reluctantly accepted him anyway, but the problem was that he was precisely the culprit who had killed the Count. On top of that, there was also the issue of him taking away part of the profits from the production stage.

Dorothy’s questioning just now had merely been a simulation, meant to see what conditions he could offer when faced with these objections from the Witches’ Gathering, so that she could use them to persuade the Queen.

“I used to be one of the Count’s executives. Establishing a base inside a dungeon within the Empire to produce mana was the Count’s order. Strictly speaking, the Count had already been preparing to gradually break away from you.” Leon said.

“But the Count’s purchase volume from us never decreased. Mr. Fenrir, since Commander Ruit has already sided with you, he should have told you the scale of Count Fry’s annual transactions with us, correct?” Dorothy asked.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve always settled accounts in gold. Converted into Imperial currency, the Count’s transaction volume with you over the past three years was around one hundred and fifty thousand gold shields.” Leon said.

One hundred and fifty thousand gold shields converted to one million five hundred thousand silver wolves, which was roughly three hundred million pennies in transaction volume.

That already exceeded Leon’s current overall profit, and for the Count, that amount had merely been the cost of purchasing goods.

“Exactly. I know you probably can’t reach that scale, but I’ll ask anyway. How much are you prepared to purchase?” Dorothy asked.

“For the first year, let’s start with fifty thousand gold shields.” Leon said.

That would amount to roughly one hundred million pennies in costs. Of course, with that batch of goods, he would be able to fill some of the territories where supply was insufficient and completely bring under his control the markets the Count had left behind outside the Fry region.

But there would certainly be excess stock as well. Leon would still need to establish channels to sell it beyond his own territories and expand his business routes. If the western region proved difficult to develop, then he would have to establish channels to the colonies in the New World as well as other countries on the continent, even if that meant rapidly opening markets at cost price while recovering his funds as quickly as possible.

For now, his goal was still to establish a trade relationship with the Witches’ Gathering and replace the Count’s position in the ecosystem as soon as possible. Only after securing room for survival would he have a chance to develop further.

“Only one third. That won’t do.” Dorothy shook her head.

“I heard that when the Count first started out, he could only purchase goods worth around twenty million pennies. My starting point is already much higher. You have to give me some time to develop the market.” Leon said.

“I’m willing to give you time, but that doesn’t mean the Queen is willing to. Or are you saying your potential exceeds the Count’s?” Dorothy asked.

“Of course. My goal is to surpass the Count.” Leon said.

“Can you really do it? Mr. Fenrir, you served as one of the Count’s executives, so you should understand that the Count’s upper limit was very high.” Dorothy said.

“Miss Dorothy, then you should also understand that the Count had already reached his limit, and his cooperation with you could only go downhill from there. He valued stability more than climbing higher. Before reaching the peak, he would be enterprising, but once he climbed to the height he wanted, he instead became conservative.

I heard you’ve always been trying to incite him into doing risky things. That’s precisely why he considered establishing his own production so he could gradually free himself from you. Your cooperation was never going to last in the first place.” Leon said.

“From the sound of that, you’re more willing to take risks?” Dorothy asked.

“Someone afraid of taking risks wouldn’t have killed him. And you should know that I possess the power of Moylai’s Blessing, which the Church regards as heretical. In that respect, we’re the same kind.

As long as the conditions were right, the Count could choose to sever contact with you, even abandon this line of business altogether, and completely side with the Empire. I don’t have that option. If one day the Church wipes out every existence in this world that it considers heretical, I’ll be among them.” Leon replied.

“Put that way, you actually sound even more trustworthy than Count Fry.” Dorothy said with a smile, though it was impossible to tell whether she had accepted Leon’s argument, “But money wasn’t the only thing Count Fry could provide us. Since you say that compared with the Church, we’re the same kind, shouldn’t you demonstrate the corresponding sincerity?”

“You want me to provide intelligence like the Count did?” Leon understood Dorothy’s intention.

He had confirmed with Johnny that the Count would occasionally provide Arachne with important intelligence from the Empire. For example, when he had commissioned Arachne to frame Weiss, he had provided Moyland with part of the Empire’s shipbuilding technology. That allowed Moyland not only to improve its own warships, but also to gain a better understanding of certain structural features of Imperial warships.

Dorothy was suggesting that Leon could become a spy for Moyland and provide Moyland with more intelligence than the Count had.

“This is also for your own good, Mr. Fenrir.” Dorothy urged.

“With my current position within the Church, I’m afraid I can’t provide much intelligence.” Leon said.

“Could it be that we’d also have to find a way to help you raise your standing within the Church of Noren?” Dorothy raised an eyebrow, “As far as I know, you also possess the Supreme God’s Blessing, don’t you? And judging from what we just saw, you can use two Blessings simultaneously. That’s unprecedented. You say you’re the same kind as us, but I’m afraid that isn’t entirely true. Once your position becomes secure, it’s not as though you have absolutely no possibility of switching to the Empire’s side.”

“Then if we can’t reach an agreement here and the Witches’ Gathering tacitly permits Arachne to take revenge on me, wouldn’t that simply force me to choose the Empire’s side?

That’s right, I am unprecedented. So do you really intend to directly make an enemy of someone like that, without even attempting cooperation first? You don’t even need to pay any cost. The only thing you need to invest is time!

Your opponent is the Empire that destroyed Ireland. If transactions worth a few hundred million like the Count’s are enough to satisfy you, then fine, you can forget about ever stirring up any waves in this country!” Leon stared at Dorothy and spoke slowly.

Dorothy blinked, then suddenly revealed a somewhat bitter smile: “That argument really does hit where it hurts, but it’s interesting. You truly are different from Count Fry. Actually, merely confirming that you possess Moylai’s Blessing should already be enough to pique Her Majesty the Queen’s interest. At the very least, she won’t easily allow Arachne to dispose of you.”

“Then you mean?” Leon tried to confirm.

“I’ll try to persuade Her Majesty the Queen. You should prepare the purchasing terms for your first half-year as soon as possible.” Dorothy said.

“When can I expect an answer?” Leon asked.

“It won’t take too long. I know how to contact you. Don’t worry, I also have a certain grasp of Arachne’s movements. Before the Queen makes her decision, she won’t make any major moves.” Dorothy replied.

Hearing this, Leon finally relaxed slightly: “All right, then I’ll wait for your news.”

If Dorothy could report the cooperation proposal and temporarily keep Arachne in check, then their initial objective could be considered accomplished.

“Before that, provide me with one piece of intelligence as a greeting gift.” Dorothy suddenly said.

“What do you want to know?” Leon frowned slightly. He could not think of any intelligence he possessed that the other side would consider valuable.

“I’d like to confirm something. How did you learn the location of this dungeon of mine? Was it Lamia who told you?” Dorothy asked.

“Yes.” Leon replied.

It seemed Dorothy intended to probe for information about the traitor Lamia.

“Looks like you can not only meet her, but even extract intelligence from her.” Dorothy said with a smile, “Can you tell me how she’s doing in the Church’s prison?”

“Pretty well. The Church has been trying to satisfy her conditions as much as possible……” Leon roughly described Lamia’s living conditions in Saint Rosalia Prison.

He had thought Dorothy would ask further questions, but after hearing this much, Dorothy simply nodded: “All right, thank you for your answer.”

“That’s enough?” Leon was somewhat surprised.

“For us, that’s already very valuable intelligence, at least for now.” Dorothy replied with a smile.