What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

"It's past nine? Melissa still isn't back?" Sally's expression immediately turned anxious. She leaned on the table and struggled to stand up, calling into the house, "Melissa? Melissa!"

No one responded from inside the house.

Leon frowned as well: "Melissa hasn't returned?"

He realized that Selena had fallen asleep there not just because of the work, but because she had fallen asleep while waiting for Melissa to come home.

After Sally became able to take care of herself, Melissa did not let herself be idle. She increased her working hours outside. Leon knew that she still went to work as a waitress at a bar two blocks away at night, but she would be back at eight o'clock so as not to worry her mother.

It's a bit unusual that they haven't returned by this time.

“I’m going out to find her…” Sally said, staggering out of the room.

Leon grabbed her arm: "How can you go out in this condition? Mrs. Hershey, you stay home and wait, I'll go check over at the pub!"

“Mr. Leon…” Sally turned to look at Leon, her eyes flashing, “I’m counting on you.”

"You stay home and wait patiently. Melissa might come back at any time, so someone needs to be home to wait for her. Promise me you won't go out by yourself!" Leon instructed.

Seeing that Sally nodded in response and sat down again, Leon then left the room, first checking the hall and attic to make sure Melissa wasn't home, before quickly leaving the house and heading straight for the tavern.

Sally sat in the room with a worried expression, her heart filled with anxiety.

The oil lamp flickered dimly. This room used to be Melissa's bedroom, with her bed, wardrobe, and a small shelf holding books and her favorite dolls—now all those old things have been sold off, and there's nothing left.

In a daze, Selena seemed to see the past: Melissa as a child sitting on the bed, while Selena herself sat on the edge of the bed holding a book.

Every single day, before bed, there's a story, and every story has a happy ending, like "The prince defeated the evil witch, rescued the princess from the tower, and they lived happily ever after."

However, outside of fairy tales, happiness is fleeting and cannot be grasped, while suffering seems endless.

"Melissa, please come back soon..." Sally placed her still somewhat thin hands on the table and clasped them tightly, praying earnestly.

Chapter 34 Conflict in the Tavern

Hamel, Rye Tavern.

Around nine o'clock in the evening, the tavern was at its busiest. The tables were littered with cups and plates, and the drunken customers were making a ruckus and drinking loudly.

The area around the large round table in the corner was particularly lively, with five young men each holding a wine glass and laughing loudly.

The man leading them, with a scar near his eye, was banging on the table and cheering. Beside him, Melissa was holding a glass and painfully downing a glass of wine in one gulp.

That day, she worked the evening shift as a waitress at the rye bar, just like any other day.

This job, which lasts three hours in the evening, earns her fifty pfennigs, making it one of the more lucrative of her various part-time jobs.

However, as she was about to leave work that day, one of the customers suddenly recognized her: "Hey, isn't this little Melissa?"

"Mr. Garcia?" Melissa was also surprised to see someone she knew.

Garcia is a debt collector hired by Porter, a wealthy businessman in the town who owns a casino and a pawn shop in Hamel.

The pawnshop runs a loan business, and Garcia, in addition to helping Mr. Potter collect debts, sometimes also works as a bouncer for the casino.

Melissa's largest debt is the loan she owes to Potter Pawnshop, which was money her father borrowed to run the theater.

Garcia would come to collect the debt every three months and had also dealt with Melissa.

Sally often reminded Melissa that the money should be used to pay off the debt owed to Potter first, because these people had a bad reputation for their debt collection methods.

Melissa herself didn't really like Garcia. The greedy look in his eyes every time he came to her door always sent chills down her spine.

Now, Garcia's gaze toward Melissa, who was wearing a waitress apron, became even more blatant.

"What a coincidence! Come on! Sit down and rest with me, have something to eat." Garcia reached out and grabbed her slender arm, pulling her to a seat next to him.

"No, no, Mr. Garcia, I have to work..." Melissa naturally wanted to refuse, but the other party did not let go at all, and even increased the force, making her arm hurt.

"I've taken such good care of you, and you don't give me any face. It makes things difficult for me in front of my brothers! What's wrong with taking a rest?"

As Garcia spoke, he called out to the middle-aged shop owner behind the counter, "Hey, old Frank, is it alright if your little girl sits with us for a bit? Huh?"

Seeing the situation, the middle-aged shop owner quickly replied with a smile, "Haha, of course, of course! Melissa, why don't you sit with Mr. Garcia for a while?"

Garcia was a true gangster, and he dared not provoke these people, otherwise his tavern might be inexplicably burned down one day.

Melissa had no choice but to sit down at the table.

Afterwards, Garcia and his entourage ate, drank, and laughed, occasionally urging Melissa to drink with them.

Melissa, with her limited experience, couldn't withstand the men's combined soft and hard persuasion to drink. After a few drinks, her head started to spin.

It was well past her closing time. She tried to leave several times, but Garcia firmly stopped her each time. The shop owner also ignored the situation.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Garcia, I really can’t drink anymore, I have to go home…” Melissa said, trying to stand up. As she stood up, she felt dizzy and almost fell.

"Hey, hey, hey, this is nothing! Why are you being such a spoilsport at a time like this?" Garcia grabbed Melissa again. "Let's sit a little longer."

"Please, I really have to go. My mother... will worry..." Melissa pleaded hesitantly.

Hearing her mumble these words, the men present burst into laughter.

“Oh, Mother…yes, Mrs. Hershey who’s always been lying in the attic!” Garcia laughed as if he had just remembered. “I really miss her when she was on stage. Melissa, you look just like her.”

He thought for a moment, picked up a bottle of spirits from the side, poured about half a glass into a small glass, pushed it in front of Melissa, and said to her:

"How about this, we're almost done here. After you finish your last drink, just sit with us for ten minutes, okay?"

Melissa glanced through her blurry eyes at the small half-glass of wine and the laughing men around her.

Under the influence of alcohol, she could hardly think straight, but an instinctive sense of crisis kept telling her that she should never drink another glass of wine.

"I'm sorry, I really can't drink anymore..." Melissa did her best to refuse.

"Oh no, Melissa, you're making me very sad."

Garcia shook his head. "The debt collection day is in a few days. Do you know how much money you owe? Every time your family manages to raise enough interest, I have to give you several days' grace. Have you raised enough this time?"

“I…I…” Melissa suddenly couldn’t speak.

"How about this, you drink this glass of wine, sit for a little while longer, and I can postpone my debt collection visit to your house by a month this time, how about that?" Garcia persuaded with a smile.

Melissa stared at the glass of wine, feeling dizzy. Everything in front of her seemed to blur, and the smiles of Garcia and his henchmen became distorted.

After a while, she silently reached out her hand towards the glass of wine.

The shop owner looked away as he watched this scene unfold, and the other customers remained silent. Everyone knew what would happen to the young girl after she was drunk by this group tonight, but here, no one dared to provoke Garcia and his gang.

Just then, a figure darted through the doorway and across the tables to the table, reaching out and grabbing Melissa's hand as she reached for her wine glass.

"Melissa, your mother is worried."

Leon pulled the unsteady Melissa to her feet and glanced at the others at the table. "Excuse me, gentlemen, she should go home!"

After saying that, he helped Melissa up and was about to take her away from the tavern.

“Brother Leon?” Melissa looked up in surprise. She couldn’t see the other person’s face clearly, but she could recognize the voice.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!!" Garcia immediately raised his hand and shouted. His men reacted quickly and stood up one after another. Two of them stood in front of Leon with unfriendly expressions.

"Hey friend, who are you?" Garcia spread his hands at Leon with a forced smile. His men were already standing up, but he remained seated. "You grabbed the girl from our table and tried to leave. What are you trying to do? Hmm?"

Leon looked around at the people present and realized from their aura that they were no pushovers.

Finally, he fixed his gaze on Garcia, who was in the lead: "I live at her house. Her mother asked me to find her and bring her home. Is there a problem?"

Garcia looked at Melissa in surprise. Melissa had instinctively moved closer to Leon and clung tightly to the hem of his clothes.

"Ah... I know, you're the tenant who rents the apartment downstairs from Hesh's. I've never seen you before."

Garcia suddenly realized that he used to go to Melissa's house during the day to collect debts, while Leon was at work at the time.

"If there are no more problems, please move aside." Leon glanced at the two people blocking his way.

The two henchmen didn't move, glancing at Garcia.

Garcia simply smiled at Leon, then tapped the table with his finger:

"Alright, young man, don't worry. We all know Ms. Sally and little Melissa. Melissa, have another drink with us and we'll take her home. You can just go back and tell her mother, okay?"

Having said that, he winked at the person next to him.

The henchman discreetly lifted the hem of his coat, revealing a gun handle at his waist, so that Leon would fully realize that they were not ordinary street thugs.

Five against one, if this man dares to spoil his fun today, he'll be in for a rough time.

Chapter 35 The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Seeing this, Leon realized the seriousness of the situation; these people were genuine gangsters.

In fact, among the five people present, there was one who looked somewhat familiar to him; he might have been someone who had been investigated and registered by the Inquisition.

People around looked in this direction with either tension or interest, and the tense atmosphere quickly cooled down the originally lively tavern.

Despite the pressure from the five men, Leon showed no sign of backing down, shielding Melissa behind him as he replied, "She can't drink anymore."

Garcia wasn't too surprised by Leon's attitude. There are always some inexperienced guys who underestimate the ruthlessness of these people, thinking that they wouldn't dare to make any rash moves in public.

But in reality, if Leon dared to take Melissa outside, even without drawing their guns, they could use their fists and feet to make her crawl out, and she might even be left with a permanent limp.

When the sheriff investigated afterward, it turned out to be just a regular pub brawl. One of his men would step forward and take full responsibility, and he would just spend some time in jail. It was just routine for them.

However, Garcia doesn't necessarily have to do that today.

"Hehe, Melissa didn't say that, did she, Melissa?"

Garcia sneered, his gaze seemingly piercing through Leon and landing directly on Melissa, who was hiding behind him. "I don't want things to get too ugly. When we come to your house to collect the debt later, I don't want to break anything. Nobody wants that, right?"

Melissa shivered and cautiously stepped out from behind Leon.

“Very well, come and sit down.” Garcia gestured to the seat next to him and ordered, then looked at Leon, his eyes gradually turning cold. “As for you, sir, you’ve seen it yourself, this is none of your business. Leave here and don’t test my patience any further.”

Melissa fearfully huddled her hands in front of her chest, suddenly realizing that her choice not only concerned her family's future but also the safety of her brother Leon.

Driven by fear, she took a step forward, at which point Leon raised his hand to stop her.

“Oh no, buddy…” Garcia shook his head and sighed, seeing Leon’s lack of understanding of the situation.

He raised his hand as if to make a gesture to attack, and several of his men stepped forward, eager to fight.

"No! No!" Melissa cried out anxiously.

At that moment, Leon suddenly asked, "Did you bring a receipt?"

"What?" Garcia was suddenly stunned.

"You're here to collect a debt, so you should have receipts with you, right? How much money do they want to pay back this time?" Leon asked, staring at Garcia.

Garcia and his men exchanged bewildered glances, then Garcia suddenly burst into laughter, as if he had heard a brilliant joke: "Hahaha, are you going to pay for them?"

Melissa also looked at Leon in surprise.

"How much?" Leon asked in a firm tone.

Garcia's smile remained unchanged as he said, "I collect every three months. Normally, they should be paying back 24,000 pfennigs every quarter. Do you have that?"

This was the original debt repayment standard, including principal and interest, established by Melissa's father when he borrowed money to run the small theater.

But in reality, Sally and Melissa have long been unable to pay according to this standard. Each time, they can only barely pay the interest and late fees, and they may not even be able to pay off the entire amount.

Garcia quoted the number simply to see the other person's embarrassed expression; most people couldn't just pull out that much money all at once.

He believed that helping Hershey and her mother pay off their debts was something that couldn't be done without a substantial family fortune, and that their fate was already sealed in his eyes.

Mrs. Hershey will die soon, and their family's debts will be overdue.

Then they will be able to take over the Hersh family's house; in fact, they have already taken over several row houses in that alley.

Hersh's neighbor had their house repossessed a few years ago because they couldn't pay their debts, and the wealthy businessman Potter wanted that piece of land.

As for Melissa, burdened with huge debts and homeless, Garcia could then easily seize her and introduce her to some "good jobs" to pay off her debts. Many women in the town ended up in prostitution in this way.

Today is an opportunity. Since Melissa is bound to end up like this sooner or later anyway, it's better to let her enjoy it early. Maybe it will even enlighten her and help her understand which business is best for paying off her debts, saving her a few years of detours...

Snapped!

A loud bang interrupted Garcia's thoughts. Leon, expressionless, pulled a rolled-up parchment from his person, slammed it on the table, and unfolded it in front of everyone.

A church-issued gold certificate with a face value of 20,000 pfennigs.