What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

Chapter 6 The Gears of Fate Begin to Turn

Leon searched the backyard for a while and found a covered water tank and a wooden barrel; the water tank still contained a fair amount of water.

There was no wind in the woods tonight. He rummaged through another corner of the backyard and found some firewood. He placed it a short distance from the cellar entrance, took out a tinderbox for lighting lamps, and began trying to start a fire.

Soon, a fire lit up the courtyard. Leon observed the location and confirmed that the girl's bedroom should be able to see light through the oiled paper window. He turned around, rushed to the small gate of the fence, squatted down, and then grabbed a stone and threw it at the cellar door.

The stone struck the lock on the door, making a crisp clanging sound in the backyard.

Soon there was movement inside the house, and then the window of the wooden house was pushed open. A girl in her pajamas with disheveled hair peeked out and was surprised to find that there was a fire burning near the entrance to the cellar in the backyard.

"Ah!" she cried out in surprise, and without even running to the back door, she climbed out of the window barefoot.

She went straight to the sink, grabbed a bucket, filled it to the brim, and carried it away quickly. As she shook the bucket, water spilled out and soaked the hem of her nightgown, but she didn't care. She struggled to lift the bucket and splash it at the fire.

With a whoosh, the fire was extinguished on the spot. The girl, who had successfully put out the fire, stood there panting heavily, soaking wet, still in a daze.

How could it suddenly catch fire?

Before she could figure it out, a deep male voice sounded unexpectedly from behind her: "Don't move."

"Huh?" The girl turned around in surprise and saw the black muzzle of a gun pointed at her, and the gunman wearing a bird-beak mask behind the muzzle.

A look of terror quickly spread across her face. Her eyes widened, she gasped, and opened her mouth to scream.

"Shut up! Don't shout!!" Leon shouted sternly.

This place is some distance from the village, so there's not much to worry about anyone hearing it. There was a fire outside, but only this girl jumped out to put it out, so it seems there really was no one else inside the house.

But Leon still didn't want to cause any trouble. If someone was camping in the mountains, they might hear the noise and come running.

His threat worked for the time being; the girl trembled at his voice and swallowed back her scream.

People usually panic when they see their own house on fire and immediately start trying to put it out. This allows Leon to lure the other person outside and launch a sneak attack from behind while the other person is focused on dealing with the fire.

However, he was still somewhat surprised that it went so smoothly. The girl fell into the trap so easily, she was more naive than he had imagined.

"Raise both hands," Leon commanded.

The girl did it as a reflex.

Leon slowly approached, took the lantern from behind his back and raised it high, carefully observing the trembling girl.

The girl's long, chestnut-brown curly hair was disheveled and draped over her shoulders. Her face still had a childish look, and her wide, bright green eyes were filled with terror, with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Hmm?" Leon frowned.

During the day, the girl always wore that faded red hooded shawl, and Leon basically only glanced at her. When he was following her, he carefully controlled the distance and mostly saw her back, so he didn't get a clear look at her face.

When Leon judged that the other party was a witch, his mind naturally began to fill in the impression with imagination. Legend has it that Moirai's blessing can give witches eternal youth and beauty, and make them have extraordinary charm.

Upon closer inspection from the front, he realized that the girl was not only petite, but also looked much younger than he had imagined.

She doesn't look even sixteen years old; she's practically an underage little girl.

The girl in front of him was pretty, with delicate and regular features, but not to the point of being stunningly beautiful. She could be considered the village beauty, but she was still far from the alluring witch Leon had imagined.

Is this really... the witch he's been looking for?

"Name," Leon asked.

"..." The girl didn't react for a moment, as if she was stunned by fright.

“I’m asking your name!” Leon urged.

The girl finally came to her senses and replied in a trembling voice, "Leina... Leina, Leina Lothark."

“Alright, Miss Lena, I am an inquisitor from the Inquisition in Hamel Town. I hope you will cooperate with my investigation.” Leon introduced himself and carefully observed the other party’s reaction.

"Waaah..."

Upon hearing the words "heretical trial," Lena involuntarily let out a sob, her expression quickly shifting from terror to despair.

It seems so—this reaction immediately confirmed Leon's guess.

"It seems you understand why I've found you. Hannah Wesland has been captured, and she has confessed everything about you. If you continue to deny it, it will only make your crimes more serious. So you'd better confess everything honestly now, and tell me everything I ask..."

Leon used interrogation techniques, continuing to break down the other party's psychological defenses with half-truths and half-lies, but before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a sob.

"Waaah... hiss... waaaah..." Rena began to sob incessantly, the sobs growing louder and louder until finally she broke down into a wail, "Waaaaah!!"

"Stop crying and answer my question first!!" Leon commanded her to stop, but Lena's crying did not subside at all, as if she could not hear him at all.

"I told you to stop crying! Stop crying! Hey!!"

Leon was taken aback by the other party's display of power; the other party's emotions had completely collapsed, making it impossible to continue the conversation.

If the other party is really just an innocent young girl who is suddenly arrested for a serious crime, it would be normal for her to break down on the spot. This is also the first time Leon has arrested such a young girl who is not yet an adult.

But Leon still dared not easily lower the gun pointed at the other man's head. The other man's actions might just be a pretense, waiting for him to lower his guard and then turn the tables on him.

But the constant crying was really getting on his nerves, and finally he couldn't take it anymore, so he yelled, "Stop howling! I'm not here to get you!!"

Upon hearing this, Lena finally stopped crying and looked over with teary eyes, her gaze seemingly seeking confirmation of the truth.

Hearing such a sentence when she was in utter despair, no matter how unbelievable it seemed, she would treat it as a lifeline.

Seeing this, Leon breathed a sigh of relief and uttered a sentence that would change the course of their lives:

"Miss Witch, would you be interested in... making a deal with me?"

Chapter 7 You're a really nice person.

“A deal? What…a deal?” Lena was confused when she heard the word.

It sounds like this inquisitor wants some kind of benefit from her before he'll let her go.

"I need to confirm a few things with you first. Answer me truthfully, understand?" Leon didn't answer immediately, but stared at Lena and began to ask questions. He still had a lot of things to confirm first.

Lena swallowed hard and nodded silently.

"The headhunter rabbit carcass, slime gel, and extracted magic essence that Hannah Weslan sold were all your doing, right?" Leon said.

“Yes, yes…” Lena answered softly.

"So, you are the real witch?"

"..." Lena hesitated for a moment on this question.

When she became a witch, her teacher told her that if the Inquisitor found out, she would be burned at the stake.

Even though the inquisitor seemed to know this, she still had some reservations about admitting it herself.

"Yes or no, is it that hard to answer?!" Leon's voice suddenly turned stern.

His voice sounded aggressive, but he wasn't actually angry; it was just an interrogation tactic.

"Yes! It is me!" Lena shrank back in fright.

"Then let me ask you, do you know how to cure chicken snake poison?" Leon asked.

“This… I haven’t researched it.” Lena shook her head repeatedly.

“Really? I was once poisoned by a concoction made from chicken and snake venom, and it left me with some aftereffects. If you can help me resolve them, I can let you go. I mean what I say,” Leon said earnestly.

"I really don't know how to do this!" Lena shook her head again.

Leon sighed inwardly. The other party might not have been telling the truth when he first said he couldn't, but when he mentioned it was to detoxify him, if the other party had ulterior motives, he should have realized that this was an opportunity to poison him.

This was just a small test. If Lena suddenly changed her mind and claimed she could cure the poison the second time, it might not be true either. He wouldn't rashly believe her and let her cure him. But if she denied it again, then she probably really couldn't help him solve the problem.

Things weren't so easy to resolve after all...

If there were a way to directly cure the chicken snake's poison, he wouldn't necessarily have to sell magic essence to make money. That path is very risky. As a heretic inquisitor, actively cooperating with a witch is a crime of apostasy. If caught, he would be punished more severely than ordinary criminals who smuggle demons.

Since this path is blocked, the only alternative is to make money.

"Do you have money?" Leon continued to ask.

The magic essence extracted by this witch can sell for 20,000 pfennigs per gram. If she has been doing this for a while, she may have already accumulated a considerable amount of savings.

If he could directly obtain a huge sum of money from the other party that would be enough to secure his future for the next ten or even several decades, then Leon wouldn't necessarily have to consider taking the risk.

"As for money, I don't have much... How much do you want?" Lena asked cautiously.

“At least one million pfennigs!” Leon casually threw out a figure.

One million sounds like a lot, but for Leon, according to the treatment plan that Weiss gave him, he would need to spend at least five thousand pfennigs a month to buy medicine, which would amount to sixty thousand a year. One million pfennigs would only last for about fifteen years.

"I don't have that much money!" Lena's eyes widened on the spot. Although it was robbery, she didn't expect the other party to ask for such an exorbitant price.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter much if I don't have money, as long as I have you," Leon said, staring intently at Rena.

It seems that even with some risks, Leon will ultimately have to rely on this witch to earn enough money to secure his future, and he had long been mentally prepared for this.

Knowing how to sell stolen goods, a witch who can raise monsters and extract magic essence is a money tree for him!

But Lena found this a bit puzzling. What did she mean by "It doesn't matter if you don't have money, I'm here for you"?

In this context, it seems the man is planning to get something from her beyond money.

Faced with Leon's direct gaze, she subconsciously looked down at herself and saw her thin nightgown and the hem of her skirt, which was now transparent from being wet and still clung to her slender legs.

She screamed, clutching her chest with one hand and trying to pull at the hem of her skirt that was stuck to her leg with the other, her face drained of color as she shouted at Leon, "No! Don't do anything rash!"

Faced with Lena's misunderstanding, Leon simply scoffed: "Putting aside whether I'm interested in a brat as young as you, do you think I'd give you the opportunity to poison me?"

The risks of being seduced by a witch are not limited to being poisoned directly; it is said that many lewd acts exist in the traditional rituals of Moirai.

According to church regulations, knowingly having an intimate relationship with a witch is tantamount to participating in a ritual against Moirai, a typical blasphemy. If it is someone like Leon who works in the church, the crime of apostasy will also be added, making it no less serious than that of a witch.

"So what exactly do you mean?" Lena still hunched her shoulders, uneasy.

“What I mean is that you can continue to raise your monsters and refine your magic essence, and then I’ll help you sell them, just like Mrs. Weslan did,” Leon explained bluntly.

The owner of the owl thrift store would likely offer a significant discount to Director Caron when he sells stolen goods. Although it was still uncertain how Mrs. Wesland would handle the sale, Leon felt he would have a better price advantage.

"Like Granny Hannah?" Lena blinked in confusion, then suddenly remembered something and asked cautiously, "I remember you just said that Granny Hannah had been arrested by you? You also said that she implicated me?"

If she's already been exposed, then the entire Inquisition will know she's a witch. Even if this Inquisitor doesn't arrest her, the Inquisition will send someone else. So how can this person negotiate a deal to let her go, and how can he help her resell magic essence?

“I was the one who interrogated her. She didn’t directly implicate you, but I found you through clues in her confession. She’s just a small fry; all I want is you. The Inquisition isn’t exactly a clean place either. I’ve let her make a deal with the higher-ups using stolen goods and money to get away with it. For now, only I know about you, but if you don’t cooperate, there’s nothing I can do. Or, if something happens to me, the records I left behind will be seen.” Leon stared at Reina as he spoke.

Lena swallowed nervously.

"By the way, why did you give Mrs. Wesland money this morning? What did she say to you?" Leon asked, recalling Lena's meeting with Mrs. Wesland that morning.

“She only told me that the goods were discovered by the guards but she escaped in time. Every time she made a purchase, she would pay me the full amount first. This time when we met, she begged me to return half of the purchase price to her…” Lena answered honestly.

"And then you actually returned half of it?" Leon was quite surprised.

“I returned it all to her,” Lena replied softly.

"Why?" Leon was a little confused. "It was clearly her negligence that caused the loss, so why are you taking full responsibility?"

“She’s helped me a lot while I was living here, and her family has had a tough time... Besides, it’s not much money…” Lena whispered.

"Not much money at all!?" Hearing Lena say that goods worth 100,000 pfennigs weren't worth much, Leon couldn't help but laugh out loud. "You're actually a pretty nice person!"

“I don’t really understand… sir, why do you want to get involved in this kind of business? Didn’t you want a million pfennigs? This… can’t make that much money, can it?” Lena muttered to herself.

Upon hearing this, Leon finally realized that something was wrong.

Speaking of which, the purse that Lena gave Mrs. Wesland this morning... it didn't look like it could hold tens of thousands of dollars.

"Wait a moment, at what price does Mrs. Wesland usually pay for the magic essence you provide?" Leon asked, squinting his eyes.

Lena hesitated for a moment, but finally answered honestly, "One gram... two thousand pfennigs."

Leon was speechless for a moment before speaking: "Do you know how much magic essence of your purity can sell for on the black market?"

Lena shook her head blankly.

Leon fell silent. He had seen the magic essence that Lena had refined, and its clarity and purity should be quite good. According to the case files he had read, once it entered the Empire, the purchase price on the black market should not be less than 10,000 pfennigs per gram.

He didn't think Mrs. Wesland was unaware of this; the acquisition price was only one-tenth of the transaction price he knew of, which was simply outrageous.

Moreover, Mrs. Wesland actually managed to get the acquisition money back. It seems that this naive little devil has been treated like a lamb to the slaughter all along.

Of course, if someone like Mrs. Wesland could rip her off, then he could easily manipulate her.