What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

“Another future colleague has arrived.” The young man smiled and strode forward, extending his hand to Leon. “I am Enrique Davidson, a priest at the Mystic Church in Caster City. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Leon Seth, as you can see, Inquisitor, from Hameltown.” Leon shook hands with the other man, dressed in formal attire as required by church regulations. “Mr. Davidson, are you perhaps connected to Viscount Locat?”

He remembered Viscount Locat, who served as tax collector in Castel, whose family name was Davidson. This viscount held an important position in Castel and was considered one of the more influential figures in the city.

"You know my father?" Enrique looked at Leon in surprise.

"Haha, your father is very famous in Nangang County, who doesn't know him?" Leon said politely with a smile.

He certainly couldn't explain to the other party that he knew their father because his father was one of their main clients.

Viscount Locat was originally a client of Potter and had a good relationship with Father Auden. He was one of the powerful figures who helped the priest launder money in Southportshire.

Now Leon has inherited the potion business in Southport County and has also become acquainted with many local dignitaries.

He remembered that Viscount Locarte regularly ordered many aphrodisiac and contraceptive potions, and such customers made up a significant portion of his clientele. In his opinion, these were customers who were quite promiscuous, but he wasn't sure whether they were promiscuous with the Viscountess.

Of course, this kind of thing couldn't be mentioned to the other party's son.

The viscount, who was a tax collector, had a son who had likely graduated from the district church school and obtained a priest's position, and then got the job through his father's connections via an internal recommendation.

After Leon finished exchanging pleasantries with the other party, the young female knight also stepped forward to greet him: "Bena Vick, a trainee knight from the Southeast Diocese Church, it's a pleasure to meet you."

After several conversations, Leon discovered that the other party was the niece of a regular knight, whose grandfather was a baron, and who had also obtained her position through internal recommendation.

Enrique and Béna discussed their family backgrounds without any hesitation, and Leon was not surprised; this was perfectly normal in the Empire. Family background and titles were a form of honor, a kind of capital. Being able to pull strings was not shameful; on the contrary, it was something to be proud of.

In such social settings, an individual's efforts and achievements may not necessarily be as prominent as a long-established family name. This is not hard to understand; achievements can get you promoted, but a background can help you rise step by step.

Bishop Beckett had told him that the church was currently very hierarchical, and most of the regular staff were priests and novice knights from various regions who worked in suitable positions for two years before being promoted through internal recommendations, which were basically based on their fathers' connections within the church.

Among those who were promoted based on merit, the majority were nobles. After all, tasks that yielded merit could be assigned, and Aaron's investigation of the Hamel town case is one example.

It is quite rare for an acting officer like him, who has no background, to achieve a leapfrog development and obtain a regular position.

But if we have to be honest, he's pretty much the same, since his so-called "achievements" were all part of a script created by the Earl's power and influence, and he didn't really break out of that framework.

When Enrique and Béla were surprised to learn that Leon was of completely commoner origin, they quickly offered him polite compliments.

"It's truly admirable that you single-handedly handled such a major case. The achievements you made for the church in just one month are probably greater than those of the entire Knights Order I'm in. After all, you helped the church recover the criminals' wealth, while we've been spending the church's money all along," Bella said half-jokingly.

"That's real talent and hard work!" Enrique nodded repeatedly to Leon. "I feel a little ashamed to be taking the test alongside a strong person like you."

Although there may seem to be some class difference on the surface, we still need to maintain a respectable social relationship, since we will all be working in the same church in the future and will see each other all the time.

"What you two say is true. Even if I'm lucky, my career will only end here. If you two get promoted in the future, I'm afraid you won't recognize me when I bow to you in the future," Leon replied jokingly.

“What are you talking about? This isn’t the West!” Enrique shook his head with a smile. “Our family’s title was earned in the East by our great-grandfather’s generation for their achievements. A capable man like Mr. Seth might be granted one someday.”

“Speaking of which, my uncle once served in the western Mist Pine County, and he said the nobles there were really arrogant. He chatted with a baron for a few minutes, and as soon as the baron heard that my uncle was from the east and didn’t have a title, he turned around and started talking to other people.” Bella chimed in.

Enrique and Béla seemed to have a lot in common on this matter, and quickly shifted the topic to complaints about the western nobles, and even told satirical jokes that seemed to be popular in the eastern region.

Leon didn't know much about the nobility, but he had some knowledge of imperial history. The territory of the Norren Empire had expanded gradually from the west to the east. The eastern lands had a shorter history in the empire, and the noble families born there generally had shorter histories than those in the west.

The southeastern coastal region, in particular, was conquered three hundred years ago by the Empire. After that, the remaining Elanders were locked in a long struggle with the Empire, and it took the Empire a long time to assimilate the land of Eland.

The families that acquired noble titles in this land do not have a very long history. This is true of Viscount Locat, Baron Turner, and Viscount Arend in Southportshire, and Earl Frye is also among the newly emerging nobles in the East.

From their conversation, Leon gradually realized that the old nobles of the West and the new nobles of the East seemed to be forming distinct factions and sticking together, even in terms of their influence within the church.

"By the way, have you heard about that? Those three dukes in the capital attended the investiture ceremony of the court knights with Princess Frederick. Isn't that an open declaration of support for her becoming the crown princess?" Bena suddenly asked.

“Yes, after all, Her Highness is the Duke of Gran’s granddaughter, and the nobles in the west will definitely support her,” Enrique said.

"But His Majesty Lord Lawrence III hasn't made a decision yet, and the Cardinals haven't made a statement either, so could that rumor be true?" Bella's eyes lit up when she talked about this gossip.

"You're not referring to His Majesty's illegitimate child, are you?" Enrique clearly knew which matter Bella was referring to.

"His Majesty the Emperor has an illegitimate child?" Leon was somewhat surprised to hear this, as it was the first time he had ever heard of it.

"It's just a rumor, a common rumor in aristocratic circles. I've heard people say more than once that my father has an illegitimate child!" Enrique explained with a slight smile, seemingly not entirely convinced of the matter.

"That might not be fake," Leon thought to himself.

“But my uncle heard from an acquaintance that His Highness the Prince has long been secretly supported by several lords in the East. If he wants to get the support of the Church, he must be employed in the Church’s Knights Order.” Bella became more and more animated as she spoke.

“Miss Vic, could it be that you…” Enrique smiled meaningfully.

Seeing Bella's oblivious state, anyone could tell that she was hoping to bump into the rumored prince in the Knights, and hopefully something would happen between them.

Seeing this, Bella quickly coughed and regained her composure: "I'm just interested in whether the rumors are true or false, how could I have such unrealistic dreams?"

As they finished speaking, new candidates began to be led into the lounge, and the two of them started exchanging pleasantries with the newcomers, quickly moving on from the previous topic.

However, the topic lingered in Leon's mind, because listening to Bella's description of the rumored illegitimate son of the emperor reminded him of someone.

"No way?" he thought to himself.

Chapter 121 Exam Paper

An hour later, Leon and the other test takers were led to a large lecture hall and seated in their assigned seats.

Besides him, there were five other people taking the exam in the four counties of the Southeast Diocese.

Archbishop Miller, who was in charge of proctoring the exam, was a gentle-looking old man with the emblem of the Prophet's Church printed on his priestly robe. He stood in front of the podium, read out the exam rules, and led everyone in swearing an oath to the four Origin Gods on the relief behind the podium.

The registrants then distributed the exam papers to the numerous candidates, and Bishop Miller announced the start of the exam, ordering the registrant beside him to invert the enormous hourglass.

Leon picked up his pen and began to answer quickly, the only sound he could hear was the rustling of all the other examiners writing on their papers.

Everyone wrote with great speed and answered the questions very smoothly.

Leon had heard from Bishop Beckett that the pass rate for the written exam for the regular selection was over 90% in previous years. People with connections who could get a spot in the regular selection review were generally well-educated and wouldn't be blocked by this kind of written exam.

There are indeed cases of people who are so incompetent that they finally obtain the qualification to be judges, but then fail miserably in the written test. However, such cases will inevitably become a rare joke in the industry.

Leon didn't encounter any major difficulties in solving the problems. Although Bishop Beckett had said that with his knowledge, there wouldn't be any major problems, he still made some cramming in the past few months by using past years' question banks and reference books, just to be on the safe side.

Although this world is a world ruled by religion, it is not in an era of ignorance.

A deity truly exists in this world, and the church's portrayal and worship of God is not a fabrication used to deceive people. On the contrary, they view the world as a gift created by God and focus on the study of the world's origins.

Although the church here has also had periods of ignorance and made many strange moves, in the grand scheme of history, they were enlightened quite early, and now theology and natural science are basically intertwined.

In a supernatural world, it seems contradictory for an organization with supernatural powers to talk about science, but upon closer examination, it's not surprising.

Before the intervention of the power of blessing, the operation of all things in the world still followed certain laws. The blessing of the gods is to modify these laws on this basis. Only by understanding the original laws of nature can one truly appreciate the greatness of the gods. Without understanding nature, one cannot appreciate the meaning of the supernatural.

Therefore, the Church in this era strongly encouraged scientific research. In the Empire, most of the leading scholars in natural philosophy such as physics and chemistry were bishops from the four major churches. In addition to the St. Rosalia Institute, the Church also established many research institutions and colleges in the Empire.

"Since academic development is encouraged so much, why can't we objectively study the primordial witch Moirai?"

Whenever Leon realized the church's investment in academia, he was very puzzled by the church's complete ban on Moilei.

No matter how you look at it, it is an undeniable fact that the Primordial Witch Moirai possessed extraordinary powers similar to the Four Origin Gods, and its high research value is obvious.

However, the Church adopted a completely closed attitude towards Moirai, sealing the labyrinth, slaughtering all the monsters, judging the witches, and completely controlling the monster materials and magic elements.

As for research, it seems they only study witches and monsters as enemies, and almost all research results are classified. Scholars like Bishop Weiss, who want to break with convention, may even be marginalized within the church.

Two hundred years ago, a famous bishop proposed the shocking theory that "the gods are dead" in his journal. He believed that the main body of the four origin gods may have died long ago, leaving only some kind of residual will, that is, the so-called blessing that influences the world. There is only an empty echo on the throne. He used this to explain why the four origin gods did not directly rule over mankind and convey divine messages to mankind.

Later, this bishop was reported and sentenced to a heavy prison term for blasphemy in those days. But in this era, he was exonerated.

Even so, in an era where the claim that God was dead could be accepted by the Church with an open mind, Moirai remained a taboo that the Church could not easily touch.

If someone were to write a paper arguing that it wasn't unreasonable for Eland to worship Moirai alongside the Four Origin Gods, they would end up like that bishop.

With half the exam time gone, Leon began tackling the last major questions, including a math problem. He kept writing his calculation formulas on the scratch paper until he finally arrived at the answer.

Just then, he suddenly noticed someone standing next to him. He glanced over and was surprised to find Bishop Miller, the examiner, standing beside him with a focused expression, scrutinizing his draft.

"What are you looking at?" Leon asked, somewhat puzzled.

Bishop Miller initially stood at the front of the platform, and only went down to inspect the students after a while, but he rarely stood to the side like this, staring at a particular candidate's answer sheet.

It can be stressful to suddenly have a proctor standing next to you during an exam.

"Where did I go wrong?" Leon wondered, perplexed.

This math problem wasn't too difficult. After all, it was just a general knowledge exam for the church, not a selection of mathematicians. With the knowledge that Leon had retained from his previous life and which he had revived during these months of review, he could handle it perfectly well.

As if realizing he was having some influence over Leon, Bishop Miller immediately walked away and continued his inspection.

Leon double-checked the calculations to be sure before writing down the answer.

He had finished almost all the questions and soon got to the last essay question.

This section contains open-ended questions, allowing examinees to briefly describe their research. This could be their understanding and expansion of cutting-edge research in their field of study, or they could freely propose some hypotheses.

It's essentially just asking candidates to submit a brief summary of their own thesis.

“You’re just taking the intermediate judge exam; you don’t need to do any academic work. I’ll just give you some papers to cobble together. Of course, if you have something substantial to write, that would be even better, as it could improve your evaluation. If you can gain the favor of those academic bishops, it will definitely be very beneficial to your future development,” Bishop Beckett told him at the time.

Leon was actually prepared for this. He had read some of the church's academic publications. The church, especially the Church of the Creator, was very enthusiastic about the study of the origin of matter. Moreover, because the Creator's blessing could give superhumans the ability to directly manipulate matter and phenomena, the church's research in this area was actually quite advanced.

For example, in his previous world, in order to explore the phenomenon of electrical discharge, scholars had to find ways to capture lightning and static electricity in nature, but extraordinary people like Johnny could generate electricity with a snap of their fingers, which made the research much easier.

In exploring the origin of matter, scholars in the church at that time had already proposed the atomic theory, and not just the simple atomic model that "matter is composed of indivisible atoms." They had long realized that there were at least two kinds of particles with opposite charges in the atom, but there were still many different opinions about the internal structure of the atom.

In terms of the level of productivity development in this world, this understanding is already quite advanced compared to the history of Leon's previous world.

Therefore, Leon decided to write a conjecture about the nuclear model of the atom directly, since there were many related conjectures in the church's papers anyway.

Given the current level of technology, it seems there's no way to prove this, so it won't cause any sensation, but it should still be passable as an academic paper.

Given his knowledge, writing a paper on a conjecture in this era wouldn't be difficult at all.

Leon quickly wrote a brief description that he had already conceived and even drew a model diagram.

Just as he was finishing up, he suddenly noticed something and glanced to the side.

Bishop Miller, the proctor, appeared beside him once again, staring intently at his exam paper, his brow furrowed, his expression serious, as if deep in thought.

"I don't think I wrote anything weird, this thing has absolutely nothing to do with any of the Moirai heresy." Leon felt a little uneasy under Leon's gaze.

Bishop Miller snapped out of his reverie, noticed Leon watching him, gave Leon an apologetic smile, and returned to the podium with his hands behind his back: "There are only fifteen minutes left, so please hurry up and answer the questions."

Leon breathed a slight sigh of relief. Judging from this reaction, there shouldn't be any major problems with what he had written.

He checked the papers twice more, and when Bishop Miller rang the bell, he and the others put down their exam papers. Bishop Miller whispered a few words to the surrogate beside him, who then went to collect the papers.

When the acting officer came to Leon's side and bent down to take the scroll, he suddenly lowered his voice and said to Leon, "Please wait in the next room. Bishop Miller said he has something to ask you."

Leon glanced instinctively at Bishop Miller in front of the podium. Bishop Miller looked back at him with a calm smile on his face.

Leon was somewhat confused, but upon reflection, he realized he had simply completed the test normally and hadn't written anything inappropriate.

Even the prepared paper had been reviewed by Bishop Beckett, who wasn't an academic and simply commented, "Not bad."

If there were any problems with the paper or if it touched on any taboos, Bishop Beckett would at least be able to tell.

Leon could only get up and leave with the other examinees. The viscount's son, Enrique, invited those who participated in the examination to a small gathering. Leon made an excuse to postpone it and, following the instructions of the acting officer, returned to the lecture hall and entered the adjacent reception room.

When he went in, he was surprised to find that Bishop Miller was already standing inside. As soon as he entered, Bishop Miller turned around upon hearing him.

“Ah, you’ve come.” Bishop Miller nodded to Leon.

"Greetings, Your Excellency," Leon said, bowing.

“Haha, don’t be so formal. You’re Judge Seth, right?” Bishop Miller noticed Leon’s nervousness and smiled kindly. “Don’t worry, I called you here not because of any trouble…”

"What is that?" Leon asked tentatively, looking up.

“Let me get straight to the point. I’d like to know your intentions beforehand. Are you interested in joining the Church of the Prophet?” Bishop Miller said, looking at Leon.

Chapter 122 The Conjecture of Attracting the Saintess

"Is this... an invitation?" Leon finally understood why Bishop Miller had kept him there.

“That’s right,” Bishop Miller replied with a smile.

Bishop Beckett had previously said that which department he could join depended on which church wanted him, which basically depended on his performance after the assessment and the church's internal allocation. As a result, the Prophet Church extended an invitation to him as soon as he finished the exam.

"Is it because I wrote that conjecture at the end?" Leon tried to ask.

“Yes, that’s one reason,” Bishop Miller nodded.

"So, what do you think of my writing...?" Leon tried to ask for the other person's opinion.