What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

From the very beginning, it was she who suggested running away together and living a life of two. To put it bluntly, retiring from her life of crime and living a peaceful life was her wish, while Leon simply took her wish as his own.

Unlike Weiss, she had been with Leon since he embarked on this path. She understood Leon better than anyone else and was gradually influenced by him.

Sometimes, as an observer, she could see Leon even more clearly than Leon himself.

When Leon said he wanted to kill the count, she was only surprised by the difficulty of the task and Leon's audacity, but she did not find it strange that Leon made such a decision so quickly.

In her eyes, her beloved man was undoubtedly a good person, but deep in Leon's heart, there seemed to be a dangerous nature that sought victory through peril—in the end, the fact that he had chosen this path was enough to show that he could not be a person of peaceful nature.

However, this is the kind of person she fell in love with. The first time she truly fell for Leon was when he risked everything to save her by drawing his gun on Caron, who was far more powerful than him. When Caron forced Leon to put her on the scales, Leon refused to compromise and chose her.

Despite being so unwilling to compromise, he still chose to compromise when the Earl forced him into a corner, sacrificing Selene, and this compromise was also to save her.

However, Leon also felt pained by his compromise of sacrificing Selene, and his risky agreement with the Count was less for Selene's sake and more to make amends for his past compromise.

Now, the Count has placed Weiss and Selene on the scales, and Leon has made the same choice he made when he drew his gun on Caron—he has no intention of compromising with the Count a second time.

Thinking of this, Lena smiled sadly yet helplessly, raising her hand to gently stroke Leon's cheek: "Alright, since you want to kill the Count, then kill him. I will still be by your side, even if it's the abyss, I will stay with you."

Weiss watched them silently from the side. She hadn't expected Leon to have a lover, but rationally speaking, it didn't really affect her.

But for some reason, whenever she thought about it, she felt empty inside, as if a piece of her heart had been ripped out.

Chapter 165 The Earl's Weakness

Several days later, at the Grey Wolf Tavern.

Leon sat on the sofa in the private room, the soft velvet cushions enveloping his body. He touched the newly replaced luxurious sofa, looked up at the room's opulent decor, and realized it was indeed a far cry from the tavern he had just taken over.

The Grey Wolf Tavern is thriving these days. The cocktails and specialty snacks that Leon has brought in have attracted many customers. As a money laundering project, the revenue on paper is several times higher than the actual amount.

Not long ago, the person introduced by Father Auden helped Leon buy the shop next door, expand and renovate the entire tavern, and add some private and luxurious business rooms.

Leon is here today to hear Father Auden's financial report.

"This renovation must have cost a lot of money, right?" Leon asked.

"Including the expansion of the store, the total is over 270,000," Father Auden replied.

"What's the reality?" Leon already knew a bit about Father Auden's methods. The expenses on paper would be much lower than the actual costs. Those hidden costs were the dirty money they consumed.

“Not counting miscellaneous items, it's 535,600 pfennigs. The details are all in the black ledger. You can take a look if you want.” Father Auden pointed to the ledger on the marble table.

The thin red ledger on the table contained the accounts that were openly reported to the tax officials, while the thicker black ledger recorded not only the explicit details but also the flow of the illicit funds—this was for Leon to see.

"Oh." Leon's reaction was indifferent. He didn't even look at the ledger; he had no idea whether he had spent a lot or a little money.

"Business this month has been the same as usual, except for the tavern expansion. The biggest progress so far is that we have accumulated enough proof of assets. I used my connections to successfully help you apply for a professional loan shark license, and you can now conduct loan business within Southport County."

This will give you more room to manipulate the books, greatly improving efficiency in both money laundering and making money. Don't worry, my fees are only based on the actual interest rate... Hey, are you listening?

Father Auden noticed halfway through his speech that Leon seemed a little distracted.

"Hmm," Leon replied casually, then after a long pause, asked, "Father, do you know anyone who knows how to design guns and cannons?"

"Don't you already have channels for acquiring weapons? You still want to set up a gun manufacturing workshop?" Father Auden asked.

“I want to allocate funds to hire someone to specifically improve firearms. Do you have any suitable people you can recommend?” Leon asked.

“There are a few, but this isn’t something that can be accomplished by hiring a few people and holding a meeting,” Father Auden replied.

“I have some ideas in this area and I want to find some craftsmen to try it out. If it can be successfully implemented, money is not a problem,” Leon said.

Firearms of this era were still mainly ammunition-loading flintlock muskets, and there were even some more outdated old firearms in service. Compared to the cutting-edge theories that had already begun to study atomic theory, the development of firearms seemed particularly backward.

The church that led the country promoted many technological advancements, including weaponry such as warships and cannons for naval warfare. Both the church and local lords were very interested in these advancements and frequently allocated funds for design improvements.

However, the Church showed little interest in improving individual firearms and rarely invested in this area.

Leon guessed that this was probably because the existence of firearms could significantly reduce the gap in combat power between ordinary people and superhumans. Apart from the methods of obtaining superhuman power, which were mainly controlled by the Church of the Four Gods, firearms technology could be popularized among ordinary people.

Percussion caps, cartridge cases, gunpowder, magazines... There is a lot of room for improvement in firearms in this world. Leon has some general knowledge, but it is not enough to support the independent design of new firearms. He can only hope to use the ideas in his mind and let the professional craftsmen of this era realize them.

Weapon technology is quickly imitated once it is developed, but the pioneers always have an advantage in equipment and get the first taste of the benefits.

"Why are you suddenly interested in this kind of thing?" Father Auden asked.

“I’ve been interested for a while, but recently I’ve felt it might be worth a try,” Leon replied casually.

Leon had this idea long ago, but he had never put it into action. Weapons are tools for killing, and the innovation of weapons brings about more efficient killing.

But now that he's starting to consider dealing with the Count, Leon has no choice but to do everything he can to increase the fighting strength of his forces.

"Um, I'd also like to recruit some mercenaries. Do you have any connections?" Leon continued to ask.

"What exactly are you trying to do?" Father Auden felt increasingly uneasy as he listened. After thinking carefully, he suddenly stared at Leon in shock. "Don't tell me you're a madman who wants to kill the Count now!"

Leon was startled. How could Father Auden have guessed his goal so quickly?

It's too far-fetched to connect this to just saying you want to recruit people to develop weapons. Did you reveal some other clues?

"What are you talking about? Would a normal person think in this direction?" Leon asked calmly.

“I think others definitely wouldn’t have such thoughts, but you… you’re different.” Father Auden shook his head at Leon. “You can’t use common sense to speculate. I heard you’ve boarded the Earl’s ship, and I actually thought you might want to kill the Earl one day.”

"What kind of person am I in your eyes?" Leon asked with a wry smile.

“A madman, a complete madman. A normal person wouldn’t kill Caron Esso in that situation, but you did. A normal person wouldn’t risk their life negotiating with Porter like that, but you did. You said before that Porter was killed by an assassin when he was being investigated, but I guess even without an assassin, you would have killed Porter sooner. I advised Porter not to consider cooperating with you because I felt that one day he might die at your hands,” Father Auden said.

"According to you, you would still dare to accept a self-recommendation to be the advisor of a madman like me?" Leon felt both annoyed and amused.

He remembered that Father Auden still had a somewhat skewed impression of him, always thinking he was an incredibly crazy lunatic.

“Your madness has a method, your eyes are always looking up, you want to climb up, not down. People above you might get your eye on anyone who gets in your way, but it’s safe below you. As long as I don’t get in your way, you won’t kill me. Most of the time you’re actually easier to get along with than someone like Potter, and you’re generous,” Father Auden said.

"Do I seem like such an ambitious person to you?" Leon raised an eyebrow.

He suddenly found it very interesting that the count admired him for his lack of ambition and his inability to fly too high, but the priest described him as an ambitious man.

“I find it strange too. You don’t seem that interested in money or power. You might like women a little. I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve by throwing yourself into this line of work and risking your life. Only you know that.” Father Auden shrugged.

Leon paused for a moment, suddenly remembering the pitiful look in Lena's eyes when she looked at him earlier.

He used to be obsessed with making money, but once he had more money than he could spend, he suddenly became completely indifferent to money.

Upon closer reflection, his obsession with money wasn't that deep; even when he was focused on making money, he only thought about earning enough.

He kept saying he wanted to retire from his life of crime and live with Lena, but when Lena questioned him, he couldn't find a way to refute her.

Even he himself could sense that he knew he might never be able to stop after killing the count, yet he still made up his mind with ease and even imagined how he would compete for the market after killing the count. He felt no sense of loss, as if... he actually wanted to continue taking risks to run this business.

But he has no obsession with money or power, so what is he trying to achieve by going to such lengths?

After listening to Lena's questions and the priest's comments, Leon felt a little confused. There were some questions that even he himself couldn't quite understand, while others might see things more clearly. For example, Lena immediately saw through the fact that living a peaceful life was just Lena's wish, not his.

In the priest's eyes, he was insanely mad. Yet, the priest, unaware of the full story, somehow managed to guess that he wanted to kill the count. Perhaps the priest's assessment of him was one-sided, but it wasn't entirely without merit.

“Fenrir, I know you may not be happy with your current situation, maybe you feel like a monkey in a circus…” Father Auden began to earnestly persuade him.

"What circus monkeys?" Leon couldn't help but interrupt the priest.

“Isn’t that how your relationship with the Earl is? You were the monkey who was almost driven to your death by the Earl with a hunting rifle. In the end, the Earl thought you had value, so he didn’t kill you and put you in his circus to work for him and make money. I know that with your personality, you must be dissatisfied with this kind of relationship, but you have to think it through. At least the circus pays well, and you have enough to eat every day, which is much better than you going hungry in the wild…” Father Auden tried to put himself in Leon’s shoes.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t try to persuade people like this,” Leon couldn’t help but interrupt the priest.

He knew the priest was unaware of the background and assumed that from his perspective, the priest was suffering under the earl's control, but in reality, he hadn't considered it to be that serious.

The priest's analogy only made people want to kill the count even more.

“What I’m trying to say is, even if you’re truly dissatisfied, you need to consider reality. The gap in strength between you and the Earl is too great. A monkey in chains attacking a hunter with a gun is doomed to die. Can you imagine the Earl having any weaknesses exposed to you? On the contrary, he knows your weaknesses, and even I know them. Since you care about Miss Lotharck, don’t do anything you’ll regret.” Father Auden said seriously.

Weakness... Leon's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.

If we had to be honest, the Earl wasn't without his weaknesses.

Chapter 166 Clues to Weiss's Residence

At St. Rosalia Prison, Bishop Beckett, escorted by two knights, walked out of the gate and boarded a carriage.

After getting into the car, he used his teleportation ability to contact Count Frye.

"As expected, Cardinal Torres firmly rejected our investigation request. The Santa Rosalia Institute was extremely resistant; they practically kicked me out."

Bishop Beckett truthfully reported the results of his investigation at the St. Rosalia Institute.

The Weiss Rogers incident caused a huge uproar in the Empire.

Although Cardinal Zevin issued a statement characterizing the incident as a terrorist attack by a heretical organization, the Church's explanation was not fully accepted by the public because the heretics responsible for the incident were not successfully apprehended. The Church's image suffered a major blow in the eyes of the public, and the whole incident essentially turned into a scandal for the Church.

This event caused a major upheaval within the church, and those associated with Weiss were affected to varying degrees.

Weiss's father, who was scheduled to run for Archbishop of Rogers in the next election, interrupted the election approval process and was summoned for investigation by Cardinal Stuart, the chief judge.

Many people working at the St. Rosalia Institute, including Archbishop Kuric, who were associated with Bishop Weiss, especially members of the Rose School, were also detained and investigated.

Senior officials in the Southeastern Diocese, including Cardinal Zevin, who served as diocesan rector, were also disciplined internally by the cardinals.

The church is divided into several factions: some are taking the opportunity to impeach political enemies, some are trying to protect themselves, some are watching from the sidelines, some want to find out the truth, and some are focused on minimizing the impact... But regardless of which faction they belong to, they are all actively searching for Weiss Rogers' current whereabouts.

Bishop Beckett was the same, but he mainly acted on the Earl's orders.

While in the Grand Parish, he tracked down Weiss and was a key witness to the werewolf's rescue of her. With the help of the Count's connections, he successfully joined the church's investigation team for the incident and, with the Count's covert support, began investigating everyone in the church connected to Weiss.

However, his investigation did not go smoothly. Because he shot Vice when she became a witch, many people associated with Vice became wary of him and even began to suspect him, and were not very cooperative with his investigation.

This time, my visit to the St. Rosalia Institute was almost predictably met with closed doors; I was kicked out by the person in charge as soon as I arrived.

"How likely do you think it is that someone from inside the St. Rosalia Institute was involved?" the Count asked Bishop Beckett for his opinion.

"I'm afraid it won't be very high. The people we've planted have infiltrated the Rose School, and they've even found out about Weiss Rogers's secret project to transform into a witch. If someone within their ranks has secretly arranged for someone to protect her, we can't be completely unaware."

Furthermore, within the St. Rosalia Institute, only one bishop possesses the blessing of time acceleration, and that bishop was not attending the Feast of the Holy Spirit at the time, but rather other events. Although we cannot enter the institute to investigate, the impact is actually minimal,” Bishop Beckett analyzed.

"How likely do you think it is that the Great Witch Lamia is involved in this?" the Count asked again.

Lamia, the Great Witch, was Countess of Moyland and High Priestess of the Abyss Cult. She was once a member of the Witches' Gathering, but she lost in the political struggle within Moyland and was convicted of a serious crime.

Lamia refused to confess and chose to flee to the Empire by sea, only to be captured by the Church and imprisoned in St. Rosalia Prison—this was the official narrative. However, according to intelligence sources planted by the Count in Alexene and within St. Rosalia Prison, Lamia had actually surrendered to the Church and reached a secret agreement with them.

According to the agreement, she provided the church with important intelligence, and the church provided her with protection. The reason she was kept in Santa Rosalia Prison was because it was heavily guarded, very safe, and also suitable for the church to monitor her. However, the church also secretly provided her with quite good accommodations.

In St. Rosalia Prison, the group that had the most frequent contact with Lamia was the Rose School, which intended to study witches and had the least resistance to them. Many scholars from the Rose School, including Weiss, had obtained key research information from her and had even collaborated on research projects.

Lamia defected twelve years ago, reportedly because she informed the church that the Witches' Gathering was secretly supporting the Restorationists of the Eland in the eastern part of the Empire. The Empire launched an investigation and manhunt, and Alexne, who was in charge of cultivating the Restorationists, was forced to let them launch an independence uprising when conditions were not yet ripe, which triggered the war between the Empire and Moyland ten years ago.

It seems that this is why Alexie hates Lamia so much and has mentioned Lamia's existence to the Count on several occasions.

Considering the Count's cooperative relationship with the Witches' Gathering, this operation also relied on Alexia's power. As a rogue witch, Lamia is associated with the Rose School and is opposed to Alexia and the Witches' Gathering, so she actually has the motive to interfere.

But Bishop Beckett dismissed the possibility as a matter of course: "It is unlikely that she, who is under the watchful eye of the Church, would know about our plans in advance. Even if we assume that she did know, she would only need to warn Weiss if she wanted to interfere. She has no external force that can interfere with our plans."

"What about the investigation into Weiss Rogers' residence?" the Earl asked again.

“The investigation team has already sealed it off, and all the documents and evidence are still being transferred. I’m going to take a look now, but I’m afraid I can’t have too much hope for the clues,” Bishop Beckett replied.

They investigated in many directions, including starting with Weiss, but with little success.

"So, we really have to start the investigation from the clue of 'time acceleration'?" the count said.

“Well, unfortunately, this is the only definite lead we have at the moment,” Bishop Beckett replied.

"Is that really true?" the count confirmed.

“I’m quite certain,” Bishop Beckett said with absolute certainty. “That werewolf has only one possibility: he has taken a beast-transforming drug and also possesses the superhuman ability to accelerate time.”

Because he confronted the werewolf and even suffered a loss as a result, he was almost 100% certain that the werewolf's unbelievable and unpredictable movements were the result of using time acceleration.

This was the most crucial clue they had. Fortunately, this clue had narrowed down the scope enough. At that time, there were only five church members in the Southeast Diocese who possessed this blessing. After excluding those with alibis, three remained.

"Is he still on the list?" the Earl asked Bishop Beckett for confirmation.

“Unfortunately, Leon Seth is still on top, and ranked high,” said Bishop Beckett.

He began his investigation from all angles, including the relationships between Weiss and others, clues left behind after the incident, and possible forces involved. In this process, anyone with even the slightest possibility, whether it was the conditions or the motive, as long as they were involved, was added to the list of suspects, and then either eliminated or retained.

In this process, Bishop Beckett excluded his personal feelings. Many names appeared on his list and were then crossed out, but once Leon was written on it, he was never ruled out as a possibility. Considering that he had been noticed by Weiss when he officially joined the church, the weight of suspicion placed on him even at the top of the list.

"But did he have a motive?" the count asked.

Now that Leon is on their side, he was warned about Vice long ago and knows that helping Vice is tantamount to betrayal.