What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

“No, it might be the opposite. Holy Water No. 19 can only delay the onset of the poison, not cure it. After the delay, the amount of poison that has entered the body will not be significantly reduced. For example, in dealing with Cursed Blood, according to the church's records, within a safe dosage range, the maximum delay time is about ten minutes. After ten minutes, the Holy Water will be ineffective on the same person, and the Cursed Blood can still take effect as usual,” Weiss said.

Leon thought for a moment. Although this couldn't cure the poison, it was still an effective way to deal with the cursed blood. It could buy the poisoned person about ten minutes. Within those ten minutes, they could either kill the person who cast the curse or quickly move away from the person who cast it and escape from the area where the other party could manipulate the cursed blood, thus avoiding being killed on the spot.

Since the Earl knew how to use this, it meant they also knew how to use it to deal with the cursed blood, Weiss reminded him of this point.

"So that means this Holy Water No. 19 can actually be used in combination with poisons?" Leon understood what Weiss meant.

“Yes, even a powerful curse like the Blood of Curse can delay its effects for ten minutes. If it were an ordinary poison, it could delay its effects for one to two days,” Weiss replied.

"What kind of poison did they use?" Leon asked.

“We don’t know yet, but we’ll find out once we try it on animals. Miss Lena has already fed those thick soups to the lab mice.” Weiss’s gaze shifted to the lab table on the other side.

Lena, who was standing in front of the lab table, turned around and continued, "These mice have been eating for two hours now, and there are no obvious changes so far."

“After all, the No. 19 Holy Water is at work,” Weiss said, as she began to organize the experimental materials.

"In that case, wouldn't we have to wait a day or two to find out the results?" Leon asked.

“It won’t take that long. I’m already preparing the antagonist for Holy Water No. 19. As long as it’s not the anti-curse version, the antagonist will work.” Weiss had already begun skillfully preparing the potion with the prepared materials. “I can roughly guess what they used.”

"What did they use?" Leon asked.

“Castor seeds, lily of the valley, gelsemium, and wolfsbane... are all possible, and could be compound poisons. I suspect that after an acute attack, symptoms would include fever, dizziness, weakness, muscle aches, body stiffness, and eventually death from respiratory failure. The onset two days later is highly consistent with the complications of halogenation disease, so even if you have suspicions, you won't find any evidence. However, we'll have to test it to know for sure.”

Weiss then turned to Lena, "Miss Lena, can you lend me a hand? I'll teach you how to make it."

“Okay.” Lena also began manufacturing the antagonist.

They quickly developed an antagonist for Holy Water No. 19 and administered it to mice that had already taken the sample, according to the prescribed dosage.

After waiting for about an hour, the three observed that the rats had become less active.

After a while, one by one, the rats collapsed haphazardly in the cage, panting heavily with their chests heaving violently, and some even showed signs of convulsions.

Everything confirmed Weiss's prediction.

The Count, or rather Bishop Beckett, ordered Zona to poison Selene, aiming to cause Selene's organ failure, disguised as a complication of chlorination. The Church would not investigate this further.

From the perspective of the Count and others, since Leon rescued Viss in order to save Selene, killing Selene would mean that Leon would lose a major reason to save Viss no matter what.

If Leon becomes aware of this, it will serve as the best warning to him—since he wants to save Selene Hershey, then killing Selene will render everything he has done meaningless.

Then they confronted Leon at that point, demanding that he hand over Weiss. If Leon was willing to swallow the bitter pill and comply at that time, it would mean they had successfully broken Leon's backbone. In that case, a completely tamed Leon would still have some use.

If Leon continues to resist, it will be even simpler; the Count can crush him without hesitation and completely destroy Leon and everyone around him.

The Earl seeks revenge and will stop at nothing to find Weiss Rogers.

Unlike in the past when they faced the Church's manipulation by the Count and Bishop Beckett, this time they were facing the Count himself, a violent force that would never follow the rules!

"..." Leon stared silently at the rats, his face somewhat gloomy.

"Leon, are you angry?" Lena asked softly.

“I’m angry? Why?” Leon retorted.

“Because they poisoned Miss Selene…” Lena said, blinking.

Although there is no conclusive evidence and it is only a suspicion, and although ensuring Selena Hershey's safety was a condition of their past transactions, they can unilaterally break the conditions at any time as long as the Earl determines that it is permissible, and it doesn't matter if they are wrong.

In the Earl's eyes, Leon was still just a dog he could do with at will, and the Earl's methods revealed his utter contempt for Leon.

Lena worried that this would provoke Leon and cause him to do something reckless.

They are now walking a tightrope; one wrong step could lead to utter ruin.

But Leon's response was unusually calm: "It was expected. It's true that the Count tore up the agreement out of suspicion, but his suspicions were not wrong. I did betray him, and in a way, that's fair, isn't it? What do I have to be angry about?"

To be honest, there was no real enmity between him and the count; it was just a conflict of needs and interests.

But now one of them must make concessions, otherwise it will be a fight to the death.

"Your face was so gloomy just now, I thought you were planning to take immediate action to retaliate." Lena was still not completely at ease.

“The Earl didn’t take this step cautiously, because he doesn’t need to be cautious with me. He knows I might find out, but if I do find out, it’s exactly what he wants. The fact that Mrs. Hershey didn’t die according to their plan means that I was on guard and there’s something wrong with me. Then they can force me to make a choice directly… They’re not going to give us any time to prepare at all,” Leon said.

Upon hearing this, Weiss's body grew colder and colder.

When Leon rescued her here, she still held onto a sliver of hope, but reality dealt her a heavy blow so quickly.

The Count and Bishop Beckett were not fools after all. Their plan to poison Selene was simple and direct, without any caution whatsoever, but it was a straight punch that cornered Leon.

Now, regardless of whether Leon saves Selene or sacrifices her, they will issue an ultimatum to Leon. This is how the underworld operates: simple and direct crushing, leaving no room for wits or maneuvering.

She thought and thought, but ultimately couldn't come up with any feasible solution.

“I’m out of options…” Weiss lowered her eyes. “If there’s really no other way, you might as well hand me over.”

"And then what? Won't they make me pay the price after I hand you over?" Leon said calmly.

At that point, he, Lena, Selena, Melissa—one of them would inevitably suffer as punishment to completely break his spirit, and Weiss would be doomed to die.

“That’s better than everyone dying because of me.” Weiss stared at Leon seriously and said, “Think about it calmly. Do you see any chance of winning against the Earl right now?”

“You don’t believe I have a chance of winning, and the Earl thinks so too. The Earl is underestimating me now. He is very powerful, but he won’t go all out against me,” Leon said.

“Because he doesn’t need to. He’s a gangster. He doesn’t need to follow any rules or go all out against you. He can still crush you with sheer strength,” Weiss said.

“Yes, violence without rules, pure gangster style…” A smile appeared on Leon’s lips, “As if I’m not one of them.”

Both Weiss and Lena looked surprised, unable to understand how Leon could laugh in such a desperate situation.

"What's your plan?" Lena asked. She had already sensed that Leon must have had a plan all along, since he had made up his mind to deal with the Count so early on.

“An eye for an eye. They’ve taught me a lot over the years, and it’s time to show them the skills I’ve learned from them,” Leon said slowly, his eyes growing increasingly cold.

Chapter 171 The Succubus's Interrogation

Late at night, Zona Mendes changed out of her uniform in the duty room, said goodbye to her colleagues, and left the Inquisition.

Since Leon took over as director, the Inquisition has expanded its staff. In addition, the sporadic magic element trading has disappeared from Hamel Town, while large-scale magic element trading is under tight cover and cannot be traced. Cases of heretical crimes have also decreased significantly, and the Inquisitors' days have become more leisurely. Most of them usually go off duty at dusk, and only a few people are on duty at night.

But Zona would often choose to stay at the institute to work overtime, not because she was hardworking or ambitious, but because of Bishop Beckett's instructions.

Zona is an subordinate of Bishop Beckett and a member of the Earl's organization. There are many people like her who have been placed in the lower levels of the church as executives, and most of them are under the command of Bishop Beckett.

After Bishop Beckett left the Hamelin Inquisition, she and several other subordinates remained behind to assist the current director and organization leader, Leon Seth, in facilitating communication between him and the organization, especially Bishop Beckett.

At the same time, they were also considered to be Bishop Beckett's eyes and ears to monitor Leon. Bishop Beckett had not given any special instructions before, but recently he suddenly and secretly gave them instructions to keep a close eye on Leon's movements.

On that very day, she carried out the task assigned in the secret letter sent by Bishop Beckett: to drug a prisoner named Selene Hershey and to observe Selene's condition and Leon's reaction over two days.

Although she didn't know what had happened between Leon and the organization, she knew that all she had to do was obey orders and not consider anything else.

After completing her mission of drugging the prison, she remained on duty in the prison until late at night, and nothing noteworthy happened.

She has now handed over the observation task to others and is taking a break.

After leaving the Inquisition, she walked alone on the night road. After a moment, she vaguely heard footsteps, barely audible.

She looked around as she walked, but didn't see anyone else.

However, the intuition honed through rigorous training still made her extremely wary.

As she walked along nonchalantly, she pretended to straighten her clothes and reached into her coat to check for the weapon hidden inside.

A horse-drawn carriage with a lantern was slowly approaching from a distance. Just as Zona was considering whether to simply take the carriage and leave, a sudden, intense dizziness struck her, causing her to stagger.

"What... happened?" Zona clutched her chest, her breathing suddenly becoming rapid.

She felt a cold, numbing sensation rapidly spread from her abdomen throughout her body, and her limbs felt as if they no longer belonged to her.

Unbeknownst to her, everyone Bishop Beckett had placed in this inquisition, including herself, had been poisoned by Leon long ago.

A few seconds later, she collapsed to the ground, her body convulsing uncontrollably.

"Help..." she tried to call for help, but her throat quickly became silent, her body gradually stiffened, and her skin gradually revealed a grayish-white, rocky texture.

The person who had been following her then appeared from the alleyway in the distance and walked to Zona's side. At the same time, the taxi arrived at Zona's side as she collapsed.

The tracker carefully searched Zona's body, took her weapon, opened the carriage door, lifted Zona onto it, bowed respectfully to the people in the carriage, closed the carriage door, and continued walking forward as if nothing had happened.

The carriage, which had only made a temporary stop, continued on its way, as if nothing had happened, except that someone had suddenly disappeared from the street.

Inside the carriage, Leon sat in his seat, his eyes coldly fixed on Zona lying at his feet.

……

Fifteen minutes later, in a dark cellar, Zona opened her eyes in a daze.

After a moment of confusion, she suddenly woke up and tried to struggle to get up, but found that she could not move.

She was firmly bound to an iron chair, her head was also bound by iron rings and could not turn, her eyes were completely covered, her mouth was fixed with a metal mouth open and could not be closed, only her tongue could move.

She tried to speak, but her forced-open mouth could only utter strange noises.

Before her stood Leon and Rena side by side, both wearing robes and bird-beak masks.

Leon ignored Zona's screams and stuck a leather tube down her throat. Zona coughed as if she was choking, but Leon didn't care and even attached a funnel to the other end of the tube.

He turned and nodded to Lena, who took out a test tube and carefully poured the blood inside into a funnel.

Blood flowed down the tube deep into Zona's throat, and Zona was unable to spit it out on her own; she had no choice but to swallow it.

After confirming that Zona had ingested blood, Leon removed the feeding tube and nodded to Lena.

Lena nodded in response and began to quickly transform into a succubus, casting her charm blessing on Zona.

After the Witch's Blessing reaches the second tier, Lena not only gains a succubus form that can fly, but the Blood Oath Blessing also evolves into a powerful charm effect. She can now not only control monsters, but also hypnotize humans to a certain extent. By having the other party ingest her bodily fluids, the charm effect will be greatly enhanced, and even those with a certain degree of resistance to the blessing will be temporarily controlled.

Lena encountered no obstacles and soon sensed a magical fluctuation within the other's body that was synchronized with her own. After shivering for a while, Zona suddenly stopped shouting and returned to calm, or rather, a state of... dazedness.

"It seems like it's ready," Lena whispered to Leon.

Leon then reached out and removed Zona's blindfold and mouth gag. Zona's gaze was vacant, her eyes unfocused and dull, as if she were asleep with her eyes open.

"I'm going to ask you some questions, and you have to answer them truthfully," Lena said softly.

“As you command, my master,” Zona replied in a mechanical voice.

Lena and Leon exchanged a glance. This was similar to the results of their previous experiments. Lena could use blood to exert a powerful hypnosis on people. The hypnotized person would completely follow Lena's instructions, but the hypnotized person's mental state would be abnormal, and their autonomous personality would be suppressed. Simply put, it was like sleepwalking.

However, this type of hypnosis has a time limit. Direct hypnosis, depending on the degree of resistance and the strength of the subject's will, can last from ten minutes to half a day. If bodily fluids are used as a medium, resistance can be ignored, and the hypnosis can continue for a whole day. Short-term continuous intake of bodily fluids will significantly weaken the effect, thus making it impossible to achieve continuous long-term control.

The duration of hypnosis on those with abilities is drastically shortened. For example, Leon can only lose focus for a moment by directly using charm, but only by using bodily fluids as a medium can he create a hypnotic state that lasts for nearly an hour.

When Leon is in his werewolf form, he will have a strong resistance to charm. Even if the charm is mediated by bodily fluids, it can only make him feel dizzy for a moment before he can break free from the charm state.

This ability cannot be used to control a person for a long period of time, but it is very effective for interrogation.

Lena quickly bombarded Zona with the questions Leon had prepared beforehand, and Zona answered them all truthfully in a flat, monotone voice.

She admitted to drugging Selena, but she had no idea what it was; she was simply following Bishop Beckett's orders.

She also provided a list of Bishop Beckett's men and the personnel Beckett had stationed in Hamel.

When Leon had his men search her before, he confirmed that Zona was not carrying the relic badge of Bishop Beckett.

Bishop Beckett didn't seem to have that many of those precious relics. Apart from key figures like the Earl, he would only entrust them to his subordinates for use in more urgent missions.

Zona's task was to observe the patient for two days after administering the drug and to contact Bishop Beckett by sending a secret letter to a designated contact point.

The contact point was located within the Southport County, not far from the town of Hamel.

After hearing the useful information, Leon breathed a sigh of relief and mentally processed it.

Bishop Beckett had appeared at the archives of the Southeastern Diocese a few days ago. Now that suspicion has been directed at him, and the plan to poison Selene was carried out by Bishop Beckett's subordinates, it is not surprising that Bishop Beckett would quietly move to the vicinity of Hamel.

With information about the contact point and the location of the Cursed Blood, finding Bishop Beckett on Leon's own territory shouldn't be too difficult.

Leon estimated that Bishop Beckett hadn't made any particular effort to hide his whereabouts, because Bishop Beckett didn't need to in front of him.

Making a move against Bishop Beckett would mean formally declaring war on the Earl, and at this stage, no one believes he would dare to initiate a war against the Earl.

This was an advantage for Leon; the disparity in strength and the count's underestimation of his abilities gave him the opportunity to seize the initiative.

After asking all the questions he could, Leon nodded: "Very good."

"Leon, are you really going to...?" Lena looked at Zona and asked Leon for confirmation with some unease.

“Yes.” Leon replied as he began preparing to depart. “Originally, I wanted to devise a more elaborate plan to rescue Mrs. Hershey, but there’s no time for that now. They’ve sent me a suitable candidate, so I’ll use her. Although she’s just following orders, we can’t let her live at this point. Many more people will die next.”

“…Hmm.” Lena was silent for a moment, then sighed softly.