What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

That night, Rena, who had just finished preparing dinner, sat at the table with a heavy heart.

She had spent the entire day handling work inside the Labyrinth.

By now, the Labyrinth’s breeding grounds had been packed full by Leon with small Magical Beasts—both animals and plants.

If breeding began at this scale, then based on past experience, their Mana output for the year should have been able to catch up to the target.

However, after several days passed, Rena gradually began to sense that something was wrong.

After extracting Mana from the Magical Beasts and refining it, a terrifying conjecture surfaced in her mind.

Now she was just waiting for Leon to return, intending to discuss this matter thoroughly with him.

Leon had moved into Rena’s house and was sleeping in the vacant room left behind by Rena’s grandmother.

Normally, they sat together for dinner in the evenings.

“Why are you so late today?” Rena glanced at the clock.

Ever since Bishop Becket had taken up the position of Director, he had granted Leon considerable convenience in carrying out his work, allowing Leon ample time to properly handle matters on the Labyrinth side.

As a result, Leon basically no longer worked overtime at night, and his time of returning home in the afternoon was usually very steady.

At this moment, the sound of a key turning finally came from the door.

Hearing it, Rena stood up, and soon saw Leon push the door open excitedly, shut it behind him, and stare at her with shining eyes.

“This is—what’s going on?” Rena was a bit confused by his appearance.

“I have something good to show you.” As Leon spoke, he walked toward Rena while rummaging through the inner pocket of his coat.

As soon as Leon came close, Rena smelled a faint, lingering fragrance—very much like the perfume or incense commonly used by women.

Doubt immediately arose in Rena’s heart.

Just as she was about to ask something, Leon pulled out a sheet of letter paper and held it out in front of her, saying excitedly, “Look at this!”

Caught off guard, Rena instinctively took the paper and glanced at it twice.

“Isn’t this a Magical Potion formula? Who gave this to you?”

The moment she asked that question, she froze.

Those who researched Magical Potions—wouldn’t that be Witches?

The delicate handwriting on the paper that was not hers, along with the faint fragrance clinging to it, made an image involuntarily emerge in her mind: an enchanting Witch smiling as she pressed the formula into Leon’s hand.

What was going on? Where had he gone and gotten in contact with another Witch?

Suddenly thinking of something, she looked up at Leon with an uneasy expression, then slowly leaned closer and sniffed.

One sniff was enough for her to be sure—the fresh scent had rubbed off onto Leon himself, and it was on the paper as well!

Rena’s expression immediately collapsed as if the sky were falling.

This left Leon, who had just been about to answer her question, utterly baffled.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you—” Rena looked at Leon pitifully, “have another Witch?”

“Huh?” Leon was completely stunned on the spot.

Two minutes later, Leon carefully explained the entire matter to Rena in detail, telling her that this was an antidote for treating injuries and illnesses given to him by the Saintess of the Creator Church.

Only then did Rena finally pull herself out of that baseless fantasy.

Although Weiss had said not to tell others about this matter, to Leon, Rena was someone he trusted absolutely.

Moreover, preparing this medicine would certainly require Rena’s verification, so it was naturally necessary to inform her of the details.

“So this is the antidote’s formula? This can really cure you?” When Rena heard the final part, she finally grasped the key point.

Her eyes lit up just like Leon’s had when he came in.

“Don’t get happy too early. It still needs to be verified through animal experiments,” Leon reminded her.

“This formula looks quite reliable. At the very least, it doesn’t contain any particularly dangerous components.” Rena nodded repeatedly.

“And we happen to have all the ingredients!”

The Demonic Wolf blood they had previously purchased had once been buried by Rena together with the money.

After her treatment, the Demonic Wolf blood in that jar could be preserved for several months without issue.

As for Labyrinth Mandrake Grass, they were currently experimenting with cultivating it inside the Labyrinth.

If this formula really worked, Leon could finally be completely freed from the injuries that had long plagued him.

Rena could not help but feel happy for Leon as well.

“If it really works, then we truly owe her a huge favor.” Leon said while recalling the events.

“When she came today and said she was going to transfer Mrs. Hesh away, I thought a big problem was about to hit.”

“She also wants to use her own methods to save Miss Sally,” Rena said.

As she spoke of this, Rena immediately recalled how, back when she was Bishop Leona, she had used Magical Potions as Holy Water to treat Sally, while Weiss, being a genuine Bishop, was instead full of concerns about using researched Magical Potions.

Yet in essence, they were the same—both wanted to use their research results to save people.

“She said she really wanted to meet Sally, because she thought those medicines were developed by Sally. She believes that through your medicines, there’s real hope of developing a special medicine that can cure Saltification Disease. She evaluated it by saying that the general direction of your research is definitely correct.” Leon relayed Weiss’s words.

“If she said that, then she probably truly has confidence in being able to do it.” Rena sighed softly.

Her own research into a special medicine had already begun to approach a knowledge bottleneck.

In comparison, Weiss should possess far more Magical Potion knowledge accumulated through what the Church had confiscated over time.

If Weiss could freely conduct her research, she might truly be able to start from Rena’s medicines and produce a genuine special medicine.

The Church’s restrictions could be said to have greatly hindered the birth of a special medicine for Saltification Disease.

“Let’s eat first. The food is getting cold.” Leon tried to change the topic, picked up the bowl on the table, and ladled stew from the pot.

“It’s because you came back too late,” Rena said as she also sat down at the dining table.

“How was your day?” Leon asked casually.

“Ah.” Rena froze on the spot, suddenly remembering the bad news she had originally planned to tell Leon.

“What happened?” Leon noticed that Rena’s expression was off.

“Leon, there’s something about the Labyrinth that I need to tell you.” Rena looked at Leon uneasily.

“Recently, I’ve noticed that the Magical Beasts’ activity has clearly decreased. They look weaker with each passing day.”

“Mm, when feeding them, they do seem like they don’t have much appetite.” Leon recalled for a moment.

“Could it be an infectious disease?”

At present, the feeding work inside the Labyrinth was basically all handled by him.

After all, the feed contained some things that were not very suitable for Rena to come into contact with.

“I suspected that too, but after careful examination, I found that it wasn’t the case. Today, I tried selecting several Magical Beasts that had been raised for seven days, extracted Mana from them once, and the result— the amount of Mana was much lower than my estimated calculations, only about half!” Rena said.

“Is it because there are too many Magical Beasts?” Leon said.

“No, Leon. Actually, I have a conjecture— the problem might be even more serious than we imagined.” Rena’s eyes flickered with unease.

Hearing this, Leon became solemn and waited for Rena to continue.

“I’m thinking that this Labyrinth may be about to be depleted.” Rena said with a grave expression.

“Depleted?” Leon widened his eyes.

“Yes. This place was originally a Labyrinth that had been sealed. It no longer produces Mana. The Mana inside is merely what was left over and accumulated in the Labyrinth space from the past, and it has been continuously leaking away. When we extract Mana by using Magical Beasts and take it out, the Mana inside decreases even faster. When the Church sealed this place before, they should have carried out another round of cleansing as well. I’m thinking that after being tossed around like this so many times, the Mana inside this Labyrinth may be close to being exhausted. Judging from today’s spot checks, I estimated the output. If this continues, let alone completing that target—we might not even be able to meet half of the required amount!”