Chapter 94: Label Heisenberg, The Insecure Alchemist

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Label Heisenberg.

From what Riven had learned about her in the future he came from, she was the daughter of a crime boss and drug dealer who had died burnt to a crisp by Fire Magic when she was just at the tender age of ten.

Since that day she had been forced to hop from place to place, never staying anywhere longer than a couple of years, until she finally reached the age of fifteen and managed to build a small home and laboratory of her own. She had somehow kept her father’s old drug recipes, which included a number of incredible yet highly experimental potions, elixirs, pills, and antidote formulas.

Not long after settling down, the young girl began practicing alchemy herself in a desperate attempt to make amends for the enormous debt she had inherited from her father. The rival criminal organization that had taken over his territory — the so-called "American Yakuza" — continued to pester her endlessly about that debt.

They had never stopped harassing her. Every single year since they discovered she was living on her own, they came back to force her into working for them, demanding that she produce drugs and other illegal substances while she desperately tried to save whatever little money she could for a brighter future.

Label, truth be told, was nothing more than a poor victim of her own circumstances. She was a girl who had never truly wanted to involve herself in crime, let alone produce dangerous drugs for people already addicted to them.

Her real dream was something her father had once spoken about, words that had inspired her deeply even after his death. She wanted to create cheap, affordable potions and medicine for ordinary people so that no one would have to suffer from illness. Driven in part by her mother’s early death from cancer, she also hoped to one day find a way to cure the deadliest diseases in the world — diseases that, even with all the magic and advanced technology discovered over the last few decades, still had no true cures.

Yet the American Yakuza that now controlled Central City refused to leave her alone. They periodically assaulted her home, robbed her of any money she had managed to save, beat her, and forced her to continue cooking more drugs for them. They constantly threatened her by claiming they were being "merciful" for leaving her alive, and that there were far worse ways she could be made to "repay" her father’s crippling debt — a debt that somehow continued accumulating "interest" every single year even though the man was long dead.

To Riven, it was painfully obvious that this entire situation was nothing more than a method for them to force her into doing whatever they wanted. And because Label was such a meek and broken girl who never even tried to run away from this life — simply because she knew nothing better — she had never been able to fight back properly against them.

In the future where Riven had been powerless, he had still managed to help her by carefully gathering evidence, videos, and other proof against this American Yakuza group. Using the weight of the Claymore name, he eventually got them all arrested and cleaned up the entire area.

Unfortunately, some of their members later returned and stabbed Label in the stomach, killing her before Riven could ever gather all the ingredients needed for Elisa’s elixir. That failure left him deeply frustrated that he had been unable to protect her when it mattered most.

But no more.

With the strength he now possessed, he was going to take justice into his own hands and make certain that not a single one of those bastards remained alive.

Of course, the young fifteen-year-old girl in front of him had no idea about any of these future events. She was still frantically looking around her room, which now looked completely clean and neatly tidied thanks to Riven’s incredible Househusband Techniques — skills that honestly should have awakened as official System abilities by now.

She was only one year older than Daniela. To Riven she had always been just a child. Of course, he was technically much older than his current eighteen-year-old appearance. With the combined memories of all four of his previous lives, Riven was mentally closer to a man in his forties.

"So... Um, why...? Why are you here, sir?" she wondered nervously. She tried to take a sip from the cup of tea but ended up spilling most of it across her dress because her hands would not stop trembling.

"I wish you could calm down. I really mean no harm," Riven said with a kind and steady smile. "I’ve heard about you, about your story... You were the daughter of Doctor Heisenberg, right? The owner of the fallen Heisenberg Pharmaceuticals."

"Huh?! Y-You know about daddy?" she asked, clearly shocked. "Um... yeah, dad’s... dad has not been with us for some time now. He... passed away five years ago."

"I’m aware," Riven replied softly. "My condolences. It must have been incredibly tough to endure all these years alone, Label. I will never let you suffer through something like that again."

"Eh?" Label tilted her head in a cute and innocent way, clearly wondering what he meant. "Um... W-What do you mean by that, sir?"

"As you already know, I am a Claymore. I’ve come here to invest in you," he explained. "I... knew of your father, a little. I knew he was an amazing man who sought to make medicine, potions, and everything else affordable for ordinary people. And above all, he was among the few who actually tried to seek a cure for Cancer and other supposedly incurable diseases by using Alchemy combined with the new Magical Ingredients that the Gates brought into this world."

"?!" Label was visibly shaken. Her eyes widened in surprise and emotion. "Y-You... you knew of his dream?"

If there was someone Riven knew she loved dearly was her dear father.

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