Chapter 267: A Way to Protect the Brand

At a mill on the outskirts of River Valley County’s city, Leon and his subordinates waited inside in full readiness for a long time before finally seeing a woman arrive on a skinny horse, travel-worn and covered in dust, with a hunting dog following behind.

Leon looked out through the mill window a couple of times and recognized the rider as Dorothy. This time, Dorothy was not wearing that formal dress. Instead, she had changed into a close-fitting riding outfit, wore riding boots, and tied her long hair high, making her look like an entirely different person.

Dorothy’s horse looked sickly and thin, yet its speed was astonishingly fast, racing along the mountain road like an off-road vehicle and kicking up dust behind it. Leon recognized the horse as the Chimera Magical Beast that had previously been used to transport the gold. As for that dog, it was probably still the Manticore.

This time, Dorothy had come to the meeting alone with her Magical Beasts, without even bringing an attendant.

After learning about the case from the Inquisition, Leon made up his mind and sent someone to the contact point he had arranged with Dorothy, explaining what had happened on his side and asking her, if possible, to meet with him as soon as possible, or at least send an agent to one of the strongholds in River Valley County.

Dorothy’s reply came unusually quickly. Only half a day later, a letter was sent back from the contact point, stating that she could meet Leon the very next day.

Riding her Magical Beast, Dorothy had covered in a single night a journey that would normally take a carriage several days, traveling from the Oz Region to River Valley County.

Leon walked directly out of the mill, with a large group of people following behind him.

“Mr. Fenrir, this welcoming formation of yours is so enthusiastic that it’s making me feel rather embarrassed coming here all by myself.” Dorothy began teasing the moment she saw Leon.

“You brought quite a lot of ‘troops’ yourself.” Leon gestured with his eyes toward Dorothy’s horse and that dog.

Even though he had established a cooperative relationship with Dorothy, he still maintained a relatively cautious attitude toward meeting her.

After all, Dorothy was a powerful Third-Rank Witch. If Leon met Dorothy and her Magical Beasts entirely alone, she had the ability to threaten him and could even abduct him.

“No matter what, I’m very grateful that you thought to contact me immediately when something happened, so I came over right away as well.” Dorothy spread her hands, “Since you chose to notify me, you should already have some idea about this matter, correct?”

“So it really was Arachne’s doing?” Leon’s expression turned grave.

Before contacting Dorothy, following Rena’s suggestion, he had first tried contacting Johnny.

These past few days, Johnny had still been handling deliveries in other counties, but he had left a subordinate at the contact point who could use the Shifting Blessing to contact him at any time.

After learning about what had happened in River Valley County, Johnny directly gave his own speculation——this was very likely Arachne’s handiwork.

During the period when the Earl cooperated with Arachne, Johnny had often been responsible for acting as the intermediary between them. Arachne had information on parts of the Earl’s territories, and she also had some knowledge of the customers in River Valley County.

With Arachne’s capabilities, once she confirmed the targets, whether it was preparing Corpse-Rot Poison or carrying out assassinations of this degree, both would be completely effortless for her.

If they considered the possibility that an outsider had specifically targeted the customers, Arachne was extremely suspicious.

It seemed that Dorothy’s thoughts were also the same as Johnny’s.

“See, Mr. Fenrir, I warned you. Some troubles simply have to be resolved as early as possible.” Dorothy smiled faintly at Leon.

“This has nothing to do with you?” Leon narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“Would destroying your business benefit me?” Dorothy asked in return.

“But getting rid of Arachne would benefit you even more.” Leon said.

Suspecting that Dorothy might also be connected to this matter had likewise been Johnny’s idea. Johnny knew a little about the situation within the Witches’ Assembly, and he had been the first to suspect that Dorothy had encouraged Leon to deal with Arachne because she wanted to profit from their conflict herself.

“It really hurts that you suspect me like that. But Mr. Fenrir, you haven’t seen the root of the problem clearly. I have no way to press Arachne’s head down and force her to do something like this.

Whether this matter has anything to do with me isn’t the key. The key is that Arachne is the kind of person who would do something like this. She’s a madwoman who acts without considering the consequences. You should’ve understood that long ago.” Dorothy said.

“Dorothy, I’m cooperating with you precisely to avoid this kind of thing happening!” Leon stared at Dorothy and said.

“I also wanted to avoid it as much as possible, which is why I gave you my suggestion, to resolve this matter once and for all. Fortunately, it still isn’t too late now. Since Arachne has done something like this, you have every reason to eliminate her, and Her Majesty the Queen may not necessarily blame you.” Dorothy said.

“Then dealing with her in front of the Queen is your responsibility. I have something more important to deal with right now. My business has run into a major problem. If I don’t control the impact quickly, even if I kill Arachne now, the business in this territory will still be ruined!” Leon glared at Dorothy and said.

If he did not find a way to shift the customers’ association of the poisoning incident away from the Magic Potions he produced, then the Magic Potions he produced would forever be branded within the circle as “Magic Potions that can kill you if you drink them”, and the business in River Valley County would undoubtedly plummet.

This influence might even spread to other territories along with the news, causing his business throughout the Empire to collapse.

“I thought you asked to meet me because you’d already made up your mind. Since you aren’t planning to eliminate her, what did you call me here for?” Dorothy spread her hands.

“I need to resolve the immediate crisis first.” Leon said.

“Actually, you only need to stop for a while, then release some news and change your name, and you can eliminate most of the impact. The demand for Magic Potions won’t disappear in the end.” Dorothy reminded him.

Leon understood what Dorothy meant. This maneuver was like when a brand suffered a fatal blow because of a problem, so you immediately abandoned that brand, internally reorganized, changed your appearance, and relaunched under another brand.

But doing this meant suspending business for a considerable period during the restructuring process, and changing brands meant having to recruit a customer base all over again. The losses from that process would be immeasurable.

But Leon was currently at a critical stage. Between his transactions with the Witches’ Assembly and the enormous expenditure required to hire Johnny’s fleet, to cover these costs, there was absolutely no way he could simply stop business for that long!

“I can’t wait. I need to resolve this matter right now!” Leon stared at Dorothy and said, “That’s exactly why I called you here.”

“Oh? Then what do you think I can do for you?” Dorothy asked in confusion.

“I want you to prepare Magical Beasts with Corpse-Rot Poison for me.” Leon said.

“What?” Dorothy frowned.

“Magical Beasts carrying Corpse-Rot Poison, is that difficult to understand? Aside from Corpse-Parasitic Worms that parasitize corpses, Carrion Beasts, Ghouls, Revenant Demons, whatever. Bring me a batch alive!” Leon emphasized.

Within Labyrinths, there were some Magical Beasts with special scavenging habits. Compared to fresh meat, they preferred food carrying the scent of decay and would serve as decomposers within the Labyrinth.

But aside from devouring dead matter, many species among them would still attempt to capture prey, using Corpse-Rot Poison to kill their prey and causing it to rapidly decay, preventing other predators from competing with them for the prey.

For certain unknown reasons, although corpses rotted by Corpse-Rot Poison were dead matter, they would still display reanimation phenomena and, like Magical Beasts, become highly aggressive toward humans.

And this time, in order to maximize the impact, Arachne had apparently used Corpse-Rot Poison in the assassinations.

“You want to……” Dorothy narrowed her eyes and quickly understood Leon’s objective.

“Can you do it?” Leon stared at Dorothy and pressed her.

He had actually also notified Johnny to help arrange this matter. Johnny’s reply was that it might take some time to catch them.

Naturally, it would be even better if Dorothy could provide them quickly.

“Mm……” Dorothy thought for a moment, looked Leon over, and said, “Well, as for these Magical Beasts, I do have some intact corpses already preserved……”

That could work too. For an instant, this thought appeared in Leon’s mind.

If he could obtain the corpses, he could extract Magic Essence from important parts of the corpses.

For any species of Magical Beast from which he had personally extracted Magic Essence, he could directly regenerate them through the power of the Dungeon Lord, then use Mrs. Hsu’s Newborn Blessing and Weiss’s Magic Potions to make the Magical Beasts grow rapidly.

But just as he was about to answer, a sudden thought made him stop: could this be a test?

Dorothy already knew the fact that he, as a man, had obtained a Witch’s Blessing. Would she then further suspect that, like Queen Isis in the past, he possessed the special talent to become a Dungeon Lord?

That was not impossible.

“Corpses won’t do. If I want to reduce the impact, they have to be alive.” Leon emphasized.

“Alive will be a little difficult. I’m afraid we may not necessarily make it in time.” Dorothy looked troubled.

“Then find a way to make it in time. Miss Dorothy, you’re the representative of the Witches’ Assembly. Since we’re cooperating, you should handle the matters on your side properly. Now Arachne is trying to destroy my business. If there’s nothing you can do, then after I resolve this matter, I may have to reassess the value of our cooperation.” Leon looked at Dorothy expressionlessly and said.

“……You really are strict.” Dorothy fell silent for a moment, then raised her eyebrows again, “Fine, since you’ve put it that way, I can only give it everything I have.”

“How long will it take?” Leon confirmed with Dorothy.

“If I don’t encounter any other difficulties, in the most optimistic case, I can prepare a batch of Ghouls for you in two days.” Dorothy answered.

“That works.” Leon nodded, “Do you have a way to process corpses into a state where they look like they were poisoned by Corpse-Rot Poison?”

“If what you want are corpses poisoned by Corpse-Rot Poison, I can prepare those directly for you.” Dorothy nodded in reply. She had already understood Leon’s plan, so naturally she knew what Leon needed.

“You’re not allowed to directly kill people within the Empire.” Leon said.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Fenrir, I know my limits. I don’t need to do that, nor will I cause you any trouble.” Dorothy replied leisurely, “Hopefully your plan will work.”