novelraw Chapter 24 : Reporting a Witch
Chapter 24 : Reporting a Witch
Chapter 24: Reporting a Witch
Late at night, Hamel Town.
“Is everything you said true?” Leon asked Rena for confirmation.
Rena nodded vigorously.
Once she was certain that Granny Hannah had ulterior motives, she did not dare delay.
She immediately went to the relay station, used the excuse that she was feeling unwell and needed to enter town to have medicine prepared, hired a carriage to rush into town, and then found Leon again.
Leon’s brows knitted tightly, his heart sinking nonstop.
The most ideal scenario he had once imagined was that after being arrested once, Hannah would become cautious, fear further consequences, and after Rena mentioned quitting this line of work, completely wash her hands of it.
Because of this, he had kept an eye on Hannah for a period of time.
During that interval, she appeared to have behaved herself.
Yet he had never expected that after all this time, she would still harbor thoughts of returning to her old trade.
Now that things had already happened, the problem had to be dealt with.
It might even require considering certain matters… matters he had always been unwilling to consider before.
“I understand. For tonight, find an inn and rest. Tomorrow, enter the mountains from the mountain path on the other side and work from there. Do not pass through the village. Leave Hannah Weisland’s matter to me,” Leon said expressionlessly.
“You… what are you planning to do?” Rena blinked as she looked at Leon.
“I will handle it,” Leon replied briefly.
Early the next morning.
“Grandma, Mom, I’m going to school.”
Near the entrance of River Mouth Village, a house stood where a teenage boy wearing the Parish School’s robe stepped out.
He carried a lunch basket in one hand and a stack of books in the other.
“Be careful on the road. After school, come straight home. Don’t wander around town. Absolutely don’t go to those neighborhoods in the south of the city, especially Bourbon Street. It’s full of bad people. I keep hearing about young folks getting tricked there lately…”
Hannah Weisland stood up and walked her grandson to the door, nagging as she reminded him.
“Alright, alright, I know, Grandma. You’ve said this a hundred times already,” the boy said, then turned and ran off along the small path.
“Has Henry gotten thinner lately?” Hannah turned back into the house and looked at her daughter-in-law, who was sitting inside sewing clothes.
“You need to keep an eye on him and make sure he eats well. This child has always eaten little since he was young.”
“That was ages ago,” her daughter-in-law said with a smile.
“He eats two big bowls of meat porridge every meal now. He’s just grown taller recently, so he looks thinner.”
“Right, right, he should eat more,” Hannah said with a smile.
She reached into her apron pocket, took out a small bag of money, and placed it on the table.
“Buy more meat for the family. He’s at the age where he needs it to grow.”
“Thank you, Mother,” her daughter-in-law said gratefully, looking at Hannah.
“Truly, if not for you, Henry wouldn’t be able to afford to attend school in town…”
“You’re saying such polite things again. Attending the Church’s school is what gives a child prospects. If he can’t go to the Church, at least he can find work at the town office. You don’t need to worry about the tuition—leave it to these old bones of mine,” Hannah said with a laugh, waving her hand.
Then she headed toward the door.
“I’ll go tend the fields now.”
“Take care,” her daughter-in-law called after her.
Hannah left her younger son’s home, greeted familiar villagers along the way, and soon returned to the old house where she lived.
“It’s about time,” Hannah muttered as she entered her woodshed.
She packed tools such as an axe, hammer, and awl into a bundle, hid them carefully, and slung it over her back.
The lock on the cellar was sturdy, but the door panel itself was not particularly strong.
If she wanted to pry off the lock along with the nails fixing it in place, it was not impossible.
An old woman who had worked the fields all her life still had that much strength.
Carrying her things, she set off toward Rena’s house.
She did not notice that a young man stood at a distant crossroads, casting a cold glance in her direction, watching as she walked step by step toward the mountains.
After approaching Rena’s house, Hannah first hid her tools in the forest.
Then she went to the front door, looked around, and tried knocking.
“Rena, Rena, are you home? There was something important I forgot to tell you yesterday!”
Seeing no response, she circled to the back, checked the cellar door, then knocked on the back door and called out a few times before pricking up her ears to listen.
The house seemed completely devoid of any human presence.
The cellar was also locked from the outside.
Rena was clearly not inside and appeared to have gone out.
Not working alone in the cellar and instead going out on her own—had that girl really found her own channels to sell the goods?
Then it was all the more necessary to pry open the cellar and inspect it carefully.
Best if she could seize some evidence…
She retrieved the bundle she had hidden in the woods and had just taken out her tools to start prying at the lock when a sudden voice rang out:
“Good day, Mrs. Weisland.”
“Ah!” Hannah was startled, and the tools in her hands fell to the ground.
She spun around abruptly and saw a man appear outside the fence of the backyard, causing her to panic.
She had clearly looked around earlier and seen no one nearby.
This person was like someone who had appeared out of thin air.
“What are you doing here?” Leon asked, staring at Hannah.
“You, you are…?” Hannah looked Leon up and down in alarm and confusion.
She quickly became certain that he was not from the village and did not know how he had recognized her.
“We met a few months ago. Does that ring a bell now?” Leon said bluntly as he produced his silver badge as an Inquisitor.
“Ah!” Terror immediately spread across Hannah’s face.
She finally remembered.
About three months ago, it had been this very young man who had escorted her to the Inquisition for trial.
“Looks like you remember. Then you should know why I’ve been keeping an eye on you. Did you think that after leaving the Inquisition, we would simply stop paying attention to you? I’ll ask you again—what are you doing here?” Leon asked once more.
Why would an Inquisitor suddenly appear here? Could it be that ever since her arrest, she had constantly been under surveillance?
At this moment, Hannah felt as if she had fallen into an icy abyss.
“My lord, I was just… just…” Hannah stammered.
“What? You couldn’t sell Mana anymore, so you started stealing instead?” Leon pressed.
“No, no, that’s not it. I was just… entrusted by someone to help repair a cellar,” Hannah finally managed to come up with an excuse.
“Repairing a locked cellar door with an awl and a hammer? Is this excuse meant to show how little respect you have for the Church’s Inquisitors?” Leon’s expression darkened instantly.
“I, I didn’t—” Hannah waved her hands repeatedly, trying to argue.
“Still not telling the truth? Then it seems this problem is quite serious,” Leon said as he interrogated her.
“Do you want to be arrested a second time? Don’t think you can always settle things with money. I hear your grandson is studying at a Church school. Do you know how much impact your arrest by the Church this time would have on your family?”
These words were meant to intimidate Hannah.
In reality, after several rounds of reform, Church law had already abolished many collective punishment practices.
Let alone grandparents trafficking Magical Beast materials—even if a mother were a Witch, the Church would not prosecute underage children.
At most, they would be sent to reform institutions established by the Church for one or two years of centralized education, to make them fully aware of the sins committed by their relatives.
After that, their future prospects would not be severely affected.
In fact, to establish an image of benevolence, the Church would even deliberately select outstanding students from these reform institutions to enter Church service.
Of course, Leon knew that ordinary people were mostly unaware of such details.
This was simply a common interrogation tactic.
“My lord, I was just momentarily led astray. Inquisitor, you don’t know how much our family needs money. My eldest son died for the country, my younger son lost a leg, my—” Hannah put on a miserable face and began rambling, trying to sell her misery to Leon.
“Enough. Tell me what you are doing,” Leon interrupted coldly.
Hannah’s breathing grew rapid.
Being followed here by an Inquisitor meant that everything was basically over.
At this point, if she wanted to protect herself and her family, there was no other way…
“My lord, this is…” Hannah swallowed hard, forcing her voice to sound calm.
“This is for collecting evidence for the Church.”
“What did you say?” Leon narrowed his eyes.
“I… I agonized over this for months, and in the end, I decided to do the right thing,” Hannah said slowly as she looked at Leon.
“Inquisitor, it’s good that you’re here. I want to report something to the Church!”
“……” Leon took a deep breath upon hearing this.
On the way here, he had actually been very clear about what he needed to do.
It was just that taking that step was not so easy.
And now, after repeatedly pressing Hannah, he had finally heard the words that forced him to make up his mind.
“Very well,” Leon said, nodding lightly at Hannah.
“What information do you have to report to me?”