novelraw Chapter 44 : Business Must Not Stop
Chapter 44 : Business Must Not Stop
Chapter 44: Business Must Not Stop
Rena watched the purplish-red blood seeping from Leon’s body with vigilance, not daring to approach rashly.
That bizarrely vivid color inevitably reminded one of animals’ warning colors.
Many poisonous creatures—toxic insects, poisonous frogs, venomous snakes, and the like—often bore extremely bright colors and patterns to deter predators.
And the deterrence Leon’s blood gave off was not merely visual.
Just watching that purplish-red blood flow made Rena feel an inexplicable sense of palpitations, far worse than seeing a man-eating beast.
Her biological instincts kept sending her danger signals, warning her to stay away from Leon as he was now.
Even Leon himself could sense the ominous aura emanating from the purplish-red blood, yet it did not evoke any fear in him.
Could it be that this blood was poisonous? Was this his Blessing?
Leon frowned.
That would not do.
If his blood was poisonous, then all the fluids in his body were very likely problematic.
When interacting with others—setting aside any intimate or deep contact—even droplets from speaking could accidentally kill someone.
More crucially, if he ever bled in the future and someone saw it, he would immediately be exposed as abnormal!
The moment this thought arose, the strange warm current circulating within his body suddenly calmed down.
At the same time, the purplish-red color in the blood rapidly faded, returning to a normal dark red.
A few drops of red blood fell to the ground and no longer turned into smoke.
“It changed back?” Rena said in surprise.
As Leon’s blood returned to its normal color, that intimidating deterrence vanished as well.
Leon was somewhat astonished.
The properties of this blood seemed to be controllable by his will!
Could the warm current circulating in his body earlier have been mana? If so, if he could manipulate it with his thoughts…
He tried to focus his mind and search for the sensation of that warm current flowing within him.
Quite smoothly, the warm current began circulating again, but his blood did not immediately change color.
“Turn into poisonous blood again…”
Leon tried to concentrate on that thought.
The circulating mana vaguely began gathering toward his wound.
Soon, the blood once again turned purplish-red; even the blood that had already dripped onto the ground and seeped into the rock changed color, rapidly evaporating into purple smoke.
Seeing this, Rena instinctively retreated another step.
“I can control it!”
Leon marveled as he experienced this special power he had gained for the first time in his life.
After some thought, he calmed the mana again and returned his blood to a normal state.
“I need to do more experiments.”
He felt it was necessary to test it on animals again to determine what effects this purplish-red blood had.
This Blessing’s ability surely could not be just changing the color of his blood.
“You should deal with your wound first. You can’t let it keep bleeding,” Rena suggested.
“Alright.” Leon looked at Rena, thought for a moment, and said, “Put the things over there. I’ll handle the wound myself. For now, it’s best if we keep a bit of distance.”
Although it seemed he could manipulate the newly acquired transcendent power with his will, he could not yet be completely certain what changes his body had undergone.
To be safe, it was better to avoid contact as much as possible.
Rena understood Leon’s meaning.
After putting the items down, she retreated some distance.
Leon took off his clothes and used gauze and water to clean and dry his wound.
After pressing on it for a while, he picked up the small porcelain bottle of wound medicine, which actually contained Slime Gel.
He poured the gel directly onto his wound and applied it, then somewhat laboriously wrapped himself in bandages.
Bandaging his own shoulder was, after all, rather inconvenient.
Slime Gel was actually an excellent wound dressing.
After application, wounds healed faster and the risk of infection was greatly reduced.
Not to mention civilian use—even if it were used only in the military, it could greatly enhance combat effectiveness.
At times, Leon truly did not understand why the Church prohibited something with such high practical value.
“So, what should we do now?” Rena asked Leon in a low voice.
Leon did not answer immediately.
Instead, he cautiously stepped forward to examine Caron’s corpse.
Caron’s body was already stiff, like stone, with no signs of life.
Leon searched the body.
Aside from the sword stuck nearby and the pipe and tobacco that had fallen to the ground, he found some money and a set of keys.
In addition, he discovered a gold ring with an emblem on Caron’s hand, likely Caron’s family crest.
After some consideration, Leon removed the ring from Caron’s stiff finger and also took off the silver Church badge from Caron’s uniform.
“We’ll deal with the body later…” Leon said as he stood up.
“Let’s go back and take a look first.”
Leon picked up the lantern and gestured for Rena to make way, then turned and walked back into the workshop.
The workshop was still in utter disarray: the workbench had been overturned, test tubes and flasks lay shattered across the floor, potions were mostly spilled, and several Head-Hunting Rabbit corpses were scattered about.
“Where are the magical beasts?” Leon asked.
“I already put them back into the breeding pool. Eight adult Head-Hunting Rabbits died,” Rena answered from behind.
When using the Head-Hunting Rabbits to attack Caron and buy time, Caron had hacked and kicked several to death, but he had not killed all of them.
Midway through, seeing them escape, he seized the opportunity to pursue them.
The juvenile Head-Hunting Rabbits and the Slimes had not crawled out of the breeding pool, so the losses among the magical beasts were not too severe.
“Looks like we’ll need to do some reorganization before resuming work,” Leon sighed.
“Resuming work?” Rena stared at Leon in disbelief.
“What are you talking about? We’ve been exposed! Shouldn’t we be fleeing as fast as possible now?”
In truth, after narrowly escaping danger, her mind was already full of thoughts about how to run away.
Yet when she asked Leon’s opinion, Leon naturally seemed intent on continuing as if nothing had happened.
“We don’t necessarily need to run,” Leon shook his head gently.
“That man was Caron Eso, the Director of the Inquisition…”
Before Leon could finish, Rena sucked in a sharp breath.
“The Director of the Inquisition!?”
When Leon had addressed that man as Director earlier, she had not reacted.
Now that she knew whom they had killed, a wave of terror washed over her.
Even with her limited understanding of the Church, she knew they had just killed someone extraordinary.
“Yes, a greedy piece of trash,” Leon continued.
“He came alone because, after investigating us, he wanted to seize control of our business. That was a serious crime of apostasy. I believe he didn’t inform anyone else—otherwise, knowing him as I do, he would at least have brought support.”
“That’s not necessarily true. What if he left some clues? Once he’s dead, someone will notice, won’t they?” Rena said uneasily.
“The likelihood is low,” Leon concluded after brief thought.
“If he had prepared something like that in advance, he would have used it to pressure us when demanding the antidote. He didn’t say anything immediately, which means he never even considered it.”
“But if a Director of the Inquisition dies, shouldn’t it become a major incident? What if—what if the Church starts investigating…” Rena still could not calm down.
“It’ll just be considered a disappearance. This guy had been embezzling and abusing his power for years—it was an open secret in the Inquisition. He might even be assumed to have fled in fear of punishment,” Leon said.
“You can be that certain? No matter what, once he disappears, there will definitely be an investigation. Maybe once we go out, we’ll be arrested?” Rena could not quite understand Leon’s optimism.
“And would running solve the problem?” Leon retorted.
“If the Church starts investigating Caron’s disappearance and I disappear as well, even if there was no issue originally, suspicion would fall on me. I can’t leave! If he left any clues, all the more reason for me to stay and deal with them!!”
After killing Caron, Leon had indeed thought through the various possibilities.
In the end, he concluded that staying actually gave him a higher chance of remaining safe.
“What about me?” Rena asked instinctively.
“If suspicion doesn’t fall on you, there’s no need for you to run. If it does, and you have no connections, you won’t be able to escape the Church anyway.”
Seeing Rena’s unease, Leon looked at her and patiently persuaded her.
“Rena, listen to me. Leave things here to me for now. You can go home and lie low, hide your things properly, but don’t do anything unnecessary.
“What’s done is done—we can’t change it. The only thing we can consider is what comes next! If we can get through this safely, then our business… must continue!”