novelraw Chapter 69 : Only One Can Live
Chapter 69 : Only One Can Live
Chapter 69: Only One Can Live
Father Auden was deeply puzzled by Leon’s reaction.
When an important witness was captured, wasn’t choosing to kill the witness to silence them common practice in their line of work?
Especially for a man who killed without blinking, a man who, once driven mad, could even put his own life on the gambling table—wasn’t this nothing out of the ordinary? He had previously even killed the Director of the Inquisition just to silence someone!
Countless people were tormented by the inability to kill witnesses imprisoned in jail, yet Leon now possessed uniquely favorable conditions.
Father Auden could not understand why Leon looked as though the thought had only just occurred to him.
Now, as long as the Witch died in prison, the matter would be resolved.
Even a miracle of omniscience had to take a living person as its subject to function; the Church had no way to trace him through a corpse.
No one knew how many Witches had committed suicide by poison while imprisoned.
They could refine all kinds of bizarre magical beast poisons, and some even personally possessed special abilities related to poison.
Many times, the Church simply could not guard against it.
Leon’s silence and contemplation lasted only two seconds before he shook his head at Father Auden.
“No. It’s not time yet!”
“What do you mean it’s not time? She’s about to receive the highest level of investigation the Church can offer. Are you planning to wait until the Pope personally comes to investigate before you think it’s time?” Father Auden was utterly unable to understand.
“She’s still useful to me. I can’t just give her up like this.” Leon stared seriously at the priest as he spoke.
“Potter is already dead. This place will belong to the Earl from now on. You won’t be able to do business here anymore—what do you need her for? Her only use now is letting the Church trace you through her! Even if she obeys you completely and can help you refine eighty-five percent purity Mana, what does that matter? What exactly are you hesitating over?” Father Auden frowned as he scrutinized Leon.
“……” Leon did not reply, but there was no sign of concession in his gaze.
Leon actually understood the logic the priest was presenting.
Finding a way to poison Rena to death in prison would prevent the Inquisition from tracing him through her.
It was the simplest and most straightforward solution.
But deep down, he resisted this approach.
Forget considering it—he could not even bring himself to imagine it.
“Oh no.” Father Auden suddenly seemed to realize something, shaking his head as if he could not bear it.
“You’d better not tell me that woman has actually become the weak point of someone like you!”
To Father Auden, letting the trail end with the Witch was far preferable to Leon being captured.
He himself was still working hard to eliminate evidence connecting him to Potter.
If Leon took any risks and got caught, it would only increase the likelihood of drawing further investigation onto him, adding a great deal more work.
In the priest’s eyes, the option that maximized benefits—for both himself and Leon—was for Leon to eliminate the Witch, withdraw unscathed, then entrust the one million in dirty money to him to be laundered clean and go enjoy life.
Leon instinctively wanted to retort, but realized that anything he said now would sound hollow and powerless.
That was right.
At the end of the day, he simply did not want to kill Rena.
He did not want Rena to die!
Only at this point did he clearly feel that Rena was special to him.
In truth, he himself was not that afraid of death.
This second life he lived in this world was already rotten enough; he had no real desire to cherish it.
And when the crushing reality of this world left him gasping for breath, Rena became the key through which he personally changed fate!
They had lived and died together, committed crimes together.
They had always been accomplices bound by fate.
That feeling was as though, even if one fell into hell, there would still be someone accompanying them—never alone!
It was he who had led Rena down this path.
It was he who had reduced her to her current predicament.
His pride would not allow him to let Rena bear the consequences of his own actions.
He had even promised Rena that when things came to this point, he would rather bear all responsibility himself!
“Feign death.” Leon suddenly spoke.
“What did you say?” Father Auden did not react at once.
“If I have a way to make her temporarily enter a state of feigned death…” Leon muttered while thinking through a countermeasure.
“Oh, what a brilliant idea. The moment the Inquisition discovers the suspect is dead, they’ll surely carelessly let you take her out alone, bury her like a stray dog in the wilderness, and then you can conveniently revive her in some unseen corner!”
Father Auden retorted with a face full of sarcasm.
“Don’t forget that even if she dies in prison, the body is still an important piece of evidence! Leaving aside whether you can fool the medical examiner, how do you plan to take her out of the morgue? Do you think so many Witches haven’t tried feigned-death drugs before? Any corpse suspected of heresy is eventually burned. Guess how many Witches in the case files pretended to be dead, ‘revived’ in the flames, and were then burned alive?”
Leon also understood that removing a strictly guarded corpse from the Inquisition was no easier than secretly releasing Rena and then sneaking out.
Without controlling the entire Inquisition, both were impossible.
“What if I make the ‘corpse’ become impossible to examine, difficult to handle? For example, using some trick so she looks like she’s constantly emitting poisonous gas?” Leon continued searching for a solution.
“In that case, how would you reasonably come into contact with the body? And besides, there will always be someone in the Church capable of dealing with it.” Father Auden cut him off mercilessly.
“Don’t think about it. This direction is impossible. The Church will keep people alive if possible, and keep corpses if they die. Feigned death will never be better than real death! If you have a way to make her feign death and transport her out, you might as well directly jailbreak her!”
“Jailbreak…” Leon pondered.
The idea of creating chaos with fire and poison flashed through his mind, but he quickly rejected it.
The Inquisition conducted drills every year against arson and poisoning.
Alone, he could not plunge the entire Inquisition into enough chaos to extract a prisoner.
“You’re actually starting to consider it?” The priest stared at Leon, unsure whether to call the man mad or foolish.
“What if we intercept the convoy transporting her to the Imperial Capital?” Leon suddenly said.
“That’s a Supreme Investigation Warrant. Do you think the Church will allow anything to go wrong in that process? The prisoners will be escorted by a team of Fully Appointed Knights. Trying to slaughter your way through the Inquisition right now would be more realistic.” Father Auden said coldly.
“Then…” Leon continued wracking his brain.
“They went to such lengths to obtain that warrant—they can’t afford the risk of making fools of themselves. If the ‘real culprit’ turns himself in, the warrant would definitely be revoked, right?”
“What are you planning now?” Father Auden frowned.
“Aren’t you always finding ways to get people acquitted? Find someone to take her place and go to prison. All the key evidence is in my hands right now!” Leon suddenly fixed his gaze on Father Auden.
“That wouldn’t be taking her place—it would be taking her place in death!” Father Auden corrected him.
“At a time like this, the one who takes the blame must die in prison promptly!”
“Through your channels, can’t you buy a life?” Leon asked.
“It’s not enough for someone to be willing to die! The people who just took office managed to investigate Potter and your people together—do you still think they’re fools? You think they’ll believe it if some random person confesses? This person must be believable as a Witch, have motive, have means, and be willing to die! Five days—where do you expect me to find such a person?” Father Auden shot back.
“Then…” Leon was still thinking of solutions.
“You want to save that Witch? I’ll tell you the only way.” Father Auden interrupted impatiently.
“You turn yourself in. Tell them that everything the Witch did was under your coercion, and you take her place in death. That Witch might have a chance to live, but she’ll only be able to live under Church supervision for the rest of her life. Do you think that’s worth it? Listen to my advice—kill that Witch! Showing mercy at a time like this will be the end of you, Fenrir! You and her—only one can live!!”