What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Talk business——hearing Leon say this, the Cadres did not immediately react.

Johnny had taken advantage of their desperate hope that he could lead them, gathering them together unarmed, then the traitor Fenrir suddenly appeared, while Johnny also showed the posture of having reached cooperation with Fenrir. In that instant, most of them thought this was a trap to catch them all at once, and that what followed would be a massacre aimed at them.

But Fenrir’s words instead made it seem as though……he did not intend to take their lives.

“I’ll get straight to the point. I’m preparing to take over the Earl’s business. Originally, I had already prepared myself mentally to fight a war with all of you and seize your territories step by step.

But after Mr. Johnny’s persuasion, I decided to prioritize negotiations first. After all, all of you understand the business in your own territories best. It would be most appropriate to let the business continue operating according to the old model.” Leon slowly explained.

Leon now urgently needed to bring all of the Earl’s territories under his control, and with Johnny’s support, he was fully capable of doing so.

With the two of them joining forces, even if the remaining Cadres united, they would still be nothing more than a disorganized mob.

But using force to deal with each Cadre one by one and conquer each territory would already be time-consuming and exhausting enough. After pacifying the territories, they would still need to recruit their own personnel from scratch to manage them, then redeploy sales channels and customer sources. The cost in time would be astonishing.

This process could take several years. Starting from his own territory, the Earl had spent ten years expanding the sales network to its current scope!

By comparison, directly making use of these Cadres who were already extremely familiar with the business in their own territories and renewing contracts with them just as the Earl had done was the most efficient way to inherit the Earl’s business.

But it was very difficult for Leon himself to negotiate with these people. At present, every Cadre was deeply wary of him. Even if he sent out invitations, they would only assume it was a deadly banquet.

Originally, Leon had intended to wait for some time until these Cadres, lacking sources of supply, could no longer maintain their businesses, then try to make some of them waver by offering supply as a condition.

But after reaching cooperation with Johnny, Johnny’s support gave him the means to trick these Cadres into gathering together under Johnny’s name, then leave them at Leon’s disposal.

Starting directly with the Cadres to take over those territories could save a great deal of effort, shed much less blood, and result in far fewer deaths.

The Cadres exchanged glances with one another, but none replied, merely watching Leon warily.

“I’m guessing you don’t have much raw material left, right? Without the Earl’s Magic Essence supply, how much longer can your businesses last?” Leon asked.

This time, the Cadres still remained mostly silent. Only Mr. Turtledove gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence after a moment: “Isn’t that all because of you, and you still dare bring it up?”

“I imagine some of you considered secretly reaching an agreement with me to purchase raw materials from me, or perhaps attacking my territory and seizing my Production Base. You simply didn’t have the courage.”

Leon swept his gaze across everyone present, “Now you have the opportunity. My next condition is this: we continue the contracts you had with the Earl. I supply you with raw materials and a portion of finished Magic Potions. The Quota will be decided by me. You will be responsible for the business in your respective territories, and seventy percent of the total profit will be handed over to me.”

“Hand over a share of the profits?” This condition caused the Cadres to reveal expressions of disbelief.

What they found difficult to accept was not the seventy percent being taken away. They had previously had exactly this kind of agreement with the Earl. Seventy percent was the share when the Earl supplied them with the overwhelming majority of the raw materials. As Cadres, they mainly controlled the sales side, and even when those sales channels were first established, much of it had been thanks to the Earl’s support.

Meanwhile, Leon and the Earl had not even had a profit-sharing arrangement at first. Only after the business stabilized did Leon begin handing over thirty percent of the profit, while the Earl also had to spend money purchasing his Magic Essence.

That thirty percent was not because the Earl treated him especially generously, but because Leon had solved his own raw material supply. Apart from the initial investment, the Earl no longer needed to投入 any further costs into him. After that, it was simply a cut taken in exchange for protection, while the Magic Essence Leon supplied to the Earl was worth far more to the Earl than the cut from one or two territories.

But the key issue was the existence of profit-sharing itself. It meant the Supplier could openly monitor their revenue and inspect their accounts to ensure there were no errors in the share being handed over.

If they merely purchased Leon’s Magic Essence and then handled their own businesses, then their relationship would simply be that of buyers and producer. But this kind of agreement contained a very clear Superior–Subordinate Relationship, meaning Leon would replace the Earl as their superior leader.

“You……” Mr. Turtledove was the first to glare at Leon, intending to voice dissatisfaction.

But Leon suddenly pulled out a Flintlock Pistol and interrupted him: “I don’t want to hear nonsense. Before trying to accuse me, think clearly about whether you even have the qualifications. I don’t need to explain to you the reason for the conflict between the Earl and me. I only need you to respect one fact, the Earl is dead, and I won. As for all of you, not one of you has the ability to shake that fact!”

“……” None of the Cadres spoke.

Johnny snapped his fingers. At that moment, the door of the small house was suddenly opened from outside. At some point, the outside had already become packed with people, almost all of them Leon and Johnny’s subordinates, while the followers brought by the Cadres had all been subdued, kneeling on the ground with guns pointed at their heads, completely at the mercy of others.

From the moment they had stepped onto this River Island, these Cadres had already lost every other choice.

“For all of you, the current situation is the same as it was back then. You have a chance to leave whole, or if you miss the Earl that much, I can also send you off to continue following him.” Leon continued.

That day, after he shouted “the Earl is already dead” at the Cadres and forced them to make a choice, if the remaining Cadres had thrown everything away and charged in together, then even if Leon had not been killed, he would inevitably have paid a devastating price.

But those Cadres, who had not been united, had failed to do so then. Now that their lives were in his hands, it was even less possible.

“I think……we can renegotiate the Quota……” After quite some time, one Cadre said softly.

“Hey!” Mr. Turtledove glared at him, but none of the other Cadres paid any attention to him anymore.

“The Quota will be decided by me. Right now, there are only two decisions you can make, nod or die.” Leon gestured toward the open doorway. One of his subordinates entered carrying a tray, placed six small cups corresponding to the number of Cadres on the table, then used a Pewter Flask to pour wine for each of them.

“Those who agree, drink the wine in front of you. Those who don’t drink, die.” Leon issued the ultimatum.

The wine in the cups had a very faint red color, like a drop of red ink had been added to an inkwell.

The Cadres present felt a chill upon seeing such wine. In the battle against Leon, they had all witnessed the poisons and poisoned weapons he used. This wine clearly had something wrong with it.

The Cadres could also guess that this would not be poison that caused them to suddenly die on the spot after drinking it. If Leon wanted them dead, his subordinates outside only needed to give each of them a bullet.

It was most likely one of Leon’s methods of control. Once they drank the wine, they would probably inevitably fall under Leon’s continued control.

Most of them still could not accept this and showed hesitation. At this moment, Mr. Turtledove expressed his stance, but instead of answering Leon, he turned toward Johnny: “Mr. Johnny, did you drink it too? Or are you being controlled by this traitor for some other reason?”

Johnny expressionlessly shook his head.

“Then why don’t you just kill him right now!” Mr. Turtledove suddenly began inciting Johnny, “If you kill him and avenge the Earl, then seize his Production Base, all of us will follow you! You’re the one qualified to inherit the Earl’s position. This traitor, this lunatic……he’s unworthy. How could you let yourself be deceived by him?”

As he said this, some of the Cadres began wavering. If they could persuade Johnny to kill Fenrir, there might still be a chance to turn things around.

“I don’t even want Mastan’s position.” Johnny replied without the slightest interest.

“Mr. Turtledove, stop pretending as though you desperately want to avenge the Earl. If you truly want to show your loyalty to the Earl that badly, why not do it yourself?” Leon said to Mr. Turtledove.

“You traitorous brat, the only reason you can humiliate me like this now is because you’re relying on the fact that I can’t kill you!” Mr. Turtledove glared at Leon with intense hatred.

“I think you’re the one relying on the fact that you don’t have the conditions to kill me, conveniently using it as a shield for your own inaction. Since you really want to avenge the Earl and only suffer from lacking the opportunity, I’ll give you one.”

Leon suddenly took out another Flintlock Pistol and, in front of everyone, unhurriedly loaded a bullet into it, then pushed it across the table toward Mr. Turtledove’s position.

Mr. Turtledove looked in surprise at the gun that had been pushed over.

“Pick up that gun and attack me. If you’re fast enough, you can shoot me dead before I shoot you. Then Johnny will have no choice but to choose your proposal.” Leon said.

At that moment, Mr. Turtledove clearly felt himself being completely forced into a dead end.

For him, this was indeed the closest opportunity he had ever had to killing Fenrir. If he did not seize this chance and act, then even if he hesitated for only a moment, all his claims of determination to avenge the Earl would become incomparably hollow.

And naturally, reaching out to grab that loaded gun meant gambling his life against Fenrir. If he could not kill Fenrir, then he would die.

“Looks like even when you’re given the chance, you’re still useless.” Leon smiled faintly.

Mr. Turtledove let out a long sigh and slowly raised his hands as though surrendering: “Then how exactly do you intend to distribute the Quota?”

“Drink the wine first, then we’ll talk.” Leon urged.

Mr. Turtledove lowered his head with a deathly pale face and reached toward the wine cup. At the moment when he thought the other side had relaxed their guard, his hand suddenly changed direction and swiftly grabbed the Flintlock Pistol!

But in that instant, the sound of a finger snap brought with it a thunderclap. A bolt of lightning struck him, blasting his entire body backward, until he finally fell rigidly onto the ground.

Under the horrified gazes of the other Cadres, Johnny expressionlessly lowered his hand.

“In the end, making an example of one to warn the others was still necessary, wasn’t it?” Leon said to Johnny.

With his normal Time Acceleration Ability, even if he only stretched out a single second, it would have been enough to ensure that he would not lose a quick-draw gunfight against an ordinary person.

But when he noticed Johnny raising his hand, he still handed the execution over to Johnny. Johnny’s formal declaration of his stance would completely destroy the remaining Cadres’ hopes of inciting Johnny to deal with him.