To learn magic better, Yveta watched the Old Witch as she collected the Dragon Flame, observing her every move.
But really, he also wanted to make sure of how much Dragon Flame the Old Witch took from him.
After all, honesty was a rare treasure among witches.
The Hearthstone Great Witch used thirteen glass bottles to collect the Dragon Flame from the three Formal Knights' corpses. By the time she had painstakingly finished, sweat covered her forehead.
"Phew~"
"I finally finished collecting it."
"These three corpses are useless now. The Dragon Flame burned up all their supernatural organs inside. Even I couldn't extract a single bit of supernatural material from them."
She kicked one of the knight's corpses over. When it fell, it triggered a domino effect: the other two corpses were struck in turn, then toppled to the ground and broke apart.
Then, from the fragments of Knight Manuel's corpse, she found a somewhat incomplete, deformed heart.
The Hearthstone Witch's eyes gleamed with fervor. "This thing contains powerful Dragon Magic. You could call it an inferior dragon heart."
"Unbelievable, unbelievable! You only touched him once, and his bloodline mutated to this extent?"
What incredible power.
At that moment, along with her fear of Yveta, the Old Witch felt a measure of worship for his power.
The Old Witch said excitedly, "The other organs are unusable, but this alone is already priceless."
Yveta cut short her excitement. "It sounds pretty good. You can hold on to this heart for me. I'm not planning to sell it yet. It might be useful to me someday."
After all, he had once transformed into a dragon. A dragon's heart might prove extremely useful to him in the future.
As for the Dragon Flame, he would use it to make money and keep the witch close for now.
The Old Witch's spirits sank when she heard this.
But she knew that the dragon's heart might indeed be very useful to Yveta someday.
Especially when he advanced from Wizard Apprentice to Formal Wizard.
Yveta continued, "Hearthstone Witch, the four magical accessories you gave me only cover the cost of eight blossoms of Dragon Flame, but there are five left over."
"You'll have to pay for those five."
The Hearthstone Witch stiffened, because she really didn't have any money.
As a witch, she had never been in the habit of saving. And her previous stock of magical supplies had been almost entirely used up in the Magic Awakening Ritual.
But she didn't dare haggle with a demon god.
Besides, she couldn't resist her interest in the Dragon Flame. If she could study it, she might uncover the secret to advancing to a Fourth Order profession.
The Hearthstone Witch asked, "Your Grace, Dragon Flame is rare even when money can buy it, so it's difficult to set a price. How much do you want for it?"
"But Dragon Flame is priceless only to those who need it. To those who don't, it's merely a dangerous substance that's difficult to handle."
Yveta had no intention of giving the Hearthstone Witch a hard time. After all, she was more or less his subordinate.
He considered the prices in this world. "Leili said this house is worth forty pounds. So one blossom of Dragon Flame should be worth about as much as a house."
"So you should pay me two hundred pounds."
The Old Witch nodded. "All right."
The price was already extremely cheap.
She even felt that the demon god was practically giving it to her for free. If the witches at the witches' gathering found out about this price, those old hags would surely go mad and accuse His Grace the Demon God of ruining the market.
Rare things were precious. Dragon Flame was incredibly difficult to obtain, so it certainly wouldn't come cheap.
"Your Grace, I don't have any money on hand right now. Could I owe you? Don't worry, I'll be staying by your side for the time being anyway."
The Old Witch wanted to cry. She wanted to run away too.
For now, she could only take things one step at a time and hope to find her Beloved Disciple in the Viscount Ambrose's Independent State. Then the two of them could figure out how to deal with the enormous nuisance that was the demon god.
Yveta was somewhat moved.
Why? Because he owed Black Wolf a lot of money, and he owed Leili a lot of money. But no matter what, there was still someone who owed him money.
That made Yveta feel like he wasn't the world's biggest debtor after all.
The following afternoon, Leili was ready to accompany Yveta and the others to the Viscount Ambrose's Independent State.
Since the house couldn't come with them, he simply sold the ruined building at a low price to the headman of a nearby village.
He sold it for little more than the cost of the materials: just eighteen shillings.
But Leili didn't mind. The house had already earned him a brighter future.
If Yveta could seize territory and become a lord someday, Leili might become a minor noble and reclaim his family name.
As for the inn's employees, Leili had given most of them some money and let them go.
They were all villagers from the surrounding area, and there was no way they would travel with Yveta and the others.
Only one employee remained.
Leili brought her to the carriage and said to Yveta, who sat inside, "My honored master, this is Alicia."
Yveta sat in the carriage Leili had prepared and looked down. Beside Leili stood a woman with fair skin, light flaxen hair, and roughspun clothes. A timid boy of four or five stood behind her.
A look of embarrassment appeared on Leili's face. "It's like this, master. Alicia is one of my longtime employees. For certain reasons, her father threw her out of the house."
"She has nowhere to live at the moment, so she's been staying at the inn."
"She'd like to ask whether she can come with us."
Yveta glanced at the woman, then lost interest. It was easy to guess why she had been thrown out.
The reason a young woman would have a child but no father around wasn't hard to figure out.
Still, he had no need to take on a burden.
The Old Witch turned her head away, wholly uninterested.
Black Wolf, the Demon Hunter, immediately objected. "Leili, you should know we're still being hunted. We're going to the Viscount Ambrose's Independent State to find land and an army."
"We're not going sightseeing."
Leili opened his mouth, then said nothing.
Alicia suddenly spoke to Yveta. "My lord, I can do many things. I believe I'd be worth bringing along. If you take us in, I can be useful in many ways."
"I can keep accounts."
"I can do all the things a servant does: clean rooms, wash clothes, and drive a carriage and care for horses. I know the difference between good fodder and ordinary fodder, and I know how to maintain weapons."
She had learned a great deal about weapon maintenance from working among groups of adventurers before. It was a useful trade, one that could put food on the table and be passed down through a family.
"If you hire me, I won't ask for any wages. I only ask that you give us enough to eat."
Alicia had seen Yveta bargaining with the Old Witch. She knew that the only way she might be allowed to come along was to show what she had to offer in return.
She needed somewhere safe to stay.
Before you continue