“Hello, I’m Mi Luosha, a nun from the Witch Church in Blackwater Town.” The woman introduced herself. She looked to be just over twenty, and her figure was quite striking. Her black nun’s habit did little to hide her curves.

The nuns in your Church sure have something going for them.

That was what Tori was thinking when Mi Luosha voiced her doubts. “Miss Tori, you look quite young.”

“I’m eight.” Tori had nothing to hide. If the other woman wanted to investigate, she could find out anyway. “But that doesn’t stop me from acting as the store manager. I don’t think it has anything to do with why you came here, either. The young master is taking care of something else. If you think you can trust me, tell me why you’re here and I’ll pass it on to him. If not, please come back another time.”

She gestured for Lydia to pour Miss Mi Luosha some tea. The Witch’s House was a business, after all, so they had made sure to stock everything they might need to entertain guests.

Mi Luosha furrowed her brow. “Do you have the authority to make decisions for your store?”

“That depends on what kind of decision you mean.” Tori gave nothing away. “Why don’t you tell me what brought you here first?”

This little girl… Mi Luosha couldn’t help but take her more seriously. She composed herself and tried to lighten the mood, speaking as if they were making casual conversation. “It’s really nothing major, so I think it should be fine to tell you. If you can’t make the decision, you can let your young master know.”

Tori wore a polite, practiced smile. “Go ahead.”

“We heard you’re selling Miniature Meditation Potions?” This wasn’t a question. It was a fact. Mi Luosha asked anyway because she wanted to see how Tori would react.

Just then, Lydia brought over the two cups of tea she’d brewed. Tori picked up her cup and took a sip. “The young master is the third son of the lord of Dais City. He opened this store himself and sells Meditation Potions. I don’t see a problem with that.”

“Of course. As the third young master, he’s free to do that.” Mi Luosha readily admitted as much. “But aren’t you selling too many?”

Tori looked a little puzzled. “As far as I know, the Church’s weekly potion quota is already too small to meet Blackwater Town’s demand. The amount we sell doesn’t affect your business. Plenty of people trust the Church more and prefer to buy from you. They only come here when they can’t get what they need from you. Does that count as too much?”

“Miss Tori, if you were selling other Potions, there’d be nothing to discuss. But Meditation Potions are the sort of thing that should have a limit on how many can be sold.”

“That’s an interesting way to put it. Is this about maintaining some kind of delicate balance?” Tori’s gaze sharpened. She crossed her legs and clasped her hands, leaning forward slightly. Though she was only a little girl, she gave off an intense, intimidating presence that was impossible to ignore.

“You should think about it this way, Miss Tori. Could the Church make more Meditation Potions?” Mi Luosha held Tori’s gaze. “If you knew more about the matter, you’d understand that in most places, Meditation Potions come from the Church.”

Tori tapped her fingers against the table, as if deep in thought. “Are you about to tell me that the balance between nations is maintained entirely by the Witch Church? That you provide each country with a quota of Meditation Potions based on its population and strength, all to keep the nations in balance and maintain peace in the world?”

Mi Luosha’s eyes widened. Tori’s words had clearly shocked her. After staring at Tori for a while, she picked up her teacup and took a sip. Only then did she meet Tori’s gaze again. “I think I understand why that young master from Dais City chose a girl like you to manage his store.”

“You flatter me.”

“Since you understand, you should see that selling a small number of potions wouldn’t be a problem. In fact, Miniature Meditation Potions don’t have much influence on a country’s strength. But I can see that you—and that young master—have ambitions beyond that.” She continued smoothly, “This is exactly the kind of thing we need to stop before it gets out of hand. If we don’t step in here, what about the other stores that haven’t been allowed to sell similar products because of our intervention?”

“You’re right. But there’s something I’d like you to answer.” Tori had no intention of arguing with her. She simply asked, “Is the Witch Church an organization that serves the Witch?”

“Of course.”

“Does the Witch know that you’re maintaining the balance of the world?”

Mi Luosha reacted as if she’d heard something blasphemous. She was almost angry, and clearly incredulous. “You can’t say things like that so casually, Miss Tori.”

“Is that a subject we’re not allowed to touch?” Tori took a small sip of tea. By now, she’d taken control of the negotiation. “I don’t know who sent you or what your real intentions are. But either way, this is Blackwater Town, under the jurisdiction of Dais City. Our boss is the son of Dais City’s lord. Does the Witch Church have enough power to interfere in a country like this?”

“I doubt it. Otherwise, someone would’ve come to shut down my store today instead of negotiating with me. Don’t you agree?”

To be honest, Tori didn’t really want to make an enemy of the Witch Church. She’d been planning to learn a little about the Witch Church’s knowledge, and if they fell out, that would be much harder.

“This conversation hasn’t been pleasant, Miss Tori. I think you’d better discuss this with that young master. You don’t have the authority to make a decision this big yourself, do you?”

She stood, traced a symbol on her chest that was something like a circle, but not quite, then left.

Tori didn’t frown and fall into thought until Mi Luosha had left the store completely.

The Witch Church’s position was strange. According to Ethan, the Witch ruled the Demon Realm. If she only wanted to maintain her own rule, there was no need for her to be so secretive.

Like burning books and burying scholars, couldn’t she simply wipe out the Potion Makers’ legacy? Wouldn’t banning Meditation Potions be better?

But in reality, she hadn’t done that.

It was very strange. Were the Witch Church and the Witch really on the same side? Tori still knew far too little about this world. Maybe she should look for some history books or something.

Being ignorant was no good.

For now, she set the matter aside and went back to brewing a miniature healing potion. She felt like she was close to succeeding. It shouldn’t take much longer—

“I heard someone from the Witch Church came by today?” Ethan walked into Tori’s “laboratory.” Tori dropped a piece of tree fruit into the liquid and used her magic to compress the solution in the test tube.

She answered Ethan casually. “Yeah. They warned us not to sell too many Meditation Potions, saying we should maintain some kind of balance. What do you think?”

“Balance my ass.”

Ethan didn’t mince words. “The Witch Church is a huge organization, but it used to be the Holy Church. They worshipped the previous Creator. But after the Witch defeated the Creator and stripped him of his position as Ruler of the Demon Realm, they changed their name to the Witch Church and started preaching that they worshipped the Witch.”

“So you’re saying they’re not exactly a good organization?”

“I wouldn’t put it that way.” Ethan scratched his head. “They do help people, actually. If there’s a disaster somewhere, they’ll help with relief efforts. They look after homeless kids and encourage people to do good, that sort of thing.”

“I see…”

Ethan shook his head. “But they’re too arrogant. I don’t know if they really want world peace by maintaining this balance, or if they just want to be the only hidden power pulling the strings. They want status and a good reputation. It’s far too arrogant. Too presumptuous. Every country is secretly building up its own strength, after all. What they’re doing will only make the conflict even fiercer when it comes. In the end, they might not even be able to protect themselves.”

“So what do you think we should do?” Tori asked.

Ethan looked worried. “We should keep selling, of course. My only concern is that the Witch Church in Blackwater Town might be conspiring with some of my dear brothers and sisters. They might be planning to do something nasty to us. The Witch Church has a pretty good reputation, so they could, for example, accuse our potions of being defective. It’s not impossible.”

“Do you have a way to deal with that?”

“Do you have a way to deal with it?”

Tori thought for a moment. “In a situation like this, there are roughly two ways to handle it. One is to prove the Witch Church is lying. The other is to get someone influential to publicly support us—someone the locals trust. The mayor, for example?”

“That probably isn’t realistic.”

“Then all we can do is prove the Witch Church is lying~”

Ethan thought that would be difficult too. His expression darkened.

Tori grinned. “There’s another way, but it’s pretty shameless.”

“What?”

“We make the first move! We accuse them before they can accuse us, and go after the Witch Church as hard as we can. That’ll keep them busy trying to defend themselves. If we can bring down the Witch Church here in town, we’ll have a monopoly. Ethan, no matter what the business is, a monopoly means profit. You get what I mean?”

“But that’s way too much!”

Tori spread her hands. “Then we can just sit here and wait for someone else to come after us~ This is business competition, Young Master Ethan. Do you even know what ‘by any means necessary’ means?”

Ethan thought for a while, then called Yabu over. “Uncle Yabu, can you take us into the Witch Church tonight? I want to find out what they’re planning to do next.”

“Of course, young master. As you wish.”

“You go by yourself. I won’t come with you. I feel like the healing potion is almost ready. I’ll work hard and see if I can come up with the best formula by next week.”