Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted

Chapter 417: A Poisonous Scheme

“Eat slowly.”

Loren wiped Anna's mouth with a handkerchief, but his attention wasn't here.

Gwen had been following Lane the entire time, watching his every move step by step.

Lane's plan was meticulous, very similar to Loren's own plan; he had long arranged spies around every family's estate.

He tallied the time it took for the rumors to reach each location, ultimately pinpointing a specific area and identifying the zone where the rumors first appeared.

At the same time, he listed the nobles living nearby and specifically marked a few among them.

These marked nobles were all from the families of Loren's students. Lane first calculated the distance from their homes to that area, then made numerous other calculations.

He calculated the time it took for students to return home from school, and how long it took for family members to send people to that area.

William was right; Lane was indeed very clever, but there was little he could do about this problem.

He couldn't possibly determine their speed, and making these calculations was mostly useless.In the end, however, Lane narrowed down the range. He identified a family that was at an appropriate distance and had also purchased an invisibility cloak from the Langton family.

To this day, they had found no useful leads, so Lane speculated that the culprit might be using something similar to an invisibility cloak.

“Lane, any leads on the new rumors?”

William pushed open Lane's door, looked at the densely packed formulas and diagrams written on the blackboard, and asked.

“The clues I've found might be useless…”

Lane crushed the chalk in his hand, feeling somewhat dejected.

“What about the magical potions? Do you have any ideas?

“The family has produced a large batch of magical potions and started selling them, but due to the rumors, very few people are buying.”

“I have a way.”

Lane suddenly revealed a vicious expression. William didn't find this particularly strange and asked:

“What way?”

“Do you still remember those drugs that came from the Uridia Kingdom?”

“…”

As soon as Lane said that, William immediately understood his meaning, but he didn't show any joy:

“You mean… imitate them?”

“Yes, I've studied the composition of this magical potion. It was probably modified by Master Mentor—powerful but without side effects. Generally, magical potions that affect people's minds always have some side effects, like addiction.

“We can further improve the potion by adding addictiveness to it. That's much easier than removing it.

“Then, when the time comes, we can force them to drink the first bottle of the potion, and the rest will be easy.”

Saying this, Lane let out a cold laugh:

“We can't find the mastermind behind the scenes, but dealing with these common rabble is much simpler.”

“But Master Mentor really hates these things…”

William had many concerns. Now, no matter what he did, he always prioritized Loren's feelings above all else.

“Then I'm out of ideas. At best, I could figure out a way to poison you and seize power myself, so I won't be restrained by you and can accomplish more.”

“You know, my Intuition is very strong. I would sense something wrong before even drinking the poison.

“As for your plan… I'll go talk to Master Mentor about it…”

Aside from the plan Lane had just proposed, William couldn't think of any other options.

“Remember to give this to Master Mentor. It's my deduction.”

Before William left, Lane handed him a piece of paper. Written on it was his latest deduction and a list of the suspicious nobles.

“Alright.”

William glanced at the contents of the paper and agreed to Lane's request.

…

Through Gwen, Loren saw the entire process.

The mastermind behind the scenes was far too cautious—so cautious that even Loren could do nothing about it.

But Loren hadn't come away empty-handed. While Lane had people watching, Movila was also monitoring the corresponding areas. Moreover, Loren had retrieved some Abyssal Gaze Eyes from the Witches in advance and gave them all to Movila, effectively giving Loren a drone.

Loren wouldn't be affected by cognitive interference, and his memory was incredibly sharp. He could remember every face he saw.

So not only did Loren know the exact area where the rumors first appeared, he also saw the people who traveled from that zone to the second area where the rumors appeared.

But there were too many people, and the Abyssal Gaze Eyes were limited; Loren couldn't track everyone.

Although he ultimately didn't catch the culprit, it confirmed to Loren that this approach was viable.

The next time rumors spread, Loren would be able to catch him.

Then Loren would simply arrest every suspicious person one by one and interrogate them. With Requiem in hand, Loren wasn't afraid he wouldn't get results.

At the same time, Loren was also considering the feasibility of Lane's plan. Though simple and crude, it was effective, but the cost was a bit heavy.

However, that cost didn't need to be borne by Loren. As long as Loren's conscience was clear, the plan still had more benefits than drawbacks for him.

Even if it might affect Loren's prestige, the impact on his reputation wouldn't be as severe as the rumors.

The plan could also be improved. For example, first sell the normal potions at a low price, tally those who didn't buy, give them one warning, and if that still didn't work, force-feed them the addictive potion.

Lane's guess was correct. The original Clarity Potion did have addictive properties; Loren had simply removed them.

Inside the restaurant, someone recognized Loren, but they said nothing. The memory of those who had died was still fresh in their minds, and they feared that if they said one wrong word, Loren would drag them to the Altar.

By the time Loren finished his thoughts, Anna had already cleaned the entire table of food.

She had truly tried everything on the menu, picked out the best dishes, and ordered dozens more servings.

Loren was too busy thinking to eat much himself.

Loren looked down. His own plate was piled high with food, all the best items Anna had selected.

Loren felt a warmth in his heart and stroked Anna's hair. Anna showed a look of pure bliss.

Even so, Loren didn't eat much. He picked a few things, took a bite, and then pushed his plate over to Anna.

This time, Anna ate with extra relish, especially the food Loren had already bitten.

With Anna around, Loren never had to worry about wasting food. When eating out, he never needed to take leftovers home.

“Are you full? If so, let's head back.”

Through Gwen, Loren saw that William and Lane were already waiting at the door of Loren's house.

William kept clutching his chest, feeling a sense of unease. Ever since the rumors appeared, the anxiety in William's heart had rarely subsided, so much so that he was considering asking Loren for treatment.