In order to learn magic better, Ivita stood by as the old witch harvested dragon flame, observing her actions.
But also, he was making sure the old witch wasn't taking more dragon flame than necessary.
After all, honesty is a luxury good to witches.
The Hearthstone Grand Witch filled thirteen glass bottles with dragon flame from the corpses of three official knights. After she finished, she was sweating heavily.
"Phew~"
"Finally collected it all."
"These three bodies are useless now. The dragon flame has destroyed all their extraordinary organs. Even I wouldn't be able to extract anything extraordinary," said the witch.
She kicked one of the knight's body, causing a domino effect, knocking the other two to the ground and shattering them.
Then, she found a somewhat incomplete and deformed heart from the shards of Knight Manuel's body.
The Hearthstone Witch's eyes burned with passion. "This thing is imbued with powerful dragon magic. It could be an inferior dragon heart."
"Incredible, just incredible. You touched him once and his bloodline mutated to this extent!"
Such great power astounded her.
At this moment, the old witch felt both fear and adoration for Ivita's power.
The old witch excitedly said, "The other organs are useless now, but this alone is an invaluable treasure!"
Ivita interrupted her excitement, saying, "That sounds good. You can keep this heart for me. I'm not ready to sell it yet. It might come in handy later."
After all, he had once turned into a dragon, so a dragon heart might be very useful later.
As for the dragon flame, it is better to use it to gain money and trap the witch for now.
The old witch deflated upon hearing this.
But she also knew that the dragon's heart might indeed be of great use to Ivita in the future.
Especially during the stage when a wizard apprentice advances to become a full-fledged wizard.
Ivita went on, "Hearthstone witch, the four pieces of magic jewelry you gave me can only offset eight dragon flames, but there are still five left over."
"These extra five, you need to pay for."
The Hearthstone witch stiffened, since she was broke.
As a witch, she did not have the habit of saving money, and her magic reserves had been almost depleted in the Magic Awakening Ritual.
However, she did not have the courage to bargain with the Demon God.
Moreover, her interest in the dragon flame was irresistible. If she could study the dragon flame, it may lead to the mystery of advancing to a forth sequence practitioner.
Hearthstone witch asked, "Your Majestic, Dragon flame is priceless on the market, so it's hard to price. How much are you asking?"
"But dragon flame is only priceless to those who need it, to those who don't, it's nothing but a dangerous and difficult substance to handle."
Ivita had no intention to make things difficult for the Hearthstone witch. After all, she was somewhat of his subordinate.
He pondered the prices of this world. "Rayli said this house was worth 40 gold pounds, so one dragon flame should be about the price of a house."
"So, you should pay me 200 gold pounds."
The old witch nodded her head. "Okay."
This price was very cheap.
She even felt that the Demon God was giving her something for free. If the witches in the witch assembly knew about this price, those old hags would definitely go crazy and accuse the Demon God of destroying market prices.
The rarer the goods, the higher the price. Dragon flame was difficult to obtain, so its price could not be cheap.
"Your Highness, I don't have any money right now. I can owe you. Don't worry, I'll be with you for a while anyway."
The old witch wanted to weep but had no tears left, she wanted to escape.
At present, she could only play it by ear, hoping to find her apprentice in Viscount Ambros' Independent Country, and then figure out how to get rid of this big trouble the Demon God represented.
Ivita was somewhat touched.
Why? Because he owed a lot of money to Black Wolf and Rayli, but anyway, there was someone who owed him money.
This made Ivita feel like he was not the King of Debts.
The next afternoon, Rayli had prepared to head to the Viscount Ambros' Independent Country with Ivita.
Since the house couldn't move, he decided to sell the ruins of the house to the village head at a cut-price deal.
He practically sold it at material cost, for just 18 shillings.
But Rayli didn't care because this house had been exchanged for a great future.
As long as Ivita could seize the territory and become a Lord in the future, he might become a lower nobleman and regain his family's surname.
As for the employee's at the inn, most of them had already been dismissed by Rayli.
These employees were villagers nearby and wouldn't come along with Ivita.
Only one employee was left.
Rayli brought this employee to the carriage and said to Ivita who was in the carriage, "My respected master, this is Alysia."
Ivita sat in the carriage that Rayli had prepared. He looked down and saw a woman with fair skin, light linen hair, dressed in coarse clothes, standing next to Rayli. Behind her was a timid boy aged 4-5 years.
Rayli looked embarrassed. "The thing is, my master, Alysia is my old employee. Because of some reasons, she has been kicked out of her house by her father."
"She has nowhere to live now and usually stayed in the inn."
"She wants to ask if she could go with us?"
Ivita glanced at the woman, and it was not hard for him to guess why she was kicked out.
A young girl with a child, but no father. It wasn't hard to guess.
However, he had no need to bring unnecessary trouble.
The old witch turned her head away, indifferent to the matter.
Black Wolf, the Demon Hunter, immediately countered. "Rayli, you should be aware that we're being hunted. We're going to Viscount Ambros's Independent Country to look for land and an army."
"We are not going on a sightseeing trip."
Rayli opened his mouth but remained silent.
Alysia suddenly said to Ivita, "Sir, I can do a lot of things, and I think it's worth it for you to take me along. If you could provide us shelter, I could prove to be very useful."
"I can do bookkeeping."
"I can do all the jobs that a servant can do, cleaning the room, washing clothes, even driving the carriage and feeding horses. I know the difference between good and ordinary oats. I know how to maintain weapons."
Thanks to previous work with adventurers, she also picked up knowledge on maintaining weapons, which could be considered a useful skill.
"If you hire me, I won't take any wages as long as you can provide us with a meal."
Alysia had seen Ivita and the old witch haggling, so she knew she had to demonstrate her value to be taken along.
She needed a sanctuary.