14 – 14. Manufacturing
It had been ten days since I entrusted the op*ium business to Alan.
At this point, the Second Princess of the Empire, Sienna Kalla, was facing an unwelcome visitor.
“Sister, did that Alan Medof abandon us?”
Sienna’s forehead slightly wrinkled at such a question.
In fact, she hadn’t been in a good mood for the past ten minutes. The sudden guest who arrived without notice was a somewhat unpleasant person.
Although Sienna rarely liked anyone, the girl sitting in front of her was particularly irritating.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say, Anais.”
Anais, her step-sister, had come all the way to Temsgong, whether she had forgotten the memory of being stepped on in front of their biological mother.
The pretext for her visit was an apology.
However, after the actual face-to-face meeting, she continued to bring up irrelevant topics, mocking, “You don’t even want to apologize to me anyway,” without any intention of apologizing.
Siena knew better than anyone that Anais was cornered.
But there was no reason to meddle in her relationship with her subordinates to that extent. Siena glared at her sister for a while and then pouted.
“It was Alan who cleared me of the accusation of poisoning that you put on me. Why would I reject him? If it weren’t for Alan, I would have been stamped as a murderer by now.”
“Always with the poison…! No, forget it. I’m asking because I heard something anyway.”
“I don’t know what you heard.”
“I heard that Alan Medov is running errands these days. He even ordered top hats, masatos, and even animal feed. I heard he was seen at the blacksmith and the herbalist too.”
“…”
“The lower ranks told me. It must have been a coincidence that they witnessed it.”
What coincidence. It seemed like they intentionally stuck people to spy. Siena chuckled, revealing her sister’s shameless face.
Despite personal feelings, she still had a beautiful face.
However, compared to the past, there was a subtle… very subtle sense of fading. Perhaps due to a pimple on the forehead or slightly split hair tips.
Perhaps because of the feeling, her gaze seemed a bit more secretive. It was evidence of a significant sense of guilt.
‘I didn’t know she would go as far as to monitor Alan.’
There was no need to ask why she was doing this.
Anais, chewing on her lips, finally brought up the main topic.
“Sister. I still can’t forget that he was whimpering in front of me with the poison.”
“…”
“Of course, it must have been something you ordered. There’s no way someone who knows how to wield a knife would do that on their own. …But what’s important is my feelings. Every time I recall that face, my teeth start to chatter.”
In reality, it was Alan’s cunning plan. But for now, I decided to listen to what she was muttering.
“So?”
“Just hand it over to me. Seeing how the bodyguard has been reduced to a laborer, it seems even Sister has fallen for that person.”
“…”
“I’m different from Sister, so I won’t kill. I’ll just put them on a boat. About ten years on the trade ship going back and forth to the East? Ah, it would be nice to hand over the new recruit of that person named Bono as well.”
Anais seemed convinced that Alan had been abandoned for some reason.
It wasn’t a groundless misconception. In fact, Alan’s recent actions were somewhat strange.
Recently, Alan had been wandering around in civilian clothes, buying all sorts of miscellaneous items.
When he heard that Alan had obtained lime, he passed it off, but when he heard that he had ordered three types of sawdust from the lumberyard, each with a different particle size, he thought it was strange. He had also obtained various miscellaneous ingredients.
“I didn’t ask. That was the agreement.”
It was indeed suspicious.
But contrary to Anais’s conviction, Siena did not abandon Alan. She was just waiting for him to produce results.
Siena tapped the table and fell into a moment of silence.
Was it because of that attitude that she saw potential? Anais threw a plausible suggestion with a flickering gaze.
“Alan Medofran Bonomiller. If you hand over those two individuals, I will resign.”
“Quit the academy?”
“Yeah. Wasn’t that Sister’s wish? I’m not participating in any external activities to pressure you. … Anyway, I have the intention to quit because enduring each day for Sister is hell. In return, I only ask for the two resources Sister has already abandoned.”
Having said this, Anais lifted the corners of her mouth. It was a somewhat eerie smile.
“She’s messed up too.”
Of course, in Siena’s eyes, she was still at the cute level.
But it could be felt that Anais, who used to act as a good girl even if it was fake, now had nothing but venom.
My attachment to the academy was so strong that I was willing to use Anaïs’ withdrawal as a condition for revenge.
I had no intention of accepting. While it was true that I wanted Anaïs to withdraw, Alan was a valuable resource to give up for that.
“Sorry, but just withdrawing is not enough anymore.”
“What? After all I’ve done…!”
From Noble mtl dot com
“It’s not a bad thing for you to continue attending the academy. It’s not easy these days to keep an eye on professors and classmates, right? …When you think about it, there might even be times when you come face to face with the relatives of the people sacrificed in your place. That would be ironic too.”
“…You’re insane, Sienna.”
Sienna laughed and brushed off her sister’s curse. Then Anaïs muttered something again and quickly left.
Negotiations were over.
“But it still brings joy in the end.”
Is this what friendship between classmates is? Sienna laughed and got up.
Because of what her sister said, she suddenly wanted to look into Alan’s business.
They had promised not to interfere, but she could at least observe. She wanted to know why he was bothering with all this instead of just selling it when it was worth a lot of money.
Soon, Sienna headed towards the modest villa she had lent to Adam of Medoph Pharmaceuticals.
She did it with the feeling of taking a casual look around and coming back.
However, as the building got closer, Sienna’s face faintly frowned.
“What on earth are you doing?”
It was because of a suspicious smell in the air.
**
After hiring the Bonneau brothers,
I employed them to decorate a well-ventilated production room and personally obtained the materials needed for production.
The urgent need right now is for sodium hydroxide and ammonium chloride, and containers of various sizes with heat resistance.
The last one was hard to find, but it wasn’t something money couldn’t buy. Still, even in fantasy, there was heat-resistant magic. It was priced very expensively.
And besides, I also ordered things that were not immediately necessary.
Top hats, matsuto, leaning walls, and hanchun, etc. All of these were preparations for artificially cultivating the silocivin loved by the empress.
They were things that could be prepared over time, but there was a reason I had ordered them in advance.
It was because I felt the gaze watching me from afar.
I had purchased several types of unnecessary items for interference. It was a cunning move because exposing information was not a good thing.
Was I being overly cautious?
‘No. Anyway, I’ll have to distribute it soon.’
These days, I was working day and night on the production.
Mixing, precipitation, filtration, and heating.
Breaking down morphine and dividing the finished product into sealed containers could be left to the Bono brothers, but I had been handling the production alone for several days now. It was because I judged that it was not yet time to share the entire manufacturing process with others.
‘This is such a hassle.’
Sometimes I wondered what I was doing. Not feeling self-loathing, but genuinely tired.
But what can I do? I have to endure.
While repeating this mantra, just as I was about to add ammonium chloride obtained from the herbalist to the mixture –
“Alan?”
I heard a voice calling me. And it was a woman’s voice.
It was obvious who would come this far. I stopped my work and finally stepped out of the manufacturing room.
“There you were, Alan.”
49 percent of the investors who held shares were looking at me strangely.
They had been silent and observing all this time, but now it seems like impatience is creeping in. Considering the nature of Siena, they have been patient for quite some time, even though it hasn’t been that long.
“Your Highness, I apologize for my humble appearance.”
“It is true that it is humble, but it’s okay. …By the way, can I ask what you are doing now? If you think this is interference, you don’t have to answer.”
“Of course, I am currently manufacturing medicine.”
“…It seems like it requires quite a lot of effort. Judging by your appearance.”
I just smiled.
“I didn’t waste time for no reason.”
“That’s right. Looking at the facilities here, it seems like I’ve used up all the cash I invested. I believe I didn’t invest in vain… It means that the efficacy is significantly better than the op*ium wine made by removing only the useless parts.”
“You are correct, Your Highness.”
“Is it better than the medicine I created?”
If it’s the medicine Siena made, it’s op*ium wine with op*ium dissolved in port wine. It was something she experimented with and invented on her own. It was excellent for entertainment purposes, but it couldn’t compare to the product she just made.
“It certainly has superior efficacy.”
“Then, when…?”
“We already have a completed quantity. Would you like to see it?”
As I said that, I showed her the product.
A white crystalline powder. It was morphine.
A narcotic with pain-relieving effects that are ten times stronger than regular op*ium wine.
Siena nodded her head while looking closely at it. Even though she didn’t know the details, she must have guessed that it was a concentrated product with powerful effects. She seemed curious about where and how to sell such a product, but thankfully, she didn’t ask.
However, she kindly gave me a warning.
“Alan. Many people are watching you. You don’t need to know who they are.”
“Yes. I was aware.”
“It’s best to be careful so that things don’t explode. They’ll try to find any weakness. If it were my business, I would have supported you, but it’s not, is it?”
“Just your warning is appreciated.”
Siena turned on her heel as if to say, “Handle it yourself,” upon hearing those words.
What she said just now was sincere. I already knew that there were many eyes watching me, but I didn’t mind.
Even that attention was something I intended to use for my business. The thoughts during the morphine production were actually about that.
The completed morphine alone exceeded 15 kilograms, and it was expected to continue increasing in the future.
This was a quantity that should never be foolishly disposed of.