Lord Jamie, whether he understood my feelings or not, was lunging toward the glass Liston was holding.
"Give that to me!"
"Hahaha!"
Fortunately, Liston was a much larger man than Lord Jamie.
Add physical strength to that, and the difference was almost like that between an adult man and a child.
Well…
Lately, Lord Jamie had been exercising a bit, but still, his innate physique wasn't going anywhere.
Besides, Lord Jamie was an old man with diabetes and a self-inflicted castration, while Liston, though a bit lacking in brains, was still a spry man in his thirties.
Moreover, Liston had also recently started working out.
At first, he'd complained, saying things like, "What if it just gets weaker the more you use it?" or "Does this repetitive strength training really help with improving strength or muscle growth?" but once he started feeling the empirical results, he couldn't stop.
"Y-you! Give it to me! Are you mocking a Duke of the British Empire now?!"
"Why don't you drink the liquor over there?"
"This… this doesn't taste the same, I tell you!"
"Hoh… this really is a nasty substance."
This, too, could be considered one of Liston's talents.
Whether it was because he was just brimming with male hormones or something, even doing the same exercises, his muscle growth was different.
As someone who had been working out consistently for two or three years now—not in secret, just openly—I felt a sense of futility.
Who would have thought that Liston's one month would be far more effective than my entire year?
I wondered if he was secretly grinding up rooster testicles or something…
But since he wasn't an ordinary 19th-century man anymore, that probably wasn't the case.
No, to even think of grinding up rooster testicles or injecting them would require a primitive understanding of 'hormones,' so he probably hadn't even considered it.
"W-well, you were right. This seems more terrifying than opium? It seems even a noble like Lord Jamie can't handle it."
"Right? The effects are strange. Now that you mention it…"
"Now that you mention it?"
"No, it's nothing."
Earlier, it seemed like the chemist guy had bloodshot eyes.
That… from what I know, it's a symptom related to cocaine…
Ah, you might wonder how I know such a thing.
It's not like I knew it from the start.
Until I was a student, South Korea was a drug-free zone.
But at some point, free zone my foot—it became a country where, if you had the courage to risk getting caught by the police, you could get drugs delivered anywhere in Seoul within 20 minutes.
With other issues, you might be able to take your time and see, but drugs aren't like that, are they?
They weren't just something that caused long-term harm.
'I saw people die right before my eyes…'
It's not just stuff like fentanyl that kills people.
Cocaine might seem better because it's derived from a natural substance and is expensive, but…
This stuff has a fast and short duration of action, and since it constricts blood vessels, the risk of sudden death is incredibly high.
No wonder when patients in their 20s and 30s with no underlying conditions came in with heart attacks, cocaine was the first thing suspected.
'That guy needs to be put under management too.'
Anyway, since that guy was also abusing laughing gas, I'd have to do something about him once Lord Jamie was dealt with.
He's a capable person… Shouldn't we use him for a long, long time?
"Ugh… hmm."
Even while I was lost in thought, Lord Jamie moved with an agility that defied logic, considering his age, illnesses, and lack of testicles.
If his opponent had been me instead of Liston, he probably would have caught me.
But Liston evaded him with ease, and as a result, Lord Jamie exhausted himself without being able to consume more alcohol and cocaine.
Though it was called a tonic, it wasn't actually bringing forth nonexistent energy but was a stimulant that made you unaware of how tired you were, so the backlash was tremendous.
"Ugh… why does my body feel so heavy?"
After coming down, Lord Jamie looked like he had aged ten or twenty years in those few minutes.
Frankly, I thought it wouldn't be surprising if he dropped dead right then and there.
'If he had taken it a few more times like that, he would have been gone for good…'
He didn't seem like someone who had much lifespan left anyway.
Compared to his contemporary, Lord Damian, Lord Jamie's frailty was on another level.
It was because he had messed up his own life, and this time, he almost topped it off.
Anyway, Lord Jamie soon regained his senses.
"What was I… why did I do that?"
Then, being a smart man, he quickly noticed something strange about his behavior moments earlier.
"It seems I wasn't completely out of my mind."
"What… what do you mean? Was I poisoned? With a toxin?"
"It seems almost like a toxin, now that I see it."
Liston sat down in front of him and showed him the glass and white powder he had snatched earlier.
Realization dawned on Lord Jamie immediately—the white powder was the problem.
"That chemist bastard?"
At the same time, a murderous glint appeared in his eyes.
I'd heard he wasn't originally such a cruel and ruthless person.
Since it was his friend Lord Damian who said it, I needed to take it with a grain of salt, but…
Even to me, the culprit was Harry.
The guy who was locked up in prison and then miserably killed on Lord Jamie's orders.
That guy had turned people into this.
If the opponent was a bastard like Harry, it might be justified to kill him a hundred or a thousand times, but the chemist couldn't be killed.
Compared to Harry… was he better?
In some ways, he seemed worse—making cocaine and distributing it to others…
"He probably didn't have bad intentions. When I saw him, he seemed regretful?"
"Ah, is that so?"
"He probably thought it was just something like opium."
"Ah, aah. Now that you mention it, it did feel a bit like that. Hmm… I see."
Since he was, in a way, my subordinate, I threw him a shield.
You bastard…
Be grateful.
I saved your life.
I framed it as if you were just an opium distributor, not a poisoner.
Even as I said it, it felt a bit strange, but…
Anyway.
"Pyeong Yeong-sin."
"Yes?"
I was feeling proud, thinking I'd saved a person's life, when Lord Jamie called me.
He had a rather unpleasant expression on his face.
What kind of expression, you ask?
The same expression he had when he brought up the Opium War.
Well, it hadn't been named the Opium War yet, though.
"Have you tried this?"
I followed Lord Jamie's bony finger with my eyes.
At the end of it was, of course, the lump of white powder Liston was holding.
Madness…
Why would I have tried this?
Drugs are absolutely no good!
It's not for nothing that the 'ma' in 'mayak' (drug) is '痲' (ma), meaning 'numbness.'
No, actually, if it were just numbness, that would be a relief.
You die!
"No. I haven't tried it."
"You answered too quickly, which makes me more suspicious."
Besides, wasn't this conversation a bit weird?
Here was a guy who'd just been caught red-handed, grilling the guy who stopped him and saved his life, asking if he'd tried it.
Even for a class-based society, this was…
Huh?
Does being a Duke mean you can do anything?
"No, Your Grace. Really, I haven't."
Well, it does.
If you're a Duke…
Especially a Duke of the British Empire, it's a society where you can arbitrarily frame an innocent person as a criminal.
He's above the law.
It's not like there's SNS or YouTube around.
Where would you go, and to whom, to expose anything?
"Is that so? Well… I'll take your word for it. But, from the perspective of someone who's tried it… this seems quite useful."
"What do you mean?"
"It's not really something I should be telling you, but… well. Aren't we all in the same boat? Thanks to you, things have been quite profitable lately."
"Aren't you still spending more than you're making?"
"Well, yes, but when you're in a position like mine, you get used to thinking long-term. Anyway… if we distribute this along with opium, what do you think will happen to Qing?"
"Ah."
Madness…
He's jumping right in.
So it's not going to be the Opium War, but the Opium-Cocaine War?
- Kim Tae-pyeong, the devil of the century who destroyed Qing.
- Kim Tae-pyeong, the disgrace of Koreans, the drug king disguised as a doctor.
This is insane, insane!
The headlines are insane!
This can't happen.
I came here to stop the spread of cocaine, but now it looks like I might end up taking the fall for it.
'Anyway, by that time, I'll have been dead for a while, so if I make a ton of money, it'd be good… No, no! Get away from me, specter of the 19th century!'
For a moment, I had a dark thought, but I'm amazing.
I didn't yield to temptation.
This is the difference between Pablo Escobar and me, Kim Tae-pyeong.
Hoho.
"Why… why are you smiling like that? Does it seem like such a good idea?"
"Ah, no. It's… to tell you that it would be difficult."
"Why?"
Well.
Why would it be difficult?
I had to come up with a reason right then and there.
Time was ticking away in seconds.
Tick-tock, tick-tock…
"Well…"
"What?"
"Well…"
"What?"
"Ah."
"Ah?"
I stalled for time like that.
It might have been meaningless time for ordinary people, but…
For Kim Tae-pyeong, Master of Bullshit, it was enough.
Thank goodness.
It wasn't all studying, all the time.
I praise myself for occasionally messing around watching YouTube!
"The coca plant is a tree that only grows natively in the Andes Mountains."
"Huh? What's the coca plant?"
"Ah, this is extracted from coca leaves. I've heard that people there have been chewing coca leaves since ancient times. They say that chewing them gives you energy and all that; stories like that have been around forever."
"I see… so they extracted the component? Like how opium becomes morphine?"
"Yes. Oh, as expected, Your Grace. You're amazing."
"Haha. I go to the hospital often enough that I've gotten familiar with these things."
I remembered it.
I would have forgotten most things.
But I remember watching it because it was incredibly entertaining.
Honestly, by my standards, it was top-tier YouTube content.
I've never seen a video that surpassed it.
Whether it was the prepared content, the editing quality, or the reactions—all were excellent.
It might have seemed slightly like an advertisement, but what does 19th-century Kim Tae-pyeong have to do with YouTube?
"Anyway, because of that, it can't be produced nearby like opium. The Andes are in the New World. To get from there to Qing… you'd have to go around the Antarctic Ocean and cross the Pacific. And that's only possible assuming you can manufacture it there."
"Hmm… the unit cost wouldn't work out?"
"Yes. You'd have to sell it at an extremely high price… would that work? I'm not even sure if production is possible."
"Right, I see. As expected of you. Drug Master Pyeong Yeong-sin."
"No, no! I'm really not!"
"If I judge that such an image is advantageous for external relations, I will respect it."
"No…"
It's just something I saw on YouTube!
It's expensive because of that!
Not because it's good!
I couldn't very well say that, could I?
"Anyway, if what you say is true, then it would be difficult. Well… what we're putting in now is plenty enough."
Whether it was fortunate or not, Lord Jamie, upon hearing my words, gave up on the idea of starting a cocaine war.
A true relief.
"Drug Master Kim Tae-pyeong. It rolls right off the tongue."
I'm not too thrilled about gaining another nickname, though.