SMR | Chapter 162

~Chapter 162~

With Lauren’s death, all the “counterattack weapons” Roxana had carefully prepared became useless.

Harriet, who had helped collect the evidence, felt a little empty inside—but since Trisha and Roxana had decided to quietly close the case, she had nothing more to say.

While Harriet sorted and organized the piles of documents on Roxana’s desk, she asked regretfully:

“Are we cutting off the living expenses we were giving to the Marshalls?”

Roxana glanced at her and nodded calmly.

“Those payments were given only because Lauren Marshall was part of the Pellon family’s collateral branch.”

“What about the townhouse? I heard Pellon prepared that for them too.”

“That one has already been transferred to their name. We can’t take it back.”

“Ugh.”

Harriet felt furious that Baron Marshall and Jayden would get away with everything just because Lauren had killed herself.

Lauren had led the crimes, yes—but there was no way her family didn’t know, and no way they hadn’t helped. Jayden had even accompanied her when she went to mock Trisha, and Baron Marshall had gone with her when she approached the Imperial noble circle.

Seeing Harriet even angrier than herself, Roxana let out a small laugh and added, as if comforting her:

“Now that Pellon’s living expenses are gone, the Marshalls will only have the taxes from their tiny territory as income. But they’ve already gotten used to living at the level of Genoa’s high society… They won’t be able to maintain that. They’ll probably sell their townhouse soon.”

“So the Marshall family will collapse completely.”

“Take comfort in that.”

Harriet nodded with a bitter smile.

She refocused on organizing documents—when suddenly Andre rushed in holding a newspaper.

“My lady! Have you seen this?”

He spread out several issues of today’s paper on the table. The ink wasn’t even fully dry yet.

“The illegally traded drug —is this acceptable?”

“The abnormal craze! The truth behind it.”

“Already more than 200 suicides and suicide attempts! The cause: drug addiction!”

Every headline on the front page was attacking Angelique.

“I was in town earlier and they printed these as special editions, so I bought them all. I think this Angelique drug is related to the medicine Madam used before.”

Instead of answering, Roxana picked up a paper.

Harriet read beside her, immediately realizing this must be the “big incident” Cedric had warned about.

“…Investigations into the sudden rise of suicides in noble society revealed that most victims were drowning in debt due to buying or attending so-called ‘Angelique parties’…”

“…The drug shortage of has led to illegal sellers—none of whom have pharmacy licenses—selling it at high prices. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that doctors secretly siphoned off medicine instead of prescribing it to patients in genuine need…”

“… is being pointed to as the cause of the recent widespread symptoms among nobles, but the manufacturer, Kingsley Pharmaceutical, claims only normal side effects have been reported and that it cannot control misuse…”

After skimming the paper, Roxana shook her head with a hardened expression.

“This is going to become a massive scandal.”

Andre nodded.

“The commoners don’t know much about Angelique, so their reaction was lukewarm. But the nobles—every one of them rushed to buy the papers.”

“Of course. Many nobles have been taking it.”

Harriet, who checked even the back pages carefully before handing the paper back, said:

“Duke Kailas told us we might be called to testify. The medicine my grandaunt took was made from the same ingredients by the same company.”

“He wants us to testify that the drug was also used for attempted murder.”

“Yes. Despite all this, Kingsley Pharmaceutical will try to hide behind the Second Prince. We can’t let that happen.”

Roxana nodded.

She still regretted giving Trisha permission to take that medicine. How could she forget the day she almost killed the very woman who raised her?

“If needed, tell him to call me anytime. I’ll gladly testify.”

Seeing Roxana, whose resolve was just as strong as her own—perhaps even stronger—Harriet smiled softly.

Two days later, the newspaper printed another sensational headline:

“Emperor enraged. ‘Arrest Albert Kingsley!’”

✦ ✦ ✦

Just as Roxana predicted, the Angelique incident erupted into a massive scandal that shook the entire noble class.

Those who had taken it for medical reasons panicked when they learned about the side effects.

Those who had taken it for pleasure panicked because Kingsley Pharmaceutical had shut down production and they could no longer obtain the drug.

While the black-market price of Angelique rose by the day, in the “Mirror Room”—the imperial court known as the “Court of the Palace”—the Emperor personally interrogated Albert.

“Your Majesty! As I have repeatedly stated, Angelique was created with good intent. We have countless reports proving its success—patients suffering from depression regained vitality thanks to Angelique!”

“You mean, my son Michael is your prime example?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Albert bowed his head after confidently asserting this. But Emperor Durein’s expression showed he wasn’t convinced.

“Yes, I know. That’s why I supported you in return. For example—allowing you to build your second factory on imperial land free of charge for ten years. Or exempting your company from medicine-license fees for three years.”

Then he threw a thick stack of papers at Albert’s feet.

“And now I learn this drug was no different from a narcotic. And that you knew this long ago.”

The papers were filled with details about Angelique’s harmful side effects and addictive nature. Albert felt they looked oddly familiar—but decided to deny everything.

“This must be fabricated! Someone is trying to frame me!”

“Oh? Turn to the last page.”

Obeying reluctantly, Albert flipped to the end—and froze.

There was the Kingsley Pharmaceutical seal, along with signatures of the company’s laboratory staff.

It was a confidential internal document summarizing concerns raised during the first experiments using Darasenger extracts.

“W-why is this here…?!”

“You can’t even recognize documents from your own company? Are you out of your mind from taking too much of your own drug? Or did you produce a medicine without reviewing critical research?”

Albert felt as if he had been struck on the back of the head. There was no way this document should be here—it had been locked away in his study’s safe.

‘How is something from my private safe sitting in front of the Emperor?!’

His mind was spinning too wildly to speak.

Just then, like a savior, the Second Prince Michael burst into the room.

When the door swung open during the interrogation, Albert nearly cried with relief.

“Father! Lord Kingsley is innocent! Why are you conducting such a biased interrogation based on the claims of a few people?!”

But Emperor Durein didn’t even look surprised.

“I told them to let no one in.”

“S-sorry, Your Majesty! His Highness said he was an important witness…”

“Ridiculous.”

He clicked his tongue and turned to his son.

“What do you want to say?”

“Thanks to Angelique, I can function as a normal person, Father! You saw it yourself—how can you question its effectiveness? The problem lies with those who abused it, not with the medicine!”

“So you’re saying you suffered no side effects because you used it exactly as prescribed?”

“Of course!”

Michael’s confident reply made Durein scoff. But his scoff faded into a bitter smile.

“I should have listened to Anastasia earlier…”

He sighed and gestured to an attendant, who placed two notebooks on the table.

“Michael, look. This is the record of all your Angelique purchases. And this is the original prescription record from the Imperial physician.”

Michael’s mouth shut instantly.

He had been forging the Imperial physician’s prescriptions—lengthening them, increasing the dosage—to get more of the drug. Document forgery had become so easy that deceiving his mother and father felt trivial.

“The illnesses of the imperial family are top secret to outsiders… but inside the palace, everything is carefully monitored. Did you think you were only issued one paper prescription?”

“I… I didn’t…”

“I should have double-checked myself. But I hoped you would fix the problem on your own. I warned you multiple times. And every time, you insisted you had it under control.”

Cold sweat ran down Michael’s forehead as he finally realized his parents had merely been enduring him.

“Your dosage increased far beyond the forged prescriptions. And the money spent skyrocketed. I once believed you were recovering… but now they tell me you can’t even get out of bed without this drug.”

“But as long as I take Angelique, I can—!”

“That is what addiction means. You can’t do anything without the drug. A prince of this empire, controlled by a mere noble, and unable to even protest! Someone who throws away his honor on the ground just to get more pills—that is called a slave to addiction!”

Michael flinched at the harsh tone—his father had never raised his voice like this.

But Emperor Durein wasn’t finished.