Protecting the Heroine’s Older Brother – Episode 167
It happened before the Harmony Assembly last winter.
At that time, Fontaine had successfully completed a major deal involving narcotics. Lant, considering it commendable, entrusted him with leadership, a task Deon was also involved in.
“Indeed. If Lant Agriche had known, he wouldn’t have stood idly by.”
That was the chilling rebuke from Badrisa.
As she said, if Lant had known this while he was alive, he would never have missed the opportunity to seize Gastor’s leash [control over Gastor].
The smuggled goods from Gastor were one of the narcotics that Agriche had successfully developed through breeding experiments, and its addictiveness was extremely potent.
Above all, it was exclusively produced only by Agriche.
As such, it was more lethal than any other narcotic.
“So, how did you find out?”
“Gastor proceeded with their work quite meticulously.”
Jeremy maintained a calm and composed demeanor from beginning to end, but inwardly, he carefully chose each word to avoid even the slightest slip-up. It was a moment of unprecedented seriousness in Jeremy’s life.
“They twisted the smuggling route quite intricately, making it difficult to trace.”
Thus, Fontaine, who was in charge of the deal, and Lant, the leader, were unaware of Gastor’s true involvement.
“I have one question.”
However, there was always a loophole, and Roxana was capable enough to exploit it.
“You may or may not know, but when the two families met last winter, there was an intruder who tried to steal the narcotics. At the time, we thought it was just a rat trying to steal drugs.”
Even as he spoke, Jeremy thought his acting skills had improved significantly. Didn’t it really feel like he had known about this from the start?
Anyway, long story short, those rats were all dealt with by Deon.
Lant praised Deon for preventing what could have been a major loss. Fontaine was furious that all the credit went to Deon.
However, Roxana, after hearing the details from Deon at that time, felt an inexplicable sense of unease.
Jeremy voiced the suspicion she had harbored in the past in front of Badrisa.
“In fact, were they also from Gastor?”
Of course, Roxana had already tracked their trail and eventually caught their tail.
The group that came to stop the drug deal back then had a flaw.
Like people who belatedly found out about the deal and hastily prepared to raid the scene, they seemed ill-prepared. That created a decisive gap that allowed them to be caught.
As a result, Roxana deduced the truth, which eventually led to today.
“Isn’t it that within Gastor, there are those who are involved in drug trafficking and those who are trying to stop it?”
He had been constantly watching Badrisa’s face, but there was no significant emotional change revealed.
“And in Agriche’s opinion…….”
Still, Jeremy continued to speak firmly.
“We believe that the leader of the enemy was trying to prevent the import of narcotics.”
Jeremy was well aware of Badrisa Gastor’s character.
Of course, he had thought Ryuzak was a bit annoying during the last Harmony Assembly, and he felt that Gastor’s unique rigid chivalry was not to his liking…….
“Or are we simply mistaken?”
Still, they basically knew morality and had their own unwavering beliefs.
In particular, Badrisa, the current leader, resembled Rishell Fedelian, with her upright character somewhat similar.
It seemed unlikely that such a Badrisa would try to smuggle narcotics for her own personal gain.
“Let me tell you, leader of the Black,” Ryuzak said, breaking his silence after listening to their conversation.
“My mother has never done anything that would tarnish the name of Gastor.”
He coldly recited as if he could not tolerate even the slightest suspicion towards Badrisa.
“And only one person has touched the narcotics. I hope you don’t lump the entire Gastor together.”
However, Jeremy did not agree with that and retorted to Ryuzak.
“Is that really the case?”
Ryuzak’s eyebrows arched in displeasure, unable to overcome his negative emotions. However, Jeremy was calm.
“Looking at the amount purchased from Gastor, I don’t think only one person is addicted.”
It seemed clear that Ryuzak did not know much about this matter, so he sought the answer from someone else instead.
Badrisa, who had been the focus of Jeremy’s gaze, finally parted her tightly closed lips.
“Everything you said is correct.”
“Mother?”
An incredulous, bewildered light appeared on Ryuzak’s face.
He looked at Badrisa, doubting his ears. But then she uttered truly shocking words.
“About half of Gastor is addicted to that damn narcotic made in Agriche.”
Ryuzak couldn’t help but be appalled.
Clearly, he knew that only Badrisa’s husband, his father, had touched the narcotics.
His father had said that he had accidentally tried narcotics once at a gambling house in the neutral zone and had become addicted to them ever since.
Ryuzak had almost no father. Now that he had become addicted to narcotics, it was clear that he would only cause trouble for Badrisa, so he even thought that his mother should abandon him.
But… … But already half of the family has touched the narcotics?
Badrisa turned away from her son’s shocked face.
This was why she didn’t want to bring him to the negotiation table with Agriche.
However, Ryuzak was adamant, and Badrisa agreed that as the successor who would lead Gastor in the future, he also needed to know the seriousness of this matter.
In the end, her desire as a mother to protect her son’s world was overcome by her desire as a leader to raise a strong successor.
There was no point in hiding the truth now that they had come this far.
Agriche seemed to know everything already, and it was clear that Gastor would have no choice but to reveal everything at the end of the negotiation.
“Do you know how effective the narcotics made by your family are?”
Jeremy gave a positive look.
The drug industry had been something Agriche had put a lot of effort into for a long time, and especially the one that went into Gastor was deliberately modified to strengthen its addictiveness several times, so he couldn’t not know.
Since ancient times, it has been said that the most important things to be careful of and wary of when governing a group are religion and narcotics.
However, in places where Badrisa’s gaze did not reach, Gastor was gradually falling into a swamp.
There were times when she was somewhat negligent in managing the household because she was busy with various official duties to be handled as the leader, which created a gap.
Then, in the winter, Badrisa learned that her husband was planning to trade a large amount of narcotics with Agriche and hurriedly gathered her trusted subordinates to try to interfere with them.
But it failed.
The subordinates Badrisa sent were all killed, and she did not find where her husband had hidden the narcotics afterwards.
In the meantime, he became more and more addicted to narcotics day by day.
However, unexpectedly, Agriche collapsed shortly after, and the drug supply was cut off automatically. This was because Lant and Fontaine died and there was no one to lead the drug smuggling anymore.
Just in time, the location where the narcotics were hidden in Gastor was also discovered, and Badrisa collected them all.
She thought it was fortunate, but the real fear came after that.
The Agriche narcotic that her husband brought into Gastor was accompanied by a strong hallucinatory effect, and when the drug was stopped, it was accompanied by side effects such as madness-like violence and mental confusion.
In fact, when they showed such symptoms, their appearance was so terrible that it could not be called human. Perhaps the beasts in the monster habitat were similar to him.
Paradoxically, they could maintain their human appearance only when they were taking narcotics.
So now, the withdrawal symptoms were more frightening than the addiction itself.
That was why Badrisa, who had initially been determined to eradicate narcotics, hesitated.
Moreover, it turned out that not just one or two of her family members had secretly touched the narcotics that her husband had brought in without Badrisa’s knowledge.
She told Jeremy that it was about half, but in reality, it was more than that, and the foundation of Gastor was already shaken.
Just in time, Ryuzak had to leave the family for official duties as the successor due to the series of landslides that occurred in Gastor’s land throughout the winter.
So he did not witness the hellish scene that covered Gastor at that time. As a mother with children, Badrisa thought that was fortunate.
In the end, no one could fathom what kind of heart she had when she gave the narcotics back to her family.
So Badrisa reluctantly helped prevent the fall of Agriche.
How happy and excited Lant Agriche would be if he saw her like this from the underground.
He despised Agriche so much while he was alive, but now they are in a position to face a crisis of existence without them.
Clearly, Lant would be pointing at Badrisa and laughing under the cold dirt floor right now.
However, if Agriche collapses like this, the necessary narcotics cannot be produced in Gastor.
It was clear that this would lead to a more fatal ending for Gastor.
“Gastor wants to trade with Agriche.”
Do the black sheep know how heartbreaking it is to say these words with her own mouth? Perhaps no one in the world knows this heartbreaking feeling.
“What does Agriche want in return?”