Chapter 187: Three Divine Instruments (4)

Creaaak—!!

The heavy iron door opened with a nerve-wracking scraping sound.

The Research Lab where all the capital of the Lohengrin Trading Company was concentrated.

The Chairman burst into that space, breathing heavily.

Seeing him stride forward with bloodshot eyes, the Researchers stealthily fled to their own labs.

"......!"

Losing a case in the Merkur Lawsuit Battle.

The Journalists swarming in as if to mock him.

To the Chairman, whose pride was already trampled on, the sight of those Researchers felt incredibly displeasing.

'Defeatist bastards.'

The Chairman needed a place to direct this anger right this instant.

Just then, a suitable Target caught his eye.

In the middle of the Research Lab, among the Researchers fleeing to their Personal Laboratories.

There was one person standing blankly alone, waiting for the Chairman.

It was none other than the Lab Director, Theodore.

"What have you been doing all this time!"

The Chairman's voice rang loudly through the corridor.

The Researchers who had been standing by Theodore's side scrambled away to their own labs in startle.

But Theodore alone did not move from his spot.

It wasn't that he wasn't afraid of the sparks flying his way.

'Here we go again.'

Because that was Theodore's role.

He was the Lab Director here, as well as the Director of Research.

Serving as the Chairman's Emotional Dumping Ground was also the reason he received a high annual salary.

'I knew it would come to this.'

The Lab Director had an intuition from the moment the door was violently opened.

The miserable defeat in the Patent Lawsuit.

It was obvious where the Chairman's anger, which had lost its outlet due to that, would head towards.

A cold sweat trickled down his spine.

Reaching Theodore before he knew it, the Chairman abruptly poked Theodore's shoulder and said.

"Theodore. What exactly have I not done for you."

Poke, poke.

The rude pointing fingers pushed against Theodore's shoulder.

"I provided all the Ingredients. I even snatched the recipes from those haughty elf artisans by launching a Patent Lawsuit and placed them right in your hands. When you said Ingredients were lacking, I acquired them even if it meant shoving bribes into the pockets of the Eastern Region nobles."

The Chairman folded his fingers, counting the things he had done one by one.

Before long, the folded fingers formed a fist.

"If I've done this much, isn't it your duty to produce at least one medicine? But why, just why can you people not create a single thing?"

At the Chairman's interrogation, Theodore moistened his dry lips with his tongue.

The number of times he had received the same question was beyond what he could count on his fingers.

He knew he wouldn't be understood.

And that making excuses against the Chairman's unreasonableness was meaningless.

'You've neglected Research and Development for 20 years, do you think it'll go well if you suddenly try to do it now?'

Theodore knew the exact cause.

New Medicine development was an incredibly high-risk endeavor.

The investment costs were too high, and if a Side Effect were to occur, the company could go bankrupt in an instant.

Therefore, at some point, Lohengrin began operating with a focus on finances rather than New Medicine development.

As a result, directors who did not understand how costly 'New Medicine development' was took up the majority of the board of directors.

They thought the cost and difficulty of New Medicine development were no different from the improvement of existing drugs.

There were even those who considered New Medicine development to be easier.

The majority were people who believed that making 5 from 1 was harder than making 1 from 0.

"Tell me. What haven't I done for you? Try and somehow justify your incompetence to me."

Naturally, Theodore had once tried to correct the ignorance of those directors.

But they merely dismissed it as Theodore's weak whining.

Eventually, Theodore gave up on persuading them at some point.

Instead, he simply repeated hollow excuses like a recorder.

"Chairman...... as you know, medicine isn't just something that comes out from mixing rare Ingredients."

"Then are you lacking Manpower?"

"No. It's not that kind of problem."

Production tends to be proportional to Manpower.

Like multiplying 1 by 5.

However, Research is not proportional to Manpower.

Just like how multiplying 0 by anything remains 0.

"There is an order to the development of a drug. First, the identity of the disease must be revealed, and only after deciding the Target to break down that disease, can we then test substances one by one to see what fits that Target. Only after going through that entire tedious process is a single drug worthy of a Clinical trial finally created."

"......Are you trying to teach me right now?"

"That is not it. I'm saying that we do not have any Foundational Knowledge."

The Lab Director gave examples one by one so the Chairman could understand.

If you don't know the existence of a Germ, you cannot make an Antibiotic.

If you cannot clarify the Demon Disease, you cannot make a Steroid.

If you don't know the substance called Cholesterol, you cannot make a Statin.

"The reason Merkur is pouring out New Medicines like that is because Director Schun drew the maps of those diseases first. The Starting line is completely different in the first place."

Over there, they had a Compass.

On the contrary, this side had no such thing.

Bearing that meaning, the Lab Director explained it to the Chairman.

However, to Beidel, even this sounded like nothing more than the excuse of a Defeatist.

The Chairman quickly closed the distance and stood right in front of Theodore's nose.

His wrinkled hands roughly grabbed the collar of his lab coat.

"Don't be mistaken."

The Chairman brought his mouth to his ear and whispered lowly.

"I am not giving you money so that you can leave your names in History. I've never wished for such grandiose things from bastards like you."

"C-Chairman......"

"Foundational Knowledge? Did I tell you to create something like that from scratch? I told you to develop medicine, I didn't tell you to make something that won't even bring in any money."

The Chairman's rough breath touched the Lab Director's ear.

His gritted teeth looked as if they would bite off the director's ear at any moment.

"Hasn't that greenhorn Yulian already announced all the Foundational Knowledge to the world! You guys just need to make other medicines on top of that! An Antibiotic that kills Germs that Penicillin doesn't work on! An anesthetic to replace Morphine! Things for which medicines haven't come out yet among the diseases Yulian has announced!"

He roughly shook the hand gripping the collar.

The Lab Director's skinny body swayed back and forth.

"I even attached Black Sorcerers to you, and if you just poke around that overly common Mold here and there with them, shouldn't you stumble upon at least one drug by chance. Is that so, so very difficult?"

The Chairman roughly let go of the director's collar.

"Cough, cough......!"

"Are you starting to grasp the point now?"

"B-But......"

But.

The moment he heard that word, the Chairman fiercely scrunched his face.

The directors and he himself were working day and night to feed the company somehow, but these things called Researchers were always like this.

They never looked for a way to make it work and were always busy laying out reasons why it wouldn't.

Hence, conversations with Researchers were always like this.

When they explained why it wouldn't work, the Chairman had to forcefully inject another method into them.

'If only I could do the Research myself.'

He moved his chin without hiding his displeased Stance.

"What is the problem this time."

"F......Foundational Knowledge aside, the Budget is lacking."

"Budget?"

The Chairman scoffed.

"You made them perfectly fine with that much Budget before, but now you're saying it doesn't work even when I increased the Budget?"

"If it were other drugs, this Budget would be sufficient."

There are many ways to save Budget.

Omitting and fabricating Clinical trials.

Skipping the refinement of Impurities.

Ignoring the standard of Raw materials.

Loosening the standards for Disposal.

Ignoring Worker safety.

Lohengrin had been reducing the Original cost through these know-hows.

No, not just Lohengrin, but most trading companies in the Empire were operating in this way.

"However, due to Research Ethics......"

"Research Ethics? Are you saying you'll suddenly follow the Merkur Trading Company's methods?"

"It's not that, but......"

Most trading companies do not follow Research Ethics.

In that sense, Merkur was a Maverick among the trading companies.

Stubbornly insisting on doing something called a Clinical Trial which isn't even in the law.

Performing Aftercare with no real meaning called Follow-up Monitoring.

Foolishly making all their Failure cases into public Disclosure.

A trading company that should prioritize profit above all else was willingly enduring losses and imposing various restrictions upon themselves.

The Merkur Trading Company's Research Ethics were far from the Industry Standard.

Unless the Lab Director suddenly awakened his Faith, he had no intention of strictly keeping such bothersome things.

However,

"Research related to Mold is related to Black magic, no, Life Magic, so we absolutely must uphold the ethics."

If Lohengrin were a steel company, there would be no reason to uphold such things.

If a Worker fell into the Furnace, they could just cover it up and that would be the end of it.

Even if they were making the existing Potion, there was no need to keep these ethics.

If a Side Effect occurred from a Potion, they could just bribe the media to shut their mouths.

But Pharmaceuticals utilizing Mold were different.

"Because of the Research Ethics the Cult announced while permitting Life Magic, a lot of Budget is needed to uphold them."

Ethics demand too much cost and Inefficiency.

In that sense, the Budget allocated by the Lohengrin board of directors was ridiculously lacking.

With this level of Budget, they would end up stopping at the Research Design stage.

Even if they brought in all the brilliant Researchers in the world, it would probably be the same outcome.

"......"

"So if we could have a bit more Budget......"

"......"

However, only silence returned from the Chairman.

At the end of that deep silence, the Chairman opened his mouth.

His Patience having snapped.

"Yulian!! That greenhorn!"

Beidel yelled until his throat tore.

"That guy named Schun! He created all these things from the Underbelly of the Gutter in Limbus Pit! And at just eight years old at that!"

The glass walls of the Research Lab vibrated faintly at his thunderous shout.

Theodore shut his mouth.

He quietly straightened his crumpled collar and met the Chairman's bloodshot eyes.

And he answered softly, with a powerless Voice.

"Because that is possible for him, he is a Saint."

"......"

The strength smoothly drained from Beidel's grip.

Because the Chairman knew it well too.

Just how much of an Irregular the existence known as Yulian was.

The gap lying between Director Schun and themselves was not the kind that could somehow be replaced or narrowed.

'Why......'

Why did that person have to seek out the Merkur Trading Company of all places.

Why was the place that young man visited carrying Quinine that failing trading company.

'Should I not have cast away the Merkur Trading Company back then.'

Chairman Beidel had one thing.

He had one single deep regret.

About 15 years ago from now.

Lohengrin cut off a certain trading company that was taking on a Subcontract.

The trading company's name was Merkur.

The reason for casting them out was none other than a Contract violation.

— "I want to make a lot of money, not kill people."

It was a simple Subcontract where they only needed to confirm the Medicinal Effect by slipping drugs into a well.

However, the Guild Master of the Merkur Trading Company, Gustav, refused this.

He even went as far as whistleblowing on Lohengrin's Illegal Experiments based on this.

From Lohengrin's Stance, it was behavior worthy of anger.

— How dare a small trading company draw a sword against the Number 1 in the Pharmaceutical Industry?

But that small rebellion of the Merkur Trading Company failed to cause any Repercussion and was ultimately buried.

At the time, the Merkur Trading Company was at the level of a slightly successful local Pharmacy.

There was no way such a trading company could dare to even leave a scratch on the Fame of the Number 1 in the Industry.

Instead, what awaited those traitors was merely thorough Retribution in the form of a Penalty Fee.

'Merkur should have gone bankrupt back then......'

Just as everyone in the industry thought the Merkur Trading Company would quietly disappear like that.

Suddenly, a figure named Director Schun appeared.

Carrying drugs named Insulin and Quinine.

It wasn't that the Pharmaceutical Industry didn't pay attention to his New Medicine at the time.

Countless Pharmaceutical Merchant Guilds hoped he would sell at least his next New Medicine through their trading companies.

Lohengrin was one of them.

They even tried to win him over by promising double the Stake Merkur had given him.

But Director Schun didn't give a single glance to any other trading company.

He solely maintained his loyalty with the Merkur Trading Company.

'Then what was I supposed to do back then?'

He knew the reason why he kept his loyalty with Merkur.

Though he couldn't empathize with his Principle of action, he could tell what kind of person he was just by looking at his publicly known Deeds.

He just had to pretend to be good like the Merkur Trading Company.

But who could have predicted that he would suddenly appear?

Are you saying I should have known he would appear beforehand and not done any shady deeds?

But wasn't the entire Pharmaceutical Industry operating this way back then?

Ultimately, from Lohengrin's Stance, it was just unfair.

'If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have done that back then.'

If he had known, he would have changed their policy from at least 5 years before he appeared.

Of course, there was no way that was possible.

"......"

The feeling of regret that had continued for the past several years heavily crushed the Chairman's chest.

He didn't even have the Energy to be angry.

"......Keep doing what you were doing."

After a long while, Beidel spat out in a hoarse voice.

"Useless things."

The Lab Director bowed his head without a word and turned his back.

The Chairman headed outside the Research Lab.