The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 169 Suspect Isaac (13) - When dealing with a snake, use the snake's way "Please believe us, with our power we can surely cure your 'disease'!" "The abilities you possess are very special. If we research them well, they will make a great contribution to humanity itself!" The Darnoua family's persuasion was persistent and sweet. The Dracrois family initially showed outright wariness and hostility, but in the end they were swayed by their story. The Darnoua side's attitude was that passionate, and also devoted. Like those called saints, sages, and heroes who sincerely strive to help others, the Darnoua side's eyes and tone seemed to contain such light. The two families joined hands and built a friendship that lasted through generations. "At first, it went smoothly. Thanks to Darnoua's medical skills and pharmaceutical techniques, Dracrois could actually suppress the symptoms. It was closer to just deceiving the senses rather than breaking the curse itself, but... anyway, our ancestors were pleased." "'At first' means it wasn't the case later on." "Yes." It was Isadora's father who first noticed Darnoua's ulterior motive. Her father had not suspected Darnoua from the beginning. No, rather, he was indignant about his friend who strived to realize social justice through charity work being subjected to 'unjust' accusations, and actively defended him. Isadora's father had quite a high reputation as a detective, and under his protection, his friend—that is, Augustin Darnoua—was able to smoothly expand his influence. It didn't take very long to realize that this was the worst mistake. "At first it was a minor sense of unease. In the process of sorting through cases related to Augustin one by one, there was this strange feeling that things were 'going too well.'" Augustin was always innocent, evidence of the real culprit existed separately, and cases were structured to be solved as soon as Isadora's father stepped forward. To erase that unpleasant feeling of becoming a puppet on a script, Isadora's father began investigating the Darnoua family in earnest. And he finally found it. The truth about Darnoua. What they had done using the Dracrois. "Human experimentation. They were conducting research to create private soldiers using the characteristics of Dracrois blood. They were trying to mass-produce soldiers with high physical abilities, intelligence, yet blindly loyal to their master." "I can accept that superior abilities were a characteristic of the Dracrois, but wouldn't that actually make them harder to control?" "Both my father and I found that part strange too. But for some reason, the drugs developed from studying our blood also had the effect of instilling intense loyalty in the subject." Isadora speculated that this was a kind of recessive trait. During the process of the demon cursing the Dracrois bloodline, some of the demon's characteristics had mixed into the blood, and while these traits remained dormant and unexpressed in the Dracrois themselves, the effects were revealed in the process of recreating them pharmaceutically. "Of course, it's not some ridiculous drug that turns someone into a superhuman and makes them obey anyone with just one dose. Basically, it has no particular effect on adults whose ego and body are already fully formed. Short-term use is also meaningless." You have to consistently give them the drug from childhood, and through repetitive education, imprint the target to whom they should offer gratitude and loyalty. Even doing all that, not everyone shows effects... but conversely, it means there are those who do show effects. "So that's why the orphanages." "Yes. In the kingdom era, it wouldn't have been particularly strange for a prestigious family to take in and raise a few children, but if they did such things in the republic, they'd be branded as counter-revolutionaries and fall into ruin in an instant." Among children from orphanages, those like the employee Cloe who have strong loyalty but only mediocre abilities are first released into society, then called upon to work only when that loyalty is needed. Conversely, if they also have excellent abilities, they're used directly like Julien who tried to use Isaac. "It's a desperate measure, but from their perspective, it's not entirely bad. If people who have always been affiliated with the family step forward to deal with enemies, the family would naturally be suspected, but when people who only received sponsorship as children and have been living normally as adults without connection to Darnoua step forward, it's hard to immediately find the connection." While giving some help due to a brief connection from orphanage days might be understandable, sacrificing one's own life to offer loyalty is something difficult to understand by common sense. Moreover, if the Darnoua side intentionally concealed relevant information, it would be even harder to know from an outside perspective. Upon learning of his friend's betrayal, Isadora's father was outraged and clashed violently with Augustin. However, completely severing ties with Augustin was impossible, because the Dracrois still needed Darnoua's drugs. In the end, the two families had no choice but to make an agreement. Dracrois would keep Darnoua's secrets. In return, Darnoua would continue to provide drugs for Dracrois to use. After explaining up to that point, Isadora showed a nasty, villain-like smile. "How about it? Are you disappointed? That I, who is called the city's master detective, actually cooperated with criminals who control and exploit people with drugs from behind the scenes?" "Well. I'm not exactly in a position to gossip about other people's morals." "Haha, you still have composure." Right after Isadora's laughter echoed. Her body pounced on Isaac like a wild beast. Kwaaaaak. Like a predator pinning down its prey, Isadora's hands pressed down on Isaac's body. Tremendous strength that didn't match her small frame. From within her eyes that usually held blue, a red aura slowly spread out. "Did you let your guard down because of my small and frail appearance? If I had the mind to, I could kill you at any time. I could bite your throat and savor the blood flowing from your veins. Acting so relaxed in front of such a 'monster'... is dangerous." Isadora's heated breath tickled Isaac's face. Her expression filled with madness looked precarious, as if she might commit some major crime at any moment. "—No, I don't think there's anything particularly dangerous." However, such things had nothing to do with Isaac. Remaining completely nonchalant, he continued speaking with a calm attitude as if not a predator but even a cat had climbed on him. "First, if you were truly cooperating with Augustin, there would have been no reason to accept this request in the first place." "That's just because I didn't know Augustin was involved. Even I don't know his every move." "Then there would have been no need to move Mrs. More away." "Did you really believe that? I just spouted plausible words to reassure you and create this opening." "I can also refute with Julien's case. He led me to attack you." "That's—" "It's useless if you're going to say you conspired with Augustin. If you two were allies from the start, when I shot Julien, you would have helped Julien, not me, Detective. Before that, there would have been no need to get me out of prison. This isn't even worthy of being called deduction." Isadora's lips twisted crookedly. "It's questionable whether that 'cooperative relationship' is still ongoing. If you were receiving drugs from Darnoua, there would be no need to have chemical laboratory facilities like this room. In my estimation, you have already regained your freedom. And..." "...Haah, enough." Isadora cut off Isaac's words with a deep sigh. The red aura that had invaded her blue eyes quietly subsided again. "You're a truly boring assistant. At times like this, you should at least show expressions or reactions of shock or disbelief." "I can be as interesting as I want if I try." "No, it's impossible. You're just fundamentally boring." "Well..." The moment Isaac sighed and Isadora smiled faintly at her small victory, this time Isadora's body was suddenly pulled. "Huh?" Brilliant blonde hair spread across the floor like thread. Isadora, sprawled on the floor, looked up at Isaac who was pressing down on her from above with a flustered expression. He spoke with a strangely cheerful expression. "How about this? Isn't this quite an unexpected event?" Isadora instantly lifted her legs and kicked Isaac's chest, pushing him away. Isaac didn't resist the force and leisurely got up, even adding a light "oops" as an interjection. Isadora glared fiercely at him as he dusted off his clothes with pat-pat sounds, then soon lit her pipe tobacco with trembling fingertips. "I suppose I don't need to explain the petty psychological warfare that happened after the two families made their agreement. To get to the conclusion, we succeeded in independently creating a drug to suppress madness, and with nothing left to worry about, my father finally blew up the core of their pharmaceutical facilities. He suffered great injuries in the process, but since he left with a relieved expression, he probably had no regrets." It was a strangely rapid-fire way of speaking. Isaac felt slightly mischievous at her attitude of blatantly trying to cover up what had just happened, but instead of pointing it out, he decided to go along with it obediently. "But those you thought you had destroyed have resumed their activities." "Yes. Currently, a criminal called a 'vampire' is often rampaging in public. It's a nickname given due to the crime methods of draining blood from corpses or deliberately inducing excessive bleeding, but thinking coldly, there's no possibility this is a real vampire." "Of course. If it were a vampire, there should be corpses drained of blood and mummified, not blood scattered on the floor and everywhere else." "I think this is a side effect that occurred in the process of them restoring the pharmaceutical facilities that were once destroyed. Apart from personnel who have already been tamed, they would need new drugs to tame new personnel, but there are no Dracrois to serve as samples, and the existing formulas have already been lost. Something must have gone wrong while hastily making them." After saying that much, Isadora let out a deep sigh. "Originally I was conducting a thorough and secret investigation from behind the scenes, but thanks to a certain someone from somewhere, it looks like I'll have to wage all-out war without any preparation." "Judging by how they tried to use me to strike at you, they seem to have noticed as much as they could notice anyway, so just accept it as something that was bound to happen." "If only you couldn't talk..." After glaring at Isaac, Isadora asked. "So, do you have any methods?" "Yes, I do." "Well, even you... wait, why do you have one?" "The problem is trying to solve cases with truth and justice in the first place." Isadora blinked. Isaac smiled brightly. "Burying a politician isn't about truth—it's about propaganda." (E/N: Or so says the Crown Prince of the Empire)