I'll Use It Well
[Low-Grade Hallucinogenic Potion (Failed)]
Effect: For a set period, makes the user believe their health has recovered. Dulls the user's physical senses and reduces maximum health.
Notes: ※No actual recovery effect. ※Dependence 3/4
But wait, isn't this a drug?
And a failed one at that.
What pissed me off even more than the Lawrence heir brazenly handing me drugs was the fact that the dependence had already reached 3.
Shit, this bastard hadn't just done it once—he'd taken the damn stuff three times.
He wasn't some idiot who didn't know what drugs were, so he must have sought them out knowing full well the side effects and the illegality.
It was a genuine relief that I'd possessed this body before the dependence maxed out.
"How about it? Seeing the real thing up close changes your mind, doesn't it? Medicine doesn't really change you much from taking it once or twice. Stop taking it, and you go right back to normal."
He was utterly convinced I wouldn't be able to refuse this potion.
Now I understood why some baron's son had been able to act so rudely toward an imperial prince.
He must have started out polite.
But the more Leoport depended on the drugs, the more the power dynamic flipped.
Because pride would make him put up a front and push back, but in the end, his body would come crawling back for the drugs.
"It's the same good medicine you took last time."
But there was one thing the Lawrence heir didn't know.
Whether the debuff had been neutralized during all my potion testing, or whether all status ailments had been reset when I possessed this body, I couldn't say.
But even with drugs right in front of me, I felt no particular craving.
"Ira. Call the Imperial Knights."
"Huh? Your Highness? Wait, why all of a sudden?!"
His confident smile cracked.
But he was only flustered—not terrified.
"Your Highness Prince Leoport, because of 'that incident,' the Imperial Knights will not answer your summons."
Because he knew I was a wastrel prince with a reputation in the gutter.
But there was something he'd overlooked.
In my nickname, the important part wasn't the front—it was the back.
"Oh yeah? What if I reported an attempt on an imperial family member’s life? Think they still wouldn’t come?"
"...If it were true, they would come. But without just cause and solid evidence, they'd instead charge you with a serious crime, Your Highness."
"This man tried to sell drugs to me, an imperial prince. No, wait—he already sold them and made me take them several times, didn't he?"
"H-hold on, what are you talking about? It's just a healing potion! You liked it last time too! It helps with treatment—no, if you didn't want to buy it, you should've just said so. This is disgusting. I'll just leave."
The Lawrence heir gathered up his potions and tried to get to his feet.
Taira stopped him, pressing down on his shoulder.
Taira turned only her head toward me and asked.
"Can you guarantee that claim?"
"Yeah. Any alchemist could appraise it and tell you the same."
"...Then there's no need to call the Imperial Knights. Leave it to me."
"Why...?"
"What do you mean, why? Am I not Lord Leoport's personal maid and escort knight? For a matter of this level, I have the authority to arrest and detain on the spot."
In an instant, Taira slammed the heir to the floor, wrenched his arm behind his back, and pinned his spine with her knee so he couldn't get up.
I knew it!
She really was a combat maid hired through a physical aptitude special appointment.
Which was probably why her actual maid skills were more lacking than a part-timer at a maid café.
"Hey! You—you believe that bastard of a wastrel?! He's the one who deceived the Imperial Knights into thinking he was going to hunt and eat Ignite!"
"If you resist, it will hurt more."
The moment he mentioned Ignite, the force pressing down on his back visibly increased, as if she'd snapped.
I walked over, crouched down, and met his eyes.
"Gaaah! That hurts! Do you know who I am? Of House Lawrence...."
As I drew closer, his bold voice, which had been brandishing his family name, suddenly shrank.
So he did know how ridiculous it was to throw his house around in front of an imperial prince.
"What do you mean, deceived the Imperial Knights?"
"Ha, you deceived the Imperial Knights into thinking Ignite was trying to kill you. Everyone knows you dragged the knights off to hunt her."
Huh. I didn't know that.
So other beastfolk knew about that incident the same way, then.
"Well, think whatever you want about that. How about we talk about this instead?"
I shook the white potion, and the bastard's face went pale.
So he did have a guilty conscience.
"Are you even a real alchemist?"
"I am. I even have an alchemist's license in my pocket! So let me go, won't you? If you stop now and offer a settlement, I'll quietly let this whole matter slide."
Even in this situation, he was trying to cut a deal.
Well, with brains like that, no wonder he'd dared to get an imperial prince hooked on drugs.
"Wouldn't it be a big problem for you too if you caused another incident? You've already been pushed to last place in the line of succession. Surely you don't think there's nowhere lower to fall? Ha."
This little shit was laughing at me?
I let his offer go in one ear and out the other while I searched his pockets.
A few coins went into my own pocket.
The reagent bottle became evidence.
Last, I found the paper license.
"Tch, there's even a photo on the license?"
If it had just had the royal seal and a name, I'd have pocketed it and used it myself.
But with a face photo plastered right on it, there was no way to impersonate him.
It wasn't that I doubted the man's identity itself.
If he'd been a fake, he wouldn't have gotten this far in the first place.
Even for a fallen prince like me, anyone seeking an audience had their identity thoroughly checked.
My gaze naturally drifted to Taira.
So how did she get in here?
"Why are you looking at me like that...? Don't tell me the drug accusation was just a shot in the dark with no evidence?"
When I clicked my tongue at the license, Taira stared at me with a look of disbelief.
She seemed to think it was proof of his innocence.
The evidence wasn't on this paper.
The alchemist's license was just something I'd checked to see if I could steal it and impersonate him.
The real evidence was this bottle he'd handed me.
"It's not a guess. It's confirmation. Well, shall we verify it directly?"
I uncorked the potion bottle.
Then I deliberately, slowly brought it toward the corner of his mouth.
That way, his reaction would be more dramatic.
The closer the bottle's opening came, the more he clamped his lips shut and thrashed.
But pinned under a tiger, there was no way he could escape.
"Wow, shit, this is too much. You tried to feed me something you hate this much? No, wait—you already did feed it to me, didn't you?"
"Wh-what are you talking about? ...It's just ordinary medicine."
"Oh yeah? Then drink it."
"Medicine isn't something you just force down like that! Medicine is meant to be used for the matching illness. If someone who doesn't even have that illness takes it, it can cause side effects instead!"
What he said was correct.
An irrefutable point.
"Oh yeah? Then... what's my illness?"
But for that argument to hold, he would have to know my illness.
"Th-that's...."
"Ah~ perfect timing. Last week, I heard the exact name of my illness from a priest. Thanks to receiving the proper treatment, I can even walk around like this."
Hearing the name of my illness from a priest was, of course, bullshit.
Taira, who had seen the priest's diagnosis with me, flinched, but it was out of the pinned man's line of sight.
"Tell me. What's my illness? Surely you didn't give me medicine without even knowing the illness? As you said yourself, medicine only works for the exact matching illness, and otherwise it can cause side effects, right?"
"This medicine is special, so it has no side effects...."
"Oh yeah? Then it'd be fine for you to drink it too, wouldn't it?"
"Th-that's...."
He'd been caught in his own trap.
His eyes darted around, as if trying to fabricate an answer.
But he wouldn't have the faintest clue what the illness was.
Even the priest didn't know. Petrification Disease was a rare illness you'd barely glimpse even in the late game of the main story.
There was no way some baron's son who peddled drugs would know it.
"I-I'll drink it!"
He'd finished weighing his options in his head.
He must have figured that suffering the drug's side effects was better than rotting in an imperial prison for the rest of his life....
But life doesn't go the way you want it to, kid.
"I'm not some wastrel who'd force someone to take something they hate that much. Especially when it might be drugs. I'll have the imperial alchemists examine this fairly."
I watched his face crumble with despair in real time.
"I-I'm sorry! I just felt so bad seeing Your Highness in pain that I wondered if there was any way I could help.... Ugh—."
Now that he'd been caught, the Lawrence heir was spinning it as if he'd committed a crime for my sake.
Apparently displeased by the sight, Taira grabbed the back of his obnoxious head and slammed it into the floor.
For someone supposedly annoyed, the corners of her mouth were slightly raised.
...Was she just enjoying a rare legal opportunity to beat up a human?
"Making drugs because you had nothing better to do. If that's the case, just give me your alchemist's license."
"I didn't make the drugs! I swear."
If he faced charges of attempting to murder an imperial family member on top of manufacturing drugs, it might not end with just his life.
Probably because of that, he was denying it desperately.
What next? “I got someone addicted, but I didn’t mix in the poison”? Say something that makes sense.
"It's true! The—the black market. I got it from the black market! My back pocket. No, there's a hidden pocket in the lining of my clothes with a black market ticket in it!"
Huh?
Why was a black market ticket suddenly coming up here?
There was nothing to lose by believing him, so I flipped open his outer garment and searched for the lining pocket.
I reached in and felt around until my fingers brushed thin paper.
I grabbed it and pulled it out—a clean, stiffly coated black paper.
It was exactly like the black market tickets from the game.
"Right? So then, the charge of manufacturing drugs...."
"Hm? I didn't find anything in your clothes lining."
"What? What?! It's right there in your hand! The black market ticket!!!"
"What are you talking about? This was always mine."
I didn't know about a cure, but he'd given me a path that could lead to one.
I'll put it to good use.