Unscientific?
Williams suddenly thought back to all the methods Tver had used in the conference room.
Of course. How could the methods of a devil possibly be scientific?
"Forget whether it is scientific. Just tell me whether the ingredients can be replicated, and whether it can produce an effect for treating ED."
At that point, even Liz, the secretary, could not bear it anymore. She leaned close and whispered in his ear, "If science can replicate it, then it becomes a new scientific theory. It would not be unscientific anymore."
"Uh..."
Williams's long buried scientific knowledge finally surfaced.
"All right, I did misunderstand you. But since you have not managed to identify the ingredients, does that mean there is nothing in it that could poison someone to death?"
Hancock shook his head in confusion.
"There are absolutely no currently known inedible substances in it, nor any substances that would be harmful within an acceptable dosage. But we cannot be sure whether the undetectable substances contain any lethal, inedible components."
To scientists, whether something was poisonous was closely tied to dosage.
But if they could not detect even a single ingredient, how could they know whether it was toxic?
Williams thought of Felix, who had been lively and full of energy, and of Tver, who had controlled the whole room without harming any of them.
He swallowed, then strode into the laboratory.
"Mr. Williams?" The female assistant was abruptly shoved aside, and the bottle she had been about to use to draw a few more drops was snatched from her hand.
Williams looked at the clear potion inside, now reduced to less than half the bottle, and hesitated.
A devil would not stoop to tampering with something like this.
That was how he reassured himself. Then he tipped his head back and drank the rest of it.
"I thought it would be painful."
He looked down at the empty bottle in his hand in puzzlement. He had not expected the potion to taste rather good.
It was not exactly delicious, but it was far better than the sight of Felix clawing at his own throat.
"And now? How do you feel?" Hancock asked in alarm.
Williams might not mean much to Felix and the others, but if he died in this laboratory, Hancock, a scientist with a bright future ahead of him, would spend the rest of his life in prison.
At that moment, the effect of the magic began to kick in.
Williams's face flushed red with excitement, and the cloudiness in his eyes, the kind that came with age, seemed to vanish. He stared fixedly at Hancock with overwhelming excitement.
At the female secretary behind him.
"I need... to test the effect of the potion." He strode forward, grabbed Liz, and dragged her into the vacant laboratory across the hall.
Bang.
The researchers left behind could only stare at one another.
...
An hour later, Williams came out supported by Liz.
He had been careless. The potion's effect was excellent, but his secretary had proved no less fierce.
Hancock had been waiting outside the whole time, and he was even more concerned about Williams's physical condition now that his virility had returned.
"Mr. Williams, you... uh, how does your body feel?"
"Better than it ever has."
Though he was drenched in sweat and his legs felt weak, the old man's face was glowing with healthy color. He even looked healthier than Hancock.
As a rigorous scientist, Hancock obviously was not going to rely only on the patient's subjective description.
"Would you mind undergoing a full physical examination? We will focus on a few specific areas, so it will not take too much of your time."
"Of course I do not mind."
Williams agreed readily. Though he had already experienced it for himself, he still wanted scientific proof, something that would convince him more thoroughly.
At the very least, he needed to know that what had just happened was not merely a final burst of dying vigor.
This laboratory had been built for pharmaceutical research in the first place, so it was naturally equipped for physical examinations, especially examinations of a certain sort.
Williams went through the tests with practiced ease. Before night had even fully fallen outside, he had his report in hand.
"Theoretically speaking, your ED has not been cured, but you are in far better condition than before. More astonishingly, some of the lingering discomforts in your body caused by old age have also been improved."
Hancock stared at the report in disbelief.
Even setting aside its effect on ED, that potion alone would be enough to tempt many elderly tycoons.
"I think the company needs to be on guard. America, no, the world, is about to see the rise of a pharmaceutical group capable of standing alongside us."
Unlike Hancock, who looked worried about losing his place, Williams could not suppress the smile spreading across his face.
"That is right. Very soon now."
"Mr. Williams?"
Hancock looked at him in confusion as he sank into visions of the future, but Williams no longer had the patience to explain.
He shot his secretary a look.
Liz understood at once. She picked up the bottle, now almost empty, and followed Williams out of the laboratory with a charming smile.
If nothing went wrong, she would not only become the lady of the house, the family's wealth would swell to a level beyond anything she could imagine.
The more she thought about it, the happier she became. The moment she got into the car, she asked eagerly, "Sir, where are we going now?"
"Home. And contact Ian's secretary. Tomorrow evening, no, tomorrow at noon, I want to have lunch with Ian. He can choose the place," Williams said in high spirits.
If it had been the Ian of before, he would never have treated him with this much respect.
But now that he realized Ian had a mysterious Professor Fawley standing behind him, he needed to think carefully about how to treat Ian Russell with proper respect without losing his own dignity.
Of course, if he could cut Ian Russell out entirely, establish direct contact with Tver, or even control Tver himself...
Then the profits he could make would go far beyond a single potion.
At that thought, he turned to his secretary.
"The investigation I told you to run into Hogwarts and Tver Fawley's identity. Has anything come of it yet?"
After years by Williams's side, Liz understood his intentions very well. A few phone calls later, she had gathered some information.
"Based on what we have learned so far, there is no school or research institution in this world called Hogwarts, and no one has heard of a professor named Tver Fawley."
"As for the surname Fawley, we did find a village in Hampshire, England, with that name. Some of the people there also bear the surname."
"Other than that, there are only scattered families here and there. None of them claim to be an ancient Pure-blood family."
This result did not surprise Williams in the least. On the contrary, for people in this era to have uncovered the existence of Fawley village at all was already enough to satisfy him.
Just then, the car gradually came to a stop outside his home in New York.
"Send people to investigate that village..." After thinking of Tver's terrifying methods, Williams quickly added, "Tell them to be careful. Do not let them come into conflict with those villagers, especially any villagers with the surname Fawley."
Ian had made his fortune in Europe, and most of his business was still there. It was only in the past year, after getting hold of the face mask business, that he had begun expanding across the globe.
Taking that into account, Williams decisively placed the focus of the investigation on Europe and on Ian Russell himself.
"And send people to investigate Ian Russell's face mask factory. Take his masks to the laboratory and have them tested too. See whether they are also full of those unscientific things."
Ian Russell, a minor European businessman, had managed to use a single low margin, high volume face mask product to rise to a level where he could stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
Then this time, Williams would become a global pharmaceutical giant.
Just as he was imagining that glorious future, a brazen voice suddenly reached his ears.
"There is no need for you to trouble yourself over that, Williams. We already did that part long ago."