The one thing he couldn't say was that he'd never been warned, he most certainly had. There were always huge issues when one attempted to sell overseas, what with culture, language, currency, not to mention shipping... It was just best to avoid it all together, but he'd dove right in to get the money Eliza deserved.

Something had gone wrong, which wasn't a surprise. Whatever it was, he'd know long before he was dragged in front of this panel of judges, or whatever thing was meant to be.

Faust looked over the line of officials with half-alert eyes.

If he'd been allowed to act as he wanted, he could simply have summoned a few troops from the cemetery down the road and wiped the whole damn panel out. They deserved to pay for questioning him, embarrassing him, like this. Evidently, though, that wasn't considered to be 'business savvy'.

On one side sat his lawyer, on the other Eliza squeezed his hand just slightly for support. There were looks given to him, but he hardly paid them any mind.

"Mr. Faust," the committee chair began, clearing his throat.

Faust looked up in acknowledgment.

"What do you have to say against accusations that this… 'Morphine-Aide', as you call it, is nothing more than morphine with Kool-Aide powder?"

He paused for a moment, then replied, "The flavoring is my own recipe –I haven't heard of this 'Kool-Aid' until coming to this country."

The chairman frowned, "And to accusations that your product has caused severe addiction in consumers?"

"The warning is in our ad campaign," Faust told him, voice dull from his own product. "It's our key selling point, I don't believe we could have much been clearer."

"You offer no apologies for what you're doing to this nation's children?" another asked forcefully.

Faust frowned just a bit. He wanted to go lay down right now, how much longer was this thing going to go?

With a stiffled yawn, he said, "I'll give you all free samples."

The committee paused for a long while.

Finally, the chair banged his gavel. "Case dismissed."