@Kitsune_Hellscythe
Thats 100% what is going on. The dude is an illegal drug distributor who is "posing" as the head of medicine as a cover-up. Using other's "lack of expertise on the subject" dissuade them of their suspicions towards him. This entire thing is just 1 massive drug scam that centers around that guy.
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Mod Note: Please use spoiler tags when talking about chapter-specific or future events.
Goes from being abused by a 'hero' party, to gaining a bit of self esteem, to being concerned/more sensitive to fishy things and trusting her gut, to then be abused again and start questioning everything. viscous cycle.
the latest raw show the girl party + glass girls currently assault the old man base of the illegal drug factory
the old man and his workers use the drug to buff themselves and they ready to fight
As of ch 22 they're FINALLY confronting him and we also got villain origin flashback/monologue out of him so yes it's FINALLY reaching the end.
That said the 'first half' of ch 22 (the last raw publicly available) have him unleashed his drugged villagers army onto the group so this might not end proper until like ch 24 or so.
I skimmed much of the flashback/'I WILL BECOME GOD' monologue but tl;dr is:
dude is salty he lost to Carol's dad, and Carol's little pill getting all the rave reviews was reopening that old wound
so his primary goal in this trip is to drug all her close allies and turn them into his puppets so he can enjoy the face of Carol's despair when he make the villainous reveal