Chapter 98: A Familiar Bottle
[Donald’s Perspective]
Behind him came the assault team, still carrying the stretcher.
The stretcher was covered with a white cloth. I didn’t need to look to know that it was the werewolf I had killed in the forest. They had probably just returned from processing the scene in the forest, but they had come to me so urgently. I wondered what new discovery they had.
I looked at Elliot. He held up a small bottle.
My pupils contracted sharply.
This little bottle looked familiar.
I’d seen this little bottle in Margaret’s cabinet before I left the house. They looked exactly the same.
The only difference was that Margaret’s bottle was empty, but there was still some liquid at the bottom of the bottle Elliot was now holding up.
My heart contracted so fast that it hurt.
Margaret. Why would it be Margaret?
She was so innocent, so pure. She was like a little white flower that had never been involved in any worldly affairs. I had tried my best to keep her away from all this. How could she be involved in these things?
I suppressed the shock in my heart and asked as if nothing had happened, “Where was this found?”
Elliot glanced at me and realized that he was being overly agitated. He said seriously, “I found it on the body.”
Elliot began to describe what happened. He said, “After I followed your orders and brought people over there to clean up the scene, I first checked the surroundings carefully to make sure there were no other enemies. Then I circled the spot and wanted to carry him back. Before I carried him onto the stretcher, I thought to look for something on him and then I found this. I quickly sent it back.”
“This was found on his body?”
I took the small bottle and held it up to the light for a closer look. Inside was a pink liquid. It was transparent. As I turned the bottle at an angle, the liquid swirled inside the bottle.
This was what we had guessed before. It was a drug that needed to be extracted with a syringe.
I handed the bottle to Armstrong to observe.
“Is this the drug we’ve been searching for?” Armstrong said.
“I think so,” Elliot said.
Armstrong looked at it in his hand and turned it over to Benjamin.
Benjamin’s attitude was obviously much more serious. He held the bottle and studied it for a long time. He even sniffed it. I looked at him worriedly. He didn’t notice my gaze at all. It was as if all his attention was focused on the liquid in the bottle.
All of us stared at him, counting on him to come to some definite conclusion.
“I need to get back to my experiments,” Benjamin said, looking up at me. “These aren’t quite enough for me to study thoroughly, but I’ll do my best. I want to get back to this now, Your Majesty.”
“Okay,” I said.
Benjamin hurried away with the men and the reagent bottles.
No matter what, this was a development.
I looked around the room. Everyone looked tired. Many people here had not had a full night’s sleep since the first attack.
I realized that it was more important to give everyone enough rest than to continue interrogating the people we had captured tonight. This was likely to be a protracted battle. It would not do to drag everyone into the rhythm of exhaustion too early. It would be very bad for the long term.
“That’s enough for today,” I said. “Everyone, go back and rest. We’ll talk about everything tomorrow.”
I glanced at my watch. It was already two in the morning.
At this time… I thought about it and finally decided, “There’s no need to guard this place today. The patrols in the forest are all arranged tonight. We’ll have a meeting in the council chamber at one o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Elliot, you should go back too.”
Everyone left, one after another.
I turned around and saw that Armstrong was still standing there. He looked at me and said, “Your Majesty, I want to talk to you.”
…
I gathered my thoughts and focused again on Margaret, who was lying on the bed beside me.
I didn’t like to speculate on what kind of traitor Margaret might be.
Although from the education I had received since I was young, too many people had warned me that if I became King, there would be many people who would covet everything around me. Perhaps it was wealth, status, or power. In short, there were too many people that I had to be careful of.
Margaret’s appearance was unexpected. I was willing to believe she was the special one for me.
After Armstrong and I parted ways that day, I returned to my room and took out the small bottle from my drawer to check.
I was almost 99 percent sure that this was similar to the drug bottle I had taken from Elliot that night. I could even conclude that this was the same drug bottle that I had sent so many people to find at the time.
Margaret was there that night, and we didn’t leave together.
She had many opportunities to get this little bottle.
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