Forensic Imperial Concubine

Chapter 685 The Death Of Lucas (Part Two)

"Not us, only him," Matthew responded while he tried to enjoy his meal. Despite the nature of their conversation, his tone was still calm and collected.

"What? Do you mean they wanted to kill Lucas? But why? Lucas has been enjoying life all this time. He kept to himself and rarely offended anyone over the years. Why would anyone want to kill him?" Lilian asked. She could not be more curious upon hearing Matthew's reply. She could come up with tons of reasons for those assassins to target her. But Lucas? That was totally way beyond her imagination. She could not think of any reason or anyone who would eagerly want to kill Lucas.

"Who do you think is threatened while Lucas is still alive?" Matthew asked after a sigh instead of answering her question. There was no brotherhood in the royal family, but only enemies. When someone threatened another one's position, he would immediately be considered as a target. Content held by NôvelDrama.Org.

His reply intrigued Lilian right away. Her face turned pale in an instant. She was not a fool. The only person that could be threatened while Lucas is still alive was none other than Francis. After all, he was the one located in the imperial capital right now who might inherit the throne. But as far as she knew, Lucas did not have interests in politics. He was only concerned about his appearance and the finer things in life. 'Why did Francis want to get rid of him so badly?' Lilian asked herself inwardly before speaking to Matthew.

"Why? Lucas has never been interested in the throne, right? And even if he is, he's not that capable. He is not a threat to Francis at all!" Aside from being extremely shocked about the information that she was just been supplied, Lilian was very confused.

Matthew gave a helpless glance at Lilian as if he was looking at a foolish person. He then continued to eat. He didn't want to waste his time explaining to her. She had grown up with Lucas since they were very young. Did she really think that Lucas was just a playboy with simple desires and aspirations?

All of a sudden, it seemed like Lilian figured out something. Her face turned paler and paler. She suddenly stood up and asked, "I shouldn't have consented to this marriage, should I? Otherwise, he wouldn't have the chance to get rid of Lucas, right?"

"Even if we didn't go on this journey, he would find other ways to kill him anyway. So don't blame yourself for anything," Matthew said. After he finished eating, he put down the chopsticks on the bowl. Before he went back to his room to finally have some rest, he looked at Lilian and warned her, "Go back to your room and rest as much as you can. Don't walk around even if you have nothing else to do."

"Uncle Matthew, Lucas..." Lilian gritted her teeth and hesitated for a few seconds. "Lucas is going to be safe. You'll make sure of that, right?"

Matthew didn't answer her question. He just kept on walking ahead, without even turning around to look at her. He went straight to his room because he knew that something terrible must happen to Lucas. Otherwise, Francis would attack them while hiding in the shadows until his goal was achieved. If this were to happen, Matthew wouldn't have a chance to expose him. Therefore, Lucas must die, or to be more precise, pretend to die to draw the snake out of the hole.

Matthew pondered, 'Tonight is a good time. Lucas will be killed at the official inn!'

In the middle of the night, someone started yelling hysterically that there was a fire in the office inn. Instantly, everyone woke up. The guards then hastily put out the fire. But Lucas was nowhere to be found after the fire had been extinguished.

Lilian felt a little uneasy, so she ran to Lucas' room to check how he was doing. The door was wide open and Matthew was standing inside. As for Lucas, he was lying so close to them. His body was covered in blood, his own presumably.

"Lucas!" Lilian exclaimed upon seeing the horrific situation. She then rushed by Lucas' side but Matthew caught her by the arm.

"Guards, take Lilian back to her room so she can rest!" Matthew firmly ordered.

"No! Lucas! Lucas!" Lilian screamed while she kept struggling out of the guards. But she was too weak to be a considerable match for them. As a result, she was helplessly dragged away to her room.

While he looked at Lucas who was lying in a pool of blood, Matthew's eyes were dull, concealing all of his emotions. He called for someone to help in cleaning up the body. At that time, all the staff in the official inn were all under Matthew's control.

"Prince Lucas was killed in the official inn. Do you know the gravity of this situation?" Barry asked rigidly on behalf of Matthew.

"Your Highness, we have no idea about what happened as well. I was told that the room caught fire at midnight and soon after, he was found lying on the floor! All of us are so scared that we're all at a loss right now. We really don't know what happened."

"You have no idea? Look, a prince was killed in the official inn so no one in here can escape until we find the culprit!"

Everyone in the official inn was frightened to hell. They couldn't say anything because extreme fear and shock seized their throats. Lucas died in the official inn and the murderer had not been found yet. Any one of them could be the suspect. Even though they were not the killer, they would probably be implicated.

"Your Highness, please spare us! We really don't know what happened. Please spare us!"

Matthew watched the crowd with apathetic eyes. Lucas was murdered while they were on the way for a political marriage. They hadn't even reached the Great Jade Kingdom's territory so this was not a small matter. When the crowd had finally settled a little, he said, "Lucas had been murdered. Send a messenger to the imperial capital as quickly as possible. The officials need to know this right away."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Your Highness, we are innocent," the person in charge of the official inn cried out. He kept on thinking what bad luck had descended upon them. He could not figure out who could be so bold to kill a prince. Although Lucas did not have a good reputation, he was still a prince. He still had the royal blood. Now, he was murdered and the one who did it was still unknown. Everyone felt like they were doomed since they became involved in the situation even though they didn't want to.

"Take everyone here into custody. We must find out who really killed Lucas," Matthew said. He made the decision for everyone. He would not kill them, but would not let them go either. He resolved to hand them over to the local government office of Pearl City. The local government would certainly do everything to find out who the murderer was. Even if they could not find the killer, they would find a scapegoat.

"Your Highness, I'm innocent! I'm innocent!" someone shouted, unwilling to give up.

"Take them away," Matthew firmly ordered.

"Your Highness, now that Prince Lucas had been killed, are we going to continue our journey to the Great Jade Kingdom?" the captain of the procession asked in a cautious tone. He was Ken's most capable deputy general and thus was appointed to the position at that time. They had encountered countless assassinations on the way. But he had not expected that Lucas would meet his end in here.

With determination, Matthew responded, "Yes, we will! Our mission is to send Lilian to the Great Jade Kingdom for marriage. How could we give up now?"

"Then, what about Prince Lucas' body?" the captain asked carefully. After all, that was the body of a prince. They couldn't just leave his body here. Moreover, if Francis blamed them for what happened, they would be severely punished.

Matthew responded nonchalantly, "Choose fifty guards to escort Lucas' body back to the imperial capital and hand it to Francis. He's the one who's supposed to deal with this matter. The weather is hot these days so it won't be good to keep the corpse here. It will take about five or six days from here to the imperial capital. And the guards will carry a coffin, so it's going to take longer than when we came here. You will have to find a way to slow down the speed of the body's decay. You must make sure to hand over Lucas' body to Francis in good condition."

"What?" the captain murmured in hesitation. In his opinion, Matthew's request was a bit unreasonable. A human's dead body would reek in two or three days, let alone five or six days. Even if the corpse would be treated with special methods, they wouldn't be able to hand an intact body to Francis. But before the captain could say anything to protest, Matthew had already turned around and walked out. He ordered the others to prepare for the continuation of their journey to the Great Jade Kingdom.