Chapter 230: Meeting the First Prince
Inside one of the rooms in the Diamond Inn, a handsome young man with brown hair sat with a pensive expression. In front of him knelt a person who had just reported something that made him thoughtful.
"That guy knows Aldrian? Is this bogus or something else? But he was with the Sword Saint, so there’s no way he was joking." This young man was Hector. After returning to the capital, he immediately began searching for information about the Alchemist Association’s auction of the six-striped pill. The first thing he did wasn’t to verify whether the pill was genuine, but to investigate the alchemist who concocted it.
As the First Prince, he wanted to uncover this person’s identity and establish a connection with them. He knew that if something as astonishing as the six-stripes pill had suddenly appeared, the alchemist who created it must be someone other than the usual grandmasters of the association.
Why did he think this? Because he had never heard of the grandmasters being capable of concocting a five-stripes pill, let alone a six-stripes one.
He thought it must be the work of someone outside the imperial family’s attention. He began gathering information about unusual events in the Alchemist Association over the past weeks and even months. However, the only noteworthy incident he found was a meeting where all three grandmasters of the association met with a young man. He couldn’t uncover any details about the young man’s identity or his relationship with the grandmasters, but the event piqued his interest, and he immediately considered the young man the prime suspect.
Many claimed that the young man was just a beginner because of his behavior, which suggested he wanted to learn alchemy. However, he didn’t immediately trust that information and wanted to confirm it first. Even if there was the slightest possibility, he needed to know if this "newbie" was the alchemist he was looking for. He tracked his movements and eventually learned that he had stayed at the Diamond Inn. But by then, the young man had already moved out, and no one knew where he had gone.
After a few days of tracking, he discovered a new clue: someone had purchased a property in the special district. After several more days of investigation, he found strong evidence, he decided to attend the auction first and then try to contact the alchemist.
The auction finally began, and he attended in disguise. When he witnessed the effects of the pills, a thought suddenly struck him—what if this mysterious alchemist had some connection to Aldrian or even Aldrian himself? The timing seemed too coincidental, as it followed the chain of events after people reported seeing Aldrian vanish, and the very next day, this alchemist appeared.
If—only if—the smallest chance existed that this alchemist was the same person, he couldn’t ignore it, even though it seemed impossible. He thought that, even if this mysterious alchemist wasn’t the same as Aldrian, he must still have some connection to him. The way they both acted was strikingly similar, they were causing shock and awe, yet neither wanted to be known.
Last night, he explained his plan and ordered his trusted knight to investigate the mansion where he suspected the mysterious alchemist was staying. However, after his knight returned and reported what he had found, Hector was shocked by the results, as they were beyond his expectations. The appearance of the Sword Saint was more than he could have imagined, and to think that he also had some connection to Aldrian.
"Is he still in the mansion? The man who knows the information about Aldrian?" Hector asked.