Chapter 874: Surprise Meetup
The banquet ended in a relaxed and happy mood. Only halfway through the function, Commodus had already made a move. Zhang Heng wanted to leave as well, but considering the personality he had created for himself, he had to wait until the end of the banquet before he could leave the place. Lucilla’s visit this afternoon also reminded him that as he became more and more famous, more people would be paying attention to him now.
It was crucial that someone like him attended such an evening banquet. It allowed him to exchange conversation and make friends with powerful political allies. If Zhang Heng wanted to maintain his power-hungry persona, it would be unwise for him to leave too early.
Although Zhang Heng was not interested in socializing, he had to pretend that he was fond of talking to them.
He did not remember how many glasses of wine he drank that night. The Roman nobles liked to drink their wine with lead glasses. Besides, red lead could effectively reduce the sourness in wine. Other than that, the water containers that supplied the water to everywhere in the city were made of ceramic and lead. Smaller items like tableware, kitchen utensils, jewelry, and cosmetics contained lead, not to mention that Roman ladies liked lipstick that contained lead or cinnabar (red mercury sulfide).
It was not hard to understand why the Roman nobles found it difficult to bear children. Zhang Heng was not bothered by it, though, considering he would only be in this dungeon for a year and a half. When he returned to the real world, his physical state would be restored to the state before he entered the dungeon.
So, in theory, as long as Zhang Heng did not drink himself to death within a year and a half, chronic lead poisoning was not a big deal to him. However, he suddenly felt dizzy when he was drinking a glass of wine with a young man.
An ordinary person would have thought that Zhang Heng might have consumed too much alcohol that night. However, for a well-trained assassin like Zhang Heng, it was easy for him to realize something wrong with the wine. Not to mention that when Zhang Heng met Dadatis not too long ago, the latter used the same method to doze him off. That was why Zhang Heng was extra cautious when he encountered a similar situation.
Hence, he reacted immediately after taking the first sip. He saw a honey pot and vomited the rest of the wine in his mouth. After that, Zhang Heng pretended that he was drunk and dropped the honey pot on the ground. Immediately, a maid went over to clean up the shattered pieces.
The other maid who helped Zhang Heng up said, “His Majesty mentioned that if you are drunk, you can rest in the room upstairs.”
Zhang Heng mumbled a few vague words. Although he vomited most of the wine, he could still feel that the small sip he took had started to take effect. Not only did he become dizzy, but his breathing began to accelerate as well. His pupils became dilated. Fortunately, Zhang Heng could still manage to control himself. He figured that he had around 80% of his strength left. If he drank all of the wine in the cup, he would have lost all his mobility, and others could do whatever they want to him. Now, he still had enough strength to protect himself, at least.
Zhang Heng was a little surprised at the beginning because he was at the royal palace. And it was probably the most difficult place for someone to poison others. Not to mention that many guests attended the banquet tonight. Now it seemed like he was the only victim, which meant that the person that poisoned him had control over the maids. And the person had also prepared a room for him.
In other words, Commodus probably knew about it. Even if he did not know anything, it seemed he wasn’t opposing it from happening. Since Zhang Heng had already known who did this to him, he actually felt relieved.
The maid helped him to get to the room upstairs. Unlike the magnificent banquet hall below, the room was empty, with only two chairs facing each other. The maid put Zhang Heng on one of the chairs, then turned on the light and walked out.
Zhang Heng immediately closed his eyes. He made use of the time he had to feel the state of his body and analyzed what he had consumed earlier. With that, he would be able to act like he had drunk the entire glass of wine.
Before coming into this dungeon, Zhang Heng possessed the Lv1 herbalism skills. Other than that, Dadatis also taught him a thing or two about poisons. Judging by how his body reacted after taking a sip, Zhang Heng figured that his glass of wine most likely contained Scopolia.
The ordinary person might not know what Scopolia was, but most people should have heard of the name “Truth Serum.”
The original Truth Serum was discovered by an obstetrician. It was used to reduce the pain of the parturient women. He injected some alkaloids extracted from scopolamine into the parturient women’s bodies. After that, with no opposition whatsoever, the parturient women would subconsciously answer all the questions truthfully. There was also a precedent for using Scopolia to treat mental illness and relieve pain for Chinese medicine.
Scopolia affected the respiratory center, causing those who had consumed to have dilated pupils and a significant inhibitory effect on the cerebral cortex. It matched Zhang Heng’s previous body response. The smell of it was covered by something else. Luckily, the tingling sensation on his tongue would not deceive him. In addition, Scopolia itself was highly toxic. Logically speaking, if one directly consumed Scopolia to achieve the Truth Serum’s effect, the dosage should be enough to kill them. However, Zhang Heng’s sixth sense told him that drinking the entire glass of wine should not be enough to poison him.
In other words, the other person’s purpose was not to take his life. The culprit had somehow found a way to eliminate the poison.
The above was the information Zhang Heng got during this period of time.
After that, he heard someone calling his name.
Zhang Heng then opened his eyes, but he did not see anyone sitting on the opposite chair. The voice came from behind him.
“Don’t worry. I just want to ask you a few questions,” the person behind him said.
“Who are you? What’s wrong with me?” Zhang Heng muttered. He tried, but he could not seem to turn his neck.
“You drank too much wine. I think you should take a good rest. Don’t worry. I will take care of you. As for me, you should have heard of my name before. I am Altrus. Just like you, we are the emperor’s advisors.”
“You are Altrus, the mysterious man that everyone talks about? You have never shown your face to anyone before.”
Altrus smiled when he heard what Zhang Heng said. He did not seem to be bothered by Zhang Heng’s offensive comments. He then responded, “Yes, I know about what others are talking about me. I don’t care. Both you and I are the advisors. We should know that our work serves the emperor. As long as the emperor trusts us, the opinions of others are not important.”
Altrus paused and then said, “Well, enough chit-chat. Let’s get to the topic.”
“What’s the topic?”
“As I said, I want to ask you some questions. You just have to answer me truthfully. Let’s start with the southeast city. You have done a beautiful job there, but I want to know what agreement you made with the Jewish gang? I know Lockheed is not afraid of us sending one-thousand imperial guards over there. So, I want to know what you promised Lockheed. Did you promise him that he could run the place without the interference of the higher authority or something else?”
Lockheed’s desire to get rid of senator Divo Braille was supposed to be classified. Only the four people present at the time knew that Lockheed had made Zhang Heng swore that he would never tell anyone. Otherwise, with Divo Braille’s power, he would cause a lot of trouble to the southeast city.
Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to make up a lie to deal with Altrus, but in the next moment, he suddenly remembered what Lucilla said to him before he left. At the time, it sounded like a threat that came from her frustration. Especially the first half of the threat, she told Zhang Heng that some people knew what he was up to.
But now Zhang Heng suddenly realized that Lucilla was probably reminding him, especially since a man from the Beehive called Cornu was also there. And Zhang Heng did not know whether he was someone from the Hounds or Balance Blade.
Zhang Heng realized that he had to make a choice here. If Altrus was testing him with this question and he answered incorrectly, Altrus might soon discover that Truth Serum was not working. After a moment of silence, Zhang Heng answered, “They asked me to deal with someone.”
“Who?”
“Senator Divo Braille. He is too greedy. Lockheed doesn’t like him. I shouldn’t tell you about it. I promised Lockheed that I would keep it as a secret.”
Altrus snorted, and Zhang Heng tried to judge from Altrus’s tone whether he had known about it a long time ago. But unfortunately, Altrus did a good job at concealing his emotions. After hearing Zhang Heng’s answer, he said softly, “It doesn’t matter. I will keep it a secret. Are we friends?”