Herald of Steel-Chapter 1540: Autopsy (Part-2)

So now all that remained was answering how the clues of his ill doings were missed.

Surely if Pasha Farzah decided to conduct an autopsy despite the massive objection from everyone, it was reasonable to expect he had to have some great guarantee to detect whatever the trick that was used.

However, despite the improbability of it all, that was exactly what had happened.

The autopsy completely failed in its effect, thus smashing Pasha Farzah to the ground while skyrocketing Mirzah to the moon.

It was a level of scheming that was hard to gauge with a human mind.

Thus for perhaps the first time in a long while, Alexander's heart shook with a cold palpitation.

….

Of course, Alexander kept these thoughts to himself for now.

He was sure Lady Inayah as well as Pasha Farzah had also probably thought about this, but since she did not mention it on her own, Alexander too did not poke.

The actual truth of the matter was probably only known to Mirzah and even if Alexander could get him to speak right here right now, it was unlikely the man was going to say the truth.

Perhaps he would boast all was planned and predicted by him, that he saw every move, thus painting himself as this great mastermind.

Or perhaps he would pretend to play dumb and claim everything was a mere fluke. He only wanted to kill his brother to clear the way and everything else was a bonus.

Or perhaps the most likely of all, it was a mixture of the two.

Such as he expected there to be an autopsy, but never thought it would be public, thus reaping an immense, unexpected boon.

Whichever of the three it was, the fact of the matter was that Mirzah had indeed 'won' that round, leaving Pasha Farzah reeling for the next decade.

But despite the finality of the outcome, and it happening, long, long ago, Alexander, like the downcast Lady Inayah too could not just leave it like that and accept defeat.

"My lady, can it be the coronars missed something? Perhaps it was a very rare poison, traceless and undetectable. Or maybe an incredibly hidden wound too small for the naked eye."

As an avid reader of detective novels, Alexander's imagination was much more vivid than perhaps all the people of Adhan combined.

So hearing there were no clues as to the medium of murder, all kinds of rare and exotic possibilities began to swim inside his mind- poison darts, poison mixed into the drink as ice, ricin, jellyfish sting that can perfectly mimic a heart attack, an ultra thin blade that can cause grievous internal bleeding yet barely cutting the skin and many, many more.

As for how many such poisons and equipment actually existed and out of them how many of them were actually viable.. well Alexander did not need to think about them now.

For now, he was insistent on making the point to Lady Inayah that perhaps something might have been overlooked during the procedure, noting with a certain, hopeful edge to his voice,

"You said it yourself, did you not my lady? No one had done an autopsy in Adhania for centuries. So the man performing had to be an amateur, right? Do you know who performed it?"

"....." There was a bit of a pause as Lady Inayah lifted her chin a bit in thought, trying to recall the facts.

And this gesture actually made Alexander quite happy.

He reasoned if it had been someone famous doing this, Lady Inayah would have remembered him instantly. So he eagerly waited for a negative answer.

"Pasha Farzah had his family's grave keeper perform the autopsy. But it was overseen by an experienced maester from the temples. So nothing was missed. Absolutely none! I can swear it on my faith, Lord Alexander," The soft, reply was delivered with a touch of gentleness but it smashed all of the man's hopes.

Lady Inayah was saying they had done everything to the best of their abilities, using the best of their current technology and understanding of anatomy.

"Right! The autopsy was approved by Alozmer (Ptolomy's father)! I remember it now." And this was also confirmed by the chiming Queen Mother, who nodded her fiery redhead swiftly.

Seelima had missed such a piece of crucial information before because she was currently quite drunk, thus her mind was failing to make even a lot of easy connections.

"Mmmm…to do such a huge thing and in public…. of course, it had to be permitted by him," Lady Inayah added to the report, musing with a touch of adoration,

"I remember Pasha Farzah trying quite hard to convince that madman. Even I do not know how he did it…but there had to have been a lot of oiling and flattering…*sigh*... Pasha Farzah can really be patient when he wants to. It had not been long since Alozmer killed Layla."

"....." The fact that Pasha Farzah was a patient man was not news to Alexander. No matter how smart a man was, if he did not know how to exercise patience and bear through difficulties, he would not be able to succeed.

Hence he moved the topic to a small detail that had been bothering him all along,

"My lady, I understand the need for the mad king's permission, but just what makes to say there was no mistake in the autopsy? The operation was performed by a mere gravedigger. As for the measter that you say was appointed… I believe he was sent to maintain the sanctity of the body and make sure the poor boy was not violated beyond anything necessary, right? He did not have any knowledge. So…." Alexander was about to further buttress his point when he was suddenly cut off by a regal flash of her palms from the Queen Mother,

"No, Alexander…you are wrong. That maester had a quite deep knowledge of the body. He was the chief physician under Alozmer, responsible for his health and more importantly, coming up with all kinds of new medicine to keep him healthy."

"Among this was his most famous promise to that madman- 'unlocking the secrets to immortality'. Heh!" Seelima gave a disdainful smirk at this, as if taunting the king for his ambition given he did not even get to finish his natural lifespan. She had severed it.

The Queen Mother then lastly finished by adding,

"Alozmer was also foolish enough to believe this. So he allowed the quack to do live human dissections on the prisoners in the royal dungeons. It was an open secret at the time. *Tsk*."

The regal lady clicked her tongue in a very unrefined manner, momentarily forgetting her status due to her extreme dislike of just the memory of the man.

"....." While Alexander's eyes also clearly flickered with anger. He was not against the mere principle of human dissection like the Queen Mother was, this was a vitally necessary part of medicine, but to do so on a living, breathing human being… this was too cruel and inhumane.

He would never condone it.

"Mmmm…I also heard some extremely distasteful things about the place. It was even said the screams from there could be heard even across many of the palace halls. Lunatics!"

The duo was lastly joined by Lady Inayah, who cursed as such, then turned to them with sharp, focused eyes, snorting,

"Hmmmp… those two madmen really were one peas in a pod. They used to even sleep together. *Tsk*... and sometimes they even called us to serve them. Hmmmp!"

Lady Inayah very animatedly clenched and ground her teeth as she said so, clearly disliking the memories from those nights.

As did Seelima, "Mmm… it is good that Alozmer ultimately executed him. That mad beast at least did something good in his life! I hated that creep."

"Yes… but not without a lot of pressure from the nobles. Who knew that quack was insane enough to cut open nobles? Lunatic!"

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