Alpha's replacement bride is destined mate-Chapter 34 Who Are the Attackers?

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"Alpha, Luna." Marx rushed towards Klaus and Emily, saying to them, "Follow me."

They stood up, and several Alpha Warriors immediately formed a protective perimeter around them as they navigated through the panicked crowd, past blast-damaged pathways, and finally reached a relatively safe area.

An armored vehicle was already waiting, its doors wide open, for their arrival. The Alpha Warrior quickly escorted Klaus and Emily to the car, where Marx joined them and closed the door.

Sitting in the car, Klaus noticed that Emily’s forehead had been scratched by flying debris, and a dark red blood clot clung to her hair. He immediately turned to Marx and said, "We need to get to the hospital now."

"Are you hurt?" Marx, who was behind the wheel, immediately turned his head to look at Klaus.

"It’s Emily," Klaus replied, placing his hand over Emily’s bleeding forehead and instructing Marx, "Go to the hospital, now."

"Yes, sir." Marx stepped on the gas and drove towards the hospital.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the hospital. Emily was rushed to the treatment room to have her wound dressed, while Klaus and Marx waited in the break room.

"Who do you think was responsible for this bombing?" Marx leaned back against the wall, chin resting in one hand, as he pondered, "I think it was premeditated to plan an explosion like that in front of everyone."

"Is there any news from the royal family?" Klaus asked in a deep voice.

"Meiss hasn’t responded to any messages yet," Marx said. "Do you want us to investigate it ourselves?"

"Not at the moment. I’m sure someone from the royal family will handle that," Klaus replied.

Something occurred to Klaus, and he instructed Marx, "Before the explosion, I saw a man hand Emily a box containing a bomb. Relay this information to Meiss and ask them to check the surveillance footage at the scene and make sure they find the man."

"I’ll do it now," Marx said as he left the break room, just as a nurse approached and informed Klaus that Emily had been bandaged and was in her room.

Klaus rushed to the hospital room and found Emily lying on a bed in a hospital gown, her forehead wrapped in white gauze, and her hands connected to an IV drip.

"Are you okay?" Klaus asked, coming to her side with concern.

"I’m fine," Emily replied, still pale and visibly shaken from the thought of the explosion.

"You’re safe here," Klaus comforted her. "I’ll be with you."

He kissed Emily on the cheek, and she squeezed his hand, her voice trembling slightly. "Klaus, if I hadn’t picked up that man’s box, wouldn’t it have exploded? Did I do something wrong?"

She recalled seeing the bloodied bodies scattered on the ground, women and children, as the Alpha warriors ushered them away. The image of the blood froze in her mind, and she felt guilty and aggrieved that those innocent lives had been lost in such a way.

"It’s none of your business," Klaus gently stroked her head. "The explosion occurred in different parts of the square, and one of the bombs was hidden in the box. This attack was premeditated and targeted."

"Targeted?" Emily was shocked. "You mean the target of this bombing was me?"

Emily’s words struck a chord with Klaus, and his expression grew serious. He fell into a momentary reverie.

He thought back to the man who had handed the box to Emily. If that man’s intention hadn’t been to harm Emily directly, there was only one conclusion.

The mastermind behind this plot wanted to kill Klaus indirectly, through Emily. But who would want to harm him?

The telephone rang, and Klaus stepped out of the room to answer it. It was Meiss.

"We’ve caught the culprits responsible for the bombing," Meiss’s voice said over the phone. "Are you coming over to Prison No. 2?"

"I’ll be there shortly," Klaus replied before hanging up.

..........

Prison 2, located in the bowels of the Royal Office Building, serves as a penal colony for special prisoners. The royal household divides its inmates into three classes based on the level of danger they pose, with the first class held in Prison No. 1, the second in Prison No. 2, and so forth, with the most dangerous inmates in Prison No. 3.

Klaus accessed the basement through a secret entrance, where he was greeted by a dedicated guard stationed outside the underground prison door. After verifying Klaus’s identity, one of the guards escorted him to the exclusive passageway leading to Prison 2.

The automatic blast door slid open, and Klaus saw Meiss standing on the other side, clearly waiting for him.

"What did you find?" Klaus asked as he approached.

"The mastermind behind the bombing was once a member of the royal special forces. His name is Peter Brinton. After being dismissed for a mistake, he nurtured a grudge and orchestrated the bombing," Meiss explained. He walked towards the door of a room, his gaze fixed on the display panel, and then a mechanical voice announced, "Iris verification successful."

The next second, the door to the interrogation room opened, and as Meiss and Klaus stepped inside, the room’s sensor lights automatically flickered on, allowing Klaus to see through the glass walls that the interrogation was already in progress.

In the interrogation room, a man sat naked and bound to a hollowed-out iron chair, his head bowed low, his face marred by bruises and streaked with blood. The glare of an overhead light shone directly on him, making it nearly impossible for him to open his eyes.

"Has he already been interrogated?" Klaus stood in front of the glass window, staring at the man on the other side.

"We’ve employed every torture method we deemed necessary," Meiss said, gesturing to the papers on the table. "All the confessions are here. As I mentioned earlier, he’s seeking revenge against the royal family for personal reasons."

Klaus quickly skimmed through the papers before asking, "Where did you apprehend him?"

"It was in the alley near the square. He was about to change his attire when the guards caught him in the act," Meiss replied. "I suspect he was attempting to flee by disguising himself as a woman."

"Did any of you manage to capture footage of the explosion scene?" Klaus inquired.

"A drone serendipitously caught him handing a box to Luna Emily. That’s how we tracked him down based on the video," Meiss said with a hint of smugness. "It took us less than an hour to locate him."

"Do you have a video of the alley where the criminal was apprehended?"

"Here," Meiss said, pushing her laptop towards Klaus, who promptly opened the video.

Staring intently at the footage, Klaus watched a man in a peaked cap carrying something in his arms down the alley. The man turned his back to the surveillance camera, glancing left and right as if searching for something. It wasn’t long before a group of guards descended on the alley and apprehended him.

"Something’s not right," Klaus said, rewinding the footage and pausing it at the moment the man first entered the alley. "Look, he was arrested almost twenty minutes after entering the alley. That’s too long."

"I don’t understand what you mean," Meiss said, puzzled.

"In the training of the royal special forces, there’s a lesson on disguising oneself and making a quick getaway. The typical time for a clothing change is one minute and twenty seconds, but he took a full twenty minutes. Klaus nodded confidently, "He did it deliberately."

"Why would he do that?" Meiss asked, surprised. "Does he have an accomplice?"

"His confession must be false," Klaus stated, staring at the man across from him. "People often lie to cover for someone else."

Meiss fell silent, her gaze fixed on the tormented prisoner. If she couldn’t somehow extract the truth from the prisoner’s lips, it meant the truth would remain buried with him.

"Give him to me," Klaus said, a sneer tugging at the corners of his mouth. His features, hidden beneath his sunglasses, grew grimly intense.

"No one can lie to me," he declared.