Forensic Imperial Concubine

Looking at how annoyed Harper was, Matthew felt helpless and said, "I just don't want to risk your safety."
"Do you really think there's a safe place anywhere in the world right now? If you go to the South Kingdom alone and leave me in
the imperial capital by myself, do you think Francis wouldn't do anything to hurt me? I'm afraid that he will sneak back to the
imperial capital and seek revenge on me as soon as you leave. It doesn't even have to be him. He could still have acquaintances
here and could just ask them to do his dirty work for him. Or, don't you believe in your capabilities to protect me if I go with you?"
Harper reasoned with him.
It was the first time for Matthew to see Harper being so eloquent. He didn't know how to rebut her arguments because she did
have a point. The safest way was to keep Harper by his side so that he could look after her by himself. After all, it was the only
way for him to feel assured of her safety. There was nobody else that he could ask to protect Harper while he was away.
"Your Highnesses, His Majesty is here," Noah reported while he came into the room. When he noticed the awkward atmosphere,
Noah was confused so he asked, "Shall I invite His Majesty here?"
Lucas was feeling aggrieved as an emperor. He thought that he must be the first emperor in history to have been denied access
to a mansion. But he was already used to being embarrassed. So he immediately climbed over the wall to enter Matthew's
mansion. Noah just turned a blind eye to such behavior, because Matthew only said that Lucas was not allowed to enter his
mansion through the gate. Technically, he didn't prohibit Lucas from entering his mansion by climbing over the wall.
"Uncle Matthew, Aunt Harper," Lucas greeted the couple while he popped his head into the room with a flattering smile on his
face. Upon entering the room, he straight on stated, "The general guarding the south domain sent me an emergency report.
According to his accounts, something unusual happened in the border of the South Kingdom."
"The general guarding the south domain?" Harper asked when a name suddenly came to her mind. "Is it Luther Lu? He was the
man that your father sent to take over the army in the south domain after Harrison was dismissed from his position."
Meanwhile, Matthew remembered Luther just then. The man was a former member of the military's strategic plan department.
He had kept a low profile and hadn't had much contact with the courtiers. When the late emperor promoted him, everyone else
had been very surprised to hear the news. That was because Luther had been too inconspicuous. But if anyone were to carefully
look into him, they would find out that his rank did not increase because of social connections but rather through his military
merits.
"I want detailed information about Luther," Matthew immediately said.

Hearing that, Lucas ran into the room quickly. He handed a stack of documents to Matthew and said, "I knew you would be
interested in Luther, Uncle Matthew. So I acquired his personal records and brought them here in a hurry. However, your guards
didn't let me in. I had no choice but to climb over the wall just to enter your mansion."
Lucas threw himself into a chair as if he didn't have a single bone in his body. Then, he picked up a cup and took a big sip of the
tea. "There are a lot of poisonous miasmas and insects in the South Kingdom. Besides, the people in there are very skilled at
using poison. In case we have to go to war against them, I'm afraid that we will be at a disadvantage."
"But that is not what you should be worrying about. First of all, you have to figure out how many spies are there in the south
domain's army," Matthew said. After carefully looking through Luther's personal records, he handed them to Harper. He couldn't
find anything wrong with the man. "I didn't expect that he has obtained a lot of achievements in the military."
"The reason that Father promoted him was precisely because of his capabilities. And at that time, Father was hoping that he
could find a military general who would be comparable to you..." Lucas stated, his voice dropping while he continued to speak.
After all, the late emperor had been hostile to Matthew because he had always been threatened by him. Because of this, the late
emperor had done a lot of things which would have been enough for Matthew to kill him a dozen times.
Matthew didn't respond to that and sipped his tea instead. At that moment, Harper was skimming over Luther's personal records.
All of a sudden, she asked, "How is Carlson in the north domain?"
"That guy had a rather great experience in his time at the Northern Expeditionary Army. He is now a sub-third rank general.
Previously, every time Uncle Allen heard what Carlson did, he would shake his head and helplessly sigh. However, things are
different now. Whenever he hears that Carlson had earned excellent military achievements, he will grin from ear to ear. I thought
he would come back and quit the army within a month. But to my surprise, he has been promoted to the sub-third rank after
serving in the army for only a year. I did underestimate him before. Also, Shawn really deserves to be the heir of his father's
position. He has been commanding the army in perfect order," Lucas hastily answered.
A glimmer of light flashed in Harper's eyes while she turned to look at Matthew. There were too many problems with the army
guarding the south domain. Now that they were going there to eliminate the spies from the army, of course, they couldn't trust or
use anybody from the army guarding the south domain. Thus, they had to transfer people from another place. However, the
Northern Expeditionary Army was too far away, and they could not take the Black Flag Army to the south domain either.
Otherwise, it would only make their enemies suspicious and take precautions in advance, which would incur a great loss on their
part.

When Lucas noticed that the couple communicated with each other by eye contact instead of uttering a single word, he felt a
little bored. He asked, "Uncle Matthew, should we send someone to the South Kingdom per their invitation? If not, I'll have
someone turn it down."
"We should accept their offer; don't you think so? Francis provided such an attractive bait in order to lure us there. If we don't
take it, he will be greatly disappointed," Matthew impassively replied.
When he heard the name of his brother, complex emotions flashed through Lucas' eyes. He asked, "Uncle Matthew, are you
going to kill Francis?"
"It depends on whether or not he's determined to dance with death. If he dares to create chaos within the army guarding the
south domain and betray our Bright Dynasty by colluding with our enemies, I will never keep him alive," Matthew slowly said.
When Lucas heard that, his eyelids began to twitch. No matter what happened, Francis was a prince of the Bright Dynasty. So
Lucas didn't want to believe that his brother could really betray his country.