Now that things had come to this, there was no point in hiding anything from her anymore.
Justin kept quiet for a while before he replied, “I can confirm that the mysterious organization is in Buckingham Palace.”
Nora nodded.
She had already informed Morris of this.
She had learned about it from Xander. One could say that the two children had unwittingly solved a longstanding mystery. However, she hadn’t been in contact with Justin during this period at all. Therefore, Justin had derived this entirely by himself.
From the looks of it, King indeed held great power. At the very least, he had more sources of information than Morris.
She asked, “Is the Queen connected to this?”
“No.”
Justin answered with certainty.
Nora’s lip corners curled upward, and a seemingly amused look entered her eyes.
“Oh? You trust her that much?”
Justin promptly answered, “No, it’s not that. She is simple-minded, and she isn’t that cunning. If the mysterious organization was hers, she would have shown it off long ago.”
Nora: “…”
The man sure had a strong survival instinct. She couldn’t tease him even if she wanted to. How uninteresting…
Regardless, she asked, “If it wasn’t authorized by the Queen, then who else could it be? For such a large organization to stay hidden in Buckingham Palace, who else can achieve it besides her? Moreover, Barbarian is by her side.”
Cherry and Princess Lucy were very good friends. As such, Nora was obligated to rescue the Queen from the fire, but she hadn’t planned to do so at all at that time precisely because her impression of the Queen had plummeted after learning that the mysterious organization was in Buckingham Palace.
It was through the chat between the Queen and her aide that she later vaguely sensed that the Queen had nothing to do with the matter. Coupled with how she’d witnessed the Queen’s love for her daughter, that was why she had saved her.
There was still a lot of time before the Beef Wellington would be ready, so Justin sat next to Nora and filled her in on the Queen’s situation.
“During this recent period of time, I’ve figured out the mysterious organization’s situation on the inside. Those 1,000 children selected by the mysterious organization had gone through extraordinarily inhumane torture in their childhood. The five who ultimately survived greatly resent the mysterious organization.
“The five of them are Trueman Yale, Caleb Gray, Listener, Spacey, and Barbarian.
“In Trueman’s case, he has no choice. As the young master, the mysterious organization is his home. For Caleb, he is on relatively good terms with Trueman because the latter saved him several times. That’s why he works for the mysterious organization.
“But the other three can be said to have irreconcilable differences with the mysterious organization.
“The pianist who died some time ago was Listener. After undergoing genetic modifications, she became extremely perceptive to sounds, but this characteristic was not of any particular use to the mysterious organization. Moreover, she was obsessed with the arts. Whether genuine or just an act, she didn’t hold any substantial impact on the mysterious organization. After Trueman took over, he spared her life. Unfortunately, Listener ultimately still died from the backlash brought upon by the lack of the V16…”
At this point, Nora interrupted him and asked, “They were all injected with the gene serum at the same time, so why did Listener die two months earlier than the rest?”
Justin explained, “I was also puzzled by this. After sending someone to investigate, I found out that Listener was older than the rest of the children.”
Nora was taken aback.
Justin said, “The 1,000 children that the mysterious organization experimented on had ranged from newborns to ten-year-olds. Of the five who survived, the other four are of similar age, with all of them being about two or three years old back then. Children too young cannot withstand the gene serum’s effects; while those too old find the transformation too painful to endure and their bodies are also unable to adapt to the effects. Listener was already ten years old at that time. She was also the only one who survived among the ten-year-olds. Going by their ages, Trueman, Caleb, and the others are about 28 or 29 years old now, but Listener was already 36 years old.”
Nora nodded, a contemplative look coming over her face.
Caleb had given her a crash course on the five survivors’ abilities, but it was not as detailed as Justin’s investigation results.
Justin went on. “As for Spacey, he’s a hacker, and he comes and goes like a ghost. He is also very smart and has stayed in hiding all this time, so the mysterious organization can neither find him nor do anything about him.”
Upon hearing this, Nora thought of the dead Liam, and her eyes darkened a little. Her slender fingers tapped against the armrest of the sofa, and her expression turned somewhat contemplative.
At the sight, Justin asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh,” Nora’s fingers paused and she said, “It’s nothing. Go on.”
II
11
As King, no one had ever dared to speak to him in a commanding tone. However, the girl in front of him didn’t make Justin feel affronted in the least. He merely gave her an affectionate smile and went on.
“The last one is Barbarian. His genetic modifications can be said to be the most useful. After escaping from the lab back then, he passed out on the road and was picked up by the Queen. Later, the Queen found out that he was a martial arts prodigy, so she trained and groomed him until he became the Queen’s close protection bodyguard. With the Queen protecting him, the mysterious organization doesn’t dare to do anything to him, for fear of alerting her to their existence. I found out that it’s also because of this that Barbarian is very loyal to the Queen.”
Nora asked, “Does the Queen know of his identity?”
Justin shook his head. “Who knows…”
Did Justin mean that the Queen was unaware of Barbarian’s identity, or did he mean that even he didn’t know whether the Queen knew or not? The meaning behind the two clearly differed completely.
Yet Nora understood Justin’s concise answer. She laughed and remarked, “Then the Queen isn’t as simple-minded as you claim she is, is she?”
Despite not knowing the man inside-out, she didn’t fear using him. The Queen had guts.
Moreover, even Justin couldn’t tell whether she knew of Barbarian’s identity or not. This alone demonstrated her shrewdness.
Justin smiled and said, “A woman who can ride out overlapping power struggles to eventually sit on the throne would never be that simple. Regardless, I know the extent of her capabilities. Besides, her age doesn’t match. The mysterious organization was founded during your mother’s time, but the Queen is only thirty this year.”
Nora nodded. “In that case, apart from the Queen, who else is capable of keeping such a large organization-or rather, a lab-in Buckingham Palace basements?”
The thought alone instilled fear in one.
Beneath the palace that one had lived in for numerous years was a secret inhumane laboratory conducting biological experiments.
Justin smiled and replied, “I’ve thought of someone.”
“Who is it?”
