Chapter 100
The investigators offered words of praise to Benjamin one by one. Though nothing had actually been solved, everyone’s spirits seemed to lift.
Isaac watched the convivial atmosphere in silence. He turned away for a moment, his back to the group.
Presently, he drew something from inside his sleeve. It was a flat, thin object, pointed on one end and rounded on the other, about half the size of his palm. At a glance, it was impossible to guess what it was, but on closer inspection, it looked something like a bone fragment.
Clasping it in his hand, Isaac put his arms behind his back. He waited for the second drilling.
It took time to prepare for the second attempt, as the drill bit had to be replaced before they could bore again. Benjamin shot furtive glances at Isaac, who stood silently, staring straight ahead.
They were only able to unfurl the second net as the sky began to bleed into crimson. Time was short, as darkness fell quickly in the Downstream.
Just then, as if he had foreseen this, Isaac approached and gestured to his subordinates.
“Let’s hurry and finish this.”
He casually took his share of the samples for the remains test and began to sort through them. The process of wiping away the pollutant-filled mud, identifying objects, and dropping the reagent on suspicious materials was tedious. Everyone was too absorbed in their own work to pay attention to anyone else.
It was the perfect moment for Isaac to slip in the object he held.
He shoved the object he had concealed in his hand underneath a pile of other items. It broke a little under the weight, but he didn’t mind. A broken and worn piece would be more convincing than something too perfect…
No one noticed Isaac’s suspicious movements. He nonchalantly lifted and pushed aside other objects until he ‘found’ the fan-shaped item he had planted. He broke off a piece to create a sample, placed it on a dish, and dropped the reagent onto it with a dropper.
The reagent reacted.
“I think I’ve found it,” Isaac said in a businesslike tone.
All eyes snapped toward him. Isaac shrugged.
“What did you say?”
The investigators swarmed around Isaac. They stared down at his dish in disbelief. The substance in the dish was reacting with the reagent, producing a dark red foam.
“D-do it again.”
As if to say, why not, Isaac performed the test again. He broke off another piece of the fan-shaped object and placed it on a clean dish. This time, he used a reagent from one of the other men.
A few seconds later…
The dark red foam bubbled up again.
“D-did we find it? On the first try?” one of the investigators muttered in disbelief.
Isaac suppressed a smile. The fact that he already possessed a sample of the mystical animal’s remains from the Sky City was a secret known only to him. Of all the people living, only Isaac knew when and how he had discovered it.
Looks like the Downstream is still in the palm of my hand.
“It seems I’ve done what the people of the Sky City were supposed to do,” Isaac said, pushing the dish toward the investigators. He glanced almost reflexively at Benjamin, whose expression had darkened into a grim scowl.
I’ll ruin that face even more.
Benjamin shot a look at General Soluten, an appeal for the man to take his side—he was the one who had proposed investigating the swamp, after all.
But General Soluten, in whom Isaac had already planted ‘certain thoughts,’ was no longer on Benjamin’s side.
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