Since Dorothy did not wish to reveal the secret she had stumbled upon, Carl was not going to force her to tell him. He could only give her a gentle reminder. "If the secret you've discovered is really that important, then the Romarins will not give up on silencing you. They will continue to hunt you down and make sure you die…""I know that." Dorothy pursed her lips and looked determined as she said, "That's why I've decided to go ahead and join apothecary competition like I had planned to. Then, in the final round, I'm going to report the Romarin family's schemes to the king in front of all the aristocrats and the commoners!"Carl's attention was caught by something else she mentioned. "The aristocrats will be at the apothecary competition too?""Haven't you seen any of the notices about the competition? According to the notice, once the top ten have been selected, the king will allow the aristocrats and some commoners into the palace to watch the final round

Amidst the commotion, the cloaked figure who had been shot down by the spear of light was as limp as a dead dog as two knights held him up. Everyone craned their necks to see who the figure was. The cloak fell off the figure's head to reveal a man with fierce and malicious-looking features.All of a sudden, someone in the crowd recognized the man and exclaimed, "He's a fugitive! He's that ruthless killer, Jack! The one who cruelly massacred several villages!"All the residents watching from outside the plaza went into an uproar. They were frightened when they heard who it was, but they were also curious about what would happen next."Everyone, please do not panic," a man who was dressed like a court official came out to calm the crowd down. "We already predicted that some wanted criminals might try to hide themselves among the contestants, so we specially invited the vice general of the royal guards, Count Kane, to watch over the competition. He will not allow anyone

When Carl saw Benedict stand in the same row as himself, he could not help but imagine the assassin suddenly pulling a dagger out to kill everyone in the plaza so that he would make it to the final round.Carl shook his head to get rid of this ridiculous scene in his head. He glanced at the other contestants and had an impression of some of them. Many were the more skillful apothecaries that Bruno had told him about earlier. It was clear that only the best had made it to this round.He also noticed that while he was observing the other contestants, some of them were also observing him. Some looked at him with curiosity, while others had looks of disdain.The gong rang once more and marked the start of the next round.Carl focused his attention back on the competition and began selecting the herbs he needed. The rules for this round were simple as well. They had to concoct an antidote, and the ones with the most effective antidotes would make it to the next round.

“Once I spotted the two men talking so secretively, I became curious and hid myself nearby to eavesdrop on them.” Dorothy’s voice became even softer. “I heard the other person tell Heath to think of a way to arrange for some apothecaries to get into the finals.”She scoffed and said, “At first, I thought that the two were just making some under-the-table deal for the apothecary competition. To my horror, Heath refused to help the other party and even asked him if he was trying to assassinate the king.”“Of course, the other party wasn’t going to admit to doing that and insisted that he was just trying to make a mess of the competition. He also said that if Heath didn’t want to help him with his original request, then providing the route into the palace would be good enough.” She paused for a moment, then added, “But Heath didn’t agree to that either.”“What happened after that?&r