Back in the Southeast District, Megaphone had tested Zhang Heng with the doctrines of the Blade of Balance. Zhang Heng had later told Autrus about it, so he had no way to lie about it in the dungeon now.
At the same time, Zhang Heng realized that Commodus had specifically summoned him and Klind to interrogate the captured assassin for a reason. He wanted Zhang Heng, an "informed party," to expose the existence of the Blade of Balance.
That also meant the assassination attempt by the bridge that afternoon had not been orchestrated by the Blade of Balance. It had been a staged act arranged by Autrus and Commodus together.
Autrus had never intended to put forward a double to act in his place. He had merely used one as a disposable pawn, successfully pinning the assassination on the Blade of Balance. That would allow him to use the power of the state to crush the Blade of Balance.
And the truth was even more dramatic than Zhang Heng had guessed.
After he and Klind reported the information they had obtained from the female assassin to Commodus, the emperor immediately issued warrants for every member of the Blade of Balance. To avenge his most trusted advisor, Commodus even took one hundred thousand gold coins from his private treasury as a reward.
The Senate also expressed concern over the matter. A group of great nobles led by Dio immediately mourned Autrus's assassination. Since using funds from the state treasury to hunt down the culprit was against the rules, they even raised another two hundred thousand gold coins through donations and added them to the bounty. Privately, however, quite a few of them were secretly delighted.
Autrus had been Commodus's man and, along with Klind, had always been hailed as Commodus's right-hand