The route to the audience room, which the guard told Xiao that the King was waiting for him there, was strangely long. It was even longer than the time where he and Lars rush to there from the front gate of the castle.
Was it because they were running during that time, which could have been the case as for now, the guard was leading Xiao with slow manner pace.
Xiao did not care much of it, and he did not care much of the summoning either, for he thinks that it must have something to do with Lars' death.
(What's the point for me to be there? Even if they manage to find the killer, I don't even know that person, and I can't even get mad on him or her, I mean, not only I know Lars for like no more than 1 week, I hate him, his psychopathic grinning, his lunatic behaviour, his eccentric laughing and occasional outburst of weird shit, I hate it all.)
Xiao ponder the purpose of him attending the hearing of Lars's death, for he has much more important thing to worry about, like what is he going to do from now on, how is he going to get strong enough to catch up the level of the other heroes, and about the thing that Lars told him last night, that he can't die, he mustn't let anyone know about this matter, his reputation among the people was already bad enough, if they knew about his undying skill, then it's all over for him.
As Xiao was doing his thinking while blindly followed the guard, he didn't notice that he was already standing in front of the audience room.
"Please do enter, Lord Xiao, the King is expecting you," said the guard as he opened one of the doors of the audience room.
Without thinking much, Xiao entered the room.
The moment he stepped inside, and the door got closed by the guard, Xiao noticed that all eyes were on him, again, for the sound produced by the heavy door when it got closed by the guard was so loud that it grabbed the attention of everyone in the room.
(Not this pattern again....)
Xiao's body begins to shiver a little as his trauma was beginning to act again, he resists the feeling of being freaked out as he slowly walks into the group of people, and blend into them as to kill off the attention people had on him.
"Ah! Xiao, please come over here," Pope Baton said it with his usual calm manner yet loud volume.
Xiao has no choice but to walk out from the crowd and join the heroes at the front, he walks to there while facing at the ground as to hide his embarrassment.
Xiao stood beside Prince Adolf, who was, as usual, wearing his heavy bronze armour.
Xiao noticed that he was feeling out of place when standing beside the other heroes, all of them have their gears, weapon and aura, while he was just wearing a plain student uniform.
(All of them have their unique aura, as usual, just standing beside them tired me...)
Xiao lets out a sigh while General Blake inspects the people in the room, he then looks at the King and Pope Baton, which nod their head in return. With the confirmation, General Blake announces with his rusty loud voice:
"Thank you all for assembling here, for there was an unexpected incident had happened on last night," said General Blake, whispering can be heard from the noble group as soon as General Blake, their expression had shown that they know what has happened on last night.
"Most of you had already known what the incident was about, but just to get everyone on the same page, let me make an official announcement on the incident."
General Blake said it as he noticed that some people look confused from his announcement, including Princess Leya and Mila Mila.
"Lars Leo, the former Hero of Lightning was murdered by someone last night, we found his dead body at the garden located at the north from here," General Blake.
Most noble react with a shock in their face, for there is a murder case happening in this castle, which is considered as one of the safest places in the entire country.
"Hah! Some former Hero of Lightning we have here, and here I thought the legendary so-called "God of Calculation" is even stronger than me, turns out to be a weakling, Hahahaha!" Hatta laughs sarcastically upon hearing the news.
(That's Hatta for you, rude as always, even to the dead, and what's the thing he said? God of Calculation? Never had I thought Lars has such title before.)
Xiao shakes his head from looking at Hatta's reaction upon hearing the news, expressing unpleasant from his laughter, he then looks at the other heroes to see how they do they take it from the news.
Prince Adolf was, as usual, no reaction, mainly because of the helmet he was wearing, which block his expression from the others to see.
"Hmph! As expected from an inferior race, while we strive a harmony relationship with nature, the race of Human are busying killing their kind, and to think such unthinkable incident happened here, such disrespect will not be tolerated in our Elf kingdom," said Princess Leya while expressing disappointed on the Human race.
"Oh! Scary! Never thought Mr Crazy had died already, maybe somebody can't stand his crazy behaviour already, hehe!" Mila Mila made a joke about the death of Lars while laughing innocently.
(Well, this is the Heroes for you, such unique respond as always.)
For Xiao, he felt that they even if they don't care about Lars, they should be more worried about the culprit behind Lars's death, for he or she may target someone else in this castle. If a former hero like Lars got killed by this culprit, then they may be facing a dangerous opponent.)
"Of course, we have tightened the security level multiple times than usual, so please rest assure everyone, we won't let anything happen to everyone in this castle," General Blake said it confidently and in a loud manner, no sign of hesitation can be seen from his facial expression, which makes most of the noble lets out a sigh of relieve, though some of the noble still showing the sign of uneasy from the murdering news.
"We have already begun the investigation to find out the culprit behind Lars's death, and the reason why we summon you all here was to ask for your assistance in helping us on the investigation, we just need some information to further proceed the investigation," General Blake explain it while beckon one of the guard to hand him a report.
From the investigation report, General Blake read out what have they find out, including the estimated time the murder took place, the fatal wound that took Lars's life, the many stabs wound on his body and Lars activities before the incident took place.
General Blake then proceeds to ask a few questions to the crowd, questions including any eyewitnesses, any sign of abnormal during last night or even 3 days before after Lars and Xiao arrived here.
Xiao was staying silent while the investigation was going on, for he just wants to end it faster so he can go back to his room and start formulating his plan to get stronger and survive in this world.
What Xiao didn't know is, from the moment the monster attacked his family, his life is only going to be worse as time passes.
"Sir! New finding for the case."
A guard ran into the room and handed a report to General Blake.
General Blake took over the report and read it intensely before suddenly showing an angry expression, he slowly put down the report and gazes at one person.
"Xiao, I have a few questions to ask you."