Zion turned around and ran toward Lia's room. A surge of adrenaline washed all over his limbs. His speed was fast, but this kind of speed also affected his body.
By the time he reached the room where Princess Lia and her friend in a pink gown were sitting, sweat drops trickled down his forehead. The grey-colored clothes he wore stuck to him.
His focus drifted for a moment until he calmed his breathing and hid behind a giant flower vase just beside the door. After that, he cursed the power level of the current body. Even a child could have a fistfight with him and win!
But this wasn't the time to focus on such things. He needed to find out more about the case.
"Guards, capture her!" The King spoke. This person at least wore something presentable, unlike that Methu man. The King's clothes had a velvet texture filled with rich colors. He had a gold crown on the top of his head that enhanced his handsomeness. If not for the wrinkles this person had on his face, he would have looked even more dashing.
It was just that the dual color of his eyes matched that of Lia's.
Guard raised their unsheathed swords toward the girl dressed in green. She glared at her father and said, "What's the meaning of this?"
"You still dare to ask this?!" The King gestured to the people with swords. "Bring her to the prison!"
They put their swords away and grabbed her arms from both sides as she struggled with all her might, but couldn't escape. She glared at the men around her. "Father, let go of me! What did I do?"
"You killed your brother, and you say, what did you do?!" Veins throbbed on the King's neck. "How impudent!"
Lia's eyes widened at this. "Brother's dead?"
"No use of pretending now! The evidence is against you!" The King rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Take her away. I don't want to see her."
The guards dragged the girl outside the room. But before they could pass the door, Lia's head spun toward the place where Zion was hiding and glanced at him with a thoughtful smile on her face.
Zion was still busy mulling over the King's words and what Lia had said. So he failed to see Lia's face.
When they took away Princess Lia, the girl in the pink dress jerked as her limbs trembled in fear. She sprinted out at lightning speed.
And when everyone left the room, the King, who looked energetic and angry a moment ago, slumped back in a chair, tears appearing in his eyes. "How could this happen to me? I loved my children, and I especially doted on my daughter. How could she kill the crown prince?"
The King didn't stay inside the room for long. Once he walked away, Zion released the breath he was holding. His weak body still wasn't strong enough to use his fighting skills to go against the guards if he were to be captured. So he was even holding his breath and hid his body in the shadows.
But while he was hiding, he noticed Dhampirs were shorter than humans. If he was at 6'1, the Dhampirs females were around 5'5, while the males were about 5'10 in height. So the top of Princess Lia's head reached his ears.
Glancing at the receding back of the King, Zion could only sigh. This was a typical murder case, and he was sure that someone wanted to frame Lia. Even though he didn't know the reason behind it, he was confident that the throne was probably the instigation behind this murder. Otherwise, why would someone murder a crown prince and anger the Royals?
"System, is it necessary to take up the case?" It wasn't like Zion didn't want to save that Princess, but he still didn't prefer to trust this system. If his deductions were correct, this system wasn't a threat to his life. He would just have to solve the cases 007 would give him in exchange for points and save the world.
But if his deduction weren't correct, then it would mean 007 wanted to force him down in a bottomless pit filled with darkness. That was why he was reluctant to take up this case.
Since the system refused to explain why he was here, he could only assume things based on the information he had got.
"Host." The furry man grimaced. "If you want to walk back from a case, just pay up ten times the points you would get after solving it."
As expected. At present, he had zero points. So he had no other choice but to solve the case. Sighing, he said, "Fine, I'll solve this case." Then he paused and thought of something. "By the way, how many points will I get from this case?"
"How could I forget such an important thing!" the furry man exclaimed and facepalmed himself. "Fifty points."
Zion's eyes turned cold. He glanced sharply at the system, who shivered under his intense gaze. The latter averted his eyes in guilt and said, "H-H-Host, please don't be mad. This is the easiest case. So it was bound to provide minimum points."
But the system's host didn't bother to coax the frightened 007. Zion squinted his eyes and continued to stare at the furry man until the latter wailed. Two teardrops poured out of his eyes. "Host! Please don't look at me like that! I'll pee out of fear!"
This artificial system wasn't just useless but also unreliable. It looked like Zion had to depend on himself to solve this case.
But first, he would have to know more about this world before finding clues.
On the other side, they pushed Princess Lia in the jail. A few people with broad shoulders guarded the main door of the cell. But there was something different about these Dhampirs. They had Elven ears and red eyes with canine sharp as a vampire's. They were another powerful group of Dhampirs, after the Royals themselves.
Lia sneered in her heart after seeing these guards and refused to look at them anymore. In the bedroom, she was acting like a docile princess, but when she was alone, she showed her actual face.
Sitting in the dark, she continued to stare at the wall. She was so silent that it went against her character. This princess was famous for her talkative tongue. She couldn't stand silence, but at this moment, she acted like a wise queen who was thinking about the meaning of life.
If Zion were here, he would have seen through her facade and realized that something might be wrong with this Princess. He had also heard about what the Princess' character was, and he would doubt Lia after seeing this scene.
But he wasn't here, and Lia was finally free from the shackles, staring at the darkness for God knows how long.
All of a sudden, a shadow flashed in the cell's darkness as if the man were waiting for Lia's arrival. Then shadow rushed toward the Princess, who seemed to sit there on the ground, staring at the wall expressionlessly. For a moment, it seemed like this shadow would be successful in killing this girl.