Zion was stunned when he saw this scene. He heard the princess's voice very well, and it seemed like she was covering up for him. Otherwise, why would she lie to the guards? Was this girl waiting for him all this time?
The guards glared at the closed prison door where Lia was captured. "Really now? You just ate! How much more do you want? You aren't a princess anymore. The king will soon announce your death!"
Instead of crying and begging for help like anyone would assume a girl to do, Lia laughed and said, "Whatever you say." And after that, she went silent again.
Zion frowned as his mind was filled with several thoughts, but none of them could prove why this princess wanted to save him. She shouldn't know about his existence in the first place! Unless Lia was someone related to the case and could find information from the outside.
He raised his brows and still felt doubt in his heart. This princess seemed to be hiding a lot of secrets in her heart. There could be two situations in this case. It was either that Lia was colluding with the enemies, or maybe she was someone who was even more formidable than the murderers who could even know about things going on in the palace.
Zion shook his head. These were just his assumptions, and nothing could be ascertained. For now, he would ask the princess about this knife and then see what she says. Based on that, he would figure out the further course of action because the knife was the only evidence he had for now.
The guards went back to their places when they couldn't find anyone around that place. At this time, Zion's eyes darted around them as if he were trying to find that scout hidden in the shadows, but even he couldn't find anyone.
The corners of his lips curved up. This spell seemed even more powerful than the manual scouting skills. He wanted to know more about it.
Should he return to the library and read books about royal magic? He hadn't had the luxury of reading more books back then when he went around acting like a ghost. So he didn't know many things about magic. Now that he had a scout following him in this manner, he didn't know how to get rid of this thing.
For the first time, he felt that he had made a terrible choice ever since he came into this world. But the situation wasn't that bad. He could use this opportunity to turn the tables and make that black cloaked man dance on his fingers.
After thinking of this, his shoulders relaxed as he schemed an idea. He had no intention of hiding that knife anymore. Instead, he wanted those villains to show themselves in broad daylight. He would intentionally let these people do everything they wanted and make them believe that they had won their battle while Zion would stand back and continue scheming. And once they would lower their guard, he would capture them red-handed!
This was one of the methods he had often used when he was still working for the FBI in his past life. But now, when he was in a new world filled with different races with no one to rely on, he was skeptical about following the same route. He could have used a more direct approach by first knowing more about magic before he could think of a way to get rid of those magician scouts hiding in the dark that he couldn't locate.
If it weren't for his system, he wouldn't even have realized that someone was following him all day long!
But this method needed more time, and he lacked that. From what he could understand, even though 007 hadn't given him any deadline for finishing up this case, he knew that the time was ticking by slowly, and soon enough, the citizens of this race would start revolting against the king. For them, the princess was the murderer, and they would think that the king was just wasting time because of his affection for his daughter.
So now, all Zion could do was risk it all and take a gamble.
After taking a deep breath, he entered the prison again. He was vaguely aware of the fact that the scout was still seeing him from the dark, but he didn't care. His cover was blown anyway, and the black cloaked man would realize that Zion's 'servant' identity was investigating the murder case in the palace.
He might as well use this opportunity to find out more about the knife in his hand.
When he had heard Lia's honey-like voice earlier, he wasn't even a little moved by that girl's tone because he knew that the princess carried dark intentions behind her words. He still hadn't confirmed whether Lia was innocent or not.
After opening the door with the help of the key, he swiftly entered the prison. Just as he went inside, he heard a girl's voice asking him in a tone that made it seem like she was familiar to him. "Took you enough time. I had expected you to do better than this."
Zino narrowed his eyes and immediately put up his guard. He stood near the prison door as he stared at the princess's face with vigilance. "Do you know who I am?"
"Would you believe me if I said I do?" The princess answered with another question while raising her chin toward the 'servant' who had just entered. In the dark, her clothes looked tattered, but at least her skin seemed clean. Perhaps she had just taken a bath, but since she didn't have access to more clothes, she only had to make do with whatever she had. She wasn't wearing her beautiful gown, but her body was covered with grey-colored clothes that even beggars wouldn't wear.
Zion didn't want to waste more time on this fruitless talking. He knew that Lia didn't intend to explain why the heck her behavior was so strange. So he threw the knife toward the princess that he had stuck to the belt wrapped around his waist.
As expected, the girl caught it expertly with her right hand. It seemed as if Lia was skilled at handling the knife that made Zion raise his brows. Did she learn martial arts before?
Zion's primary focus was to solve this case and find the murderer. But when he thought about this, he realized that the system hadn't explained to him that this was a murder case. Instead, the crown prince was still alive and moving around wearing a black cloak. So technically, Zion would have to find evidence to prove that Bradley Vanne was alive, and the so-called murder was a plan instigated by him for some reason.
Then, what was Lia's role in this?