Lia stared at the knife for what felt like hours before gripping it tightly. It felt as if she was being reminded of a bitter memory before she took a deep breath and threw it back to Zion. "It's mine."
As expected. Zion put it back on his waist before he squinted his eyes at the girl. It was dark in the cell, but he could still see clearly from the moonlight that came inside through the ventilator above. The look in the princess's eyes was strange. It felt as if she had been thinking of a terrible memory, and this happened right after she took the knife in her hand. He even saw her gripping the weapon tightly as if she couldn't wait to slash someone's throat.
Something might have happened, and it was related to this knife. So he didn't bite the bullet and asked bluntly, "Tell me everything you know about the crown prince."
The princess didn't say a word for a while as she leaned against the wall. Even though her height was smaller than Zion's, even in his current identity, her powerful aura revealed she was instead a queen rather than a princess. When he stood before her, it seemed as if he was standing in front of an experienced warrior, not a mere girl who was caught in this injustice.
She glanced at Zion and opened her mouth as if she was about to say something but decided against it before going silent again. Zion's eyes narrowed at this, but he still waited. Lia perhaps wanted to tell him something but didn't tell him ultimately. He wasn't in a hurry. He could always come to this place again.
Lia finally opened her mouth and said, "Brother only knows how to pretend in front of our father. That's all I can tell you about him."
"Anything else? About why you were captured?" He remembered that he had deduced back then that something must have happened to the princess that forced the enemies to get her behind bars. So this might be a good time to ask about that. "You heard something you shouldn't have, didn't you?"
The corners of the princess's lips curved up. "You sure have a sharp brain. You're right. I heard something I shouldn't have, but I don't think you should be worried about that."
Zion's eyes narrowed at her. "What do you mean?"
"I would advise you to save your a** first."
He was going to ask more about it before he heard the guard's anxious voice. "Where are the keys?"
Another guard's voice followed. "How would I know that? Shouldn't you be taking care of that?"
"His majesty is sure going to kill me now!" The first guard's voice that came from the outside became more anxious as he walked closer to the entrance of Lia's prison. "I should search in the corridor. Perhaps I dropped it somewhere."
Zion didn't waste time there with the princess. He locked the door, threw the keys on the ground, and escaped from the prison. After that, he only stopped when he entered his servant quarters. Even though he wanted to know more about the case from the princess, his focus entirely went on the last sentence she spoke. Why the heck did she tell him to save himself first?
He gritted his teeth. The time was limited; otherwise, he would have asked more about this.
At least he found out that this knife belonged to her, and all his deductions in the past were correct. It was just that he was back to square one. He didn't have any evidence other than the knife on his waist.
But one thing was obvious. The crown prince wanted to shut the princess up and even destroy her image. If Zion assumed that the crown prince, Bradley, hated the princess, he wouldn't be wrong. It also seemed that the prince wanted to get back to his father about something.
Perhaps there was a hidden history between King Rhesus, his eldest son, and Princess Lia. To find that out, he would just have to keep following those people around, and before that, he would have to think of a way to get rid of the scout he couldn't even detect. He felt uneasy in his heart with that person around him, hidden in the shadows.
Just then, an idea flashed in his mind, and he called out to his system. "Oi, 007." He talked to the system through his thoughts, not words. He knew that if he moved his lips to say something, that scout would hear him, and his cover would be blown.
"What?" The system popped out instantly as his eyes were glistening brightly. Zion immediately understood why this system was behaving like this. He had just been around a princess, and even though she wore dirty and tattered clothes, she still looked pleasant. And this perverted system must have danced within his mind after seeing Lia.
Zion suppressed the feeling of irritation in his heart and asked, "Can you help me keep an eye out for the night?"
"Why should I help you?" 007 clearly didn't tend to stay awake throughout the night. He didn't want to work hard at all! So the system kept a firm expression on his face and stared at Zion as if he was a superior officer and his host was his junior.
The host could tell what his system was thinking about. So he ignored 007's stupidity and said, "You'll get to know whether the scout is a girl or a boy."
This was something the perverted system was interested in, so 007 nodded before frowning again. It seemed as if he realized something, and his eyes widened. He glanced at his host in a fury. "You're using me, aren't you?!"
"What? You can't even keep an eye out for the night?" Zion bluntly said, "You're normally useless, but this time, you're proving yourself to be even more unreliable. I had already died once. So I'm not afraid of death. I can kill myself and send you back to your master. Do you want that?"
The system got a fright from his host's words as he suddenly remembered how Zion had once tried to kill himself from a tree branch. So he instantly nodded and said, "I'll do as you said. What do you want this time?"
A certain detective was satisfied after seeing his system acting so obediently. So he said, "Give me back my original human identity as soon as the knife disappears."
The system understood what Zion wanted to do. "You're keeping a knife as bait to get rid of that scout? But what if there are more than one?"
"Are there?" Zion's eyebrows raised. "I thought you could feel their power. So you tell me if there is over one person around me."
Did Zion just say he was going to depend on the system for finding out about the number of scouts? 007's eyes filled with tears of gratitude as he glanced at his host with glistening eyes. For the first time, he felt as if he was someone reliable. He wiped his tears happily and said, "There isn't. I can only feel one person inside the room."
Zion said nothing and simply placed the knife on the table and laid on the bed. The night was going to be long.