The king was stunned after hearing those words and wasn't provoked. Instead, he frowned and deeply contemplated it. According to what the servant indicated, he had been making such rash decisions based on people's influence. Now that he thought about it, it really was the case!
He remembered that when he hadn't assigned Oswin the detective work around his kingdom, he had heard about the guy's achievements from the servants one day. Those people clearly said that the guard named Oswin had found many criminals across the land and killed them on behalf of the Emperor, which had impressed Rhesus back then. Then the situation at the court kept getting worse and worse, but the presence of Oswin seemed to be like a pie that had fallen on his lap.
But when that guy actually started working as a detective, it felt like all his achievements were only words. On an impulse, the king had even secretly searched about Oswin and found that the claims made by the servants around him were valid. Then why wasn't this guard able to find clues about the murder?
Before the king could figure out more about this person, he was killed by someone. Of course, Rhesus was angry not because his trusted aid had been dead but because he wasn't able to find out if that person was genuinely trustworthy or not.
But now, when he heard those words from Zion's mouth, his eyes widened momentarily before he covered up his emotions. If there really were spies around him, it wouldn't do justice if he reacted strongly at this.
He silently glanced at the people around him who were watching him with keen eyes. They all had a spark of curiosity in their eyes, and some servants were even acting as if they were watching a show with snacks at hand. The king pursed his lips and averted his eyes. Perhaps it was too late to pretend that he hadn't heard Zion's statement.
Then he glanced at the servant being held by his soldiers. Although this guy seemed to be someone unknown, he knew that the servant before him was probably an acquaintance of someone who wanted to find the murderer who started this fiasco wholeheartedly. That meant there was a person out there who was solving the case on a serious note and probably possessed enough deduction skills but didn't dare to come out because of these spies lurking around the king.
Who was it? A frown crossed his forehead. Just then, an image of a person flashed before his eyes.
Vincent!
It could be that person! Maybe that aristocrat had found out beforehand that there were spies around him and wanted to get rid of their suspicion to find more evidence! Perhaps this servant before him was a man sent by that aristocrat to infiltrate those spies hidden in the palace!
Then a plan emerged in his mind. Maybe he could force the guards to bring the servant to the prison and interrogate him secretly without telling a single soul about it.
But as Rhesus thought of this, his brows furrowed again. What was the point of realizing who could help him solve this case? It was probably too late.
The king knew that if he had reacted to Zion's words instantly and thrown a fit in anger, no one would have doubted that Rhesus held suspicion. But now, when he had paused and thought for a while right in front of those spies, the king could tell that they knew about what Rhesus wanted to do.
A sigh escaped his lips, and he glanced at those guards with a complicated look in his eyes. He didn't have any choice anyway. Since the other party was putting up pretenses, he could only follow and pretend that he didn't hear anything. "Take him to the cell."
The guard holding Zion frowned. "Your Majesty, the crime is grievous. Don't you feel angry on Oswin's behalf? He was our comrade!"
The king shook his head. "I do feel bad, but that doesn't mean I can punish any innocent soul right before my eyes. Take him away. I'll find someone to search that place. If we find any evidence, we can give him punishment." As Rhesus said this, he paused. If these spies could infiltrate the palace to such a deeper level, it was possible that they could even fake the evidence. So he pursed his lips and said, "No need to do anything else. I'll investigate this on my own."
The guard holding Zion gave the king a glance filled with disappointment and grabbed the servant's arm before dragging him away.
On the other side, Zion could already guess what the king was thinking about, and he even speculated that Rhesus probably wanted to meet him in the prison while hiding from those eyes around the king. So he just lowered his head and pretended to be really upset about this decision.
Human nature was strange. If he had acted as if he was calm and collected, they would have suspected that he would conspire with the king in secret. But if he acted like a weak person, he would stay out of the radar of those people.
After a while, he was pushed into the prison, which seemed to be far away from the place where Lia was being held. But he didn't care about that girl for now. After meeting her that day, he could tell that she possessed the ability to run away from there without any difficulty.
After getting inside the jail, Zion leaned against the wall while sitting on the ground and lowered his head. For now, all he could do was think about that room and how that person was killed. Silently, he closed his eyes and recalled the scene that he had engraved in his mind.
First, it didn't seem like someone had opened the window anytime soon because he had seen dust lying over the wooden handle of the window. He could even tell that no one had even touched that thing for weeks.
Then the only possibility was the door. It felt as if Oswin was probably writing something in a scroll that was perhaps taken away after death. Maybe that was why he could still see ink spots on the feather pen that the ancient people used. Even though he had not touched the ink, he could tell just by glancing at the tip of the feather that it was still wet. So it could be assumed that Oswin must have died recently.
That meant Zion should still be in the same room lying on the ground lifelessly when this happened. So who else could he suspect other than that black robbed assassin he had encountered earlier?