My Immoral Detective System

The crowd went silent for a minute all of a sudden and then they started discussing again. They knew that this time, things were a bit serious, and when the queen said that she had new revelations about the case, it could be anything. By anything, the citizens even thought that the dhampir girl might have had more accomplices that had helped her with it.

But Odina's face was expressionless at this time, so no one could tell what the revelation actually was, but this didn't stop the people from spreading another rumor that seemed even worse than the previous one.

At this time, Zion was standing among other servants in his elf form. Yes, he wanted to walk out in human form, but in the end, he quickly changed into an elf because he knew that his human face was quite famous among the citizens even now. So he stood there as he stared at the queen in front of him with curious eyes. He already knew what the revelation was, but he still had to keep up an act in case he was found by some of the servants from the palace. And it seemed that his action was correct. Soon, he heard someone's voice calling out to him.

"Rupert! When did you come back?"

Zion turned around to find one of the servants he had talked to back when he was in the palace. He plastered a fake smile on his face and replied, "Just now, and heard that her majesty is going to say something."

"Yes!" The man grumbled. "I bet she must have gotten a confession out of that damned dhampir girl! It's for the best or else we would all be doomed."

Zion frowned after hearing that. "But why do you think the dhampir girl should be the only person who was bad? The queen could have even found out that the real murderer must be someone else. Why isn't anyone thinking in that line?"

The man glared at him and shook his head in disbelief as if he was too shocked after hearing those words. "You really seem like you aren't around from here. In the city, we all live like a family, and her majesty is our head. Her entire family members are close to us. Other than these murders going on in recent times, there hadn't been any crime for over a decade at all! And even the last crime that I can recall is stealing an apple! Even the beggar in this place earns a better living as compared to the human slaves who often worked under other elves. So don't ever think that the murderer is among us because it can't be possible! The main city is nothing like the other places, and I'm sure your village also agrees with that."

After that the man continued to ramble on and on about how he was lucky to be able to become a servant in the palace, and live with the queen and her family members. He also talked about how holy the queen's sister waas, and how godly her nature was!

Zion shook his head when he heard of this. A hint of pity flashed in his eyes. If this person found out that Carol was the main instigator of this entire fiasco, what would happen? Would the morale of these people go down after this?

Before he could continue to think about this, the queen cleared her throat and the entire crowd died down. The people pursed their lips and watched her lips moving in anxiety. "First of all, let me clear up some misunderstandings. The dhampir girl wasn't a real murderer. She kept her mouth shut, and didn't even reveal her name. We thought she was just stubborn, but she was actually wronged. I feel immensely regretful for that."

The crowd started murmuring again after hearing those words. The entire batch of citizens looked at the queen with widened eyes as if they couldn't understand what she just said, and when the fact digested in their hearts, some of them even cried out loud as if exclaiming how it was possible!

Only Zion was the person who stood motionless among the crowd who were screaming and howling around him.

Then, Odina continued. "And about the real perpetrator…." She averted her eyes uncomfortably and took a deep breath. "You'll find out about that soon enough. I'll be giving a death sentence to them tomorrow at sunrise."

Them? If the perpetrator were someone else, then didn't that mean it could be one of the elves? The crowd couldn't accept this. Just then, someone among the crowd spoke up with a trace of hesitation in his voice. "What if….If it was a group of humans?"

This statement calmed down most of the elves and gave them a hope that their own people couldn't really do something like this. Then came a round of talk between elves that kept blaming humans. Some of them even pushed the humans to the ground and spat on them.

When Odina saw that the crowd was getting out of hand, she cleared her throat and said, "Silence. It's not the humans. Don't trouble your slaves." After saying that, she instantly went inside her palace as if she didn't want to say a single word about what had just happened. 

Zion and the man beside him sighed in unison and walked toward the palace.

"Man, can you believe that? If it's not the dhampirs and humans, that leaves us! But how can that be possible?! I would never believe this!" Then after this, the man kept rambling on and on about how unfortunate they were to find out that the elves could do this!

***

The next day, Zion and others stood together beneath the public punishment stage right in front of the queen. When this was happening, Zion had tried to find out what had happened to Lia after she got released, but he didn't know where she was kept, so he gave up on it temporarily and decided to first see the punishment scene before thinking about anything else.

The crowd was still murmuring about how unfortunate the situation was, and some even gathered up their courage and named different races who could be the real villains in this situation. The first name that came forward was the Nox race, or the dark elves. They were called nox because they were born at night according to the legends.

But their relationship with the elves had always been bad to the point that if the citizens of two groups were to be placed in one room, they would instead kill each other. So the first people that everyone blamed were these nox. Just when things started to get heavy, a few people entered the open ground of punishment and walked over toward the stage.

But what shocked the entire citizens to the point of silencing them were the people in iron chains. They were none other than Carol and Arnold!

Why were they here? Weren't they supposed to be the people who liked children, and even made a fuss when the lady had a miscarriage? They had even seen Arnold talking in a gentle tone with the children back then. But what the heck happened after that? Why were these two getting punished like this?

The entire crowd was stunned, and then a soldier came forward with a scroll in his hand. He stopped in the centre of the arena and opened it to quietly read out the following words.

"Ladies and gentlemen, don't be alarmed to find out about the crimes committed by your ex-princess, Carol and her husband. The two of them have nothing to do with the elves and our values. The queen still wants to protect each and everyone of you, and wants to protect you all, but this punishment today is also a token of demonstration that if you failed to listen or go against the law, you'll face similar punishment despite being treated as the closest family member to her." The man paused and took a deep breath before speaking. "About the crimes that were committed…."

The man read a large number of killings, kidnappings, and even stealing as he pursed his lips. He got a headache, and he simply wanted to ignore this small detail! Just why did their ex-princess have to commit so many crimes?! Wasn't she fulfilled in her heart with her husband and the position in the court? How could someone be so greedy?!

The man shook his head and closed the scroll as he cleared his throat. "In short, this woman who was supposed to be kind and compassionate was anything but that. So don't show them any mercy." After saying that, he summarised the crimes. "They have killed many children, kidnapped a bunch of them, and even stole some things to create that underground chamber."

After saying that, he glanced coldly at the pair of husband and wife tied in chains and huffed before walking away.

He couldn't believe he used to treat Arnold as his ideal!

After hearing about it, even the crowd couldn't stand still. Half of them had forced themselves to accept the fact, but the other half were so angry that their teeth ached. They glared at the criminals standing there hatefully.