My Immoral Detective System

The waiter didn't doubt the elf customer's words. He glanced right and left, and when he noticed no one was looking at him, he cleared his throat and sat beside Zion before lowering his voice. "Are you a traveler? No wonder you don't know a single thing about it. Almost every single one of the residents is well aware of the troubles that had occurred in the kingdom. Our entire worldviews collapsed collectively! Can you believe that?"

Zion nodded and showed a curious expression on his face. "You guessed it right. I was returning from the nearby village outside the kingdom after selling magical clocks. I had known already that many children were killed, but I hadn't thought that this case would go on and on for months without even a trace of evidence! And when I came back after three months of outing, Her Majesty punished those criminals already! This was the most shocking thing that had ever happened in my life!"

The waiter shook his head. "You haven't been shocked enough, man. If I tell you the identity of the criminal, you'd be so surprised that you would start crying-"

And after that, the waiter started counting the events that had occurred since the queen captured Lia and her human servant. The waiter went into so much detail that even Zion felt a little bored. He even nearly dozed off in the middle of listening, but thankfully, the waiter didn't want to extend it any longer. After fifteen minutes, he ended the story by saying, "And that's how the ex-princess and her husband were hanged to their deaths. Sigh. They were a model couple for many residents around here, but after finding out what had occurred back then, I have no intention to even think about them! Despicable people!"

"I really can't believe this." Zion pretended to be shocked and paused before taking a deep breath. "So everything's fine now? What about Her Majesty?"

"She's expressionless and cold as always, but for the first time, we all observed a flash of sadness in her eyes yesterday when her sister and her husband were being hanged." The waiter sighed. "Our queen is so pitiful. Really."

Zion also nodded as if he was agreeing with the words of the waiter. Then he acted as if he suddenly got a thought and asked in a voice laced with curiosity, "What about the dhampir girl? What happened to her?"

The waiter tilted his head in confusion and said, "Haven't you been listening to me? I told you already that the queen gave her compensation and let her go."

Really? Zion's eyes narrowed. To be honest, he wasn't keen on listening to the story presented by this waiter, and he only wanted to ask about Lia. "Did Her Majesty announce it today?"

The waiter nodded. "Yes. The morning when the first rays of sun touched the ground."

Zion nodded in understanding and pulled out a few gold coins from his pocket before throwing it at the waiter. "Your tip. Thanks for the info."

The waiter's eyes glistened as he caught the coins and walked off.

Now that Zion confirmed his suspicion, he should act on finding Lia as soon as possible and escape from this place. It would be better to stay surrounded by trees than to be here in this kingdom. After determining this, he got up from his seat and left the restaurant.

When he went back to the palace, it took him a while before he could figure out where the guest rooms were situated. It was on the second floor of the main palace. But to go there, even a normal soldier would require special permission signed by the chief minister in the court. The only people allowed to go to that floor were the queen herself and her confidential people. Even the doctors weren't allowed there without her consent.

Since the security of that place was so high, Zion could tell that Lia was probably being held captive there. And he was even damned sure that the dhampir princess wasn't even conscious. If she were, he would have heard her loud voice already.

So does that mean he would have to sneak inside the guest area? It wouldn't have mattered if it were a normal world. Since this world was filled with magic, and since the elves were especially more powerful as compared to other races, the risk of sneaking into unknown territory would be greater than his imagination. He suddenly got a headache thinking about it.

Finally, he called out to his system, who was unnaturally silent these days. "007, come out."

The system flashed right in front of the detective's eyes in strange attire. At this time, he was wearing ancient Chinese robes and even had a long stick in his hand as if he were dancing and waving it around. He could even see sweat drops on the system's forehead as he took deep breaths.

Zion was stunned to see this kind of expression on the system's face. Would someone tell him why his stupid system was wearing such a costume and looking all tired? Just what was this 007 doing all this time when he was busy trying to solve this case?

"System….You…." For the first time in his life, Zion didn't know how to ask that question. So he thought he might as well wait for 007 to calm down before asking anything else. But who would have thought that the system, who was supposed to stand silent and relieve his exhaustion before speaking, would suddenly glare at the detective?

"Ahhhhh! Why did you call me?! I was on a vacation!"

Zion crossed his arms across his chest and looked at the chibi system indifferently. "Vacation without any update. What a great system you are!"

007 stiffened for the first few seconds before glaring at the detective once again. "Host, that's not important! The main thing was that I had a mini-vacation behind your back, and you weren't supposed to find out!" After saying this, the system sat on the ground, covered his face with his knees, and cried loudly for a full minute.

Zion got a headache hearing that high-pitched crying voice. He rubbed his forehead and said in a sarcastic tone, "What a good and reliable system you are!"

The system stopped crying and coughed awkwardly before changing the topic. "Say, why did you call me this time?"

"Oh, right." Zion told the system about his thoughts and asked bluntly, "Is there anything that can help me hide my presence from magic? Or better yet, give me magical scouting skills?"

The system frowned as if he were in deep thought, and his eyes lit up in an instant a while later. He looked at his host excitedly and said, "Magical scouting! Yes! It is possible!"

"Really?" For some reason, Zion didn't feel as excited as the system….

But 007 didn't read the mood of his host and continued to ramble on as he jumped around in circles. "You just have to buy one cheap magical cloak and wrap your body with it. That's it!"

He knew it! Zion could tell already that the solution that his system would provide might not be the one he was looking for! A vein popped on his forehead when he thought of that magical cloak. "Am I in a Harry Potter series or something? I don't need a freaking cloak! I need something that can stop others from identifying my presence, and even the elf queen shouldn't be able to tell that I'm standing in front of her! Do you think that cloak can do this?"

007 coughed awkwardly again as he averted his eyes and said, "Well, not exactly that, but close. Host, let me be honest. The skill that you're looking for is costly, and we can't afford it. I certainly don't want you to take another loan just for this sake. So it's better to make do with this cloak. And it has a special feature too! You can activate your presence and deactivate it depending on the situation! Of course, there's a time limit, but it's better than nothing, right?"

Zion frowned as he leaned back on the wall. At this time, he was currently wiping the corridor and was all alone. So he didn't even care about pretenses since no one was watching him.

What he needed was a full skill that could help him become invisible and hide his presence simultaneously for a long period. But the cloak that the system was talking about seemed to have a certain time limit, which wasn't really beneficial for Zion if he wanted to escape this place with Lia. 

But what other choice did he have? If he didn't choose that cloak with the time limit factor, he would be left with nothing. So it was better to take this risk and just make do with it. He finally decided to compromise. "Fine.. Let's use that cloak."