Chapter 88 - What's A Human Doing Here?

When night arrived, the gates of the village were closed. The town was surrounded by a massive boundary wall with only two gates in the north and south directions. One of those gates led people outside the kingdom, while another would open the doors further within the kingdom. All the villages inside had their own boundary walls followed by a gap filled with forest between two towns or cities.

But today, both of these gates were closed as soldiers stood guard on either side, keeping a keen eye on all directions. Usually, there would only be two soldiers at both entrances. But ever since the killer came to this village and started killing children, the number of soldiers on the gates increased to the point that it looked as if a war was going on.

At this time in the night, no one was allowed to exit the place. It wasn't that this rule was prominent the entire time. People could leave the village quickly before today, but they would have to go through a series of registration processes that would take half a day. But even after this, a few of them who were suspicious were kept locked inside their houses. If some travelers didn't own a home in this village, they would stay overnight at a hotel until the killer travels to another place.

This registration process was being carried on for about a week, ever since the first murder. It was just that Zion hadn't appeared in the public that he got this news too late. When he heard about this while having dinner in the restaurant, his brows furrowed.

He had an ominous hunch in his heart.

The only thing that was there in his mind was whether the killer would even step his feet outside or not. But when Zion thought of this, he shook his head. He didn't believe that the psychopath would be so scared of the officers that the killer would curb his psychopathic tendencies. Zion had seen many psychos risking their lives to fulfill their desires. So he could tell that he would be able to see that psychopath murderer tonight.

But he still didn't know why he was getting a bad feeling about this. If it were any other day, he would have avoided going out, but today, the murderer would come out for the last time in this village, and after this, he would surely lose that man's trail. So it was better to stay on his guard and take this risk.

He calmly put down his fork and spoon before taking the plate to the sink. The restaurant was also strange. All the customers except the humans weren't required to pick up their plates, but only the humans were forced to take their plates and put them in the sink especially made for the humans. So there would be a long line here after dinner every day.

Only special days would allow him to finish his food quickly, just like that day when he had been standing in front of Lia's door to ask her whether or not they would solve this case.

After finishing the dinner, Zion went back to his room to show Lia that he wasn't interested in solving this case. Since she didn't want her to get involved, he would hide from her.

So after heading inside the room, he opened the window and climbed outside with the help of a pipe.

At the same time, Lia frowned when she saw Zion entering his bedroom and closing the door behind him. Her eyebrows furrowed. Wasn't he trying to solve this case? Did he decide to abandon the case after seeing so many soldiers wandering outside at this time of night? She looked at the door suspiciously before shrugging.

Lia didn't doubt that her human servant would escape his room in the middle of the night and thought he didn't want to solve this case after all. So her shoulders relaxed as she moved to her bedroom.

At this time, Zion had just jumped on the ground and headed out of the inn. He had taken a hoodie kind of dress with him that covered his head. It wasn't that he had money to purchase this kind of thing. Earlier, when they had first found out about the murder, he had stolen this dress from Lia's backpack when she wasn't around. He had a hunch that she wouldn't agree to solve this case, so he took many things from her without asking permission.

In any case, he would return it after dealing with this psycho murderer.

After that, he stuffed his hands in the pockets of the hoodie and sneaked away from the inn.

Late at night, he walked slowly on the street in the shadows when many people were unsurprisingly wandering around the village in the name of keeping an eye. Among these people were a few residents and soldiers who wanted to protect the children of this village. He ignored them and walked among the crowd.

Every elf was carrying a fire lamp in his hand as they walked down the street, calling out to every house to stay on guard. The lights within all the houses brightened the rooms, meaning no one slept yet.

Zion frowned at that. Maybe today's mission would be difficult for the killer with all these people around. Then wouldn't that mean the murderer will try to escape this place?

As he was thinking about it, he saw a figure flashing past a house to his left. He frowned and glanced in that direction. All of a sudden, he saw the exact figure again, and this time, he could see something silver flashing in that direction.

Zion didn't think twice before heading over in that direction. The figure with the silver mask flashed past the street and entered a house to his left before entering a dark alley. His eyes squinted when he closed in on that area, but to his dismay, when he arrived in the dark alley between two buildings, the silver masked person disappeared. 

He still didn't know whether that person wearing the silver mask just now was the murderer or not. If only he were fast enough….

Just as he was about to walk into the darkness of the alley to find that person, he heard someone's voice being directed at him. "There's a human out here!"

"What?!" An elf man carrying a fire torch roared in anger. "Where?!"

Someone pointed in the direction where Zion was standing and said coldly, "There. In the dark alley!"

"What's a human doing here?"

"Surely, it can't be a good thing." One of the elves sneered. "If you say he's the killer out to murder our children, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Hah. There's no need to even think about it!" Another elf shot a glare at the detective and said, "He's definitely the murderer! Otherwise, why would this human be here without his master around? There's something fishy going on here!"