Chapter 140 - Death Sentence!

The punishment held was a public prosecution of the two people. Their hands were tied behind their backs as they stood there with their head hung low. On the stage, there were two ropes hanging down with a round knot that would enter their necks. It almost looked like a modern dead sentence of the 21st century.

The only difference was that this time, it was held in public.

After a moment of surprise, many of the elves' faces turned red in anger as they kept staring at the royal couple. They started spouting curses at them in anger.

"I can't believe I used to find that princess attractive. Carol's a b*tch!"

"They actually killed so many children! I want them to suffer the death that they had given to those children!"

Amid these angry men, there were also a few ladies who cried and looked at the ex-princess with red eyes.

"She killed my children! How could she?! I remember when my first child was born, we had brought her to the queen, and even Carol had smiled back then while gently rubbing my child's head! Then why?! Why kill the child whom you had blessed with all your heart?! Why?! Can you tell me why you did this?!"

Many women cried and spouted words like these, and Zion almost wanted to leave this place. He rubbed his forehead. Why were these people behaving like women fighting in a grocery market?!

Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, the person beside him cursed under his breath. "I can't believe you were right. Rupert, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. These people don't deserve our sympathy! They actually killed those children so brutally! They don't deserve to be a part of Her Majesty's family!" When he thought about the queen, a hint of sadness flashed in his eyes. "I wonder how the queen is doing. She must have been devastated after finding out what her only family member did to her."

It was true. Odina was devastated. Even if her face remained expressionless right now, you could still see a trace of lingering pain in her eyes that almost screamed how depressed she felt at the moment. She was lonely for sure, but Zion only glanced at the queen briefly and shrugged. "It's her business. What can we do?"

At this time, he just wanted to be done with this punishment already. It felt like this was going on and on for ages!

Finally, it seemed that the Gods heard his prayer, and decided to show sympathy to him. The queen clapped her hands to gain everyone's attention. Once the crowd silenced, she expressionlessly glanced at the audience before lowering her eyelids as she said, "It's time to execute the punishment. Get ready, everyone."

As soon as her voice fell, the soldiers moved. One of the soldiers with bulging arms came forward and stood beside a lever with an expressionless face. His hand hovered over the lever for a long time. After that, two more people came toward the criminals and covered their heads with black clothes. Then they dragged the criminals toward the ropes that hung from a rod at the top.

Zion's mind wandered to his own world after witnessing this. He had once caught a serial killer, and during the death penalty, the killer had requested that the detective in-charge of the case should be present in front of him when he was dying. The reason was simple. The man wanted to engrave the detective's face so that he could haunt that person as a ghost.

At first, Zion had a headache after listening to this strange request, but he had still complied with it. And even the criminal had requested for his face to remain open as he died. So no one covered his face with a cloth when he was given a death sentence.

So when the time came, the criminal had a strange smile on his face as he stared at Zion, and even used his last bit of energy to mouth some words, "I'll haunt you soon."

Zion had gotten goosebumps after seeing this. Even now when he was reminded of this memory, he couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine. Why was he thinking of such useless things at a time like this?

He rubbed his forehead and glanced at the stage once again as he forced himself to focus on the criminals. At this time, Carol and her husband were already hanged to their deaths. Their bodies twitch slightly telling Zion that it had been a while since the soldier with bulging arms pulled the lever.

Even though it seemed that the people who just died had felt immense pain, he had no intention to feel sympathy toward them. He just took a deep breath and turned around. He would have to go back to the palace the next time to get a glimpse at what had happened to Lia.

***

After a few hours, the crowd scattered as everyone left the punishment ground that was just outside the main palace area. All the servants walked back to the palace, including Zion, who wanted to find Lia. He had thought that after punishing those criminals, the queen would let the dhampir princess go, but that didn't happen.

Everyone got back to work, and even Odina seemed to have no intention to talk about a certain dhampir girl who was wronged. When asked, she would just coldly reply that the dhampir girl was severely injured, and she was getting treatment.

But Zion didn't think so. He could tell that even after proving that Lia hadn't done anything, the elf queen didn't want to let the dhampir princess go just like that. It almost seemed as if Odina wanted to keep Lia under her watch 24/7!

Zion's eyes narrowed at this. Did these two really share a history together? He could tell that the feeling of hate between the two ladies was mutual. He couldn't help but be curious about it but he also knew that he couldn't directly ask Lia. He was well aware of the girl's personality.

But what else could he do? He also didn't want to continue waiting since he knew that Odina wasn't likely to release the dhampir princess anytime soon.

Zion's eyes squinted at this. Would he have to sneak her out of here? He had a hunch that if he didn't sneak her out, she would probably end up sticking at this place forever and ever.

But first, he would have to confirm his theory. If his theory were true, he would find rumors going around the place that the dhampir girl was released.

Why did he believe that such a rumor would be around? It was because Odina could make everyone believe that Lia had been released with rewards and compensation while keeping the dhampir girl locked at the same time. It would be like killing two birds with one stone.

So to confirm his theory, Zion decided to sneak into the town to hear rumors. To be honest, he didn't have to do this, and he could have just found Lia without so much effort, but he also knew that if Lia escaped like this, Odina would be even more displeased with them, and might do something to Lia seeing the mutual hatred between them.

Then, he found an excuse to leave the palace right away and found a restaurant. He entered as he sat on one of the seats at the corner. Then he called out the waiter.

"Bring me a cup of wine."

The waiter nodded and left.

To be honest, Zion could also have stayed in the palace and tailed the queen to see if she said anything about Lia being released, but that would be too dangerous. First, Odina was powerful, and he had witnessed firsthand how she was capable of dealing with him easily. If she wished, she could just kill him with a blink of an eye.

And secondly, Zion knew that Odina was also powerful enough to notice if anyone was following her or not. Of course, he could use his system's help, but ever since he discovered that the black cloak that the imposter wore in the first case was probably bought from the elf kingdom, he was on his guard. That imposter could identify his system's presence easily. So he didn't want to use his system anymore to deal with the cases.

Back to the present, Zion glanced around him as the waiter came back with a cup of wine. Since the detective was still in his elf form, no one dared to look down on him.

Just then, Zion opened his mouth.. "Waiter, I heard something big happened here in this city, right? I arrived not too long ago, and everyone's been talking about how the criminals have been hanged to death this morning. Mind telling me what all is this about?"