Chapter 52 - 50

They called the maid who served the tea that night.

It was a young girl around thirteen years old. She was dressed in a uniform with two buns styled on her hair, a usual get-up of a maidservant in the royal palace.

She was quivering as she neared the people of the investigation team. Zero observed the bowing head of a timid servant girl.

Pengfei started, "Are you the one who served the first princess' tea before she died?"

The young girl did not make eye contact as she nodded automatically, scared for her life. Pengfei then continued, "Then did you saw anyone with her?"

The young girl was frozen stiff but instantly shook her head as she remembered what she saw at the middle of the night while being ordered to serve tea to the first princess. The maidservant felt curious when she neared the door of the first princess as she heard the first princess was talking to someone but Xiu Meihui suddenly stopped her conversation as the maid announced herself.

As a maidservant, it was not allowed to make eye contact with the first princess and her guest so she did not see the visage of the guest of the first princess but only saw a black robe worn by the guest and it was a man.

After that, she was dismissed then things happened. They were warned to not go near the bed chamber of the first princess as she did not want to be disturb. Following the words of the head servant, they were all away from the crime scene so they did not know what truly happened even the guest that the first princess welcomed inside vanished.

Jin then spoke while narrowing his eyes, "Who was incharge the case of Third Princess Xiu Ying?"

"It was Chief Bai Zhou's team, Sir," a member of the investigation team responded.

"Alright, let's go to the research facility." The research facility where the monitoring team was based and the place where Zero was held captive, months ago.

Zero decided not follow them as it was not his business anymore and even though he wanted to know about the third princess' case in order to be enlightened by the true scene, he needed to set boundaries as the vice captain was giving him a warning look but Jin, the captain suddenly called the youth.

"Do you want to tag along? Here take this. You can go to any crime scenes without obstructions within the continent," Jin gave a badge to the youth that made Pengfei frowned. It's rare for the captain to lend his badge.

The badge looked like a police badge but the symbol was an eye and inside of it was initials of the group.

"A.N.V," the young man recited the letters as he received the badge.

"Acta non verba. Deeds not words," Jin answered simply while he started to walk as the group followed him.

Zero did not follow them as he would be examining the crime scene first. He wasn't able to touch anything other than the candy wrapper which was already collected by the forensics. Though, he was reprimanded by touching it with bȧrė hands.

Currently, he was given gloves to wear as he was allowed by the head of the investigation team inside the crime scene.

He neared the two cups of tea on the table and touched the one that was half empty. He inspected it and sniffed the content of the tea, the fragrance was calming and slightly pungent, from the looks of it, Zero knew what kind of tea it was, earl grey.

Though something was amiss to its smell, he could not pinpoint what it was. He asked an individual who was taking notes and examining also the scene.

"Did you bring a sample of this to the lab?"

Startled by the sudden voice, the person fixed his glasses as he answered, "Yes, sir. The result will be coming later."

The person saw that the captain of the investigation team acknowledged the youth as a guest so he politely replied to the inquiries of Zero.

As if on cue, a woman in a lab gown appeared in the scene as she panted, she was not used to the complexity of the first princess' palace as she got lost first before she arrived here. The woman was carrying disheveled papers on her hand as she gave a look inside.

"Where is Chief Jin?"

"Doctor, he's in the research facility," the young man with eye glasses that Zero asked earlier, responded.

With a defeated sigh, the woman in lab gown sat on a chair near her. She was not willing to go again, she was not very good at directions and identifying passages or pathways so she might be lost again. Even though, she could ride a carriage to the research facility, she was tired on finding that moving detective.

But the youth with eye glasses proposed a idea, "This sir here is a guest of the chief and he would be heading to the research facility. You can give that file to him."

"Really? Then here you are! Give it to Chief Jin. It's a result of the findings within the tea," like unloading a burden, the doctor easily gave the file to Zero.

Zero with no arguments received the file, "Can I look into it?"

The doctor agreed easily, ȧssuming that the young man was a guest detective of the chief while the youth with eye glasses did not refused, too.

Because that was the privilege of having that badge of the chief detective of A.N.V.

----

Research facility.

The captain shrugged as he responded with his lazy smile.

"Chief, you know that lending that badge means giving him an authority to barge at doings of our team and even to the dark society."

A.N.V or Acta Non Verba, a name of their group that had more power to any existing entities within the continent, second to the royal family. They were not any common group of detectives as they handled the dark society as well, the dark society where all illegality was legal.

They were given by the Greatworld King power in order to manage the dark society, despite the Greatworld continent was known for their peaceful appearance with low crime rates, it was just in the surface as half of the citizens within the continent knew about the dark society and sometimes would involved themselves to it.

And Jin was known to be the ruler of the dark society, he established a mandatory rule that 'what happens inside, stays inside' meant that if there would be murder, it would only remained inside. Everyone should not talked about it outside. Break the rule and you would be either banned or killed.

That's the reason why the team of Jin was handling this case as it was somehow related to the dark society, it would be not good that a member of the society would be running on killing spree outside so Jin decided to put a stop on it and moreover, it involved the royal family. The chief detective had a hunched that the third princess' case was not a simple murder of the first prince of the Phoenix continent. It must be a ploy.

"It would be great to have another intelligent person participating," Jin replied.

"To what, sir? The crime scene or the dark society?"

"Guess." The vice captain rolled his eyes to perfunctory answer of the chief detective.

He cursed the person who disturbed his sleep as he looked at the blurry figure, when his vision cleared, he frowned at the annoying person that he saw.

It was Jin, a former classmate and a rival.

"What are you doing here?" There was hint of hostility on his voice as he looked at the smiling person.

That irritating smile that he wanted to punched off his smug face.

The rivalry was not only because of being always second to Jin in Intelligence Academy on the rankings but he disagreed to the dark society because it was not good to begin with. They had both opposing ideals and the king agreed to Jin's way as to make their continent better, they needed to establish a society that could be vented by the dark sides of the people. Even the Royal Advisor Kilius agreed to the idea.

Even though, Bai Zhou had a chance to leave this filthy monarchy and start anew on another continent but he didn't want to pretend blind while horrible things was happening infront of him. He has his own principles and this was his homeland.

If not for the establishment of that dark society, the Greatworld continent would be still the untainted and properous homeland he had known.

Jin did not speak as the vice captain took the lead to convey their reasons on why they were here, "We will be taking the case of the third princess."

A creased formed on Bai Zhou's forehead as he glared at the arrogant Pengfei, "It would be good that you only stay on what case you only need to solve and not put your noses to unrelated ones."

Jin cleared his throat and stated in a carefree manner like commenting on a good weather, "Somehow both the cases of the princesses' deaths are related to the dark society."

Bai Zhou immediately stood on his chair as he cursed infront of Jin, "So is the dark society hitting your own foot now?" He mocked.

Jin did not say anything as he looked at the man infront of him with mirth on his eyes.