Chapter 53 - 51

Zero was right to his suspicion that the tea was drugged but he did not expected it to be a psychedelic drug.

'So the first princess was under hallucinations?'

The young man thought as he strode inside the research facility, luckily the badge came in handy as no one obstructed him on his path. But there was something he wanted to confirm as the mission was still on-going.

He knocked the door of the office of the monitoring team as someone opened it for him. It was a member under Jin who greeted him as he went in. He noticed the atmosphere inside the office as the chief of the investigation team was seated comfortably on the couch in crossed legs while Chief Bai Zhou was glaring daggers to Jin.

Zero was finally seen by both of the parties as the chief detective smiled at him as he gestured to the young man to sit. Zero greeted Bai Zhou with a nod as the other raised its brow in bewilderment.

'So he didn't know me on this script.'

Then might be the youth being held captive here was erased to their records as well.

"Sir, I brought the results here," Zero addressed Jin as the chief detective commanded Pengfei to handle those papers.

"Who is this, Chief Jin?" Bai Zhou asked while looking at the youth with a scrutinizing stare.

Zero sighed as he thought how did the chief of the monitoring team was so different to the one he met, months ago.

"He's an apprentice of mine, his name is Zero," Jin responded.

Suddenly a system notification caught Zero's attention. He thought that they heard it as they were staring him.

[System notification: Side task: Do not accept the apprenticeship of Xeris. Reward: Mystery box. Time limit: 30 seconds.]

'Xeris?'

The young man did not know anyone named Xeris but he felt that the system was referring to the chief detective.

Realization entered his mind as he stared at the smiling Jin. The vice captain with an antagonistic tone woke him up from reverie.

"Are you deaf? The captain is asking you to be his apprentice, he's taking you under his wing! You should feel honor from it."

"Eh?"

Zero then glanced at Jin as he was left baffled but the countdown of the system reminded him of the pressing side task.

[19]

[18]

Numbers kept appearing infront of him like counting the time of his death. Zero cursed as he thought how to politely refused this person.

"Sir, I'm appointed by the king to train under General Jianguo so I cannot accept your invitation."

Hearing that, Bai Zhou suddenly exclaimed, "So you are that Prince Zero?"

The youth frowned by the addressed of Bai Zhou as he wasn't used to being called prince and usually the people around him just called him young master than that 'pretend' title.

As a blood relative to the royal family, you are considered to be entitled as prince or princess so it wasn't strange to hear that from Bai Zhou.

Zero cleared his throat as he clarified, "I prefer you call me Young master Zero or Zero."

The vice captain with shock on his face, asked, "You are the favored nephew of the King? Why didn't you say so?"

Pengfei gulped as he realized that he kept offending a member of the royal family. Though, he was blaming Zero from hiding his true identity.

If the young man knew what was the vice captain was thinking, he would laughed at his stupidity as truthfully, he was just pretending to be a prince. But it didn't matter anyway to Zero as his top priority was to finish his pending main tasks.

Jin on his smiling face as he spoke, "Such a pity yet Your highness, you could still keep that badge of mine."

[Ting! Side task completed. Mystery box obtained.]

Zero ignored the whole sentence of the chief detective as he found it odd at the way Jin emphasized the term 'your highness.'

The young man narrowed his eyes as he thought something but he instantly changed it as he replied, "I'll give it back once I'm finish using it."

The chief detective shrugged as Zero focused on the warning sign of the system.

[System Detection: hostility rate 55%]

Zero looked at the smiling Jin as he continued talking to Bai Zhou. The youth decided to listened at their conversation.

"You said that there was a lollipop wrapper left by the culprit?" Bai Zhou stated.

Jin nodded.

"Is it caramel flavor?"

"Yes. It's product name was Flanél."

With a scrunched forehead, Bai Zhou stated, "But you said that the first princess was killed by a claw while the third princess was killed by the sword of First prince Daigo."

Zero was left in deep thought as he then debated, "Did they drank tea specifically earl grey?"

Somehow earl grey tea would be the best candidate as the murky look and pungent smell could hide a little bit of drug. Though, if Zero looked back on the test results, the tea only contained 5% of the psychedelic drug on it. Can it really affect the mind of the princess just by a small amount of it?

"Yes. The earl grey tea was gifted by the first prince and they both tasted it. We sent the tea to the lab and we found out that tea was drugged."

"Wait. You said that they both drank it? Then we could say that they were both plotted by the real mastermind."

Bai Zhou frowned, "Young master Zero, we concluded that but there was a possibility too that the first prince already drank an antidote so he could not be affected by the drug and in order for him to kill the third princess easily."

"But---" the young man was about to argue again when Jin gestured Zero to stop.

(What happen?)

"Then that could be a possibility but what was the motive of the first prince by killing the third princess?" Jin asked.

Right. When the motive came up, everyone would be silent as they knew that only war could solve this matter if the first prince truly killed her.

Chun was observing the tense atmosphere as she found it interesting. The young man that she had a connection with, unexpectedly involved himself to trifling cases. While the girl who was looking around the surrounding, she noticed a strange presence. Alarm bells ranged inside her instincts.

(Zero, you must avoid that person to your right.)

The youth who was immersed on the discussion was awaken by the voice of the girl in his head. Suddenly, he felt a distinct emotion coming from the girl. Fear?

Unconsciously, he looked to his right and saw the chief detective who had a wide smirk while staring at the chief of the monitoring team. Zero felt that smirk was not for the latter but for him.

Without asking the reasons of Chun, the youth knew why.

[System detection: hostility rate 90%]

[System warning: avoid the deity]

[System warning: avoid the deity]

…

The system kept repeating the warning signs as the youth slowly composed himself. He was right about his conjecture, Xeris, the deity of Mischief and Deceit. He was told already by the second princess/ice princess about the characteristics of the deity who governed this continent.

He was unlike other deities who preferred to have their own domain while managing the continent, Xeris preferred to involve himself to the life and death of humans and his most favorite part was playing them in their palms.

(What's that ringing sound that I was hearing?)

Chun suddenly asked as she frowned, she noticed an annoying sound that was coming from somewhere. The girl followed it and found a sealed door with runic symbols engraved around it. She tried to unlock it but it was to no avail, it did not badge.

'Strange.'

Zero ignored the question of the girl on his head as he concoct a plan to escape this place. He was not interested anymore on solving the case as he finally had a piece of puzzle that could solved the mystery behind the royal family but there was still one piece that was missing, though.

"Umm… sorry for the interruption but can I go out?"

Pengfei was about to object as it would be a sign of disrespect when they were in the middle of a serious discussion of a case and this youth suddenly went out because he was bored?

But Jin interjected, "You may."

"Ah right. This is your badge, I'll giving it back to you. Thank you for lending it to me," Zero politely stated as he bid his goodbye to the people inside.

His actions would be seen as strange and suspicious but he couldn't argue to that as the irritating system suddenly gave another side task while he was there. A task about leaving the place within 10 seconds. Is he that fast that he could move out the place in a blink of an eye?

And why was this system being noisy right now? Giving two side tasks at the same time.

[Ting! Side task completed.]

Oddly, there was no reward. Zero shrugged as he walked out from the research facility.