Lia's mouth twitched as she turned back and glared at her servant. It was all Zion's fault! Why did this person have to step his foot outside and even trick her into thinking that he was sleeping throughout the night?!

Then she turned to look at the crowd who seemed to have forgotten her and cleared her throat. "Did your eyes go blind or what? The owner of this human is still standing here. Whatever you have in mind, talk to me."

​​

Others finally noticed a dhampir girl wearing a regular pinkish-brown gown standing in front of the human and moved to block her servant's body before glaring at all of them.

One of the elves remembered that a certain dhampir had arrived at their village a while ago, and they all had felt sympathy at that time. At this time, too, the image of dhampirs was good. So they curbed their anger and respectfully told her, "You have no idea, but your servant sneaks out in the middle of the night and kills children!"

Others nodded. "Just when did you get this servant? No servant can go outside without their master's permission, and I know this law is prominent even in the Vanne kingdom. So it's clear that he sneaked out behind your back!"

Before Lia could respond, the crowd started making their theories.

"I think she might have picked him up here," one of the elf customers said. "Have you heard of the event when a dhampir or any other person from a different race takes out their human servants for a trip? I haven't! No humans are allowed so much luxury. If a master goes out for a month, the human servants stay behind under someone else's jurisdiction. No one is seen taking their humans out!"

"Even if no one's at home to look after the human slaves, they would be sent to the soldiers or the human enslavement community in every kingdom."

Others nodded at this statement as they all assumed that the human must have belonged to the Viridis kingdom. This was the so-called justification they provided to prove that the human must have been the killer. And if this human hadn't belonged to the Viridis kingdom, it would be impossible for him to travel all the way from the dhampir kingdom to here only to commit the crime.

Lia looked at them coldly and decided not to disturb them. At this time, she realized how biased they all were toward humans. It wasn't like all humans were terrible. But she couldn't deny the fact they most of them from history err indeed bad.

She remembered that the war between humans and other races was due to a human ruler that had turned bad. She had even read that the humans of those days were using technology to bully people, spreading negative things about other races so much that many supernatural people were abused.

So the hatred toward humans could be justified. But when she saw everyone manipulating the facts so boldly right in front of her to blame her human servant, a hint of irritation grew in her heart. Was she also like that once, blindly treating humans as if they were always in the wrong no matter what the truth was?

Her brows furrowed.

Zion, behind her, also heard those words and felt uncomfortable, but he said nothing. What else could he say? He was a human who people of this world discarded. He had the authority to do nothing. So what could he possibly do at this point?

He pursed his lips and took a deep breath. There was no point in blaming these people.

Being a modern fellow, he knew perfectly well how manipulation works. A business owner could purchase ghostwriters and pay them to write fake comments and reviews to defame anyone. And the public would be innocent enough to believe anyone without thinking twice.

He knew this because many people had tried to defame him when he had become famous overnight as a modern Sherlock, and he could tell that most of them were purchased especially to show his online image in the bad light. So he wouldn't be surprised if the same thing had happened here. It only proved that the killer must be in a hurry to shift the blame on someone else's shoulders.

Who could be the best person to blame? Humans! They were already terrible people in the eyes of other races, and no matter whether they really committed a crime or not, everyone would believe otherwise. The innocent citizens would trust the fake evidence against a human no matter how illogical it seemed.

Humans were in this world presented as vile creatures in every kingdom. Of course, he knew that it was due to the enslavement treaty the humans had signed with other kings to stop the war, but that didn't permit others to treat the humans worse than animals. But what else could he do? The word slavery meant their masters could do anything to them.

Just when he was thinking about this, he heard Lia speaking.

"Can you all hear the things you all are saying?! Huh?" Zion glanced at the princess's back in surprise as she said, "You're blindly manipulating the facts without even asking me! I'm the greatest evidence here, but you won't ask me just because it can prove your words wrong! Why the heck do you guys want to blame my servant so badly?! Does he even look like a criminal? Have a mind at least of your own, will you? I know for sure that all the elf children know basic martial arts, but humans don't. Why did you even get this idea that my slave would end up killing them? Even if he goes near those children, he would instead be strangled to death! Just look at how thin his body is! Have some shame!"

The detective's eyes stuck at the girl's back as she fumed in anger, but before he could open his mouth and say something, the crowd started talking again. One of the elves glared at her and said, "You're actually siding with a human! Hah! Could it be that you're also involved in this case?"

"What're you trying to argue about with these people?" Another elf asked and muttered a few words as an iceball formed over his palms that shone brightly in the air. "Let's get them!"

Zion's eyes froze open as he stared at that ball of ice hovering over the palms. He had recently been tortured with many boiling energy balls, and he still remembered the feeling he had felt at that time: helplessness and fear. Even though he had learned all the dodging techniques, he would still appreciate not facing such a situation where energy balls endlessly attacked him.