Zion raised his eyebrows at that. The gentle husband liked children and even brought one with him while purchasing the mask? His brows furrowed when he thought of that innocent child. "Can you tell me about that child?"

"What? Why?" The old blind man was confused about why even the detective was asking about this kind of thing.

The human blinked and realized that he had accidentally asked the wrong thing, so he rephrased the question. "I meant if you can't tell who that man was, maybe you would be able to recognize that child. Perhaps they had a parent-child relationship."

The old man nodded in understanding and said, "I don't know because the child seemed especially shy. He didn't speak, but I do remember one thing. The kid was especially afraid of strangers. He didn't even let me touch him! And his cheeks had a deep scar. I found out when I was trying to touch his cheeks, but failed. Even the man got angry at me." The old shopkeeper shook his head as he sighed. "Young people these days. They're so protective of their kids."

Zion got all the information he needed and said, "Okay, I'll come back with my master the next time."

After that, he didn't linger around and went back to the shop where he had left the human servant. A while later, he and the human servant both walked on the street as Zion took the lead. He was still wondering about the kid that was with the gentle husband at that time. He needed more information about the first-ever victim of this murder case, and if his suspicion was spot-on, the first victim would also have a scar on his cheeks. To confirm this, he would need more information about it.

He glanced at the human behind him and asked, "Human, I have a question."

The servant was surprised. This was the first time an elf had decided to talk to him so freely. He felt a surge of admiration and fear in his heart. His lips pursed as he looked cautiously at the man walking in front of him.

Zion glanced at the servant and sighed. The humans of this world were so pitiful. Just small conservation with them was enough to make them feel satisfied and even surprised. "Do you know about the murder case that's been going on in this kingdom?"

The human nodded and continued walking. Who doesn't know about it? Every child was now aware of such a crazy killer roaming around the kingdom to kill children. Even the humans knew very well about it, and they even had much insider knowledge.

"Can you tell me about the very first victim?" Zion paused and added. "Of course, I'm just curious. I don't mean anything by this question. I wasn't in the kingdom for a year, and only returned from my tour when I heard of this."

The human servant following Zion didn't doubt those words and said, "The child was so pitiful. I have heard that the child's clothes were torn, and his injuries were so bad that everyone wondered if this kid was beaten to death. Authorities weren't ready to connect this murder case with others when more deaths occurred, however, the fact that the first victim also had the same wound and was also thrown in the river like others convinced the authorities to include it in the same case." The human paused and frowned as if he were trying to remember something, and suddenly his eyes widened. "Oh, how can I forget this information! Not many people know about this, and I've heard from a soldier talking in the palace that the child also had a scar on his cheeks."

Zion took a deep breath and nodded while hiding his grave expressions at the same time. This could confirm that the gentle husband had taken the child with him to take the mask, and after that, he killed the child brutally. So that meant the mask must have appeared since the second murder case.

***

When they went back to the palace, Zion acted like an elf servant who wanted to prove himself to the royals, especially the elf queen. When all the servants chatted about how beautiful Odina was, and how amazing she was! Even the human servants felt satisfied by the way they were treated.

Even though the humans of this current era behaved as if they were satisfied, Zion, who had lived in another world with more freedom, felt disgusted by this situation. As he looked around, he could see humans who hadn't been treated fairly still siding with the elves and saying things like, 'How the elves treated them better as compared to the other races!'

Zion stared at them with disdainful eyes and lowered his head. He didn't want to show how unsatisfied he felt after hearing that. Technically, humans shouldn't say such things, and should even have the self-realization that they were suffering as slaves of other races. But to his shock, the humans praised elves for treating them better. It was almost as if none of these humans wanted to get out of their statuses as 'slaves' in this life.

His lips pursed as he sighed. This should have nothing to do with him. After solving cases, he would go back to his world and stay far away from the humans who feel satisfied by being controlled by other races.

After finally dealing with the daily job, Zion got out of his bed at night and decided to follow around the masked man for a while until he could confirm the place of crime.

Zion had had a bad habit when he was still on Earth: perfection. Unless he could find better evidence to get the criminals behind the bars, he wouldn't blindly point his fingers. That was why, even after having enough evidence, he was still unsatisfied. He still hadn't found the place of crime yet, so how could he approach the queen with half-knowledge?

After thinking of this, he walked toward the same corridor and stood there, waiting for the masked man. The man soon arrived and walked at the same slow pace while humming a tune. It was pleasant to the ears, but Zion knew that if the man were to commit the crime while humming this tune, it would send shivers down anyone's spine.

Even Zion felt the same imagining that kind of scene, and he shook his head to clear off his thoughts. He wouldn't stand back and wait for the crime to happen. His lips pursed as he followed the masked man at a slow pace.