Mr. Thompson's bold declaration left everyone in the room momentarily speechless. Even Ace, who was accustomed to his own bullshit, found himself taken aback by the sudden turn of events.
Officer Lidean's confusion was evident as Mr. Thompson's boldness caught him off guard. He exchanged a perplexed glance with Lucas before regaining his composure.
"We will, Mr. Thompson. We will," Officer Lidean replied, his tone tinged with uncertainty.
Mr. Thompson's smirk widened ever so slightly as he folded his arms across his chest, his confidence radiating through the room.
"Very well, then," he said, standing his ground with the ever so not fading smile on his face.
"But I assure you," he continued, his voice dripping with confidence
"if you proceed with this arrest based on flimsy evidence, you'll find yourselves facing a lawsuit for wrongful arrest and defamation of character. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be the reason behind your poor reflected reputation of your department after that."
The weight of Mr. Thompson's words hung heavy in the air, casting a shadow of doubt over Officer Lidean and Lucas.
They exchanged uneasy glances, silently weighing their options.
Finally, after a tense moment of deliberation, Officer Lidean gritted his teeth and nodded curtly.
"Fine," he conceded, his voice strained. "But mark my words, Ace. This isn't over. We'll be watching you."
With that ominous warning, Officer Lidean draged Lucas and filed out of the room, their frustration palpable.
Ace watched them go, even threw a farewell wink towards Lucas.
As the door closed behind them, Mr. Thompson turned to Ace with a reassuring smile.
"Well, that was certainly a close call," he remarked, his tone casual yet tinged with amusement.
Turning his attention back to the lawyer, ace smiled so sweetly that it almost seemed sinister
"Close call? I wonder why that became a close call?"
Mr. Thompson chuckled at Ace's remark, his eyes gleaming with amusement.
"Let's just say, I enjoy keeping things interesting," he replied cryptically, a mischievous glint in his eye.
Ace raised an eyebrow, a smirk of disbelief playing at the corners of his lips.
"Do keep things interesting but not with my life on line."
Phoenix, who had been observing the exchange in silence, couldn't help but let out a low whistle. "Well, that was one heck of a performance," he remarked, his tone filled with admiration
Mr.thompson was about to reply with a smile before phoenix continued quickly changing his tone to that of anger
"If your little performance hadn't worked and ace had been arrested, you're body would have been laying where you're standing right now, so think before you act next time Thompson."
Mr. Thompson slightly averted his eyes as he sweat dropped
"But it worked didn't it? So I did my job"
Phoenix was about to reply when ace waved a hand and gestured to leave the topic be, seeing that, turning to Ace, Mr.Thompson adopted a more serious expression.
"But now, we need to focus on building our defense. We can't afford to let our guard down."
Ace nodded in agreement, becoming more serious as his mind already shifting gears as he contemplated their next steps.
"Agreed. We need to gather as much evidence as we can to prove my innocence," he said determinedly, his eyes ablaze with determination.
Mr. Thompson nodded in approval. "I'll start by re-reviewing the evidence they presented. Then, we'll strategize our next move," he said, his tone businesslike.
With that, Ace and Thompson set to work, diving into the intricate details of their defense strategy. As they pored over evidence and legal precedents, Ace couldn't help but feel a sense dread. It felt as though he was missing something in plain sight.
Before he could ponder over it, bella brought him out of this thoughts
[Host I'm back!]
'oh? Welcome back, you were gone for long this time'
[Did you miss me host?~~]
'dont try to joke when you're bad at it.'
[ಠ ل͟ ಠ]
Hearing no response, ace hid a smile as he stopped teasing the poor system
'so? Did you get the information I asked you for?'
[Ah yes host! But it was so difficult! You have to give me rewards for this!]
'first of all, difficult? For you? How come? And secondly rewards? Didn't I tell you that you're reward was getting a human body?'
[Yes it was difficult even for me and host, you didn't complete that sentence, you were getting me a human body so you can kill me and I go back to being a system ಥ‿ಥ]
'but iam still getting you a body with my hard earned points though, inspite of what happens afterwards'
[......] The poor bella had suddenly brain circuited.
Ace leaned back into the couch as he closed his eyes and controlled the urge to laugh bubbling inside him
'now tell me bella, what did you mean by the information being hard to collect about the knight family?'
Bella sounded like she was pouting from frustration as she replied,
[It's just that... there's not much information available about the Knight family. It's like they've gone out of their way to keep everything under wraps. I had to dig deep into some restricted databases to find even the smallest tidbits of information. It's almost as if they've been erased from official records.]
Ace frowned, processing Bella's words. The lack of information about the Knight family only added to the mystery surrounding everything. He had always suspected that there was more to their deaths than met the eye, and the elusive nature of the Knight family only reinforced his suspicions.
Bella hesitated once again, as if carefully choosing her words,
[I've been digging through various databases, trying to piece together their background, but it's like trying to unravel a tangled web, any kind of concrete evidence is very scarce.
It seems that the Knight family has a history shrouded in secrecy. I'm still trying to piece together the puzzle, but it's proving to be quite challenging host.
But I did manage to collect information on one member- it was fairly easy compared to others, it's about Lucas knight]
Ace sighed softly as he responded.
'but you already told me everything about him on the first day, is there anything more? If not leave it'
Bella continued with uncertainty,
[There is something I found that was not mentioned originally. While trying to gather information I stumbled across some of the classified documents about his life and something was very weird about it host!]
Ace's curiosity was now piqued,
'what do you mean bella? What were they?'
[I'm not entirely sure, host. The documents were heavily redacted- all very cryptic and the few bits of the documents I managed to access -it failed to mention anything about Lucas knight's birth date, place or parents names inspite of having a birth certificate and parents whom he loved with.]
Ace raised eyebrows at that,
'oh? Redacted documents, missing birth details, and no mention of parents' names...'
Ace muttered, his thoughts racing.
'It's almost as if Lucas Knight's entire identity has been....'
Ace didn't have to continue before bella nodded in agreement.
[Exactly, host. It's as if Lucas Knight is a ghost, a shadow with no past. and the spirit we see now is a fabrication.]
Ace's mind whirled with possibilities. If Lucas Knight's background was indeed shrouded in secrecy, it could mean that there was more to him than met the eye. And if that was the case, it could have far-reaching implications for Ace's mission in this world.
'Keep digging, Bella,' Ace instructed, his voice firm with determination.
"We need to uncover the truth about the Knight family no matter how deeply it's buried."
Bella sounded serious for once as she replied,
[Ofcourse host, I will do my absolute best!]
Ace's mind reeled with the implications of Bella's revelation. It was all too weird. Almost unnaturally so. There was this sense of a knife hanging above his head all the time. All of this raised more questions than answers.
'What do you think this means, Bella?'
Ace asked, his voice filled with uncertainty.
Bella hesitated before responding, her voice filled with uncertainty and worry.
[I'm not sure, host. But it seems that we've stumbled upon something much bigger than we anticipated. it's clear that there's more to his story than meets the eye.]
Ace was about to reply when bella continued with worry,
[Host....this world, bella gets the feeling that it's going to fail...]