God of Systems: Maker of Heroes and Villains - Chapter 246

Chapter 246: We Meet Again, Ken

Asher headed towards the given location after taking a detour and this time, he had Ken with him. Like the knight had said, there were tents that were pitched up at the outskirts of the forest, in between the trees.

Even though they were technically inside the forest, it was very easy to spot them since there was quite a bit of distance between the trees.

Four large wolves silently sat on the ground near the tents, but when the detective and Ken got close, the beasts immediately stood back up before growling at them.

Amelia walked out of the tent while wearing just her pajamas and Keith followed right behind her while wearing just a shirt.

Compared to one year ago, when he was skinny and looked like a skeleton with human skin, the view was very different.

While not bulky, he still had some really solid muscles, looking more like an extreme endurance athlete instead of a body builder.

“Oh, look who’s here.. a familiar face that I didn’t expect to see. At least not here.” Keith said as he looked at Ken.

Ken nodded, but Asher was taken aback by the short sentence that contained shocking information.

‘These two know each other? What in the hell is going on?’

“Detective Asher, I assume?” Keith asked and looked at Amelia who nodded and headed inside the tent before tossing a small stool out.

Keith sat down and made himself comfortable before smiling at the duo.

Asher nodded and glanced at the wolves who had gone back to sitting down before he focused his attention back on Keith, “Yes, I’m detective Asher and I came here to simply ask you a few questions.”

“An awakened ability that lets to tell if a person is lying or not… interesting.” Keith said before looked straight into the detective’s eyes and then paused for a second before smiling, “Sure, ask what you wish to.”

Asher stared at Keith for a few seconds. He looked fine on the outside, but his mind was a complete mess.

“You see detective…” Keith began, “The ones who win wars, fight and even arguments are those who use all their resources efficiently. One of these resources being information. You came here knowing almost nothing about me, but on the other hand…”

“You know a lot about me…” Asher finished Keith’s sentence with a grim look on his face.

Keith smirked and nodded, in reaction to which, Asher let out a heavy sigh, “Are you the one who kidnapped the Duke’s kids and concubine?”

“I didn’t even touch those people, detective. Heck, I don’t think I ever talked to them either.”

Asher nodded and took out a small notepad before writing stuff down.

“And are you indirectly involved in these kidnappings?” he asked as he looked over the notepad.

Keith shrugged, “Hmm… I didn’t tell anyone to go around kidnapping people you know?”

Asher looked at the space on top of Keith and saw a green “true” floating there. He then nodded and noted down the answer before heading to the next question.

“The duke said that Lady Amelia gave his guards a set of cards and now these cards are being used as a sign or some kind of pattern to target the ones close to him. What do you have to say about that?”

Keith smiled and didn’t respond this time. Instead, he took out a deck of cards from his pocket and grabbed three before giving them to Asher.

“What cards do you see here?”

Asher took the cards and spoke, “Three Jokers….”

“Yeah, now do they have a meaning?”

“How would I know? There’s no way I can give you a solid answer without any clues…”

Keith nodded and then looked at Ken, “What about you? Just make a guess.”

Ken nodded and thought for a few seconds before glancing at the detective, “Does it represent me, my master and Asher?”

“Nah.” Keith shook his head and pointed at himself, “It represents me and my two partners who are currently inside the tent. You can’t just make random assumptions and pin the blame on me, you know? Not when I sent those cards while having a different idea in my mind.”

“What idea did you have in your mind then?” Asher probed and Keith shrugged, “I sent it as a code but since you’re using it to frame me, I’ll help you get to the answer on your own. Don’t expect me to spoon feed you everything.”

Asher frowned, but nodded.

“First, the easiest card. The King. Just take a guess.” Keith said and then looked at Ken, “You can join in too.”

Ken nodded and immediately said, “Duke Silas Jude Waverly?”

Keith shook his head and shifted his attention to Asher, “Come on, think of the empire as a whole.”

“The emperor?”

“Ding ding ding! You got it right! Now, what about the two Jacks and three Queens?”

Keith then leaned over towards the camp fire and grabbed a kettle that had been boiling, “Come on, think about it.”

Asher and Ken began to discuss while Keith poured himself a cup of tea and took a sip.

‘Playing around with puzzles is kinda fun…’ he thought to himself as he silently watched the two of them bicker.

“You seem more human now, Ken. It’s pretty surprising.”

Ken stopped talking and looked at Keith, “Thank you. I was allowed to experience new things that shaped me to become who I am right now. But no matter what happens, when my master gives me a command, I will follow it even if it means to die.”

“Sure sure.” Keith said and waved his hand nonchalantly before looking at Asher, “So, got an answer? You’re pretty close though, I won’t lie.”

“So the Jacks are the second and third prince while the queens are well.. the three queens of our empire?” Asher asked but Keith shook his head, “I said that the king was the easy one, not the others bruv. Come on, get more creative.”

Ken frowned as he asked, “Are the two Jacks the grand dukes?”

“Ding ding!! You’re correct! Dang just look at that detective, your assistant is better than you at this game. Heh, loser!”

Asher’s lips twitched with annoyance as he whacked his brain to get the queens right but even after thinking about it for five whole minutes, he was unable to arrive at an answer.

Ken was in a similar situation but he was having his own fun while trying to come up with wild theories.

Seeing that the two of them were unable to get to the answer that was in his mind, Keith chuckled and decided to tell them instead.

“Alrighty, listen up.” Keith said before taking out three queens and two jacks, “These two jacks are indeed the grand dukes. The two most powerful people after the Emperor but what comes in between the emperor and the grand dukes?”

“The royal family?” Ken answered and Asher nodded in acceptance since even he had the same idea in his head.

Keith nodded too and tossed the three queens on the ground in front of him before he grabbed a thin stick.

“You probably couldn’t guess this because of the lack of information, detective. But I’m a little disappointed with Ken here.” Keith said and then stabbed one of the queens as he turned to look at Ken.

“Didn’t your master tell you about the three different factions that have been formed due to the succession wars?”

Ken silently stared at Keith, deciding not to respond.

Seeing this, Keith shrugged and shifted his attention to Asher, “You see, currently there are three different factions. Well, technically there’s just two right now but call it an intuition of mine.

One is the first prince’s faction. The eighth prince has decided to team up with the eldest since he can use his strategic capabilities extremely well when he has a great army and a great commander.

Second faction is the second prince’s. He currently has the most number of nobles supporting him and there are also a lot of his siblings who are on his side but most of them are not someone whom I’d categorize as exceptional.

They simply picked his side so that they can continue living lavish lives in the future since they believe that he has the highest chance of becoming the next emperor.

Oh yeah, the alliance between the first and the third is a secret that no one knows other than those two. And me of course. Even the third prince doesn’t know about it, not yet.

As for the third faction, it’s of course, the third prince’s. The fourth princess has decided to ally with him and everyone knows how deep her pockets are. Unfortunately, this alliance doesn’t have much weight when it comes to manpower so I’m doing my best as his supporter.”

While Asher listened to Keith, he kept glancing on top of his head, only to see a bright green “true” floating there.

“I see…” he muttered and then let out a sigh, “I heard that there might be a war between the three forces soon. I’m not talking about the succession wards, but the kingdoms and our empire. Is it really necessary? I’m not asking this as a detective but as a common man who’s just looking for answers…”

Keith stared at Asher for a few seconds before even he let out a soft sigh, “I wish there weren’t any wars either… but there’s very little we can do when the literal god of war wants us to point our swords at each other.

Baroma Kingdom is being supported by a newly ascended god…”