Lie Detection

Lizer informed Gloria of the deduced outcome from the Internal Affairs Bureau's intervention.

Gloria immediately felt deeply troubled. Neither this nor that worked; what on earth should they do?

Seeing Lizer frowning deeply and also out of ideas, she sighed:

"Ah, forget it.

If there's no other way, the worst case is I just quit being this deputy director.

I'll have my old man take me back to the provincial capital. Don't worry about me, you guys."

Lizer and Felina were rendered speechless. It seemed Gloria also had a powerful background. No wonder she could forcefully snatch the deputy director position from Wilson, a subordinate of Viscount Weissman.

Gloria stuck out her tongue and said apologetically:

"It's not that I deliberately kept it from you, but I really didn't want people to know about my old man's affairs.

After all, I am me, and my dad is my dad."

Gloria then explained that her father was the Deputy Director of the Monte Province Public Security Department, though very few people outside knew about this.

This background was indeed solid enough.

However, Viscount Weissman was a enfeoffed lord, so her father would probably find it hard to directly intervene in this matter.

But ensuring Gloria wasn't bullied and transferring her back to the provincial department afterwards would certainly be no problem.

They had originally worried that Gloria would actually be convicted of this charge and sentenced, but now it seemed it definitely wouldn't come to that.

Because according to procedure, the final decision required approval from the provincial department, so it was impossible for Gloria to be sentenced.

But to really let Gloria bear the infamy and thus lose the position of deputy director...

Not to mention that the highly righteous Gloria would definitely feel terrible, Lizer also felt somewhat apologetic, so they still needed to figure out a solution.

Lizer thought for a moment. Combining the matters of Bobby and Rice, he had a bit of an idea. He prepared to fabricate a superficially reasonable story, but the difficult part was dealing with the potential lie-detection witchcraft:

"Gloria, just say this:

You received an anonymous report that someone and Wilson were going to kill me.

When you arrived, they were just about to kill me.

You accidentally shot and killed him.

As a result, his companion ran away.

You are currently investigating the matter."

Lizer planned to state in his upcoming deposition:

Lizer saw Wilson meeting with a strange man.

The strange man ordered Lizer to be killed.

Lizer was taken to Wilson's house. Just as he was about to be killed, the police arrived and Wilson was shot.

That strange man also escaped.

Under lie-detection witchcraft, such a 'truthful' description would yield a result of truth.

Because there are no lies in this, only the timeline of the facts is slightly reversed.

For example, Lizer was actually first taken to Wilson's house before seeing Rice and Wilson meet.

But the lie-detection witchcraft cannot detect that the chronological order of these two statements is reversed.

Moreover, such a deposition misleads others into believing there is a causal relationship between these statements.

For example, outsiders would think Lizer was ordered to be killed because he saw Wilson and the strange man.

But in reality, there is no causality between the two.

And lie-detection witchcraft does not possess the ability to judge causal relationships; it can only detect that these statements are all true.

Although this would leave investigators with more questions:

Like who reported the crime, who that middle-aged man was, none of this would have anything to do with Gloria anymore.

Answers like "I don't know, I can't remember, my head hurts" would all work, or even appropriate silence.

Lizer's goal wasn't to cooperate with the case investigation, but to clear Gloria's name.

Hearing this, Gloria looked at Lizer with gratitude:

"But getting you involved like this might put you in danger too."

Lizer laughed in response:

"If it doesn't work out, the worst-case scenario is having your dad bail both of us out.

But I think it's highly feasible, because the other party isn't clear on the whole event. By stringing together some originally unrelated facts, we can construct a superficially reasonable story.

Besides, you have a background after all. As long as the investigation is passable, they won't dare to act recklessly.

We'll cooperate then. If they try to force any excessive questions, you just interrupt them."

After listening to Lizer's detailed explanation again, Gloria and Felina were left with nothing but deep admiration for him.

How exactly did this boy's brain grow? Gloria joked:

"Kid, you're so familiar with evading lie-detection witchcraft. Did you used to lie like this often?"

Lizer raised an eyebrow and replied:

"Hmph! Now you know how awesome I am, why aren't you bowing in submission!"

Hearing this, Gloria reverted to her violent boss-lady self and threw a slap at Lizer's head:

"Bow in submission?

I'm warning you, kid, don't try your dirty jokes on me!"

Seeing the matter that had just been worrying them resolved in an instant by Lizer, a greatly relieved Felina giggled as she watched the two bicker.

Lizer rubbed his slightly aching head and reminded:

"There's another detail to note:

Both your police station and the Internal Affairs Bureau have the Corpse Questioning Spell. You need to worry about them directly using it on Wilson."

The reason Lizer remembered the Corpse Questioning Spell was because this zero-circle witchcraft was in the Internal Affairs Bureau's merit exchange manual.

It could temporarily awaken a recently deceased, intact corpse. Within 30 minutes, one could ask the corpse 5 questions, and the corpse would answer truthfully according to its own cognition.

This witchcraft was very peculiar and widely used. It required 40 points to exchange for it in the Internal Affairs Bureau.

Moreover, the manual noted that outside of the police station and the Internal Affairs Bureau, it was very difficult to exchange for this special witchcraft. Lizer planned to exchange for it in the future when he had more merit points.

This should be an essential spell for intelligence personnel.

Sometimes the words of the dead are more useful than those of the living!

Gloria grew tense upon hearing this:

"That's true!

Oh, I remember now. It seems that once a corpse has been subjected to necromantic witchcraft, the Corpse Questioning Spell cannot be used on it again.

Should I arrange for someone to go to the storehouse to get a necromantic witchcraft item and use it on Wilson's corpse right now?"

Lizer thought about it and shook his head in denial:

"That would leave too many traces and make it easy for others to catch us out.

Felina will have to step in this time. Later, you take us near where Wilson's corpse is stored, and then Felina can direct Bobby to possess it for a moment."

Gloria patted her ample chest to calm her roller-coaster-like nerves, and once again expressed her sincere gratitude:

"Lizer, I'm so lucky to have met you!

Your wisdom is simply unmatched. Such a troublesome matter, and you solved it just by thinking about it.

Oh, if we can pass this smoothly, I will definitely repay you well. Tell me, what do you want?"

Lizer stared at Gloria:

Her tight red uniform outlined her exquisite curves; her waist was as slender as a willow, and her chest was full and perky.

Beneath the hem of her skirt, her legs were long and straight. A head of curly blonde hair fell over her shoulders, her red lips were like fire, and her flowing gaze carried a hint of charm.

He swallowed hard...

Beside them, Felina heard Gloria's words and saw Lizer's reaction. She became secretly vigilant, secretly pinching Lizer's arm hard and whispering in his ear:

"You promised me, half a year!"

Oh, that damn half a year!

Lizer forcefully turned his face away, swallowed hard again, and laughed generously:

"Gloria, as long as you don't mind the trouble of being with me, that's enough.

Besides, we are allies!"

"Right! We are allies!"

Gloria also noticed Lizer's reaction. What had never seemed significant to her before now caused a faint warmth to rise to her cheeks.

She immediately replied upon hearing him, hoping to cover up her momentary lapse.