"It is too late to act now," he said, voice flat and low.

Did she think he forgot how she gave him a good fight? Not even his colleagues could do that.

While he didn’t dismiss her plight of helplessness—she could indeed be facing more people, like gangs—he certainly refused to let her mislead the case.

She was definitely not a helpless lamb. Clearly, there was definitely more to the murder story than they initially thought.

Luke stared deeply at Naia. He narrowed his eyes. The very small number of photos of her were from CCTV footage and yearbook photos. There were no pictures of her in the family house, and they found out the room she had been given.

The impression of her was a very timid young woman who could not even look straight, very different from this vibrant firecracker with the most brilliant eyes.

However, for some reason, he didn’t want to interrogate her. At least not yet.

Regardless of what happened, she was a victim. At least for now, he could follow her wishes.

Of course, his innate righteousness compelled him to keep investigating until he had answers. If she did something wrong, she would still need to face justice—or at least a version of it.

"You are very different from what was recorded."

Naia seemed to have felt his suspicious stare. However, she did not feel hostility from him at all. Rather, it was...goodwill. From here, she knew that this man was pretty upright, so she could actually talk to him.

Unconsciously, the guardedness in her stance loosened just a bit, and this made the policemen’s eyes soften.

"Brainwashing," she said. "I was taught from young that I should be—their servant. The repeated attempts on my life awakened me."

It was a perfectly valid reason to go crazy, let alone just changing personalities.

"You were thrown down a cliff," he said. "How did you get out of there?"

"The old man was drunk and threw me carelessly," she said. "I rolled at the side and landed on the ledge. I was a bit injured, but nothing serious. Later that night, I managed to climb up from there. I didn’t dare return to that damned house, afraid that old man and my father would find me."

"When I found out that they killed each other, hehe, I can only say my mood is high." She mentioned before that she wanted to hide until the hearing was over, so obviously, she revealed that she already knew what happened to the old man.

Luke stared at her eyes, as if looking for any signs of dishonesty. To be fair, what she said made sense. There were indeed ledges at the side of the cliff, and there was blood there.

It was not impossible to climb either, and he had already seen her strength. The girl was not weak.

But why did it feel like he was still being fooled somehow?

"How have you been living since then?" he asked, partially for official inquiry but also out of concern. He imagined the struggle, especially since she was definitely injured at the time, and he couldn’t help but feel another trace of admiration for the young woman.

"Even if I had been neglected, I still had some pocket money," she said. "It wasn’t hard for me, an adult with a brain, to survive."

"You went here to see a specific property," he said. It was a statement.

"Maybe," she said. "I just want to see if it’ll be profitable for me to inherit after he goes to jail," she said, nonchalantly lifting her shoulders. "But...as you can see, I got lost."

Luke looked at her. "You haven’t seen the lot yet?"

She stared back at him, large rounded eyes filled with certainty. "I was in the forest the whole time."

"But if you could drive me there to see, it’d be much appreciated! I was closeby anyway and you took me away, wasting the trip."

"..."

"..."

Silence passed by the air for a while, and it was so tense that the local policemen, who had been watching, looked away.

"It’s a lot under investigation for now," he said. "Once we get a clearance for it, it might be registered as part of your compensation."

She nodded, looking at him in appreciation. "So...what did you find out about this land so far?" she asked. "I would like to know what’s so important that my father is willing to sell his own daughter for it."

When she said this, it made everyone awkward, not knowing how to face her. She smirked. When they were awkward like this, who’d think of questioning her again?

"We have found a base somewhere in the mountains, but it has been destroyed already. Recently so." When he said this, he gave her a look as if looking for answers in her expression.

She blinked, looking completely innocent. At the very least, there was no trace of worry or guilt in her face at all.

It wasn’t that Naia was a great liar. In a world where there were not many people left, and if one’s fist was powerful enough, there were very few times one needed to lie.

In this case, she wasn’t acting nonchalant. After finding out these policemen were flexible and upright, she was just genuinely amused by the situation, so she showed no anxiety on her face.

She was reminded that she was very, very satisfied with her loot. And when she thought of how she almost lost it to these policemen had she been just half a day late, she felt even more thankful!

A thankful girl was a happy girl.

To the police’s eyes, though, she looked pitiful as if she was still sad that her father sold her, and was pretending to be strong. Someone—one of the older borderline-grandpa officers—even handed her a lollipop.

"..."

Well, it was strawberry-flavoured. Her recent favorite.

She unceremoniously ate it, which made people’s shoulders slump in relief as if they had comforted a crying victim.

If Naia knew what they were thinking, she’d scratch her head. How could police officers be so blind?