MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin



"Adam Gospel."

When Smith uttered his name she could see the young man tilting his head in wonder and curiosity as he looked at her with a sense of bewilderment and intrigue in his eyes. His reactions were enough for her to quickly understand that he had not recognized her at all.

Weirdly enough, however, it was only when he looked at the top of her head that he could see his eyes widen slightly and the light of recognition shimmered in his beautiful blue eyes, indicating that he was finally able to recognize who she was.

'What is he looking at on my head?'

Her brows furrowed as she was not able to understand what this enigmatic young man was up to. Meanwhile, Adam's eyes quickly refocused on his face as he spoke to her with a smile on his face, "Good Evening, detective. Though with the current time, I guess we could say that it's good morning perhaps?"

His smile that was directed at her was one of leisure and relaxation. It was filled with a sense of calm that she found both intriguing and worrying at the same time.

The young man had changed…

Her instincts that had been honed over the years were screaming at her of that fact. The young man that was now standing in front of her was definitely marginally different from the one she had seen on that night.

Even back then, he had been calm and quite a bit composed when facing her but now… the very aura and atmosphere that was revolving around him had changed into something entirely different.

Instantly, her mind flashed to all the information she had managed to glean on him before being put on forced vacation.

Adam Gospel. Now 21 years old. He had undergone a childhood that was not particularly different from hundreds of boys living in America. Living with a single mother, growing up in a relatively normal environment with values and morality etched on his bones. He was the typical model citizen that roamed the streets of LA.

The first thing that made him a bit more special than others was the fact that he lived in a relatively wealthy neighborhood despite the economic situation of his family.

That alone was enough to show that he was not a normal young man, but rather someone with connections and possibly a hidden background or backing. From the records, his high school life was filled with weeks and months of missed school days and acts of delinquency but there were no bad reports on his report card that was able to show a reflection of those moments.

It was as if his records had been completely wiped clean, leaving only the good parts while completely omitting any signs of deviation. Following that period of deviation, Adam's Gospel became something akin to a perfect student and there would have been nothing out of the ordinary if not for the fact that he was friends with the children of people in high power or rather well-paying jobs.

Everything she had read about him and his life gave her the feeling that the boy was akin to the darling of lady luck. Whatever happened to him, there was always someone to wipe his ass and take care of everything for him.

Finally, there was even the case of him being protected by the Triads and the Yakuza of the underworld.

'Tch!'

Just thinking about all of that was enough to piss her off. Why was someone like him allowed to walk free into the streets? Why were well-known mafia bosses and criminals able to enjoy life as they wished with no problems when they should be rotting in jail for the actions of disorder and deviation that they caused in society?

She forced herself to calm down. She knew the exact reason behind such phenomena. She knew the rules that governed this insufferable world. Because there were laws that prohibited them from enacting true justice. Because they could not just arrest someone based on allegations without enough proof and witness to build a case.

Because, Because, Because. So many reasons. So many excuses. All in favor of the bad and the wicked.

In the end — Criminals should simply all die for their misdeeds.

"Hmmm… May I know what I have done to you? You are glaring at me pretty hard there."

Detective Smith was startled and closed her eyes to get her bearings straight as she felt her mind snap back to reality due to the young man's words. The progressively increasing stress was getting to her lately and this made her thoughts become darker and darker without her really understanding why that was the case.

Sighing, she waved her hand, "I am Detective Smith. Themis Smith. I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable due to my… untoward actions. I guess I was just a bit too focused on certain problems in my life and it projected toward you… I am sorry again."

While she had many doubts about the young man in front of her, the reality was that she had been taught to be polite and to never forget her manners no matter who she interacted with. As such she readily apologized to him for her behavior,

"May I ask what brings you here?"

Adam's eyebrows rose at her question before he responded to her with a small smile on his face, "I have come to pick up my aunt from the police station."

"I see."

She hesitated for a moment, feeling her mind calm slightly at his oddly soothing voice, "I was with Detective Kirishima during your incident. I am happy to see that you are living well now after the events that you have gone through."

He nodded his head in response, "It wasn't easy and even now I still remember that day vividly. But this ordeal allowed me to mature in a way."

A bitter smile formed on his face as he continued with his words, "So, you seemed quite down there detective. May I know what happened for you to feel like that? Is it because of a difficult case?"

She chuckled as she drank the coffee that was offered to her by the young boy. It was weird for her to be counter-interrogated in this situation but what could she say, there were many things she wanted to get out of her chest, and needed an outlet for that to happen.

"I was just thinking about the situation of the police and how we could do a better job to protect the citizens of the city."

"I guess this must not be an easy task for you guys?"

"Well, it is truly fucking hard."

She laughed self-deprecatively, feeling despondent, "We are supposed to protect the citizens, but they fear and hate us rather than respect us for it. Wherever we try to help, we meet more resistance than the criminals roaming the streets."

She was quite sad. The first time she became a cop, she had been filled with so much joy that it was simply indescribable. But even in the neighborhood where she lived, people started to look at her with eyes filled with suspicions and rejection.

As if they feared she would suddenly arrest them for no particular reason or find a way to make their lives miserable.

The people that used to be her friends saw her job either as a pass to make mistakes as they believed she would always bail them out or as a reason to distance themselves from her as they considered that she was not someone they could have fun being around with.

They were supposed to be the protectors of the people. She had never thought about becoming acclaimed and praised when she took this job.

But not even one small thanks for the things she did for others?

Of course, she understood that this visceral reaction was normal. How could the citizens believe in the police when there were so many incidents that tarnished their reputations?

But this was why she found this all the more sad and despairing.

As always, a few bad apples made the whole basket look bad. People focused so much on the mistakes that a select few cops made that they forgot all the good they did alongside them.

But even the best cop could do nothing when faced with politics.

In the end, whose fault was it?

The citizens who refused to help?

The cops who became corrupt because everyone else was corrupt?

Or the higher-ups who took advantage of both and filled their pockets while ignoring the law with total impunity?

Was it impossible to have true peace and justice in this world?

If this really was impossible then… were humans at fault or was it the fault of the world itself?

She felt like she just wanted to sit down and sleep through all her worries and stress.

Perhaps she was really not suited to be a cop, after all…

(AN: I am no American and I generally never really had a problem with police in my country so I can't totally empathize with those problems. The most I know about the relationship between cops vs citizens in the USA is from movies and some news on YouTube or Twitter. So I am sorry if I may be unable to completely bring the reality of this relationship in my book or if some words I say may seem to diminish the reality some readers may have lived. Just wanted to give a heads-up just in case since many of my readers are from the USA.)

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