Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Speaking Boldly After Cleaning Up for Others_1
The next day, at the Heresy Tribunal, in the Director’s office.
"...and that’s pretty much what happened, thanks to you guys, I spent a night in jail and only got free this morning to come over here."
Aiden sat leisurely in the guest seat, recounting last night’s events to Director Harold.
"To think that there was an even more secretive core organization hidden within the Witch Assembly, you’ve really brought some major news. But..." Harold, mulling over something with a cigar in his mouth, surveyed the black crystal pendant in his hand, then slowly turned his gaze to Aiden, "Or is it just my imagination? How come I feel like your attitude today is much more arrogant than usual?"
"Not at all," Aiden said innocently, spreading his hands, "For such a modest and reserved person like me..."
"Then get your damn feet off my coffee table!" Harold glared furiously, "It’s not your personal footrest!"
"Ah, my dear Director, isn’t it just because the coffee table is too empty? Look, you haven’t even served tea," Aiden relaxedly lowered his feet and hinted with underlying meaning, "Look at how you push the troublesome matters onto your former subordinate, and when something goes wrong, after the former subordinate cleans up the mess, he gets treated so harshly. That’s not going to win over the crowd."
Harold’s forehead bulged with veins, but he relented and walked over to open the door, calling in an administrative staff member, "Adrian!"
"What is it, Director?"
"hassle you for a bit, get this idiot a cup of coffee!" Harold gestured towards Aiden.
"I want tea!" Aiden corrected with a smile, raising his hand.
Today, he indeed felt much more assertive than usual when coming to see Harold.
The investigation into the proof of the Great Witch that Presia had swallowed should have been the duty of the Heresy Tribunal, but after deeming the completely amnesic Presia devoid of interrogation value, the Heresy Tribunal easily pushed the unwell Presia onto the Rose Iron Prison ahead of schedule.
To some extent, it could be said that the Rose Iron Prison had cleaned up the mess for the Heresy Tribunal, solving the tricky situation that would have required a risky surgery to obtain crucial evidence and also incidentally completing part of the investigation.
He came to Harold not only to hand over evidence and report the intel but also to take the opportunity to air his grievances—having worked hard for almost a day and a night, he felt he had the right to a bit of attitude.
After the tea was served, Harold re-locked the door and returned to his seat.
"I won’t argue about the decision to push Presia onto you guys so soon; that was my oversight. But this..." Harold shook the pendant disdainfully at Aiden, "this is nothing but a mess now, isn’t it?"
The black crystal pendant had developed a crack on the surface, and the gray mist previously sealed within had disappeared. It was obvious that this "proof of the Great Witch" had completely lost its function as a magical artifact. Presumably, its creator, Abigail, had triggered some self-destruct mechanism upon realizing that Presia’s proof had fallen into someone else’s hands.
In other words, the evidence was now, to a certain extent, useless.
"Blaming me might be a bit much. If it weren’t for your oversight, I wouldn’t even have laid hands on this thing. Moreover, to rate my actions yesterday—I don’t think they could have been better. If it had been someone else, they probably wouldn’t have even managed to stay alive," Aiden argued with hands outspread, "That ’God’s Word’ seriously can drive a person mad; though it may sound unbelievable, I swear I’m telling the truth."
The information he had provided Harold about God’s Word was indeed true, but it was not the whole truth.
He merely concealed the fact that he had somehow managed to make God’s Word come to effect when he had uttered it because this could be related to his secret as a summon called across by Melifilia.
The Heresy Tribunal of this world, though a completely different entity from the inquisitory organizations of his previous life, was not exactly a liberal institution. Without knowing how he would be treated, he had no intention of revealing this secret to those at the top of the Tribunal.
He was only a little worried that Harold might not fully believe in the power of God’s Word. After all, the idea that a single phrase could disregard the limits of black magic and drive someone to mental collapse without personally experiencing it once seemed hard to believe.
But after flicking the ash from his cigar, Harold responded casually, "Hmm, the existence of God’s Word is something I’m actually aware of; you don’t need to emphasize it to me."
"You... knew?" Aiden was momentarily taken aback.
"Don’t underestimate the secret files kept by the Heresy Tribunal," Harold replied slowly, taking a puff from his cigar, "We just didn’t know that the Witch Assembly also had access to God’s Word..."
"But I never heard anything about it before—"
"Of course, that’s because your clearance wasn’t high enough, idiot!" Harold retorted impatiently.
"But as a higher Judge, wasn’t I supposed to be able to view all the records?"
"You could view all records with listed entries, but of course, the most confidential records wouldn’t even be known to exist by you folks. You’d understand if you were in my position," Harold replied, clearly annoyed, "Have you forgotten what we once entrusted you to safeguard?"
"Indeed!" Aiden had a moment of realization.
The Heresy Tribunal of Silvertown had taken down the Blood Moon Cult and even captured and contained Melifilia, a deity. It made no sense that their information on such a ruler would be so scant.
"Such rulers are immensely powerful beings." Harold shook his head, "If you hadn’t convinced that entity back then, there would have been a bloodbath, and the Heresy Tribunal couldn’t possibly have contained such a monster..."
"..." This time Aiden didn’t respond, merely sipping his tea.
Melifilia had, in fact, willingly subjected herself to containment by the Tribunal... precisely stated as convinced by the then Aiden who led the destruction of the Blood Moon Cult base and accepted containment after a private persuasion.
One of the conditions for Melifilia’s containment was the forced secrecy of their conversation by the predecessor Aiden.
Then, upon arriving in this world, Aiden was the only one who didn’t inherit that particular memory.
What they had discussed back then and why Melifilia had voluntarily accepted the containment had become secrets known only to Melifilia after the predecessor Aiden’s death.
Aiden found it very hard to imagine why such a powerful entity would agree to be treated like that by humans whom she saw as less than ants, even having her freedom taken away. No, when it really came down to it...
"Speaking of which, have we really contained her successfully?" Aiden placed his teacup down and seriously asked Harold.
