Chapter 157: Chapter 157 Friendly Bilateral Relations_1
"You all are quite polite," Aiden said to Qiqimora.
"Facing an opponent like you, Vila would gain nothing by being stubborn. Instead, she might even put herself at risk. We don’t want to stand by and watch our numbers dwindle any further," Qiqimora responded calmly.
Aiden picked up on some details from Qiqimora’s wording.
For the mercury amalgam golem, to which Abigail had granted life they referred to it as a "precious gift" for Vila and even used it as a reason to stop her from attacking again.
But when it came to simply leaving the mercury amalgam golem for Aiden, they just called it a "small gift."
This was probably due to politeness, but Aiden vaguely felt that the other party might be overestimating him because they hadn’t figured out his capabilities, thus seeing him as an equal.
This was most likely the main reason the Coven of Witches had taken the initiative to make peace with him—at least for the time being, they didn’t want to be his enemy.
This was good for him.
"This is the sincerity we can show on our part, can Your Excellency forgive Vila for her earlier offense?" Qiqimora asked.
Although she appeared composed in front of Aiden, she was actually a bit nervous.
The seizing of the mercury amalgam golem was within her expectations and indeed confirming that Aiden Galahad commanded the Word of God.
Then the moment Aiden met her, he recognized the "authority" of the Word of God she possessed, confirming Daili and Presia’s assessment of him.
Being a wielder of the Word of God herself, Qiqimora knew all too well how difficult it was to obtain information about the Word and its divine characteristics. Even with the network shared by several Great Witches, the Coven had only gathered a small portion of intelligence.
Yet this man seemed to have a wealth of information not inferior to theirs.
Either he was a "saint" in great concealment or there was a "saint" or even a higher being behind him...
Moreover, this person was intricately linked to the heretical judiciary of the autonomous state, and for the Coven of Witches as it stood, becoming his enemy was simply too dangerous.
On Aiden’s side, after hearing Qiqimora’s words, he really wanted to nod vigorously and say, "Sure, of course, I’m on board," as ensuring that Abigail, and by extension the entire Coven, wouldn’t attack him was more than he could wish for.
Yet such a reaction was too minor, too undignified. In the end, he feigned contemplation for a few seconds then nodded slightly, responding with a casual tone, "Alright, since you’re willing to let this matter go, it would be rather petty of me to hold onto it any longer."
"It’s more than wonderful that you agree," Qiqimora said, once again offering an elegant curtsy upon receiving a satisfactory response.
"However, the fact that you simply entered my prison does leave me rather uncomfortable," said Aiden as he gestured towards Presia, "I guess you had already met with them in secret before, right?"
It was easy to surmise that since Qiqimora had the ability to infiltrate the prison with such ease, she would most likely have sought out Daili and Presia for a chat first to gather some intelligence.
"Rest assured, I’ve merely wandered around here a bit, and incidentally scouted the prison," Qiqimora said with a smile. "You should know as well, mortals can only use the dominion of the Sovereign to a limited extent, and it would be very difficult for me alone to use the power of ’Void’ to break someone out of prison."
Honestly, Aiden didn’t know the limits of Qiqimora’s divine speech, nor had he completely figured out the full extent of the powers she wielded. But it seemed Qiqimora thought he knew, so he could only pretend to understand.
"Just wandering around is already a big problem; if you wanted to scout the prison, you should have gone straight to the reception area. You’re not on the heretical inquisition’s most-wanted list," Aiden said "calmly."
"I’ll do my best," Qiqimora replied noncommittally.
Aiden knew she most likely wouldn’t comply, for he had no way of dealing with Qiqimora’s infiltration of the prison at the moment. The initiative was in her hands, and this was not an issue he could resolve with mere words.
Fortunately, he now at least knew "someone from the Witch Assembly had the means to infiltrate the prison," which was quite significant intelligence in itself; knowing was certainly better than not knowing.
The most critical issue was whether she had discovered the cell deep underground where Melifilia was imprisoned.
Aiden guessed the chances were not high that Qiqimora knew of its existence, as the cell was hidden deep beneath the earth and only accessible from his office. Normally, if one didn’t know of such a cell beforehand, it was unlikely they’d spontaneously think to explore underground from his office. Unless she had been monitoring him consistently and happened to see him open the secret passageway to go downstairs.
Considering Aiden’s previous practice with divine speech, the duration of the divine speech technique was also limited; it was likely Qiqimora’s divine speech had similar constraints, so she probably couldn’t stay in the prison for extended periods, using the time to monitor him personally.
If the existence of the underground cell where Melifilia was confined were to leak, it would undoubtedly be a big deal for Aiden, as powers coveting the "Wisdom" dominion would probably flock there.
"Daili mentioned to me in passing that you’ve been quite attentive to them. While I was strolling through the prison, I saw them and other witches conducting research in the library," Qiqimora suddenly broached a new topic. "You’re quite different from other Judges I’ve met before. Why have you chosen to trade with us witches?"
"It’s nothing special; I’m just fulfilling a little responsibility, giving the prisoners a chance," Aiden replied forthrightly, "I personally think The Covenant goes a bit too far with you, with all dark mages. In my view, your research is not just dangerous and forbidden; a significant part of it has value that transcends the era."
"How very progressive," Qiqimora nodded with a chuckle, then said with a depth of meaning, "In that case, I think we may have the opportunity... to establish a more amicable bilateral relationship."
"What do you mean?" Aiden sensed that she had a purpose for bringing this up.
"I’ll be frank," Qiqimora suddenly looked at Aiden earnestly. "Actually... the Witch Assembly is about to go to war with the Harvest Mother Cult, and I wanted to ask if you would be interested in joining forces with us?"
"The Harvest Mother Cult!?" Aiden was taken aback.
"Yes, you must be very interested, right? After all, they are our common enemy," Qiqimora raised her eyebrows meaningfully.
"Common enemy?" Aiden was suddenly confused—when had he become enemies with the Harvest Mother Cult?
"No need to hide it anymore, we already know," Qiqimora said, lifting a hand with a smile toward Aiden, "You... you’re from the Flying Spaghetti Cult, aren’t you?"
