Chapter 171: Chapter 171 Allies_1
Aiden sat in his office, scanning the files that Veronica had organized on his desk.
The number of prisoners incarcerated in the past two weeks was not small; with all the wards combined, there were about fifty to sixty people. It was unrealistic to expect to carefully review them all.
Cardellia Autonomous State, due to some historical and political reasons, had become a long-term neutral autonomous region in the center of the Southern Continent. This turned the autonomous state into a political buffer zone for the surrounding nations, and The Black Magic Management Convention was signed in Silvertown. The headquarters of the international organization for the joint trial of heretics related to "The Covenant" had also been established within the autonomous state territory. In the affairs of "The Covenant," the autonomous state enjoyed a special status different from that of other national regions.
Furthermore, the autonomous state had signed explicit extradition treaties with almost all the countries of "The Covenant." Some prisoners were transferred to the prisons of the autonomous state for "transit" while being extradited between countries, and some countries would even send their prisoners to the autonomous state to serve their sentences for special reasons.
Rose Iron Prison was a large prison with the capacity to hold four thousand inmates, and like other prisons of the autonomous state, it had an absurdly high turnover rate of prisoners.
First, Aiden and Veronica picked out those prisoners who were registered as being from outside the autonomous state, whose contact addresses were dubious, and whose identities were unclear, and arranged them in order of incarceration time.
"One last week, this week... five?" Aiden looked grave as he surveyed the files before him.
The increase was unnaturally high, and this week’s five files did not seem to be related in any way; it was certainly not a case of a group committing crimes together that led to a cluster of incarcerations.
Given its geographical location and special political status, the autonomous state had a high number of people transiting from neighboring countries. In fact, about 20 to 30 percent of the criminals housed in Rose Iron Prison came from outside the autonomous state.
Even so, the frequency of inmates with unclear identity information appearing in Rose Iron Prison was only about one or two per week.
The more he investigated, the more he felt that the possibility of someone infiltrating and probing the prison was very high.
The witches’ gathering had Qiqimora, who wielded the "Void" divine language, and certainly had no need for such low-end methods.
The suspect could only be the Harvest Mother Cult.
Just a quarter of an hour ago, the prison guard monitoring the corpse had come running to report that the body had indeed self-decomposed as Meiruki’s minion had described, turning into a pile of sticky blood and loose bones. A quarter of an hour later, the guard came running again to report that even the remains had become as crumbly as weathered limestone, impossible to preserve.
It indeed resembled the artificial beings Aiden was familiar with; yet, alchemical artificial beings had significant differences from ordinary humans, as blood sample tests could reveal clues. But this prisoner’s incarceration health report was largely normal. She was a bit more complete than alchemical artificial beings, closer to a normal person...
No wonder, after all, alchemy and dark magic were, in the end, incomplete divine powers.
There was no room for doubt anymore; as the fortune-teller Melissa had said, the Harvest Mother Cult had indeed begun to make its move on this prison.
Moreover, besides the inmate who had suddenly died today, the Harvest Mother Cult certainly had other nuns planted inside...
After all, for this cult, the least valuable thing was "manpower."
What should be done? Should the newly arrived prisoners be closely guarded? Find a way to transfer the suspected prisoners?
After a moment’s thought, Aiden realized that all these measures that flashed through his mind were utterly meaningless.
The intelligence leak within the prison was ultimately not due to the infiltration of the Harvest Mother Cult, but rather to a deliberate disclosure by the witch coven. According to Melissa, the cult had long regarded him as a potential enemy.
Trying to stop the Harvest Mother Cult from targeting him had been impossible from the start.
Furthermore, once a prisoner enters, information could be passed out through just one meeting or letter delivery, and if the prisoner couldn’t do it themselves, they could bribe another inmate to help. It’s unrealistic to cut off all communication between the entire prison and the outside world.
But as inmates, the information they could gather was very limited, mostly what the prison "allowed to be known." It seemed that the Harvest Mother Cult was merely throwing costless resources into the prison in an attempt to gather as much information as possible.
After all, their goal wasn’t to bring down the whole Rose Iron Prison but to target only Aiden.
Even so, this was indeed a significant trouble for Aiden, as a death in the prison, even from natural causes and without family, would require reports and other post-mortem affairs that could take a toll on his duties as the warden.
More people from the Harvest Mother Cult being thrown in meant there could be more deaths soon...
At this moment, Aiden suddenly felt that it would be very easy for the Harvest Mother Cult to kill him, just by stuffing his prison with those short-lived nuns, he could be worn to death...
Of course, this was a joke. If the Harvest Mother Cult truly wanted to take him out, the most direct method would still be to send these nuns after him—this situation was much more severe than when Vila had her sights on him, as the adversary was not even on the same level.
It seemed he truly needed to form an alliance with the witch coven. Before Qiqimora visited again, he needed to seriously consider how to negotiate with the witch coven...
"...Officer! That is, sir?"
Veronica’s voice abruptly pulled him back from his reverie, and his gaze focused on the present only to meet Veronica’s face, which bore a touch of concern.
Aiden then realized he must have missed Veronica calling him while he was preoccupied with his worries, and he apologized with a faint smile, "Ah, sorry, I was a little distracted."
"Is it a difficult situation?" Veronica hesitated for a moment, then, as if making up her mind, she looked into Aiden’s eyes and asked, "Sir, may I be so bold as to ask whether the matters you are involved in right now are absolutely difficult for me to interfere with... or even to know about?"
"This..." Aiden was stunned for a moment by her candid gaze.
Indeed, a large part of what he was involved in right now was confidential, both personally and officially, impossible to share with others, but he could see that Veronica was eager to help share the burden. This goodwill deserved his respect.
Veronica... was one of the few "own" people he could trust without considering complex interests, and he had no reason to choose to fight alone in this aspect as well.
After a moment of thought, Aiden replied, "Indeed, some parts do involve confidential matters, but it’s not that nothing can be discussed. There are some things that go beyond the responsibilities of the prison and are solely related to me personally. Even so, would you still like to listen?"
"Please do tell!" Veronica’s eyes lit up.
"Then take a seat over there, I’ll brew some tea first," Aiden said as he got up.
