Chapter 173: Chapter 173 Leave a contact detail_1
The next day, Qiqimora visited Rose Iron Prison as usual.
In the meeting room, Aiden and Qiqimora faced each other through the glass.
"You’ve finally seen the light," said Qiqimora, barely concealing her delight upon receiving a positive response from Aiden. She casually reached into her pocket and pulled out a cigarette case, "It sure took some effort on my part."
"Smoking is prohibited here," Aiden interjected.
"You misunderstood, I’m here to give you this." Qiqimora took out a pendant made of black crystal material from the cigarette case, containing a constantly shifting wispy fog, "You’re surely familiar with this, aren’t you?"
"The Great Witch’s token?" Aiden immediately recognized the object.
"This is Abigail’s doing," Qiqimora smiled.
"So, you want me to formally join your family," Aiden couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, "but I am a man."
The witch coven was a group entirely composed of female witches. In this world, contrary to the physical differences between the sexes, women generally had a far higher innate talent for black magic research and application, such as spirit communication, magic potions, and demonic contracts. Some magics and divination could only be learned by women, just as ladies benefitted more from the Red Moon Night which augmented black magic. This led to the number of witches vastly outnumbering male witches, to the extent that some male dark magic practitioners would transform themselves into women to delve into specific spells.
"Don’t you have the ability to turn into a woman?" teased Qiqimora, "Rest assured, Abigail has no intention of pulling you into the witch coven. By Abigail’s standards, Your Excellency’s pursuit of forbidden knowledge is not pure enough."
Aiden truly had no interest in such pursuits; delving into black magic was a technically complex and dangerous matter, not to mention it could attract the pursuit of the heretical inquisition.
That’s also why he had never considered learning the black magic developed by Daili and the others to enhance his own abilities.
"Then what are you planning?" Aiden stared into Qiqimora’s eyes and asked.
"Since we’ve established a partnership, it’s necessary to leave a means of contact, right? If nothing goes wrong, Abigail should hold a ’welcome meeting’ tonight once she receives your reply," Qiqimora explained.
Aiden looked at the pendant for a while; after this period, the thing had actually come back into his possession.
The practicality of this object was undeniably impeccable. In a world where telephones had not yet gained widespread use and mobile phones were nowhere to be seen, where long-distance communication relied on telegraphs and voices, Abigail had developed a sort of black tech capable of conducting holographic meetings remotely. If possible, he’d actually like to get his hands on many of these excellent devices to.....take out and sell, making a handsome profit.
However, he was well aware that artifacts imbued with magic power often required rare magical beasts and mineral materials. The cost of such world-defying magical artifacts was likely exorbitant. Even without The Black Magic Management Convention, there probably wasn’t a large-scale application perspective.
"This pendant, is it only for the holder to attend your gatherings?" Aiden asked.
"Of course, were you thinking of bringing someone else?"
"I was just thinking, since Daili and Presia are also members of your coven and we have already established cooperation, maybe they could also get involved in this matter," Aiden replied calmly, "but it’s no issue if I’m the only one attending the meetings; that’s actually safer for me."
Qiqimora immediately showed a look of surprise.
"What’s the matter, is there a problem?" Aiden noticed her change in expression.
"Just a bit unexpected," Qiqimora regained her composure, "You’re actually willing to have S-class fugitives from within the prison make an effort. You’re indeed more enlightened than I imagined."
"Make the best use of things, make the best use of people." Aiden shrugged, "If you have good cards in hand, how can you not play them? Of course, they are still prisoners in the end, so I will bind them with a demon contract as insurance. I know some of you have the capability to remove the demon contracts held by the Heretical Inquisition, so it’s best if you don’t have any contact outside of the prison—this level of a rule I hope you can abide by."
"I don’t have any objections. But well... leaving Daili aside, Presia now has some complaints about Abigail, just like Vila," Qiqimora said with a meaningful smile, "She probably won’t be so eager."
"Don’t worry, I’ve already persuaded her," Aiden replied calmly.
"How did you manage that?"
"Why don’t you ask them directly when you meet?" Aiden did not directly answer the question himself.
Yesterday, when he discussed this matter with the two Great Witches in cell twelve, Presia indeed had no intention to cooperate.
At that time, she even said sarcastically, "So we risk our lives for you, raid the ’Black Goat’ to elevate your divinity, and in the best case, we get a year or two reduction in our sentences. You really do think highly of yourself."
After some consideration, Aiden offered them an IOU, if they could successfully defeat the Harvest Mother Cult and share in the divinity and if they contributed significantly, he could share a part of the divinity with them—but only after they served their sentence and were released.
The sentences for Daili and Presia weren’t short, and there was only so much sentence reduction they could get. For Daili, who had been locked up for nearly five years, it was somewhat manageable, but for Presia, who possessed the dangerous secret technique of soul swapping, she would probably have to spend at least another eight years in jail.
Aiden’s idea was to closely observe them before their release. If they showed signs of reformation, then honoring the agreement was not a problem. However, if there was still a potential for them to re-offend, he wouldn’t hesitate to break the deal.
After a long hesitation, Presia finally agreed, as the situation in the prison would not change for her. Although there was the risk of Aiden breaking the deal, it was their only chance to obtain divinity.
"Alright then, I hope you will grace tonight’s ’welcome party’ with your presence," Qiqimora said with a half-joking tone.
"I was hoping to meet Abigail myself," Aiden said pointing to the pendant in Qiqimora’s hand, "I’ll trouble you to leave the proof at the reception, I’ll go pick it up."
Passing any items was strictly forbidden in the prison’s visitation room, separated by a wall of glass curtains, with no way to pass objects through.
But Qiqimora just smiled nonchalantly, "No need to trouble yourself."
With that, she reached out, her arm passing effortlessly through the glass curtain, and placed the pendant in her hand on Aiden’s side.
Then, before Aiden could react, Qiqimora stood up, "I need a smoke, so I’ll head back first. Send my regards to those two, see you tonight, Warden."
