Chapter 285: Chapter 285: Turning the Prison into a Ghost Town_1
In the afternoon, on the prison yard in the core area, inmates who had finished their morning work walked onto the yard to get some air.
Annie occupied a bench on the edge of the yard, with the pirate Anna sitting next to her, while the thief Katherine stood behind the bench with her arms crossed.
"It seems that this prison still has some normal people like you guys," Annie said, stretching her arms over the back of the bench in an arrogantly sprawled pose.
"I’ve heard about Drake’s legendary prison escapes in the Empire a long time ago," Anna said with an obsequious smile on her face, "It’s an honor to meet you here."
"You’re also a pirate of the Empire, but I don’t seem to have heard much about you," Annie scrutinized Anna, "But to be locked up here, you must be somebody, I guess."
"Ha, I wasn’t really active before..." Anna laughed awkwardly and hurriedly moved past the topic.
In fact, she was the type of small-time pirate who had only operated in the Empire’s seas for less than a year, not making much of a splash, before being wiped out by the Imperial Navy. Anna had escaped to shore in the chaos of her ship sinking and, being a wanted person, fled the Empire until she was eventually caught while fencing stolen goods in the autonomous states to raise travel funds.
The Empire didn’t place much emphasis on such minor figures and didn’t extradite them, allowing her to serve her sentence in the prison of the autonomous states. Katherine, on the other hand, was a local bandit leader from the autonomous states. They were thrown into the core area because they had behaved too badly in prison and used their past experience organizing crime to form cliques among the inmates; Aiden then conveniently threw these criminals into the core area "for their development."
Here, both of their strengths and backgrounds could only be considered bottom tier, unlike when they were in the regular areas, where going against the prison would only result in them having to cling to other bosses for support.
"Let’s talk about your current plans, Your Highness. A prison of this level shouldn’t be able to hold you, right?" Anna said in a lowered voice.
"Of course, I’ll be out soon," Annie slowly said. "If you guys plan to follow me after getting out, I wouldn’t mind giving you a lift."
Her pirate gang had been destroyed by those three vampires, and her ship, the Deer Hawk Beast, had been confiscated by the Imperial Navy. Once she got out, if she wanted to go back to her old ways, she could get another ship from the Red Shark Pirate Gang, but she would have to recruit new people.
"To be honest, I’m still skeptical... Do you really have a way to get out of here?" Katherine did not fawn over this new inmate like Anna did. She was not from the Empire and did not have much knowledge of the "heroic deeds" of the Red Shark Pirate Gang in the Empire.
"Hey!" Anna turned her head and glared at her.
"Are you doubting me?" Annie also turned to look at her.
"I just don’t want to be sold out like last time, that’s all," Katherine answered expressionlessly.
"Last time?" Annie frowned.
"Previously, there was an organized collective escape attempt here." Anna paused to give Annie a brief explanation, "We were involved too... but in the end, the person who organized it betrayed us. Naturally, her plan failed as well, and she was trapped inside the prison."
Katherine glanced at Anna, thinking to herself that she was still better at talking.
They both knew very well that during Meiruki’s jailbreak attempt, she had never truly considered them, the lower-level individuals. They, along with a bunch of junkies in the infirmary causing trouble, were suppressed, and it was less about Meiruki betraying them and more that from the start, they had been thoroughly treated as expendable.
Meiruki’s plan failed not because she was abandoned by the others, but rather because she was too confident about pulling people from the warden’s grip. In the end, she got viciously backstabbed.
"Oh? Someone’s organized a mass jailbreak before? Sounds like someone with a lot of spunk," Annie repeated a line someone had mentioned before, "Seems like someone I could get along with. Can you introduce me?"
At the same time, she scanned the playground.
"My Highness, that person with a lot of spunk you mentioned..." Anna hesitated.
"Has already been conditioned to be the head prisoner’s personal doctor," Katherine continued, "She’s not here; she’s usually either in the infirmary or the library, not so easy to meet. That person has already sided with the head prisoner, it’s better not to get involved with her, you might get betrayed."
Although Annie Drake seemed interested in prisoners with escape plans, the two of them didn’t want to pull Meiruki into their group. They had been affected by the last riot’s failure too, not only getting beaten up by Prison Guard Veronica in the infirmary but also having their cases retried because of the incident. Their sentences got extended, and they were subjected to solitary confinement and downgraded treatment. They were still under observation.
"Is that right?" Annie replied nonchalantly.
She actually didn’t care if the other party would betray her or not, because Red Shark Pirates’ prison break methods couldn’t be countered just by snitching.
Similarly, she didn’t need to recruit any helpers to assist with the jailbreak.
During the jailbreak, the prison guards fundamentally couldn’t interfere with the escaping prisoners, while the prisoners also couldn’t do much against the prison guards.
However, the act of prisoners escaping from jail was a significant blow to the prison guards’ authority.
"There must be quite a few people here who want to leave this place, find them and let me know," Annie instructed the two, "The more dangerous, the better."
Katherine frowned slightly, about to say something, when she was quietly gestured to stop by Anna.
"No problem, we’ve got it," Anna said with a forced smile.
She didn’t actually have much respect for Annie, it was only to hitch a ride on the jailbreak bandwagon that she got close to her. In her eyes, this so-called "Pirate Princess" was nothing more than a young girl with a lucky birth.
And Annie was well aware of this but took the opportunity to boss them around.
At that moment, Veronica, who was on duty in the playground, looked over at them and shouted harshly, "You lot there! What are you conspiring about? Disperse!"
"Damn it..."
Both Katherine and Anna cursed under their breath but obediently left the bench. Other prison guards were manageable, but after taking a solid beating from her before, they wouldn’t dare to confront Veronica directly.
"These two don’t seem useful at all..." Annie thought to herself and shook her head.
It seems she needs to release some more capable criminals... No, might as well go big, let her father release all the inmates in this core area, turning the most dangerous part of the prison into a ghost town!
