Chapter 288: Chapter 288 These reporters really run faster than anyone else_1
The next evening, in the core area playground.
Ophelia was walking slowly in circles around the playground. She seldom came out during recreation time, as the sunlight did damage high-ranked bloodline members to some degree, and when it rained, the prison wouldn’t schedule time outdoors. Today was a rare cloudy day.
At that moment, she heard someone whisper behind her, "Hello, Bloodline Prince."
Ophelia turned her head slightly and saw a face that seemed somewhat familiar but not well-known—it was a core area inmate she had seen before, with a uniform color denoting the lowest danger level in the core area.
It seemed to be someone from cell six... Ophelia didn’t remember the person’s name at all, only that they were the kind with no real talent who was always hopping around the prison—a minor character.
Without replying, she turned her head back and quickened her pace.
"Hey, hey, don’t ignore me!" Anna, the pirate who had spoken to her, hurried to catch up to her side, "I’ve got good news for you. You’ve attempted to break out twice; you must also want to escape this crappy place, right? Now, we’ve found an excellent opportunity..."
Ophelia turned her head again, her blood-red eyes shining with a chilling light: "The last person who incited me to escape caused me to get an additional fifty years on my sentence. I could barely stop myself from draining her dry. Are you trying to get on my bad side, looking for death?"
"Oh my, don’t glare at me like that. Look, in this kind of place, nobody’s really afraid of you..." Anna chuckled, "You, as a Bloodline Prince, really can’t intimidate anyone if you don’t go out."
Although Ophelia was a red-alert level prisoner, she was also the type whose strength was greatly diminished once her magic power was sealed. Most crucially, this person had been tormented to death and back by the warden Aiden after two jailbreak attempts. Her pictures from being recaptured were even printed in educational materials for the prisoners to circulate as a joke within the core area.
Even to someone like Anna, a minor character in the core area, Ophelia didn’t possess any deterrence at all.
In the past, Ophelia would have retorted by now, but this time she didn’t even want to look at the other person any longer and continued walking forward on her own.
"Don’t be in such a rush to go. The organizer this time is much more reliable than the last..."
"You really don’t learn your lesson, do you? Aren’t you afraid of being discarded like last time?" Ophelia replied coldly.
Anna’s eye twitched, cursing inwardly, weren’t you also caught and brought back after being used as a pawn?
But she suppressed the urge to retort and put on a cheerful smile instead, "Please be at ease, the person this time, she has a successful track record. She has calmly escaped from the Empire’s capital prison before, and even took many prisoners with her. This time, she hopes to take as many prisoners out as possible, with the only condition being that once you are out, you cause significant trouble. That’s all, no other tasks for you—it’s a sure gain for you, isn’t it?"
"Escaped from the capital prison before?" Ophelia’s frown deepened, her pace slowing down.
Anna felt a thrill of victory, thinking she had hooked her target.
In fact, last night during the bath, Annie had shared more specific details with them.
"I’ve decided—we should go big. I’m planning to let all the prisoners in this area loose," Annie had declared.
"No, that’s not to our advantage. There are quite a few prisoners here who have been conditioned into subservience by the warden, and some are outright his lackeys..." Katherine voiced her concern, "And the short-term inmates are even less likely to want to leave the prison. Releasing them is not only useless but might actually turn into a hindrance for us."
"Hindrance? That won’t be a problem, no matter how many come they won’t be able to stop the prison break. If they try to help the guards thwart us, they’ll share the guards’ fate," Annie replied confidently and calmly, "My method for breaking out is quite special; it will completely prevent the guards from attacking us, though we also won’t be able to strike... But once we leave the prison, it will be different. There must be some prisoners here who resent the guards, right? Find them, persuade them to go out and then wreak havoc... Be it arson or murder, not only will it bring shame to this prison, but it will also help us make our getaway."
Anna and Katherine exchanged glances and immediately thought of a few candidates.
Ophelia was one of them; she had been caught twice trying to escape, had an incredibly long sentence, and bore a grudge against the warden Aiden that could not coexist under the same sky. Anna believed that she would definitely cooperate with their plan.
As expected, after listening to the persuasion, Ophelia looked sternly at the guards patrolling in the distance, then turned her gaze back.
"It sounds suspicious... But let’s hear it anyway. Who else have you approached?" Ophelia narrowed her blood-red eyes.
...
Meanwhile, in Aiden’s office.
The head of the core district, Flandre, was holding today’s "Silver City Evening News" with a troubled look and asked Aiden, who was sitting in a chair, "Warden, could you explain what’s going on with this report? The personnel at reception have said that quite a few journalists from the dailies have already been here today."
"Oh, I only had it posted early this morning, and it’s already in the newspaper? Not bad, those reporters really are faster than anyone else," Aiden said with satisfaction, nodding his head.
This newspaper had published Aiden’s response to a certain pirate that he had posted on the north city ferry port’s notice board this morning.
The newspaper obviously knew about Navi Drake’s past deeds in the Empire and, based solely on the response Aiden had posted in public, they had basically inferred the cause and effect of the situation, revealing the fact that the Red Shark Pirates were preparing to break someone out of Rose Iron Prison and interpreted Aiden’s posted bounty as his declaration of war to the Red Shark Pirates who were about to attempt the prison break.
"Why would you do something like this?" Flandre couldn’t help but hold her forehead, "Provoking criminals who are active outside has no benefit, right?"
"As for provoking, it was they who started it. A criminal sent this extremely arrogant threat letter, blatantly saying they want to break into this prison. As the manager here, I of course have to make my stance clear," Aiden said righteously, then looked towards Veronica standing next to Flandre, "Right?"
"I also support the boss’s approach. We as an institution absolutely cannot cower before a criminal’s threats; we must make our stance clear to the public. Since when do police fear criminals?" Veronica threw in her support for Aiden almost immediately, without any hesitation.
"You two—" Flandre looked back and forth between the two who had unilaterally aligned their front, feeling her headache growing worse by the moment.
