Chapter 293: Chapter 293: Clean the House Before Inviting Guests_1
As evening approached at Rose Iron Prison, Aiden stood in the corridor, scrutinizing the row of inmates lined up before him, with a mercury automaton mimicking his every move behind him.
Wraiths, vampires, tigerfolk, witches... a total of twenty inmates, all of them red or orange-level dangerous criminals, five of whom had previous escape records. Most of them were on the list given by Ophelia, selected by Annie and the others to cause trouble after the escape.
The inmates stood together, quietly exchanging glances. They had all been suddenly taken from the workshops, cells, and yard without any prior indication. Then they were shackled with magic-suppressing manacles and gathered in the corridor under the watch of the riot squad.
After seeing each other in the corridor, they all guessed what their situation might be—their collusion with the new pirate was probably exposed.
But they were all uncertain about how they would be dealt with; strictly speaking, they had only agreed and hadn’t done anything outrageous. By all accounts, severe punishment didn’t seem warranted.
But judging by the look of it... it felt as if they were about to be taken to the execution ground and shot.
A wraith tried to break the silence, "Warden, why have you suddenly brought us here; what’s going on?"
"You should have some idea why you’ve been gathered here," Aiden glanced at her, "The Red Shark Pirates have announced that they’ll come to break into the prison tomorrow; I’m planning to ’clean the house before entertaining guests.’
"What do you mean?" The blue flame in the wraith’s eyes flickered.
"To execute all of you who are preparing to be involved in the escape, the chaos the pirate gang could cause here should be much less," Aiden said earnestly.
The inmates looked at one another, bewildered.
"Just a joke, don’t be so tense." Aiden laughed, "You’ll just be temporarily transferred to the Heretic Inquisitor’s cells for a day. Once I sort things out, you can ’head home.’ Don’t miss me, have a good trip."
After Ophelia’s special trip to snitch last night, Aiden realized that the inmates on the list were all inclined to escape. These inmates would probably jump out and stand with the pirates once the Red Shark Pirates came to break them out. Once they left the prison and regained their strength, they would likely create an uproar outside as Annie had forewarned.
Although Aiden had already prepared for Navi Drake’s prison-breaking methods, the fewer unstable factors... the better.
So this morning, Aiden had someone submit an urgent document to the Heretic Inquisitor’s Office, asking them to provide some cells to temporarily hold the most dangerous inmates on the list—the small fry he didn’t care much for.
After Navi Drake had announced the prison break for the next day, Aiden sent word to explain the situation.
Fortunately, Director Harold was rather accommodating. Despite sending back a message complaining a few words, he still managed to arrange a team to escort the Rose Iron Prison inmates in batches.
"Warden, maybe there’s some misunderstanding? Indeed, someone approached me to stage an escape, but I—" a witch attempted to defend herself.
"You didn’t refuse, did you?" Aiden turned his head and interrupted her, "No need for excuses, I already know everything. That you were approached and did not report it in time says enough about your stance."
"Damn, Ophelia isn’t here!" a vampire suddenly realized, "We’ve been betrayed!!"
"You should look on the bright side. With things like this, do you think your escape could succeed? If the escape fails, being caught means additional punishment. This simply cuts off the possibility of you doing something foolish," Aiden said calmly.
At that moment, another prisoner raised his hand, "I have a question, Warden."
"What is it, Prisoner 3340?" Aiden looked over leisurely.
"I’ve never been tempted by them, so why am I also being transferred out?" Prisoner 3340, Meiruki servant, asked with her hand raised, also brought to the scene.
"You and those four people over there," Aiden raised his hand and pointed, "based on my judgment, should be transferred out. Given my understanding of you all, you would definitely join a prison break if there was a chance."
"Oh, Warden, do you really have such little trust in me?" Meiruki servant frowned.
"Yes, of course, that’s right, what else?" Aiden answered without hesitation, "After all, between you and me, there’s no need for any trust to exist, is there?"
"That’s true," Meiruki servant sighed with resignation.
The door at the end of the corridor opened, and the Heretic Inquisitors dressed in uniforms and masks walked in.
"Senior," the lead senior Inquisitor Rebecca greeted.
"Thanks for the trouble," Aiden called out to her, "Just to be safe, take them away in groups of five."
"Understood," Rebecca nodded, "I’ve heard from the chief. He said he can send a team to support you here tomorrow."
"The old man is quite considerate, though he always complains about me being a bother," Aiden chuckled.
"He said that if the prisoners in your jail ran away, we would have to be the ones to clean up and catch them," Rebecca shrugged, "That’s just how he is, you know him, it’s not your first day."
"Don’t worry, we have enough staff here at the prison, it’s fine. Just arrange some people in the nearby blocks for backup," Aiden replied succinctly, "I’ll figure out a way to handle things here."
"Senior, it always feels like since you changed jobs, not many years have passed, and you’ve become almost as busy as when you were working on the frontlines," Rebecca suddenly said.
"Indeed," Aiden smiled somewhat helplessly.
If he had to count, ever since the event related to the witches’ congregation, he got unintentionally entangled into the power struggle for authority. To a certain extent, his current life has become even more thrilling than when he was originally chasing heretics.
The cause of everything had been sown at the beginning of his transmigration into this world. The first time he received the power of the Divine Word and became aware of his true situation, he had no path of retreat.
Melifilia started to pull on the threads of fate that were already woven around him, and he had no choice but to follow the script.
This time was no different; now that the sole authority had been arranged by Melissa to appear before him, he had to strive to seize it. This was something he, from his standpoint, had to do.
But occasionally, he would worry—in this kind of world, where even the rulers could fall, what would his end be like at the culmination of this so-called path to deification?
