Chapter 302: Chapter 302 I Almost Laughed Out Loud_1
Since Aiden replied to the Red Shark Pirate Gang, Qiqimora had actually already taken up residence in Rose Iron Prison during the two days when they awaited the gang’s arrival to stage the jailbreak.
A casual remark previously made by Veronica had sparked the idea in Aiden to use Qiqimora’s divine speech to stealthily steal the Wordless Code from Navi Drake’s possession.
In the past, while observing the battle between Qiqimora, Lamia, and Sister Neve, Aiden had noticed that Qiqimora’s divine speech seemed to work on others.
If one could completely erase their presence like Qiqimora, to the point where even memories of sightings and conversations could be forgotten, taking the Wordless Code from Navi would be as easy as reaching into a bag.
Therefore, he specifically invited Qiqimora to Rose Iron Prison during the Great Witch’s gathering and inquired about the feasibility of using the "Void" divine speech to steal someone’s personal belongings.
Qiqimora had responded affirmatively at that time, "Sure, after using divine speech to erase your presence, it is only when you actively interfere with others that people become aware of you, which breaks the spell’s effect, like attacking or hindering someone’s current activities. The moment you take action, the target will notice your presence, which is the limitation of mortals wielding divine powers. But if the target is merely ’an object,’ as long as it’s done properly, it won’t be noticed by anyone."
The "invisibility" power of Qiqimora’s "Void" authority was not merely about turning invisible, but rather about erasing "presence" entirely. Others couldn’t just see the person hidden by the power, their senses captured the presence but could not comprehend it—sight, hearing, smell, touch all became ineffective. Even Veronica, with her keen senses, couldn’t detect Qiqimora, who had been staying in the prison for two days.
When the Red Shark Pirate Gang attacked and the prison alarm went off, Aiden had Qiqimora use her divine speech on him, and he waited on the necessary path leading to the core area for the "guests" to arrive.
Once Navi entered the alert zone, Aiden found the perfect opportunity to "openly" switch the Wordless Code with a Code of Criminal Law on Navi’s person.
Pirate King Navi was not particularly strong, and Melissa’s arrangements gave Aiden an overwhelming information advantage when facing Navi. Aiden was fully aware of the Wordless Code’s intelligence when Navi unknowingly approached to rescue his comrades with it. More crucially, with Aiden’s connections, he happened to know a way to counter the Wordless Code’s power.
Everything seemed like a game, with challenges of moderate difficulty and existing strategies to overcome them. It was likely within Melissa’s expectation that he would ultimately seize the sole authority.
Aiden, while leisurely watching Ophelia and the others beat up the escaped convicts and pirates through the bars, mused aimlessly.
"Damn vampire! Let go of me, damn it!!" Annie was tied up by Ophelia using blood magic ropes and was being firmly pressed against the railing.
"The main perpetrator secured! Catching you must surely reduce my sentence!!" Ophelia laughed excitedly.
Meanwhile, Avansa had caught Navi Drake, and after taking away Navi’s sidearm, she stood on his back and pressed a gun against the back of his head. Her past experience as an assassin allowed her to quickly identify the leader among the group, adopting the strategy of capturing the king first.
And Camilla was laughing madly while punching everyone she saw. She was only slightly interested in gaining merit; the real reason she dashed out eagerly was the opportunity to engage in a fight. The prison life was a bit too repressive for someone addicted to violence like her.
Eventually, even Aiden, who had ordered them to teach these people a lesson, began to find it hard to watch, "Hey, Camilla, take it easy, don’t maim them for me!"
But Camilla, caught up in the fervor, was not listening. She knocked another escaping female convict down with a punch. At that moment, an inmate dressed in orange prison garb, his back to her, appeared in front of her.
"Ha, a big fish!" Having judged that the individual was an escaping prisoner, Camilla thoughtlessly swung her fist at him, as brawling with the strong was one of her favorite pastimes.
Upon hearing the noise, the person turned around, and that’s when Camilla finally saw his identity—it was "Madman Halo."
"Fuck!!" Camilla cursed under her breath, but by then her fist had already smacked into the opponent’s face, too late to pull back the power.
Camilla’s punch sent Halo sprawling, and at the same time, Camilla felt a shock surge instantly through her cheek, blacking out her vision, almost causing her to fall headlong.
Reeling from the punch that had nearly knocked him unconscious, Halo lay on the ground, the world spinning around him, yet he clapped his hands happily, "Haha! Bring it on!!"
"Damn!" Camilla covered her face, grimacing in pain.
Halo’s ability rebounded the damage, inflicting the same level of harm back onto the aggressor, so even though Camilla’s physical resilience was greater than Halo’s, he still made her experience the same degree of injury.
After a while, she recovered, and looking up, she locked eyes with Aiden across the railing.
"Heh, what are you looking at me for? Think I’ll feel sorry for you? I almost laughed out loud," Aiden said with delight, "You brought this on yourself."
"You’re already laughing, you know!" Camilla accused, still holding her face, pointing at Aiden.
"Honestly, just having Daili here would have been more than enough, yet you let so many people gang up on us. Don’t you think that’s a bit too much?" Qiqimora chatted with Aiden on the side.
"Technically, both jailbreaking and prison riots could be met with immediate execution right there and then; I think I’ve been quite merciful," Aiden replied.
"Didn’t some of the jailbreakers run off to other places? Aren’t you going to personally teach them a lesson?" Qiqimora asked.
"No need, the fates of those groups will probably be even worse than this lot," Aiden said nonchalantly.
In the prison treasury, the pirates had set explosives at the vault door, singing a chant while lighting a long fuse.
Then, as they took cover around the corner, a stream of silver liquid flowed out from the crevices of the vault door and quickly enveloped the lit section of the fuse, extinguishing the flame outright.
After a while, when no explosion had come, the pirates poked their heads out from their hiding spots.
"What’s going on?"
"Did it fizzle out?"
Then, they witnessed something they had never seen in their lifetimes: a huge mass of mercury writhing outside the vault door, quickly morphing into a robust humanoid monster.
And then, the humanoid monster swiftly charged at them.
At that moment, the pirates were unaware that the instruction Aiden had given to the mercury golem was to protect the vault and attack anyone trying to illegally invade or damage the vault until the target was no longer capable of fleeing.
