Chapter 363: Chapter 363 Disposal of the Stalker_1
Several days later, Rose Iron Prison, visitation room.
Separated by a glass curtain wall, on the visitor’s side stood a vacant-eyed Joey Lawson, with Qiqimora responsible for watching him standing behind, while Presia sat on the prisoner’s side, with Aiden standing at the door with his arms crossed, personally supervising the scene.
Presia was casting Mental Spells, concentrating her gaze on Joey, using her own consciousness to rummage through the other’s memories and analyze his mental state.
After a while, Presia withdrew her gaze and rubbed her brow.
"Have you found anything?" Aiden asked.
"His spirit shows no signs of having been tampered with," replied Presia.
"None?" Aiden was a bit surprised by this result.
"At least from the perspective of Mental Spells, that’s the case," Presia added, "But his mental state indeed experienced some very strange fluctuations at a certain point in time. Since then, his primary consciousness has been focused on a specific person, obsessing over them like someone with OCD."
"Please explain in more detail," Aiden gestured.
"Simply put, a person’s spirit is like a sealed room. To tamper with the contents of that room using Mental Spells, one must break in. Once you invade someone’s spirit and interfere with it, traces of the invasion are inevitably left behind," Presia explained.
Aiden thought back and remembered when Fille was probing Rebecca’s spirit and found a seal left by Presia in the other’s memory—that must be the trace left by a Mental Spell.
"So what’s his condition like now?" Aiden pressed.
"The state he is in now is that the room’s seal is intact, but the items inside seem as though they have been touched," Presia answered, "If I were to analyze it, there are two possibilities. One is an internal cause, like a sudden onset of mental illness. The other is that someone has used an unconventional method to bypass the room’s seal and interfere with his spirit, without leaving any trace and even more miraculously..."
Presia suddenly paused.
"What is it?"
"Now, he seems to have reverted to his prior state. His memory and consciousness are no longer so focused on a single person," Presia replied.
"Indeed," Qiqimora chimed in, "After I took him to Banquet Forest, this guy suddenly started to reflect on all the foolish things he had done before, as if... he had suddenly become enlightened."
At this point, Aiden already had a conclusion. To say that a male wizard had, without warning, become mentally ill, turning into a fanatic fan and stalker of a certain female celebrity—an information broker who was preparing to get close to him—and then suddenly returned to normal after the event ended—such a coincidence was just too implausible.
"It all seems to be related to the person behind that butler, likely a patron saint-level figure or higher associated with the scales of smiles who has proximity to the spiritual authority," Qiqimora interjected, "Warden, what do you think?"
"I think so too," Aiden said with an unchanged expression, uttering words that contradicted his heart. At this stage, neither Melifilia’s nor Melissa’s information should be revealed, and there was no need to correct the witch assembly’s assumptions, "It would be wise to stay away from this organization in the future."
In fact, to know if Melissa was involved in this matter, all he had to do was meet with Melissa in person and ask her directly.
But Aiden didn’t choose to do so, for he had long had the answer.
From Qiqimora’s description, it seemed that the trap set on the butler’s body would erode the spirit of anyone who killed him. It was probable that the butler himself was a controlled believer, and once he died, this compulsive faith would automatically transfer to the assailant.
Bestowing such a degree of "protection" upon a believer could only be accomplished by a saintly existence, and the number of those who could receive such blessings from a saint was very limited. If there was a saintly being with mental authority behind the Smile Balance, it was unlikely that they would specifically confer such protection on just any receptionist.
But if it was a ruler... then it could only be Melissa.
On a personal level, Aiden also didn’t quite want to confirm this with Melissa; after laboring for days to resolve such a mess, in the end, he still couldn’t find even a sliver of a clue to escape her grasp, and he could already imagine that goddess’s mocking expression.
"By the way, Presia, this guy did kill your teacher’s enemy, huh? Don’t you have any thoughts about that?" Qiqimora looked towards Presia.
"What thoughts could I have? He’s already become like this," Presia said as she took another look at the wizard before her.
Joey Lawson’s eyes were dull and lifeless, like a walking corpse.
"How did you finally deal with him?" Aiden asked Qiqimora.
"Didn’t do much to him, just dosed him with Magic Potion so he’ll never be able to use spells for life... it’s just that he might suffer a bit of memory loss as a side effect. We’re planning to have Presia block out his past memories and then Exile him to the south should be enough," Qiqimora said lightly, "Without being able to be a wizard, and with no way to return to Nideran as a Heretic Inquisitor, there were quite a few refugees in the south due to the border conflict before, right? Habanis will take over and dump him there later, a man without serious disability won’t die."
"You call this ’didn’t do much to him’?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.
"That is, he agreed to it himself," Qiqimora said slowly, "Losing his memory and living like a normal person is far better than being eaten by Lamia. Considering what he’s done, being able to keep his life is quite good already."
"He won’t retain any memories of being here, will he?" Aiden asked.
"No, he’s been drugged now, lacks any autonomous consciousness, and will only obey orders, he won’t retain any memories," Qiqimora waved her hand.
"Then let’s do it that way," Aiden gestured.
"So, warden, about the reward we agreed upon earlier..." Qiqimora said and then pursed her lips in a smile.
"Come find me after you’ve taken care of all the aftermath," Aiden replied. "The information you want, I’ll have that receptionist tell you in person, and don’t forget the reward you promised earlier."
"So that means there’s indeed news, right." Qiqimora’s face lit up with joy, "Ah, ever since I started following you, my progress that had been stagnant for over a decade has seen such significant advancement, it’s so delightful, I love you to death!"
"Hmph, having news doesn’t mean you’ll definitely get results, don’t celebrate too early," Aiden warned her.
"Uh..." Presia had been sitting in her place all this time listening; she looked back and forth between the two and finally couldn’t hold back anymore, "I say, when did your relationship get so good?"
