Chapter 372: Chapter 372: Where Can Such a Good Thing Happen _1
Because of the memories from his past life, Aiden had no fondness for the concept of a secret police.
Secret police, also known as political police, were commonly referred to as spies.
The primary duties of these so-called "police" often weren’t to uphold the law, but purely to protect central authority. For this purpose, they sometimes acted in ways that contravened national law.
The secret police of the Kingdom of Gistas were no different; with approval from their superiors—the King’s personal guard, now known as the Gistas Gendarmerie—they could directly exercise the power of arrest, and with the King’s approval, they even had the authority to execute some "special criminals" without trial—in plain terms, a bunch of dirty work inevitably tied to political struggles. Besides domestic issues, they also occasionally carried out espionage and assassination missions abroad.
If Aiden simply wanted to obtain divine words through this channel, he felt there was still some hope.
After all, imparting divine words didn’t actually have a direct cost, and at worst, they could be exchanged for another divine word.
But dealing with the head of foreign Gestapo-like figures was something Aiden was somewhat reluctant to do.
Moreover, it was not certain that he could even find a way to make contact now.
Not long ago, Abigail had informed him of the current state of the Kingdom of Gistas, and after learning the intelligence about the divine words, Aiden had also looked into more specific news.
The new King of Gistas was only twenty-four and had an unstable foundation upon his accession. He also intended to implement a series of reforms, causing discontent among a group of ministers and newly risen local nobles. The opposing faction of ministers wielded some relics and letters left by the former King, along with details from the will, to argue vehemently that the former King had an illegitimate daughter with succession rights among the common folk, thus questioning the legitimacy of the new King’s succession.
The new King and his supporters had been challenging the authenticity of the will, but considering the secret police’s activities all over Gistas, it seemed that even the new King believed the opposition’s claims were not groundless.
What followed was logical; the new King was now urging the Gendarmerie to find and eliminate this illegitimate daughter, and of course, the ministers and local nobles were also scouring the land in search. The current struggle for royal power had turned into a race to see who could find her first and gain the upper hand.
However, this illegitimate daughter had not yet made a public appearance—indicating that this hidden princess probably didn’t want to be involved in the struggle for power, or perhaps was unable to participate. However, her own wishes were now irrelevant to the matter.
For the opposition, the King’s illegitimate child only needed to have the lineage and a token to prove her identity to shake the new King’s right of succession. If she herself had no political ambitions and was willing to be a puppet, so much the better.
Of course, the new King was well aware of this, and the most direct and effective way to prevent the opposition from exploiting his sister lost among the commoners was to make her a dead person. Compared to the huge task of dealing with opposition political enemies one by one, dealing with just one person was obviously simpler.
Beyond the overt and covert struggle between the new King and the opposition, a republican movement opposing the noble class was also starting to emerge within the Kingdom. Conflicts in the southern petty states had led to a flood of refugees at the southern border. At the same time, the archenemy from the north, the Dragon Spine Empire, was also looming large, ready to capitalize on the opportunity to tear off a chunk of flesh from its weakened neighbor at the right moment.
The Kingdom’s secret police were surely in an extremely tense state, and even the Inquisition had been forced to get involved because of potential political assassinations.
At a time like this, rashly contacting Earl Hofman, the leader of the secret police—whether using his real identity or a forged one—carried a significant risk of bringing unnecessary suspicion and trouble upon himself. If he were to inadvertently become entangled in a foreign political struggle, he might not even know how he died.
As an outsider in the Kingdom of Gistas, Aiden knew that he was hardly a strong dragon from another land, and conversing on equal footing with someone like Earl Hofman, a snake in the grass, might be a bit challenging.
Unless... the opposite happened.
At this thought, Aiden couldn’t help but laugh at himself internally: What am I thinking? Would such a good thing really happen?
The secret police of Gistas were now so preoccupied with domestic affairs that they wouldn’t have time to sightsee in the autonomous region.
For now, he should continue to closely monitor the Kingdom’s movements, waiting for the political situation to stabilize before making any plans.
If the information provided by Sophie led nowhere, perhaps he should try Melissa’s side—thinking long-term, it wasn’t wise to always follow the path laid out by the goddess of schemes, but for now, Melissa’s "assistance" was indeed valuable to him.
There’s an order to everything, and if he could not survive Mr. Bloodcoat’s revenge, considering breaking free from the goddess of schemes’ chessboard was overly ambitious. At the moment, he did not have the capital to contend with a saint who held sole authority.
In terms of Mr. Bloodcoat’s revenge play, Melissa’s help was extremely beneficial to him, after all, the goddess of schemes also hoped his showdown with Mr. Bloodcoat would be interesting.
Without any other options, this kind of "mundane life" would continue without progress, and Aiden began to seriously consider the timing of his visit to Melissa.
Knock, knock, knock—suddenly, someone knocked on the door of the office, breaking Aiden’s train of thought.
"Come in," Aiden echoed.
"Sorry to disturb you, Warden," a guard from the ordinary prison ward entered the office, presenting a small stack of files on Aiden’s desk, "These are the accumulated records of prisoners transferred to the first prison ward last week."
"Thank you; you may leave," Aiden nodded.
As the guard prepared to leave, Aiden asked casually, "Any interesting prisoners lately?"
He asked out of habit, for it was unlikely for new prisoners in the ordinary ward to stand out more than those in the core ward, and the recent new prisoners in the core were not particularly noteworthy.
But after pondering for a moment, the guard actually gave a positive response.
"Actually, yes! There was a prisoner who arrived last Friday, who was initially given a suspended sentence. But she was dissatisfied with the verdict and ended up throwing her shoe at the judge..." the guard began to laugh as he spoke, "and just like that, she squandered her suspended sentence."
