Chapter 378: Chapter 378 Scaring the Criminal_1
"What would you like to ask?" Sera struggled to suppress her uneasy anxiety and asked cautiously.
"I’ve looked over your file; you intentionally got yourself imprisoned, right?" Aiden got straight to the point.
After simply observing the prisoner before him, Aiden became increasingly convinced that it was improbable for the other party to have entered the prison to target him, as they lacked the air of someone harboring ulterior motives.
A typical first-time offender, suddenly and inexplicably being interrogated by the prison warden, would normally feel nervous. Of course, someone with a guilty conscience might also panic, but a criminal of only that level of psychological resilience was truly nothing to fear.
Of course, it was also possible that the other party was at a higher level of cunning, and on considering this possibility, might feign nervousness; however, acting nervous is much harder than maintaining composure, and the current Aiden was not the least afraid of being deceived by an act.
"This..." Sera hesitated.
Was the warden just asking casually, or did he know something and was looking for confirmation? Had the secret police found her already? Sera speculated nonstop in her mind.
She didn’t dare rashly disclose everything about herself; the royal secret police who were willing to expend so much effort to pursue her would surely not hesitate to spend a great deal of money to bribe a high-ranking prison official to deal with her.
Even if the warden had not yet been in contact with the secret police, would he proactively sell her out to them if he learned the truth?
In a gambling game where she couldn’t afford to lose even once, she truly didn’t dare to bet on this.
However, just as she was preparing to make up an excuse, a command suddenly appeared in her mind, "No lying allowed."
She felt a sudden palpitation, and her tongue tied up as if in knots, unable to utter another word.
Aiden noticed that she was preparing to lie and narrowed his eyes slightly, "I would still advise you to come clean. It’s better that way."
Sera realized that the other party had used some technique she was unfamiliar with to force her to speak the truth; a reaction would occur whenever she was about to lie.
She was just an ordinary person, with no understanding of things like black magic; if she didn’t tell the truth, she had no idea what the consequences would be.
This unknown fear suddenly gripped her, which was precisely the effect Aiden wanted to achieve.
"...Yes," Sera could only give an affirmative reply with resignation.
"I’ve encountered those who deliberately commit crimes to retire in prison or just to pass time before, but you’re young, able-bodied, and in good health; plus, there’s still a sum of money left in your account after fines are deducted, which doesn’t quite fit the pattern," Aiden said leisurely, "What exactly is the reason you willingly got yourself imprisoned?"
"I was... faced with a danger, I had no choice but to fake a crime and seek refuge in prison," Sera stammered, fear making her reluctant to lie or keep silent, yet the risk of revealing the truth made her afraid. Caught between two fears, she hesitated and couldn’t decide, ultimately opting for a vague truth as a compromise.
Aiden thought to himself that this was more or less what he had expected; he had surmised that the likelihood was this young woman was being pursued by usurers or perhaps targeted for assassination by someone or by some criminal organization.
Over the past two days, he had ordered the guards in the first prison zone to keep a closer watch on this inmate, and the reports that came back consistently depicted the inmate as quite well-behaved. When interacting with other prisoners, the attitude appeared comparatively submissive, to the extent that any encounter with a rogue would likely lead to disadvantage.
He had already largely dismissed the possibility that the inmate had entered with malevolent intent, but out of caution, he still felt it was important to ask in person and carefully, after all, the other party had indeed entered the prison intentionally and must have had their reasons. He needed to ensure that those reasons wouldn’t pose a danger to him or the prison.
"Think of my establishment as a sanctuary, do you?" Aiden asked with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, nodding, "Is that really your reason for coming here?"
"Yes," Sera almost immediately responded.
"Just how severe is the trouble you’ve stirred up to make you prefer spending so long in prison— are they out to kill you, or force you into prostitution?"
"To kill me..." Sera replied quietly.
Another one seeking refuge from a death threat, but unlike a certain movie star, it seemed she entered purely for refuge, without any motive to cause trouble. Upon receiving the slightest scare, she started telling the truth and didn’t look like someone capable of considering silence at all, which suggested she likely wasn’t the type to stir up trouble.
"So who exactly is after your life?" Aiden inquired casually.
He felt there was perhaps no need for excessive concern anymore. An individual without much of a threat to her, those after her were probably just ordinary gangs or hitmen. No matter how ruthless they could be, they would probably have to hold off while she was locked up in prison.
"Erm..." Sera was at a loss for words once more.
"You’d better come clean, or I can’t guarantee what might happen," Aiden said, his face curving into a smile laden with meaning.
He hadn’t inscribed any punitive effects using the "Wordless Code." This was just an idle threat to intimidate the prisoner. Although it was only a bluff, his words weren’t entirely untrue. He was indeed aware that nothing much would happen to Sera if she continued to keep quiet, but what he said was that he "couldn’t guarantee" rather than "couldn’t do anything about it."
Intimidating prisoners like this was quite amusing, and with the inmates in the core area having become so compliant recently, Aiden realized it had been a while since he last had the opportunity to intimidate and discipline prisoners, which he found himself somewhat nostalgic for.
"It’s..." Under the coercion of that unknown fear, Sera finally gathered her courage and resignedly spoke the truth, "It’s the secret police of Gistas Kingdom."
Aiden’s smile froze for a moment, then maintaining that expression, he asked, "The secret police of Gistas? The one led by Earl Hofman of Gistas?"
"Yes." The mention of that title made Sera feel her heart tighten.
Indeed, Earl Hofman—for the sake of that family honor passed down through generations, for the tradition of loyalty to the royal household, what did an oath to a woman matter in comparison?
No, in the end, that protective oath was also merely due to the orders of "the previous King." And since one had chosen to be loyal to the royal family, following the former king’s interment, the new king’s commands naturally took precedence.
Aiden gradually withdrew his smile, running through the intelligence he had collected previously in his mind. He quickly grasped the situation: "You wouldn’t happen to be... the illegitimate daughter of the former king of Gistas, would you?"
"You’re not wrong," Sera sighed in resignation.
