Chapter 547: Chapter 548 Hero Resisting the Empire_1
"Your father investigated Duboman?" Aiden was quite surprised; he had only asked casually.
"Yes, back then, to cure my illness, Dad collected intelligence everywhere and investigated many leads," Tony replied while reminiscing, "Mr. Duboman was just one of them."
"Did he tell you all of these pieces of information?" Aiden was a bit puzzled—considering the example of Gistas’s "infection" plan, Professor Dodge probably preferred to bear the burden himself and wouldn’t tell his son too much of the inside story.
"Actually, he wouldn’t tell me most of them, but he made an exception for Mr. Duboman’s case because he knew I really admired him, so he talked to me about it," Tony answered.
"Interesting, what did he tell you?" Aiden crossed his arms.
"He told me that Mr. Duboman is still alive and now lives in seclusion on the Northern Continent. After the Empire expanded there, he stood up again to lead the locals in resistance against the Imperial colonization and is one of the leaders of the local revolutionary army," Tony answered honestly.
"Is this... information obtained from within the Imperial military?" Aiden quickly realized the source of this intelligence.
Professor Dodge was originally a researcher for the Imperial military, and given that he was involved in the Empire’s Magic Man project, the level of secrecy he had access to must have been quite high.
"Yes," Tony gave a definite answer.
"So, the reason no news about Duboman has come from the Northern Continent is that the Empire has blocked the information?" Aiden pressed on.
Aiden had also heard about the situation at the other end of the continent.
In fact, over a hundred years ago, the Northern Continent was first discovered by the navigators of the Empire. With their superior navigation skills, the Dragon Spine Empire controlled a vast area of the northern coastal waters and, in the last fifty years, developed a regular sea route to the Northern Continent.
It is said that there are several kingdoms established by the indigenous people on the other side of the Northern Continent, but they are still in a stage where their methods of warfare primarily rely on cold weapons and dark magic.
In the initial thirty or so years, the Empire engaged in profitable trade with the kingdoms of the Northern Continent. Then, in the past decade or so, the Empire’s navy developed rapidly, acquiring the capability to undertake significant transoceanic expeditions. The Empire’s policy towards the Northern Continent became aggressive—starting to colonize, encroaching on the indigenous peoples’ land.
The Empire’s invasion of the Northern Continent faced resistance from the indigenous peoples, but the Empire quickly used military force to secure its foothold there.
It was rumored that in the so-called pioneer lands of the Empire on the Northern Continent, they had in fact conquered a country near the southern coastline, propped up a puppet regime to rule, then publicly purchased a city and vast mines at low prices. With this as their base, they continually expanded their colonies. This is what the Empire itself claims as its "great pioneering venture on the Northern Continent."
The conquered kingdom, although its government had bowed its head to the Empire, the resistance among the people kept reviving no matter how it was suppressed. The local revolutionary army, formed spontaneously by the people, aimed to overthrow the decadent dynasty on one hand and to drive the invaders out to reclaim their territory on the other, continuously troubling the Imperial colonial forces.
Of course, all this was an open secret; for decades, the newspapers and publishers of Gistas Kingdom had been condemning the Empire’s colonial actions as inhumane, and now all their efforts to cover it up were meaningless. But the well-known hero Duboman also participating in the resistance against the Empire on the Northern Continent—if that news got out, it would undoubtedly strike a new blow to the Empire’s public image, giving the Empire reason to block the news.
After some thought, Aiden considered Tony’s account to be somewhat plausible, and the source sounded reliable as well; the probability that it was true seemed rather high.
It was an unexpected gain; he could use it to test Deborah Awen, to see if she had fabricated her own background.
"Leading the indigenous people against invaders, it sounds very much like something a hero would do," Aiden commented.
"Yeah, like a justice envoy, he is the person I admire the most," Tony said with a smile.
"Alright, thanks for the information. I’ll go and make dinner for you now," Aiden turned to leave.
...
That evening, the core area prison cells were much louder than the previous few days.
"Ladies, have you all been behaving and following the rules while I was gone?" Aiden stood at the entrance, greeting the corridor.
"The warden’s back!?"
"Damn it, where the hell have you been these past few days?"
"Fuck, why didn’t you just drop dead outside?"
"Lord Aiden, you’re finally back?"
Aside from a few inmates who whispered curses, the majority of the prisoners responded quite positively.
"Hey, kid, is there any late-night snack service here?" Halo, the "madwoman" from cell number three, greeted Aiden very naturally at the bars.
Now inhabiting that body was the Revenge Goddess.
"No, this isn’t a hotel. If dinner wasn’t enough, I’ll have someone add more for you," Aiden glanced over at her.
"I’ve finished this book, get me a new one, I want the next issue," the Revenge Goddess requested, holding up a magazine.
"Write your own request and hang it outside, I won’t run errands for you..." Aiden replied, but then suddenly furrowed his brow, "Isn’t that ’Childhood Dreams’? You’re reading this?"
The combination of the crazy Revenge Goddess and children’s literature just didn’t seem to fit.
"I read whatever I want to read, do you have a problem with that?" the Revenge Goddess responded frankly.
"No, just remember to follow the rules for any requests, and don’t forget what you promised me," Aiden emphasized to her before continuing further inside.
Flandre, who accompanied Aiden on the inspection, glanced at "madwoman" Halo and said nothing.
Last month, Halo had also reverted to normal like this and caused quite a stir. Then Aiden took a "vacation" and Halo suddenly became crazy again. When Aiden returned, she was once again able to converse normally—except she mostly only spoke to Aiden and was dismissive towards the other prison guards.
This strange phenomenon seemed to be related to Aiden, but Flandre didn’t intend to delve further. As long as her superior was in control of the situation, she just needed to execute her duties strictly. Aiden had stated that the containment measures for Halo were to remain the same as before, except that any incident should be reported immediately.
"Yo, the playboy’s back," Carmilla said sarcastically as she watched Aiden walk by, "Heard you’ve got a new woman, congratulations."
"If I were a playboy, there wouldn’t be much security for anyone’s chastity here—though I guess that wouldn’t include you," Aiden retorted mercilessly.
"Fuck!!" Carmilla cursed, laughing.
"Lord Aiden, you heartbreaker! You philanderer!!" Fille’s voice, filled with dissatisfaction, erupted suddenly.
