Chapter 74: Chapter 74 Visiting the Jail_1
"You’re Slyne’s nephew?"
Entering the visitation room, separated by a glass pane perforated with holes, Aiden saw a young boy whose childishness had not yet faded, looking to be about sixteen or seventeen, with the only distinctive feature being a knife scar on his face.
He didn’t sit down in the seat in front of the glass, which was meant for prisoners, and he didn’t plan on chatting for long. As the warden, he generally avoided meeting directly with prisoners’ families to prevent any appearance of impropriety.
"You are... the leader here?" The boy seemed quite nervous.
"Yes, I’m the warden here. What exactly is your relationship with Slyne? According to our information, she doesn’t have any nephews."
"I, I am... a friend of her son," the boy answered hesitantly.
Aiden noticed an unnatural tension in the boy’s demeanor and, looking at the scar on his face, he pieced together something about the background of Slyne’s son.
"A friend from the gang?" Aiden ventured a guess.
The boy’s eyes widened slightly before he admitted, "Yes, we’re close brothers."
As Aiden had thought, this boy was also from a gang. The main reason for his nervousness was the uniform Aiden was wearing.
"So, you’re looking after her for her son? Quite loyal of you. But right now, Slyne is in solitary confinement and cannot have visitors according to the regulations. There’s no use in seeing me," Aiden said, crossing his arms.
"She’s in solitary because..." the boy asked tentatively.
"Didn’t the guard who brought you explain? She attempted to attack another prisoner here. Since you know her friend, you should logically be aware of the reason for her imprisonment, right?" Aiden replied.
"She still wants to kill Miss Camilla..." The boy lowered his eyes, his voice tinged with melancholy.
"Hmm?" Aiden sensed something amiss.
If the boy was indeed a friend of Slyne’s son from the gang, he should be well aware that Camilla was the murderer of his friend.
But listening to his reference and tone, he didn’t seem to bear any resentment towards Camilla.
"Uh..." Realizing his slip, the boy quickly reverted to normal, "So when can I see her? Also, I brought some money and stuff..."
"Solitary has six more days; come back next week. You can’t bring the items in right now, and... it doesn’t really matter for now. Better keep them," Aiden replied officially, "There’s something I have to tell you first, her time is running out."
The boy stood up from his seat, shocked: "Execution?"
"No, it’s her own deadline that’s approaching. She’s been turned into this inhuman, ghostly state by black magic, and the duration of the spell is almost at its limit. In no more than two months, she will cease to exist in this world." Aiden explained to the stunned boy, "If you still intend to see her, you better do it soon."
"..." The boy stood motionless, unable to speak.
"That’s the situation, you should head back for today." Having conveyed the important message, Aiden turned and left the visitation room.
"Wait!" The boy called out after Aiden, blurting out the word impulsively.
"Is there anything else?" Aiden turned his head back.
Looking as if he had more to say but withholding, the boy hesitated for a while before swallowing his words, "No, it’s nothing."
Aiden exited the visitation room. On this side of the glass wall, the boy hung his head low, dragging his feet as he walked out, memories of the past emerging in his blank mind—
"Big sis, these are the kids. The rats that snuck into the warehouse," a man’s rough voice rang out in the warehouse.
In the dim warehouse, several menacing men surrounded two youths, bound hand and foot in the center.
The boys were forced to kneel on the ground, a huge wooden crate placed directly in front of them. The boss, legs crossed, sat atop the crate, looking down to judge them from on high.
Blood Hand Gang lieutenant, Camila.
"A couple of fledglings dare to mess with the turf I’m watching? I must really be underestimated."
Camila put a hand-rolled cigarette in her mouth, struck a match in no hurry, and lit it.
She left the two boys hanging, leisurely puffing smoke, while the young men kept their heads down, not daring to look up. They knew their lives were in the hands of the person before them.
They came from the Skulls, an old city district gang that was competing for territory with the Blood Hand Gang. They had been coerced by their own lieutenant to spy on the warehouse that Blood Hand was guarding and find out about the goods hidden there.
Today was the day their misfortune caught up with them.
To exert enough deterrence, the gang usually showed no mercy to the captured members of rival factions; it was routine for them to be returned missing eyes or an ear, or sometimes an arm or a leg.
Or, they might simply vanish from this world, leaving not even half a bone to be found.
From the start, they were their gang’s expendables, mere foot soldiers, the lowest level of disposable resources in the gang’s hierarchy.
"How old are you guys?" Camila asked casually after a while.
The two boys looked at each other, completely clueless about the significance of the question.
"Deaf, are you!?" Seeing that neither of them responded, Camila glared impatiently.
"Ten, fifteen..." "Fifteen."
The boys hurriedly answered.
"Hmph, just a couple of brats who haven’t even grown their hair out," Camila spat disdainfully, "Think this is a game? You think being in the underworld is cool, huh?!"
One boy lowered his head, not daring to reply, while the other hesitatingly spoke up, "I just... wanted to treat my mom’s illness..."
"Did I say you could talk?!" Camila suddenly kicked the speaking boy in the shoulder, sending him tumbling to the ground.
"Boss, what should we do with these two runts?" a gang member asked.
Camila, with a cigarette in her mouth, looked at the boy lying on the ground, enduring the pain without making a sound, and kicked the other one down as well.
"Throw them out, let them scram! I have no interest in weaklings, spending effort on such little rats is just a waste of time," Camila decided with impatience.
The boys on the ground exchanged glances, neither daring to believe their ears.
"Trash should be aware of their place, go home and suck on your mommy’s tits! If I see you again, I’ll gouge out your eyes," Camila said as she snuffed out her cigarette on the ground.
...
When he came to his senses, the boy found himself standing in front of the prison gates.
What now?
He asked himself internally.
In hesitation, he saw an iron mailbox placed at the entrance of the prison.
"Warden... mailbox?" The boy stared at the painted letters, standing transfixed.
