Two-faced warden

In no time the silent guard and Viria reached the door to the warden's office.

The young man braced himself – he already knew that once he will walk through the door, he will unavoidably pass through the part of the warden's artifact – the tenth gate that would force him to speak only truth.

"Get in. I am not sure what is going on, but making him wait will not improve the situation."

"Sure."

The guard motioned at the door with his chin and declared in a tense voice to which Viria responded with a nod.

There really was no good reason to stall, since just as the guard pointed out himself, time wasn't on Viria's side.

*knock* *knock*

"Enter."

The young man took a deep breath and tapped on the door firmly – to which he got an immediate response.

...it was only one word but the tone it was said it have told Viria everything he needed to know - he really was in trouble...

"Prisoner Viria. As per request."

He opened the door and announced doing his best to stay calm as the feeling of passing through the thin film showed up without fail.

"Ah, yes. Well then mister rapist, how are you enjoying the peaceful life on the first floor? Already feeling like home and looking for your next victim?"

"..."

The man sitting by the heavy purely functional desk pushed the papers he was reading through to the side and asked with a grim expression, immediately causing Viria's blood to run cold.

Ah, so that was it, huh?

With just a few words Viria's brain jumped to one of the worst conclusions – the talk about the Vindras family being one of the last, if not the last, true defenders of justice was false.

Corruption was everywhere and it was more widespread than the common cold.

The Messedion family has paid off the judge to sentence Viria for the crime that his younger brother, Mezur, committed.

And as it was obvious for the young man now, Yarezu Vindras must have pocketed quite a sizable amount of money to keep up the lie.

After all, why else would someone who can force others to say only the truth act as if Viria was guilty?

"..."

"Is something the matter? If you don't like the label, why did you rape someone?"

Viria stayed quiet, but the warden certainly did not. He acted as if he wanted to agitate the young man and make him do something stupid.

"You disgust me. What's with that face? Do you want to try and attempt to stab me as you tried with the courtroom guard?"

Yarezu scoffed, straightening his back and leaning into the chair.

Viria took a deep breath, this time he didn't just blab out what he had on his mind.

It was a welcomed difference, but still, he knew that when he would speak, he would say only the truth...

"Well?"

The warden raised his brow with a strict expression, making himself look similar to the principal of the school that Viria attended in his previous life.

That was a bit too much for the young man to bottle in...

"I want to spit in your face, but even if I did, you would claim that it's only rain."

Viria breathed out and gazed upon the warden without blinking so that his words could really sink in and be understood properly.

"...you think you are so clever, don't you?"

Yarezu's expression darkened even more as he leaned forward and rested his arms on the desk while tilting his head in a challenge.

"..."

Viria did not respond but did not look away either, withstanding the hateful glare without backing down.

"Hmph. Let's refresh my memory..."

The warden scoffed, shaking his head before turning to the side and making a small, tablet-like gate appear in his hands.

"Viria Messedion. Eldest son of the Messedion family. Cultivation levels... Medium-low? Weren't you in low-low levels only a few days earlier?"

"...!"

Yarezu read out and looked back up at the young man who was honestly even more shocked than the warden himself.

"...this makes very little sense... unless you were deadly serious about your cultivation and martial arts training, there's no way that someone with a trash grade soul artifact like tin prison shiv would manage to reach medium-low levels..."

The warden scoffed, saying the most obvious things out loud as if they were some outlandish claims with not a grain of truth in them.

" I see, so the horrible experience of all that filth leaving my body wasn't caused by the food poisoning but rather because my body was detoxifying after I climbed the step between low and middle levels... Good to know, thank you, warden."

"..."

The young man breathed out and nodded at the man behind the desk, instead of feeling excited about the information of his improvement, it was all soured by anger and disgust.

"You are hiding something, aren't you?"

"..."

Yarezu asked suddenly, causing Viria to flinch and bit his lips preemptively before he could babble out anything about his soul artifact or the monster cores.

"Tsk. That's enough, I do not wish to stay in the same room with you any longer than it's necessary, rapist."

Seeing his reaction, the warden clicked his tongue and chased him off with a wave of a hand.

"Goodbye."

Viria bowed his head and turned around without hesitation – as if he was going to waste an opportunity of getting away from the corrupted warden...

"You surely already heard about the crime list. Do not bother yourself with it – the moment you step out of bounds I will send you to the second floor, or just straight to the third one where you truly belong."

Just as the young man was about to exit, the warden called out after him in a venomous voice.

"...you are making the rules here..."

Viria murmured under his breath and shrugged his shoulders, hurriedly leaving the room and closing the door.

"I wasn't called to rake you away, so it couldn't be that bad, could it?"

"That depends."

The guard waiting at the door smiled almost reassuringly but the young man was absolutely not in the mood for pleasantries – so when the guard tried to act friendly and pat his back, Viria sidestepped him and gave him a short nod before hurriedly leaving.