Bittersweet Freedom

When the orderly walked into the room and loudly announced that an MI7 investigator was visiting, Warden Selworth was just lifting a pile of documents from the desk to move them to the cabinet behind. He held the stack of paper like holding an antique vase, with his knees underneath to prevent dropping. He could only see the upper body of the orderly over the pile.

"What? Who did you say is coming?"

"An MI7 investigator, sir."

Selworth suddenly felt weak all over.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"He just came, sir."

"Stop him. For any reason. I need five minutes to prepare."

"But..."

The door that the guard had carefully half-closed after entering opened. Jorgen walked in.

"Warden, I have some things I want to discuss with you."

Although they had not formally met before, Selworth recognized the man in front of him at a glance. "What are you still looking at? Come and help me. How long do you want to keep this investigator waiting?" He said to the orderly. After dealing with the pile of documents with the orderly, he breathed a sigh of relief, sat back in his chair, clasped his hands on the desk, and faced the visitor with an embarrassed smile.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Mr. Jorgen."

"You're too nervous, Warden." Jorgen sat down on the other side of the table.

"Well, usually I'm too busy in the morning to receive guests. So, you're here to..."

"Neil Jessie's case."

Sure enough, Selworth thought. At the moment he faced many troubles, including overcrowded cells and insufficient food supply, but none of these bothered him more than Neil's case.

"May I ask a question first, Mr. Jorgen? Are you here on behalf of Shawl?"

"As a member of the MI7, in principle, I always represent the will of the leader of the MI7, but I did not come today because of his order."

"In that case, I'm afraid I can't discuss anything with you. After all, Storm Prison is not under the jurisdiction of the MI7, has no obligation to provide information to the MI7, and..."

"You are very young," Jorgen interrupted him, "but it seems also very cautious, Warden."

"Family inheritance. When I was sixteen, I worked as an assistant to my father. So when I inherited his position at the age of twenty-one, I was already very familiar with the system. Do you know what my father's first advice to me was? 'Be careful of the MI7.'" I have a lot more to do. If you do not represent the leadership, then if you don't mind..."

"I represent another person," Jorgen put the church emblem on the table, " Archbishop Benedictus. Of course, Storm Prison is also not under the jurisdiction of the church, but the moral transformation assessment of prison inmates is the responsibility of the church. So I hope you can cooperate. "

Selworth looked at the emblem.

"This makes me a little hard to understand, Mr. Jorgen." He said. "You work for Shawl, but..."

"Warden, do you know what nature our conversation will be? No one saw me come here. We have never met before. This conversation does not exist. You don't need to know why I have this emblem, just cooperate with me, and I will tell the archbishop, let him know who helped him. As for other things, they never happened."

Selworth considered for a few seconds. "All right," he erased "MI7 Investigator Jorgen" which he had just written on the visitor log, "what do you want to know?"

"Tortoro, the man who killed Neil Jessie," Jorgen said, "I must know his personal situation."

Selworth found a prisoner file book, flipped to Tortoro's page, and handed it to Jorgen. "Can't take it away. Don't flip to other pages either."

The last time he could meet Bossia was by luck. Jorgen could not approach Tortoro's maximum security cell under the MI7's control in any case. He must find another way to collect information.

Tortoro's information was brief. Full name Tortoro Emowa, 45 years old, from Flash Gold Town, a thief. Because his accomplice killed someone during the crime, his sentence was aggravated. He had been in prison for four years. The next of kin column was blank.

"He has no family?"

"He does, but you have to understand that many prisoners will never have family visits during their lifetime, and no one will come to claim the body if they die in prison. Tortoro is one of those people. We once suspected that he went to prison to escape debt. Leaving that column blank also reduced administrative workload. "

"Were Neil and Tortoro acquainted?"

"It's hard to say. According to the arrangement of the cells, they had no contact. But who knows during outdoor activities or forced labor. However, if there was enough resentment between them to lead to murder, I would not be unaware of it."

"I believe you are very conscientious."

"I am very conscientious, which is also what my father taught me. Or do you in the MI7 have a different philosophy of doing things? You took Bossia and Tortoro away and imprisoned them in private cells for interrogation. A conclusion of 'Bossia instigated Tortoro' came out inexplicably. You didn't do a detailed investigation in Storm Prison at all. The so-called evidence collection was just a perfunctory. Do you know how that makes me feel?"

Jorgen put down the file and looked at Selworth. "Please continue."

"My words may exceed authority, but I have to say, you don't care about the real situation of the case at all."

"Very good," Jorgen said. "That's why I came for the real situation. Are there any other things I should know?"

Selworth was silent for a moment, leaning slightly forward. "How did I put it just now, our conversation today does not exist. Right?"

"Of course."

"Shawl won't know?"

"As long as you explain properly to the messenger just now."

"Then okay," Selworth said, "between Neil's two imprisonments, Shawl came to find Tortoro."

"Tell me more details."

"After Neil was released for the first time, something seemed to have happened to Tortoro. He became very irritable and kept making trouble among the prisoners. Then your leader appeared in my office. He said he wanted to question Tortoro about an important case."

"He didn't take him away?"

"No, because I did not allow him to take Tortoro away. I have to stick to my bottom line. In the end, he only used the interrogation room in the prison. I can be sure that Tortoro was tortured. But there were no serious injuries on him - mental damage was the main thing. After Shawl came a few times, Tortoro became very weak and confused, as if half of his body was already buried in the mud. During outdoor time, he didn't even want to leave the cell, and the wardens had to drag him out. I have to say, your leader's skill in torturing people is extremely high. If possible, I would like to know how he did it. "

"The content of their conversation..."

"There's no way to know. Before Neil's second imprisonment, Tortoro had become almost mute. Eat, sleep, nothing else can be done. I had to transfer him to a single cell, because most of the prisoners here still want to live. Being close to Tortoro would depress their will; they avoided him like avoiding a plague god spreading despair. Later, he finally killed someone. He killed a man who was going to get married the next day. This time Shawl took him away, and I did not stop him again. I finally really understood what my father meant when he told me to 'be careful of the MI7.' That's all I can tell you about Tortoro. "

Jorgen nodded. "I understand. Now, let's talk about other things. Neil's wedding, you approved it, right? This is not a simple matter. It has never happened in the history of Storm Prison, has it? "

"This is the first time. But I think he deserves it. "

"I heard that his reputation among the prisoners was too high, making it difficult for you to manage."

"In general, political prisoners have a higher reputation, but they will also create factions and incite violence. But Neil was different. In my position, it is not appropriate to say these words, but I felt that his songs had a power that even he did not understand. He did not advocate any illegal actions, but just because his admirers lost control of their emotions, he was dragged down. In this respect, I admire him, so I approved the wedding. "

Jorgen couldn't help laughing. "You really shouldn't sit in this position, Warden."

"Oh, my wife says the same. She thinks I should do things like art gallery sponsorship instead of being led by the nose by these nine thousand lost souls on the wrong path of life. "

The tense atmosphere eased slightly. "Have you met Neil's fiancee?"

"Twice. I should have checked her out properly, but since she only intended to attend a fifteen minute ceremony and then leave, I didn't pay too much attention. Poor girl, she must have returned to Moonbrook Town. "

"So," Jorgen said, "do you think she would be a good wife?"

"Mr. Jorgen, I don't know what you want to explore, but this question is really ... unexpected."

"Take it as idle chat. After all, our conversation today..."

"Does not exist. Oh, well. She's just a civilian, and it's unfair for me, raised in aristocratic circles, to judge her. But my wife saw her once, and as a woman, what she said may be more credible. "

"Your wife?"

"Um, I told her about the wedding in prison. As soon as she heard this kind of love story like a minstrel's theme, she was thrilled and insisted that I let her meet Katie. What else could I do? Mr. Jorgen, by the standards of the MI7, does this count as abuse of power? "

"Yes. But we can turn a blind eye."

"In short, she liked the girl very much. They had tea together. When they parted, my wife put her hand on Katie's belly, then whispered in her ear, and then they both laughed. I think this means that Katie was pregnant. Of course, with my eyes, I couldn't see it at all. "

"I understand." Jorgen nodded and stood up. "Thank you very much for your help. That's all I want to know. After I walk out the door, we will both forget this conversation. "

Just as Jorgen was about to open the door, Selworth stopped him.

"Mr. Jorgen."

"Anything else? Warden. "

"Just personal opinion. I never thought I could talk so smoothly with a member of the MI7. Of course, this may just be your skill. After all, I said a lot of things I didn't want to reveal. But if I have to deal with the MI7 again, I hope the other party is someone like you, not Shawl. "

"I have a friend in the MI7 who is still in Aberdeen. You will deal with him more easily. Just be careful of him inquiring about your maids' private affairs."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Please speak. "

Selworth hesitated for a moment, then said, "My father once said: 'Working to uphold the dignity of the kingdom's laws, my way is to make everything submit to order, while Shawl's is to reduce everything to chaos.' What do you think of this statement? "

"I think," Jorgen said, "perhaps it's just a difference in the way of survival."

Jorgen left the office. He walked down the corridor and could see the birdcage-like cells lined up side by side, the crude barracks-like canteen, and the exercise yard full of stagnant puddles. Prisoners of all kinds filled these filthy, foul-smelling places. Some of them could leave tomorrow, some would spend the rest of their lives here. He thought: Selworth, your father overestimated himself. These things are not order either.

When he went outside, he happened to meet a squad of the Holy Light Church guards riding along the river in the city. Bossia was in the middle of the team. After mediation by the archbishop under Jorgen's guidance, she had been temporarily released.

When the cavalry passed by Jorgen, Bossia glanced at him, then immediately turned her head away so that no one else noticed she knew Jorgen. Just out of the damp, dark cell, her hair was still a little messy, there were gray stains on her temples, and her armor was not so bright, but that was not the problem, because her pupils were still bright and spirited. Jorgen knew that when she returned to the Holy Light Cathedral, she would bathe in hot tubs with the help of her maids to wash off the mud, dine in bright, fragrant rooms filled with tempting incense. There were craftsmen specially to polish the armor to a bright finish. At night, when she lay on the soft bed, she might cry for missing Neil, but eventually she would temporarily forget all that had happened in the past few days and fall into a dreamless sleep.

At this time, Jorgen recalled Selworth's account of how Tortoro was tortured by the old man into a walking corpse.

"I'd like to know how he did it." When uttering this sentence, there was fear in Selworth's eyes that he himself could not perceive.

Poor girl, you don't know what you're facing yet. Jorgen watched Bossia's back disappear into the distance and thought.