Prison

I woke up earlier than usual and went to the prison with a basket of fruits in hand.

Whenever I walked to the prison, I wondered why I was given so much freedom. The fact the Duke was letting a seven-year-old walk to prison almost daily was highly suspicious, but I couldn't identify his reasoning. Did that entire household forget about me? Although I hoped that I was the case, I knew it couldn't be so simple.

The prison was separated into two compounds, one contained weak criminals, and the latter strong criminals. Usually, the weak criminals committed minor offenses, and the strong committed major offenses, so the compounds could also be considered to be separated by danger level. I wasn't sure where the compound for major criminals was, I never tried to visit it. The minor compound was located near the heart of the city. The prison also doubled as a sheriff's office.

The prison was separated into 3 parts, the sheriff's office, which was located at the front of the building, the interrogation rooms - I've never seen these rooms, I've just heard the officers talk about it, and the jail cells, which were located behind the sheriff's office. Each cell usually contained one prisoner, I was told that if the prison ran out of the officers would start to group people.

My usual activity inside the prison was talking to prisoners who wanted to have a conversation. Life in prison was depressing because one was stuck in your cell until the day of release. The only other entertainment besides my visits was writing letters to friends and family, most of whom never responded. As a result, my visits were a form of entertainment they looked forward to. After all, everyone in the prison viewed themselves as a victim of unfortunate circumstances, so the prisoners felt that they could relate to me.

There were quite a few strange people in this prison, Somber, the petty thief who kept getting caught, Aric, the martial artist who was trying to complete the tier 1 mage certification without mana, and Elgar, the one-armed swordsmen who talked in a dialect I found hard to understand were just a few of the many characters I had become acquainted with.

As I brought in the basket of fruits, a small commotion broke out.

"Hey look, he brought a basket."

"Wonder what's inside, maybe it's some kind of toy."

"No, I smell it, it's food."

"Seriously, that's the first time he brought a basket."

"He brought food, the little kid is growing on me every day."

"Hello everyone!", I decided to be direct.

"I'm selling fresh fruits, highest bidder takes them."

"Haha, the kid wants to be a merchant."

"Are you making fun of us?"

"You bastard, we're all in prison, if we had any money on us then the guards would've taken it."

"If we had money we'd have bought our way out of prison."

I faced palmed inwardly, I forgot this prison wasn't like the ones in my past life. They didn't need money because they could never trade.

"Then... I'll trade it for anything that interests me, I'll come one by one to each cell and it's first come first serve."

As I walked around the room, the first few people tried to trade stories, they thought I was still a child after all. When they failed, the next few tried to bribe me with random spells or tips or martial arts techniques. I wondered if they were trying to spite me, they knew I couldn't use ki or mana. After that people started offering me any information they could think of. I wasn't given much useful information, I guess I expected too much from the prisoners. I traded a few fruits for rumors about the blood princess in the capital and about herbs in the nearby forest to show I wanted to trade, but as I neared the last few cells my fruit basket remained heavy. Finally, someone's whisper caught my ears.

"I've been in here too long and don't have much longer to live. The slop they serve here can't I don't have any information to give you, but what about a magic technique that you even you could use?"

The voice belonged to Torus. He was a relatively well-known martial artist who focused on detection techniques. He became crippled after suffering injuries while murdering his teammates. Usually, murderers belonged in the other prison, but he suffered major injuries when he killed his teammates and became a cripple. He treated me relatively kindly after he realized I wasn't perturbed by his crimes.

I wasn't afraid was because he was a cripple with half a step in the grave trapped in a prison. He could barely walk, let alone try to hurt me.

He usually kept to himself but often bragged about how he was the greatest at detecting enemies. I had a good impression of him and thought he was trustworthy.

I asked him for his pen and paper and wrote down If it's a soul technique blink once.

He blinked.

I almost couldn't contain my excitement. I hoped this was the technique he used to kill his teammates? After watching him scribble words down at a rapid pace, Torus handed me a sheet of paper.

Looking through the papers, I couldn't help but be slightly disappointed. It was a detection technique that sensed the souls of other people in its vicinity. Still, it was something I got in exchange for fruits, so I can't complain.

After handing Torus the rest of the fruits and leaving the prison, I walked back to the Pendell mansion. After hiding the papers inside one of the books, I took another pile of fruits and went to Kasa's house.

She tried teaching me how to circulate mana, but after a few hours with no results, she shooed me away.

I left Kasa's house in the afternoon. I had no other plans, so I decided to learn my new soul technique.