Chapter 6: Bantering with Them_1

Aidan pushed the door open and entered the prison clinic, his gaze immediately meeting Veronica's, who was sitting across the door.

Veronica sat upright in her chair—she could only sit, as in addition to handcuffs and shackles, the riot team had bound her with two leather belts, securely tying her to the chair as a temporary measure of control.

She had just been in a fight and had not yet reverted back from her transformed state, her furrowed brows and gritted teeth giving her an intimidating look.

"Warden!"

The four prison guards watching over Veronica saluted Aidan in unison—overseeing a werewolf required this many people.

"'Long time no see,'" Aidan said, walking over to Veronica with his hands behind his back, "At this rate, we could have lunch together every day before your execution."

Veronica turned her head to one side, seemingly disdainful of speaking with him.

"Ouch, it hurts so much, this fucking bitch broke my nose. Warden, why don't you hurry up and hang this murderer?" a shrill voice rose from the other side of the room.

Aidan glanced in the direction of the voice and saw the bruised and swollen-faced thief, Katherine, pointing frantically in this direction, with Anna, a pirate who also had injuries on her face, sitting not far away. A prison doctor was by their side, treating both of them.

Aidan gave the doctor an inquiring look, to which the doctor waved his hand, "No problem, they're all fine, just superficial wounds."

"What about the other one?" Aidan inquired about Fille's condition.

"Prisoner 3307 is lying inside, still unconscious, but there's nothing serious, just a slight concussion," the doctor indicated towards the inside of the clinic.

"Prisoner 3308, do you have to cause trouble every single day?" Flandre stood in front of Veronica with a grim look, tapping a metal rod against the palm of her hand.

"You weren't at the scene, how can you be so sure it was me who caused trouble?" Veronica lifted her face, asking defiantly.

Flandre took a deep breath, suppressing the anger in her heart, and turned to Aidan, whispering a suggestion, "Warden, this one's a ticking time bomb. If we leave her alone, it'll be trouble if she kills someone again. While she's made trouble this time, let's put her in solitary and find someone to keep an eye on her, after all, it's just over a month away."

Flandre's suggestion was a seasoned approach; there are always some problematic prisoners in a jail who tend to cause trouble whenever they are with others. Typically, prison guards would do everything possible to transfer such prisoners elsewhere or find reasons to keep them separated from other inmates.

Other than here in Silvertown, there was no other prison capable of housing a pureblood werewolf female, so they could not transfer Veronica away. The most stable solution was to keep her in solitary confinement before the execution—of course, solitary confinement required valid reasons, and fighting privately was a good one.

Veronica's beast ears atop her head twitched. Flandre spoke in a low voice, but Veronica still heard it—a werewolf's beast ears had far superior hearing than a normal human.

She scoffed at the comment but said nothing.

The bruised duo sitting on the other side, although not able to hear, could guess from the Supervisor's demeanor that a punishment for Veronica was being prepared, and both revealed a conspiratorial smirk simultaneously.

But upon hearing Flandre's suggestion, Aidan shook his head, "There's no need to rush things. Let's thoroughly investigate the matter first. Separate all four involved parties for individual questioning. Flandre, you go and question the two in cell six, and I will question these two in cell thirteen."

Separating the suspects for interrogation and meticulously questioning them about the sequence and details of the incident, then comparing testimonies to determine who was lying, is a basic method of interrogation. If the suspects had not collaborated on their story beforehand, they could be easily exposed.

As soon as he finished speaking, Veronica looked at Aidan in surprise, and the expression of the duo in cell six changed.

Flandre hesitated briefly, but still obeyed the order, "Understood."

"Hold on a minute, Warden! Why do we get beaten and then have to face interrogation?" Katherine protested loudly.

"Isn't this favoritism a bit too blatant? It must be nice, being pretty means you can do whatever you want. That's right, the Warden is a man after all!!" Anna also started to shout sarcastically.

"You two——"

Flandre was about to scold them harshly when Aiden raised his hand to stop her, and then spoke to the two women in a leisurely tone, "Prisoner 3294, Prisoner 3295, are you, trying to teach me how to do my job?"

The two of them were momentarily stunned, but immediately shamelessly burst into laughter.

"Wow, how terrifying, is the Warden going to punish us without any reason?"

"The Warden tramples on prisoners' human rights by abusing his private powers so casually, how dignified! If human rights organizations got wind of this, I wonder what others would have to say."

They became even more arrogant in their clamor; one had been the leader of horse bandits, and the other a pirate captain, both hardened characters accustomed to licking blood from the knife's edge, taking pleasure in opposing enforcers of the law, and not caring in the least about ordinary methods of punishment.

Having been in numerous prisons, they understood the limits of a guard's authority quite well. This shameless, tough-as-nails attitude was their specialty, often frustrating the guards to the point of exasperation.

This time they had just been transferred to Rose Iron Prison, and they planned to use the same tactics to give the Warden here a taste of their power.

But Aiden showed no signs of anger, only smiling at them, "Don't worry, I'm a very fair person, I won't punish you without reason, but I can manage to change your room. 'Mad Halo' in Cell Three is quite lonely living by herself, you are so eloquent, how about moving in with her?"

At these words, the color immediately drained from their faces.

"Mad Halo" was a notorious figure even in this prison's core area, a crazed cult priestess whose behavior was never normal, frequently found laughing maniacally and dancing about in the middle of the night as if no one else were present.

Moreover, she was keen on cult sacrifices, drawing strange symbols in blood in various places (including on other people's bodies and beds) and performing rituals on her own accord, sometimes even attempting to gouge out someone's eyes as an offering while they slept.

What's more terrifying, she was "blessed" by the Evil God she worshipped, causing anyone who used violence against her to immediately suffer equal harm, while the madwoman herself seemed to relish pain. In other words, ordinary people couldn't lay a finger on her; they had to tolerate her.

No one could endure living with this madwoman for more than a day; the last female inmate assigned to share a cell with her almost hanged herself.

"Then there's 'Tyrant Camilla' in Cell Ten, 'Corrupted Blood Evangeline' in Cell Eleven, the undead Slyne in Cell Nineteen..." Aiden casually listed a series of names that would make the skin of most inmates in the core area crawl, looked back and forth between the two women, "Which one do you want for your new roommate? I can let you choose."

The two who had been so defiant just a minute ago suddenly became as quiet as cicadas in winter.

Seeing their bully-the-weak-fear-the-strong attitude, Aiden snickered coldly, "Don't compare Rose Iron Prison with the 'hotels' you've stayed in before. Any random convict from the core area is levels above you, and I get along swimmingly with them. I've tamed those troublesome witches, and you think you can stand up to me? I don't need your consent for my arrangements. Cooperate with my work, and we can all live peacefully. But if you insist on being adversarial..."

He deliberately paused here, looking back and forth between the two, his eyes taking on a hint of severity, "Be careful you don't die by my hands!"

Katherine instinctively dodged his gaze, while Anna bit her lip glaring at him but was unable to utter a single word.

The wicked often need to be dealt with by the wicked, Aiden was well aware. These perpetrators, who licked blood from the knife's edge and saw the law as nothing, only believed in the rule of the jungle, the law of the strong. The best method was to counter them with even more ferocious criminals, and all he needed to do was figure out how to control the most troublesome inmates.

"Take them away!" Aiden turned his head and ordered Flandre, who stood behind him.