Chapter 4 Please Change My Room for Me_1

The next day, Aiden returned to the core area.

"Where has that werewolf been assigned?" Amid the usual torrent of curses, he asked Flandre beside him.

"Room thirteen." Flandre replied.

"That's not..."

"Yes, according to the order of imprisonment, she was assigned to the same room as Succubus Phyllis." Flandre nodded.

Aiden walked silently up to the door of room thirteen and immediately a figure threw itself against the prison door.

"Lord Aiden! You've finally come!!" Fille cried out, pressing against the iron bars to Aiden, "Please, move me to another room, I don't want to stay with that murderer! She's too scary, not sleeping at night and just staring at me, it made me too afraid to even close my eyes!"

"Shut up."

A voice filled with threatening coldness came from behind Fille, causing her shoulders to tremble and she immediately fell silent.

Aiden ignored Fille and tilted his head slightly to look inside the cell.

Death row inmate Veronica was sitting on her bed with one hand on her knee, leaning against the wall, staring dead at the door. She was a rather beautiful girl with shoulder-length hair, but right now the violent look in her eyes completely ruined that beauty.

"You're prisoner 3308? No need to be so tense, your roommate is just a succubus with no combat ability," Aiden said with a smile to her.

"What's it to you?" Veronica snapped back without hesitation.

"I am the warden here, Aiden." Aiden straightened his hat.

"Oh, the big boss of this cesspool, my apologies," Veronica said with undisguised sarcasm, her mouth curling into a sneer.

"Seems like we've got another tough one," Aiden raised an eyebrow.

"Prisoner 3308, adjust your tone, you're in prison now," Flandre interjected with a stern face, warning Veronica.

Veronica showed no sign of backing down, still with that mocking smile on her face: "I'm not going to be alive for long, so indulge my attitude a bit."

Flandre's brow twitched, and after a moment of silence, she spoke, "Due to your inability to control your animal nature, someone has already died by your hand. If you can't make amends, at least repent in the little time you have left."

Veronica was taken aback and her smile disappeared from her face like a receding tide.

She started glaring at Flandre viciously; after several seconds, she said deliberately, word by word: "Shut up."

"Shut up? Who are you talking to? Think you're still a mounted police?" Flandre, not backing down, met her gaze, "Get your status straight, you're prisoner 3308 now, just a murderer!"

"I didn't kill anyone," Veronica said with a tight face, her lips quivering.

"That's what almost every prisoner here would say," Flandre continued unfazed, "No matter how hard you argue, the fact that you are a murderer is—"

"Shut up ahhh!!"

Before Flandre could finish, Veronica suddenly let out a chilling howl.

In the next instant, she pounced forward, slamming into the bars with a violent clang that echoed down the hallway.

Fille let out a scream and dodged just in time to narrowly avoid disaster.

"Stop pretending like you know everything! If you're going to execute me, then stop wasting words! Just do it!!"

Veronica, clutching the bars, roared, a beastly growl emanating from deep within her throat. In an instant, she revealed her ferocious nature, sprouting wolf ears and a mouth full of sharp teeth, her dark yellow beastly eyes shooting out a fierce light.

At this fearsome display, Flandre instinctively took a step back, while Fille huddled in a corner of the cell, quivering too frightened to make a sound. Only Aiden still stood unruffled in front of the cell door, locking eyes with Veronica at breath's distance.

"Prisoner 3308," Aiden said, not too slowly nor too quickly, while staring into the fierce face of Veronica, "Back off."

Her response to him was a heavy blow against the bars and a bestial roar coming from deep in her throat.

Aiden turned and called out to the cell opposite: "Daili, unseal the temporary casting authority and lend me a hand!"

"I'd be delighted, my dear warden." The witch Daili, housed in the cell opposite, smiled as she appeared at the bars and waved her wand through the gaps while chanting, "Busy, busy shadows of mine, lend me your hands!"

No sooner had she finished speaking than the shadow at her feet began to roil as if boiling, and shortly thereafter, several pitch-black claws emerged, stretching out like the tentacles of an octopus.

Aiden smartly stepped aside to let the claws passing through the bars grab Veronica's hands, feet, and neck, forcibly shoving her back into the cell and pressing her against the wall.

Veronica struggled and roared in anger, nearly breaking free from the clutches of the black claws several times.

"My, my, isn't this little sister a bit too energetic? Even a shadow demon's claws can't hold her down," Daili remarked.

"Stop raging helplessly, aren't you embarrassed?" Aiden advised Veronica calmly as he looked at her.

Veronica seemed to calm down a bit, stopped her movements, and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily and glaring at him.

"Lord Aiden, you saw it all, please help me change rooms!" Fille crept back over, scared out of her wits, "She's a death row inmate, a death row inmate! She's doomed anyway, what's stopping her from doing something drastic? If you don't help me change rooms, I might get my neck bitten off by her today."

"Wow, why don't you just donate money and turn this place into a vacation resort? Then you could pick any room you want and hire two hundred servants?" Aiden scoffed without hesitation.

"I have money, you know, I can give you a thousand gold pounds, just to change rooms!" Fille said, hopping up and down in desperation, clutching the bars.

"Really!?" Aiden exclaimed in surprise.

He knew Fille had made a good deal of money through her brothel business, but he had not imagined she was wealthy enough to offer a sum that would make one comfortable for most of their life just like that.

"Warden!!" Fortunately, Flandre's sharp cry snapped Aiden to his senses just in time.

"I was just… surprised, that's all." Aiden coughed dryly and then turned sternly to Fille, "Do you really think this is a hotel, where you can change rooms just because you want to? Stay put!"

Fille was a cunning repeat offender. Accepting her bribes, just like succumbing to her seduction, was tantamount to handing over leverage to her voluntarily, certainly not a wise move.

"Lord Aiden, you can't possibly be thinking that my death would be one big problem off your back, can you? You're so cruel, Lord Aiden! Whimper… Despite how I've accompanied you, others say there are lasting affections from a night of marriage; yet after toying with me for so many days, you still treat me this way…" Fille suddenly started sobbing and rubbing at her tears.

"You can eat as you please but don't speak recklessly. Slandering an officer of the law to their face, are you feeling too comfortable here and fancy a day in solitary?" Aiden couldn't help but give Fille a disdainful glance.

Veronica, who had calmed down by now, sneered at Aiden's words with a scoff: "Heh, very impressive, Warden. No wonder you can keep so many scumbags in line, turns out you're the cream of the crap yourself!"

"You believe whatever you hear?" Aiden retorted with a glance.

"Hmph, so the warden believes the court's guilty verdict? Why don't you just release me, then?" Veronica retorted sarcastically.

"You're suggesting yourself as the wronged party?" Aiden sneered, "Isn't that just your side of the story too?"

Veronica fell silent, turned away, and appeared to lose interest in continuing the conversation.

Aiden watched her for a moment to ensure she wouldn't make more trouble and then gestured to Daili to withdraw her spell.

He then turned to Fille, who was still crying and wailing, and said in a lowered voice: "Keep an eye on her, and if she attempts suicide or does something else out of line, call for help immediately."

"Me watch her!?" Fille paused her feigned crying and stared wide-eyed at Aiden, "Lord, you must be joking, I would thank my lucky stars if she doesn't slaughter me, please, just change my room!"

"An unstable death row inmate like this needs to be watched. Enduring a little hardship and cooperating with our work can earn you a commutation," Aiden explained with a genial smile, patting Fille's shoulder.

"I'd rather serve my full year! Who would risk their life for a sentence reduction!" Fille's face turned to that of mourning.

"Look at you, rushing to argue. I'm not asking for your agreement…" Aiden said with a hearty laugh, "This is the warden's order. Just follow it obediently and skip the nonsense."

After saying that, he turned and walked away, and Flandre quickly followed, leaving Fille clutching the bars and crying out, "No! Lord Aiden, don't leave me alone with her! Don't go!!"

"Once we're out of the core area, gather all the information you can find on this she-wolf for me; I want to take a look," Aiden suddenly dropped his smile and instructed Flandre as they left.