Evening, the warden's office.
"I see..." After listening to Aiden's account, Veronica lowered her eyes, "So, the chances of overturning the case, they must be quite low now."
Once again brought to the warden's office for a face-to-face with Aiden, she had listened to him explain the current situation.
"At least, I can't think of any way to break this deadlock for now." Aiden also sighed.
Veronica was silent for a while, then seemed to accept her fate as she let out a long breath and tried to smile, "It's okay, no worries, Warden, you've done your best. I've come to terms with it. I'm an orphan with no family or friends, nothing to cling to. Meeting a good person like you towards the end, I guess that's somewhat of a blessing before death."
Aiden frowned and stared at Veronica for a while, then suddenly blurted out, "Have you gone crazy from being locked up here for a few days?"
"Eh?" Veronica was baffled.
"No, how can you be so resigned about being wrongly accused and sent to the gallows? You should definitely die with your eyes open, and not even as a ghost could you let go of those people!" Aiden glared at her, "Show some backbone, will you? I've been messing around helping you for so long, and I haven't given up yet. Why are you admitting defeat? Even if the execution is set for tomorrow, you should be ready to file for a retrial!"
After becoming completely convinced of Veronica's innocence, he had made up his mind to help her overturn the conviction.
Having dedicated himself to serving as a prison guard in two lifetimes, he still felt a certain attachment to his profession. For him, administering punishment to the innocent was as distasteful as swallowing flies.
Besides, today that villain had even dared to ride his face and mock him, something no one with the slightest temper could tolerate.
"But..." Confused by this man's startling energy, Veronica was at a loss for words, and she momentarily forgot to wallow in her despair, "Didn't you say that you're out of options too? Even if we don't give up, what can be done?"
"Just because I can't think of a way, doesn't mean others can't." Aiden crossed his arms, "I know of a 'person' who might know what to do... Since you have no solutions either, I'll have to try and ask for her help."
"Who?" Veronica blinked.
Aiden glanced at her, "Secret."
"You... you're not saying this to prevent me from committing suicide in prison, by giving me false hope, are you?" Veronica eyed Aiden skeptically, "I'm begging you, don't offer me hope only to plunge me back into despair. That's more than many people can take."
"I'm just telling it like it is, and just so you know, I'm under no obligation to look after your feelings. I've already gone above and beyond in helping you. This is your fight, and no matter the outcome, it's your duty to hold on until the end," Aiden said as he stood up and put on his hat, "Go back to your room. I'm going to see that person right now; we don't have much time to waste."
After delegating a guard to escort Veronica away, Aiden ensured the corridor was empty before returning to his office to take down a painting on the wall, exposing a safe embedded in the wall.
This safe was for storing some of the prison's more confidential documents, accessible only by the warden. Aiden only used it occasionally.
But this time, Aiden wasn't planning on opening the safe.
He took out three different keys and inserted them into a row of keyholes, twisting each one in turn. He then began to manipulate the combination lock on the safe, but he entered a password that was completely different from the usual one.
As expected, the door of the safe didn't open. However, a floor tile in front of Aiden's desk emitted a noise like a lock being undone and then slid silently to one side, revealing a secret passage beneath. Within it was a spiral staircase leading down into the gloomy depths.
Aiden retrieved the keys, scrambled the combination lock, and rehung the painting before taking a lantern from the rack, lighting it, and stepping into the passage.
Once inside the passage, he casually pulled a lever on the wall of the staircase, causing the floor tile to slide again, sealing the entrance.
Carrying the lantern, Aiden descended, his footsteps echoing in the silent underground space dominated by darkness, as if another invisible person were following closely behind him.
Eventually, he arrived at the lowest level, a vast dark chamber, which was empty except for one door.
A massive prison gate made of mithril took up an entire wall.
The door had a combination lock, automatic magic traps set to strike, a six-pointed star alchemy sealing circle, and watchful spirits... The core area's door was equipped with no less cautionary measures than this prison gate, and moreover, the door was inscribed with several types of runes designated as forbidden magic by the Inquisition, arranged in a dense spiral pattern that was chilling to behold.
All of these were attack runes, not intended to strengthen the door but to completely obliterate the prisoner inside and the underground space itself in the event they broke containment, burying her and the prison in one fell swoop.
This prison was directly underneath the Warden's office, and frankly, Aiden had his doubts about the wisdom of this design.
Even though the leaders of the Inquisition who handed this responsibility to him emphasized that the foundations of this place, like the prison itself, were specially reinforced, and that even if the prison blew up, the prison above ground would be unharmed, Aiden was still worried that one day, while he sat in his office writing reports, a sudden explosion from below would see him meet a fiery, volcanic end.
Furthermore, he felt that these so-called forbidden runes would likely not even kill that woman.
The prisoner locked inside was in herself a taboo.
He meticulously unlocked the constraints on the prison gate, and finally bit open a fingertip, smearing blood into a groove on the door—this door in the Rose Iron Prison could only be opened by him.
Accompanied by the sound of gears meshing, the door of mithril unfolded layer by layer, and the most secure cell of Rose Iron Prison was finally exposed to Aiden's view.
The entire cell, like the door, was crafted from mithril. A woman with hair flowing to the ground was tied to a rack at the far end of the cell, with oddly shaped long nails piercing her palms, feet, and joints. She tilted her head, her eyes closed, serene as if she were a corpse.
The moment Aiden stepped into the cell, the sleeping woman slowly opened her eyes.
"Good evening, Prisoner 4001," Aiden greeted her expressionlessly.
"You've finally come to see me again, my dear Warden."
Prisoner 4001 smiled at him, her silver-gray eyes reflecting the image of Aiden holding the lantern.