That fortune teller saying I'll have endless admirers threw off especially when Elea confirmed that fortune telling exists in this world as a truth. I think it makes sense since I will be taking in Aisha as her parent some time in the future so it makes a lot more sense. Maybe I shouldn't overthink it.
Elea and I would be breaking into the jail but how...? As we hid behind a tree in front of the prison, I scanned the parameters and of course there were lots and lots of guards.
"How are we going to break in?" I asked.
"Watch and learn." She said before disappearing into the thin air.
"What the-" I noticed a magic circle on the ground. So she turned herself invisible. But I can't turn myself invisible. I took out my phone and played an audio of dinosaur roars. My phone is loud enough that they'd think there are monsters nearby.
I quickly moved away from the place as guards started to gather in one place. I noticed Elea waving her hand from far away. I was able to move to her rarely easily.
"Go inside from here." She said as she jumped down a pipe. I followed her and landed in a rather damp and dark room.
"Warden left this pipe open specifically to see which criminal would try to escape."
"Why did we break in?" I asked.
"Noah was recently moved here to be executed. I want to see how they get rid of him. There are rumors that the prison has a way of keeping criminals in forever. Never once have I heard of someone going out of the prison."
"How? I think he will have head chopped off or something."
She tossed me a small bag.
"Change into this." She said as she took off her clothes. She was already wearing the dress underneath.
"Go away. I'm shy." She groaned before looking away. I quickly changed into the dark green shirt and pants similar to hers. "are these prison clothes?"
"Yes. Now move." She started running and I quickly followed her.
After a minute, we were inside the main building. No windows. No sunlight. The air was suffocating. It was a panopticon prison with three floors from what I could tell. The prison was almost entirely made of metal. The floors, railings, stairs... everything. Even slight movement made a sound and because it was all metal, it echoed. No wonder escaping is impossible. Slight mishap and everyone would know.
"He is currently being held in the basement of this prison in a special room for those on death row. Going there might be impossible." She whispered to me. Even talking would echo so it was the smartest thing.
"W-warden..?!" Someone cried out and soon everyone stopped what they were doing.
A well build man with golden hair came walking down the corridor wearing dark grey pants and shirt with a couple buttons open with a jacket holding a pair of handcuffs. He was simply majestic. He had a couple scars on his neck. He most likely made sure his scars were visible to show how tough he is.
"Hey... you're new faces." Warden looked at the two of us.
"We were moved here just now." Elea responded.
"Oh? How do I not know? Anyways, make yourself home here. Not like you can leave so make the most of it." He patted on her shoulder and smiled before walking away.
He had a slightly deeper voice but it was charismatic and truly enchanting.
"Mesmerized by him?" She asked and I shook my head no.
We continued moving downwards and came across the door that would lead us to downstairs. It had a magic circle placed on it. On solving the equation, answer came out '1'. If the value is '0' then the door would open.
"Can you open it?" She asked and I nodded.
"Quite easy for me but opening it might be a problem. They made the prison with echo in mind. Everything would make sound. I can't put it past them if they made sure this door in specific made more noise than others. We may have to create new magic that would dampen the noise." I knew just the right magic since the queen of Deem used it whenever we had secret discussions. I had already devised a better version of it.
"I was informed that you were good with creating magic but you can't use it, right? Let me try it then. It will help me with my missions too."
"Comes with a price. You see, I'm an outlander. I need some compensation too."
"Fine... I'll let the duke Durfort deal with it."
I taught the magic and soon we were able to place it on the ground.
For now we hid behind some boxes to pass the time. It was pretty small for the two of us to fit, so, we were so close to each other that I started panicking. I had to calm myself down. I started looking around for something to take my attention away from being close to a woman.
"Is everything okay?" She wrote on a notepad. "I can hear your heartbeat."
"No, nothing. I'm not used to small places like this." I wrote back. She probably wanted to make sure no one knew we were hiding behind boxes right next to door to basement.
I started doing some breathing exercises but they have never helped me before so why would they help me now. Elea isn't bad... she won't do anything. Hopefully... wait... aren't parents supposed to not be bad people either...? Aren't adults supposed to protect the young...?
No- No... This way of thinking would never help. Right! Amelia is a good person and so is Elena. Good people exists. But I JUST met her. I only know her name and that she has two brothers. Is she good or bad, that, I do not know.
She now also know magic that can dampen the audio and has magic on top of that. I'm currently totally at her mercy. But we are in prison on a mission so obviously she won't do anything but we also came to prison on whim. It could be a plot. Earlier when we were in public, I didn't feel as worried because... well there were people around. Or when we were with Raphael and Jean. But not right now.
I need to actually calm down. I want to cry.
I quickly drew the magic circle to break the lock on the door on the notepad and wrote.
"I'm feeling sick." I quickly moved out and rushed away.
After a few more deep breaths, my heart rate dropped down to normal levels. I felt like my skin was crawling whenever we touched. I felt so dirty that I couldn't stay there anymore. I hope this doesn't result in failure of the mission altogether.
"Yo!" Warden appeared from nowhere.
"U-uh?!" I jumped.
"Kara, right? Yea, I got your papers. I'm Warsha. The warden of this prison. Come with me." He started walking towards the watch tower. I followed him wondering what papers he got.
As I entered the room, he sat at this table.
"I know you're someone who can't use magic. Let me have that woman and you can leave scot-free and if not... I will have no issue disposing of you." He smiled.
"Why should I comply?"
"There some hidden places in this prison. Basement is awfully close to those locations. I would much rather keep those places hidden. I only allowed you to enter this facility out of my own amusement but I wasn't expecting that you can break into the basement so easily. Even I have no idea how it works and that's why it's a problem."
"What are you gonna do with her?"
"Have a drink or two? Haha... don't worry. I'm only here to protect my prison."
As we were having a discussion, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in." Warden said and a timid girl came in looking quite unwell.
"Warden... there is... something wrong." She fell onto floor. The two of us rushed to her only to find her dead. Warden quickly searched for any wounds and found a stone embedded into her body.
"She is..." He took a look at her uniform. "Part of the Unity."
"Unity?" I asked.
"Like any prison, there are a couple gangs here. Unity is just one of them. Well now that you're here, come with me." He walked out of the office and asked a guard to take care of the body of the woman.
...
After looking around, we found the gang. It was a rather diverse group but none were scary.
"A member of your gang is dead. All of you are on the list of suspects." He announced.
"But my lord, is it...? Jenna?! Oh my. No wonder she didn't show up today." An old man came forward.
"Jacob, right? I found a stone inside of her body but not any stone. It releases crude magic which is toxic to humans. Are you doing experiments?" Warsha asked.
"Ah no no! How can I even get ahold of such stones? I'm merely leader of this gang and everything that comes in and goes out is reported to you."
"Right."
While they were talking, I looked around and everyone seemed to be doing fine. But for now, we have to be hypervigilant but why am I being involv- wait- there is a magic circle behind a noticeboard. It's half hidden so I can decipher it but from what I can see, the circle is meant to be invisible. Is it some high level magic? Also why can I even see magic circles that are invisible? I should inform warden later about this. Maybe if I help him with this, he will leave Elea alone.
Now that I looked around, I saw a few more magic circles on ceilings. I hadn't noticed them earlier but now... things were looking more dire than before. I started deciphering them as warden kept his talk going with the leader.
One was an announcement.
"During lunch time on the third day of first death, we will gather in the basement and release it."
It? Something is going to happen on the third day?!