In the name of the true god

Chapter 98 Applying Pressure Again

2:00 AM on Saturday, November 3, 448 AD (the year of the Divine Religion).

The capital's heavy prison, administration building, and conference room.

Warden Urban Adel remained expressionless, his gaze chilling. His mere presence at the head of the table exuded an aura of authority that deterred the church faction, led by Deputy Warden Chambers, from displaying any disdain or contempt.

He received the message around 8 p.m.

Dressing, driving to the scene, controlling the situation, organizing the treatment of the wounded, receiving the church priests who came to the rescue, cleaning up the mess, investigating the situation, and holding a meeting —

By the time all of this was finished, more than six hours had passed since the prison break occurred.

At his age, he might be able to handle working such a long night and high intensity work occasionally.

But how many times has this happened at the Royal Capital Heavy Prison in the past month?

"Warden." Deputy Warden Steele was the last to enter the conference room, and pulled out a chair to sit down on the side of the Royalists.

"explain.

""

"Here's the complete story," Steele said, looking at Chambers across from him.

The escape occurred in the Heretics Block, so the investigation should be handled by Deputy Warden Chambers or Connor, who oversees the Heretics Block.

But rather.

When Warden Adel arrived, he appointed him to verify the situation in front of everyone.

"According to Deputy Warden Chambers, at 7 p.m. last night, he led the priests to the heresy ward as usual, intending to interrogate Keanu Archer, a fourth-order afflicted wizard, to find out the identities and whereabouts of the other two escaped heretics."

Deputy Warden Chambers crossed his arms and looked at Steele meaningfully, a barely perceptible smile playing on his lips.

Steele continued recounting the events in front of the prison's senior officials: "During the interrogation, at approximately 7:30 PM, Keanu Archer suddenly rioted, broke free of his chains, and escaped from the second basement level of the special ward building all the way to the first floor. The six guards responsible for guarding the various gates bravely tried to stop him, and the armed guards stationed on the first floor responded promptly, putting the entire prison on alert immediately."

"Report the results," said Warden Adel.

"Armed guards in the special ward building shot and killed Keanu Archer on the first floor."

"Casualties."

"Of the six prison guards responsible for guarding the gates from the Heretic Block to the main floor, three died on the spot, and three others were sent to the nearest hospital for emergency treatment. One of them is now out of danger." Steele looked at the documents and emphasized one point: "According to the armed prison guards, one of the three prison guards who died in the prison was killed by Deputy Warden Chambers."

""

Warden Adel gave Chambers a cold glance.

Chambers calmly explained, "It's a misunderstanding. I attacked Keanu Archer, but he used the law of contact to transfer the harm to the prison guard."

""

"The armed prison guards said your Wind Blade was aimed directly at the hostage guards," Steele emphasized.

"That might be a bit off," Chambers said innocently. "Actually, there's no point in delving into that. Whether I attack the prison guards or Keanu Archer, the prison guards will be the ones who die in the end."

""

Melanie, the first-class warden who had long disliked Chambers, couldn't help but rebuke him: "What do you mean by 'meaningless'?! Even the armed guards know that you can't just fire rashly; you need to find the right opportunity to rescue the hostages first! And you?!"

""

"Do you have a better way? Or just let Keanu Archer escape with the prison guards in such a blatant way?" Chambers retorted.

"Instead of that, you should explain how Keanu Archer escaped from the heresy prison!" Melanie retorted defiantly.

"He's a fourth-order heretic," Chambers explained calmly. "He has a backup plan. If he suddenly attacks, who can withstand him? It's fortunate that we're here. If it were ordinary prison guards on duty, Keanu Archer might even have had the chance to release all the other heretics, which would have been a catastrophe for the Royal Capital Heavy Prison."

Warden Adel glanced at the priests, who were unharmed and seemed to have had no involvement whatsoever.

Clearly, this incident was entirely an accident caused by human error.

Otherwise, with five priests present at the time, if they had put in any effort to stop him, a fourth-order heretic whose physical and mental strength had long been exhausted would not have had any chance to reach the first floor of the special prison building.

Why would they do that?

Warden Adel recalled that during the last prison break, Chambers had persuaded him to transfer the dozens of implicated wizards and resonance sorcerers to the church temple, arguing that "even ordinary prisoners could escape, so the capital's heavy prison was no longer capable of imprisoning heretics."

And how did you reject it?

The heretical prison was overseen by priests. If Chambers felt it was not safe enough, he was not questioning the prison itself, but rather the prison administration.

Chambers was speechless at the time, and the matter of "transferring heresy" had to be abandoned.

Now, he has used a "what's the use" approach to prove that the priests are indeed incapable of better guarding against heretics in the capital's heavy prison.

So, if even the priest himself is putting aside his so-called face and deliberately acting carelessly, should I compromise?

Although it may seem that he can still use the excuse that "fourth-order heretics" and "ordinary heretics" cannot be lumped together, the actual situation is far more complicated than that.

Because Chambers went to extremes!

In front of dozens of armed prison guards, he personally killed the prison guard who was being held hostage by Keanu Archer.

This move could both justify Keanu Archer's transfer of the blame, thus avoiding punishment from above, and create an irreparable rift between the priests and prison guards.

How can the prison guards carry out their work if they harbor resentment towards the priest?

Even more vicious is...

Chambers's words were impeccable, yet he made no attempt to conceal his mocking attitude.

He practically had "I was behind both prison breaks" written all over his face.

But he couldn't find any solid evidence to prove it. Even if he took the matter to the church, they certainly wouldn't uphold justice.

If that's the case, if their request to "transfer heresy" is rejected again, will they continue to cause trouble with their emboldened attitude?

"Warden," Chambers said, seeing the opportunity, and went straight to the point. "Given the objective conditions, it is indeed difficult for us priests alone to guarantee the safety of the Heretics Quarter. The Church is also short-handed and cannot spare any more priests to be stationed at the prison long-term. Therefore—I sincerely hope that you will reconsider and transfer the forty-two heretics imprisoned in the Heretics Quarter to the Church Temple."

""