In the name of the true god

Chapter 122 concludes here.

The meeting, originally intended to determine responsibility, ended up with only one decision after more than two hours of debate: starting today, November 14th (Wednesday) of the Divine Calendar 448, the Royal Capital Heavy Prison will officially transfer the power to imprison "heretics." All wizards and resonance sorcerers implicated in the arrest of those arrested in the Royal Capital Montorus will henceforth be directly escorted to the Holy Temple of the Holy Church of Wind for imprisonment.

This seemed like a victory for the church faction, but Chambers couldn't laugh at all.

The "forty-two heretics" fled, and two priests also died.

Influenced by the evidence presented by Warden Adel, the church has yet to find a suitable angle to criticize why they had hesitated to agree to the transfer, and can only swallow their anger and bear the consequences alone.

Why should I?!

The power to detain heretics has been revoked—it's a done deal!

Do you really need your capital's heavy prison to "generously" let me out?!

Wrong!

I feel so frustrated!

"Is there anything else that requires our cooperation at the Royal Capital Heavy Prison?" Warden Adel asked.

It sounds like I'm already an outsider.

They're quite efficient now.

Chambers was filled with mixed emotions, but he couldn't really lash out: "There are two more things. First, we need to get an explanation as to who dug the tunnel and when. Second, the prison must conduct an internal investigation to confirm whether Allen Granger has any accomplices."

As it stands now.

The primary responsibility for this prison break falls entirely on my own shoulders.

The only thing Chambers could do was to find as many clues as possible to help the church recover its losses, hoping that the College of Cardinals would be lenient in their treatment afterward.

"I've emphasized the tunnel issue many times," Warden Adel insisted. "The tunnel leads directly to the Heresy Quarter, which has been guarded by people sent by your church for decades. It's like I have two houses, one for myself and one for you. Now your house is on fire, and you want me to investigate the cause of the fire? Of course, it's far less reliable than you investigating it yourself."

Chambers had no way to express his grievances.

They can only confirm that the tunnel was not dug in recent years. As for which year it was dug and who dug it, it's not that easy to find out.

If I can't find out, wouldn't that make me look even more incompetent?

never mind----

At worst, they can shift the blame onto the top church official who is currently in prison.

Since nobody knows exactly when the tunnel was dug, when reporting back to the cardinals, they can use whatever excuse is most advantageous to themselves!

"This isn't just a one-sided problem," he said, settling for second best. "How about this, we'll conduct investigations simultaneously from both sides and coordinate regularly."

"Okay." Warden Adel did not refuse again.

As long as Chambers doesn't explicitly require him to find out the results, that's fine.

He only cooperates, without taking any responsibility.

"Steel," Warden Adel said, turning to Deputy Warden Steel Fernando, "report the results of the preliminary internal investigation."

"Yes." Steele glanced at Connor sitting opposite him, then opened the interrogation report. "With the assistance of the church, we have interrogated fifty-one people in prison who had contact with Allen Granger. So far, we have not found anything unusual about these fifty-one people."

Chambers couldn't help but ask again, "What about Allen Granger's colleagues? They're with Allen Granger every day, didn't they notice anything wrong?"

Steele, with his powerful background, wasn't afraid of Chambers. Remembering that Jude was also Allen Granger's colleague, he immediately defended him, saying, "The priests of the Heretic Quarter have dealt with Allen Granger quite a bit too, and they didn't find anything wrong either. Besides, your church's priests and associated wizards were involved throughout the interrogation. If you don't agree with the interrogation results, then please bring in more outstanding priests and more outstanding associated wizards."

Oh shit----

No matter what they said, they always presented themselves as having a perfectly reasonable argument.

So the problem is entirely my fault?

Chambers hated the priests under his command.

If they could just tone down their airs and take the prison regulations seriously, we wouldn't be in such a passive position.

"Any other questions?" Warden Adel asked again.

Chambers, seeing the eager-to-respond Royalists sitting opposite him, poised to deliver a scathing rebuttal, said: "—That's all."

"Alright. You'll hand over the paperwork for dismantling the heresy ward to Steele later." Adel closed the documents in front of him. "Meeting adjourned."

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

Wangdu Heavy Prison, special prison building, temporary rest room for prison guards.

Captain Foster, Jude, and others, having finished their interrogation, had no further instructions from their superiors and could only wait in the lounge for further arrangements.

"No one's bringing me food? I can't just stay here forever—" Colin complained, feeling both tired and hungry.

Captain Foster, Killian, and Anders remained silent and did not respond.

The fact that "Alan is a heretic" truly shocked them, and they were always filled with lingering fear whenever they recalled the times they spent alone with Alan.

Jude, meanwhile, quietly used the law of contact to confirm that Allen was not in immediate danger, and began to worry about the impact of the severed arm.

Will the wizards who have defected to the Holy Church use this severed arm to discover Aaron's whereabouts?

That's for sure.

Even with his first-tier connection ability, he could establish a connection using his severed arm. For second-tier and third-tier wizards, pinpointing Allen's current location would be a piece of cake.

Although Allen is a resonance sorcerer, he should also be aware of the ability to influence wizards.

Even if he didn't know it, the forty-two others who were rescued should have noticed it—

How could such a huge oversight have been left unresolved?

Jude was completely baffled.

"Should we go out and ask?" Colin suggested anxiously, pacing back and forth.

"Sit down." Captain Foster remained calm. "Once the higher-ups have determined that we are innocent, they will allow us to leave. On the contrary, the more anxious and uneasy you appear now, the more likely people will suspect you have something to hide."

"I'm not—I didn't—" Colin quickly denied. "Captain, others may not know, but you do, right? I have absolutely no personal relationship with Allen. How could I possibly know he's a heretic? I didn't say you knew he was a heretic. I'm just reminding you to keep quiet and wait for instructions from your superiors," Captain Foster said coldly.

In truth, he was somewhat wary of his subordinates.

"Even such a good old man as Allen can be a heretic."

Before a definitive conclusion is reached, who can casually claim to be innocent?

"Looking at it from another angle, it might not be a bad thing." Big Brother Killian crossed his arms and tried to see the problem in a positive light. "With forty-two heretics escaping from prison, the Church will definitely take back the power to imprison heretics in the capital's heavy prison. From now on, we'll only be dealing with ordinary prisoners, so we won't have to be so worried."

"But...but what if...what if the prison...the prison fires...fires us?" the poet Anders asked worriedly. "Alan is, after all, my colleague. We...we must bear some responsibility, right?"

The group remained silent.

They were all well aware that they were both Allen's colleagues and were on duty in the heresy ward.

With such a big incident happening now, even the higher-ups are having a headache. How can they possibly shirk all responsibility and work as if nothing happened the next day?

"What does this have to do with us?!" Colin said, feeling wronged. "Those priests are all—"

"Don't even think about it. If they really have to fire you, there's nothing we can do about it," Captain Foster said.

"Sigh—" Colin sighed repeatedly, feeling extremely frustrated.

Seeing this, Jude felt a pang of shame.

If possible, he certainly didn't want to drag his colleagues down.

However, the fact that Allen and his group escaped through the tunnel without a direct confrontation with the prison guards, thus avoiding unnecessary casualties, was the best possible outcome.

"Knock knock knock".

A knocking sounded suddenly.

The five people, who were eagerly awaiting the results, all stood up at the same time.

"throat."

Connor pushed open the door and glanced at the group of people standing ramrod straight: "Jude, come out."

Under the watchful eyes of Captain Foster and the others, Jude strode out of the lounge and walked with Connor to the corner of the corridor: "Bro, what's going on?"

Connor stopped, looked around to make sure no one was nearby, and then replied, "The church has appointed two archbishops to lead the priests in the hunt for heretics, but there hasn't been much progress yet."

Jude nodded slightly.

Eighteen hours have passed since the prison break.

If the Divine Descent Gathering wasn't intercepted in the capital immediately, the difficulty of capturing it later would be significantly reduced.

only----

Allen's missing arm —

"Brother, how likely do you think the church is to catch 'heretics'?"

"It's hard to say."

"All right----"

"We had a meeting at noon," Connor continued. "The Royal Capital Heavy Prison has voluntarily relinquished its power to continue detaining heretics. From now on, any 'heretics' arrested in the Royal Capital will be taken to the Church Temple."

"As expected—" Jude wasn't surprised. "And what about us, the ones being interrogated?"

"Your interrogation is over. You can leave shortly."

"Leave? Does that mean...expulsion?"

"They won't expel you."

"Aren't we responsible?" Jude asked.

"Warden Adel has determined that the responsibility lies primarily with the priest on duty, and has little to do with you." Connor was quite impressed with Warden Adel's methods. "Of course, you are, after all, Allen Granger's colleagues, so it's impossible for you to be completely without responsibility."

"That----"

"The initial discussion resulted in a temporary suspension, with salaries expected to decrease for at least the next six months. Just consider it a vacation, and things will be fine once things calm down."

Suspension with a pay cut is undoubtedly a much lighter punishment than dismissal.

But given how furious Deputy Warden Chambers looked in the early hours of the morning, would he really be willing to take the blame himself?

"Does Deputy Warden Chambers have any objections?"

"No." Connor shook his head. "Warden Adler brought up the old stories of the two previous prison breaks and produced irrefutable evidence proving that both breaks were orchestrated by the church. Chambers was in the wrong and had no choice but to admit it."

It turned out that Warden Adel had dug up old dirt and actually found irrefutable evidence, which he used almost perfectly to protect the prison guards.

To become a prison warden, one must be no ordinary person.

Jude sincerely admired him.

"What about you? Are you planning to stay, or resign?" Connor asked Jude.

"I plan to resign."

"Sure, but let's discuss it in a few days. Leaving now would be inappropriate."

"I understand." Jude certainly wouldn't run away at this critical juncture, as it would only make him look guilty. "And what about you?"

Where will the church transfer me to?

"Chambers kept me here to help the prison investigate the tunnel in the Heretic Block." Connor's gaze toward Jude became complicated as he spoke of the tunnel.

It's not that Chambers couldn't understand it.

As someone who knew a little about the prison break plan, he was equally surprised.

Where did this tunnel come from?

With such an old tunnel in existence, why would Jude's heretical organization need to lie low for so long?

pity.

Due to his position and the supervision of the gods, he could not ask openly and could only suppress his curiosity for the time being.

In fact, Jude's mentality is not much different from Connor's.

To this day, he still can't understand why, despite Allen's excellent disguise, only Connor noticed something amiss.

"Oh, right," Jude remembered something, "how are things going with Mr. Steele?"

Connor simply said, "I want to stay."

"so----"

"He has already submitted his resignation to Warden Adel. But the prison is in chaos right now, and he won't be able to leave until he's finished with this period." Connor's face remained calm, revealing no emotion. "This is a good thing for the prison and for you."

"How so?"

"With the 'forty-two heretics' collectively escaping, no matter how much Warden Adel tries to protect them, the royalists can't just suspend or reduce the pay of a few ordinary prison guards. Now that Steele is leaving anyway, he can conveniently use the pretext of 'resigning to take responsibility' to give the church an explanation," Connor explained. "And for you, I've been transferred, and Steele is gone too. You've officially lost your backing in prison and have also had your pay reduced, so resigning is equally reasonable and won't arouse suspicion."

"That's true—" Jude suddenly exclaimed with deep emotion.

Before I joined the company, the Royal Capital Heavy Prison had been operating smoothly.

After joining the company.

In just over a month, forty-two "heretics" escaped en masse, the heretical prison ward was shut down, and the deputy warden resigned—Wangdu Heavy Prison underwent a dramatic transformation because of this small "variable."

"In short—you've done everything you could to fulfill your responsibilities. Whatever the outcome, don't worry about it anymore." Connor's sentiments were even stronger than his. "Alright, go home and get some rest."

"Then they—" Jude looked toward the prison guards' temporary rest room.

"Please tell them to go back and rest. They'll let you know when things are settled at the prison and you can come back to work."

"good!"

After parting ways with Connor, Jude returned to the lounge with a sense of relief.

"Jude, what did your brother say to you?"

"W-W-Will we be expelled?"

Colin and Anders anxiously surrounded Jude, pressing him for details. Captain Foster and Killian, as if they had foreseen their fate, listlessly smoked their cigarettes, not bothering to confirm the results.

"No way!" Knowing they were all suffering terribly, Jude didn't keep them in suspense. He raised the corners of his mouth, revealing a smile that was both meaningful and exceptionally sincere. "Warden Adel has already declared that the responsibility for this matter lies primarily with the priests guarding the heresy section! We're temporarily suspended from duty with a six-month pay cut. We can resume our work once things have calmed down! Now! Go home and rest!"

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