Chapter 61 - 57: Leniency for Those Who Confess, Severity for Those Who Resist

Chapter 61: Chapter 57: Leniency for Those Who Confess, Severity for Those Who Resist

Sophie loved the gift Lian gave her, so she switched to a new fishbowl.

A massive fishbowl, large enough to hold one hundred goldfish and a single tadpole.

From then on, the people of Green Shade Territory could see a petite, silver-haired girl atop the High Wall. Though she appeared frail, she single-handedly held up a giant fishbowl, diligently guarding the territory.

But this was only a temporary situation. Lian believed that with Sophie’s Power, she could surely shrink the fishbowl back down, eventually returning it to its original size.

That evening, Lian took a very cheerful Sophie with him to the main prison of Green Shade Territory.

It was an imposing prison located in the western part of the outer city, also known as the Western Prison.

The Western Prison was composed of twin Prison Cell towers and a central plaza.

The left tower was the men’s prison, and the right was the women’s, connected in the middle by the plaza’s platform.

The central plaza could hold up to 1,000 people at a time.

The two buildings were structurally identical. Their spires were carved with the green leaf emblem of Green Shade Territory and the crossed iron bars of the prison. The towers were a dark, blackish-gray and rose five stories high from bottom to top in a Pyramid structure.

The floors were divided into five categories: cells for commoners with minor offenses, cells for commoners with major offenses, cells for wealthy prisoners with minor offenses, cells for wealthy prisoners with major offenses, and death row. The floors were arranged from lowest to highest, with the severity of the crime increasing the higher one went.

The twin towers could house a total of 1,600 prisoners, making it, without a doubt, the largest prison in Green Shade Territory.

Karel Dennis had already rounded up 980 people from the list. The remaining 20 had fled, but they had been added to Green Shade Territory’s most-wanted list.

All 980 of them were now gathered in the prison plaza, surrounded by numerous Guards.

The homely Prison Director John frowned, his brow deeply furrowed as he stared at the swarming crowd in the plaza. Even the largest of prisons would struggle to absorb so many inmates at once.

Besides, many of them were noblewomen, still dressed in extravagant gowns.

They didn’t look like criminals at all, unless they were political or religious dissidents.

John had once thought that being as ugly as he was, he had nothing left to lose. That was, until his hairline began to recede and his hair started to thin.

He felt a pressure no man his age should have to bear. Now, Lian’s latest order had undoubtedly piled on even more stress.

"Kroli, do you know why Lord Lian arrested them?"

John asked, rubbing his thinning hair as he addressed Kroli, the Western Army Guard Captain standing beside him.

Kroli was a muscular, dark-skinned man standing over seven feet tall. Taciturn and a man of few words, he merely gave John an indifferent glance, which thoroughly annoyed the prison director.

Just as John felt he was about to lose more hair from the stress, he saw the handsome young Lord with his Blond Hair and Blue Eyes enter the prison plaza, the Ice Witch at his side.

John immediately smoothed down what was left of his hair and hurried over to greet them.

Flanking Lian were his Maid, Anna, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Karel Dennis.

"Lord Lian, this is Prison Director John Sylvester Henson."

Karel Dennis made the introduction.

"John Sylvester Henson, Prison Director of the Green Shade Territory main prison, greets you, my Lord."

"Kroli, Western Army Guard Captain, greets you, my Lord."

John and Kroli bowed in unison.

Lian gave a slight nod and walked to the front of the crowd.

"This must be a misunderstanding, Lord Lian! Do you remember me? My daughter, Riel, is one of your students."

Lady Vanessa looked at Lian agitatedly. She hoped to use Riel to bridge the gap between them, praying Lian would show mercy for the sake of the Yada Clan.

"Lady Vanessa, Riel isn’t your daughter. And while you are one of Romayada’s mistresses, I doubt you’d bear him any children. After all, a Spy’s mission is to gather intelligence, not start a family."

Lian said calmly, one eyebrow slightly raised.

Lady Vanessa froze. She had no idea when her identity as a Spy had been exposed.

But she was a clever woman and quickly realized what had happened.

’The city-wide screening... it wasn’t to root out the red itch sickness, but to find Spies?’

Lady Vanessa frowned. She knew she couldn’t escape. Being a Spy was one of the most dangerous professions, because this was a world of "terms" created by the God of Tiger. Everyone possessed their own terms, especially identity terms. Once detected, you were finished.

Any further denial was pointless.

But very few people would ever go to such lengths as Lian, using the church’s power to root out Spies.

The church was a neutral organization; they were accountable to the gods, not to any Lord. Therefore, they almost never participated in activities like capturing or detecting Spies.

The church would only do what was expected of them for their followers, such as mercifully granting them baptism.

This time, Lian had used the Plague as a pretext to get the church involved, enabling a territory-wide screening.

The reason other Lords couldn’t imitate Lian’s methods was that they would never treat patients with the red itch sickness. Their first step would be to bury them alive, eliminating the problem for good. Naturally, there would be no screening phase after that.

Lady Vanessa was suddenly filled with regret. ’Why did I have to come to Green Shade Territory to be a Spy? Couldn’t I have gone somewhere else?’

The others standing with Lady Vanessa in the plaza felt the exact same regret.

"Lord Lian, I’ve been framed!"

"Lord Lian, what crime have I committed? Even if I’m to be imprisoned, it must go through the Judgement Court, right? You can’t just bring us here directly! This is against the Rules."

"That’s right! What crime are we accused of? At the very least, you have to show some evidence."

The noblemen’s mistresses fanned themselves furiously as they spoke, incensed. They had never suffered such humiliation.

Of course, inwardly, they were already panicking.

The "Spy" term above their heads would be exposed with a simple scan.

Even so, they had to fight for a sliver of hope, attempting to use the status of the nobility and the Rules to pressure Lian.

"Quiet!"

John roared, drawing the whip from his belt and cracking it hard against the ground. With a loud SNAP, the crowd in the plaza instantly fell silent.

"Lord Lian, what do you plan to do with them?"

Prison Director John rubbed his hairline. The sudden influx of over nine hundred prisoners was putting him under immense pressure.

’How am I supposed to feed them? Where will they all sleep? Surely we can’t send them all to the guillotine, can we?’

"The guilty will be punished, and the innocent will be released. We will not wrong a single good person, nor will we let a single criminal go free."

Lian declared passionately, looking out over the arrested crowd.

"Before I use the Term Detection Device, I hope you will all confess.

"Anyone who dares to confess can expect leniency. A death sentence will be commuted to life imprisonment. A life sentence will be changed to a fixed term. A fixed term will be reduced.

"But if you refuse to confess and force me to use the Term Detection Device, then I’m afraid I’ll have no choice. For the sake of Green Shade Territory, I can only increase your punishment. Those on death row will have their sentences extended to their immediate families. Life sentences will become death sentences. Fixed terms will become life sentences.

"In short, it all comes down to one phrase: confess for leniency, resist for severity."