Free Web NovelChapter 327: Chapter 327: Playing Dumb_1
"Mr. Blood Clothes?" Upon hearing the name, Sophie recalled briefly, "Are you pursuing that lunatic?"
"You know him?" Aiden noted her tone suggested some familiarity.
"I know of him, five years ago, his split-off faction, the Blood Moon Cult, caused trouble in the autonomous region, right?" Sophie retorted, "I remember that the cult was dealt with by the Heresy Tribunal."
The activities of the Blood Moon Cult in Silvertown being disrupted by the Heresy Tribunal—this was the official news announced to the public, available even to those not in the underworld intelligence trade.
But even the Heresy Tribunal didn’t have information about the person behind the Blood Moon Cult. The moniker "Mr. Blood Clothes" was essentially an alias he used publicly.
Although the "no lying" rule had been removed, Aiden still believed it was highly likely that she was aware.
"How much for his information?" Aiden asked.
"Depends on how much you want. If you want a detailed account... It’ll cost at least five thousand pounds," Sophie shrugged.
"That’s more than the bounty on his head," Aiden objected.
"That’s because the officials lack a concrete notion of how dangerous this man is, but as a warden, you’ve touched this world, so you must be aware, right?" Sophie replied nonchalantly, "After all, he’s close to being a demigod, and I have to consider the risk of offending him."
Indeed, Sophie knew about Mr. Blood Clothes—and at the very least, she knew he was a saint.
"How much do you know about him? If the information you can provide is mostly what I already know, wouldn’t I be..."
"What if I told you that a year ago, he bought information from the Scale of Smiles?" Sophie said with a cryptic smile.
"I’ve just removed the ’no lying’ rule..." Aiden eyed Sophie skeptically.
With the rule gone, Sophie’s words might not be the truth anymore, and her recent statement could just be a ploy to rouse Aiden’s urgency to pay for the intelligence.
"When it comes to business, we don’t lie—that’s the basic ethics of an information dealer. Lying to our clients is like selling fake goods, that is... ruining our own reputation," Sophie declared earnestly.
"I can’t come up with that much money," Aiden admitted frankly.
"Are you gearing up to haggle?"
"If we’re talking about a 10% discount, I might just be able to scrape it together..."
"Those aren’t the words of someone who drinks this kind of liquor," Sophie said, flicking the bottle on the table with her finger.
"That stuff was a gift," Aiden disclosed bluntly, "You better not imagine I’m some sort of rich tycoon."
"Then..." Sophie pondered, "We can only exchange information for information." freēwēbηovel.c૦m
"I don’t have any information worth five thousand pounds," Aiden stated outright.
"Not necessarily," Sophie nearly cut him off, "Since you’re inquiring about Mr. Blood Clothes, you must have some understanding of his activities in the autonomous region, right?"
Suddenly on alert, Aiden still managed not to betray any emotion, "What sort of information could there be in that?"
"I’ve heard that the Blood Moon Cult worships an Evil God."
"That’s correct," Aiden nodded, "Isn’t that the case with most heretical organizations?"
The Blood Moon Cult had been destroyed, and the official reason was their worship of an Evil God and the practice of human sacrifices—such acts were not uncommon among various radical cults, but the sacrifices of most cults were actually only used for black magic and demonic pacts.
"But the ruler they worship is real," Sophie’s face took on a serious expression, "As a man of the divine path, you must know this, right?"
"Are you suggesting Mr. Bloody’s power was granted by that ruler?" Aiden quickly feigned ignorance, "Back then, all those cult members were fanatics, none survived, and the Heretical Inquisition Bureau couldn’t find out, so how did you come to know of this?"
When Sophie mentioned the activities of the Blood Moon Cult in the autonomous region, Aiden realized that the other party wanted to inquire about Melifilia’s information.
The whereabouts of a ruler—that was indeed a piece of heavyweight intelligence, but it was also a secret Aiden had to guard with his life.
Leaking it to a bunch of information dealers essentially meant leaking it to everyone who could afford that piece of intelligence.
He was now grateful that he had erased the "no lying" rule in situations where the other party might ask questions, otherwise even if he remained silent or changed the subject when brought up, the other party could infer some information from that.
"You mean to say you know nothing at all?" Sophie’s face showed a hint of suspicion, clearly not quite believing it. freewёbnoνel.com
"Why don’t you start by being more specific, then perhaps I could check the old case files," Aiden made a gesture, inducing her to continue.
Sophie hesitated, knowing that the man before her held a certain grudge against Mr. Bloody due to the incident five years ago. Mr. Bloody wanted to kill Aiden Galahad, and Aiden Galahad, it seemed, intended to pursue the wanted criminal. As for the deeper reasons, she didn’t yet understand.
However, Smile Scale had indeed obtained from some clues the fact that five years ago, Mr. Bloody had split members of the Blood Moon Cult to turn to the worship of a death god instead of a ruler and had made contact with that ruler—they even used this to eliminate another organization with a ruler, the "Retribution Sanctuary".
Yet the fall of the Blood Moon Cult met very little resistance, and the mysterious ruler seemed to have vanished from the world after the destruction of the cult.
Sophie surmised that the local Heretical Inquisition Bureau was very likely to have that intelligence, and at that time, Aiden Galahad was the ace of the Silvertown Heretical Inquisition Bureau, active on the front lines.
More importantly, Smile Scale had discovered that Aiden Galahad had deeply touched the power of authority, even seizing a unique praimacy. Sophie suspected that this was also related to the mysterious ruler—but after all, this was only one possibility. She couldn’t be sure whether Aiden was really clueless or pretending to be ignorant, leading her to disclose more information.
After pondering for a moment, she soon made a decision: Since she was already in prison, there was no hurry.
"Alright, if you don’t wish to mention it, I won’t insist," she gave a non-committal response, "In any case, I enjoyed our talk very much."
"To be honest, I’m not fond of prisoners like you who commit crimes on purpose to get into jail, but since things have come to this... I can only hope that you’ll follow the rules in there."
"Of course, what I said earlier about not causing trouble in your prison was the truth."
"Just to be safe, I’ll still have to transfer you to the core area," Aiden said, "Truth be told, it’s not a nice place to stay."
"But it’s safer there, isn’t it?" Sophie smiled faintly, "I have no objections."
"I’m glad you’re willing to cooperate."
Having said that, Aiden was just about to get up when there was a sudden knock on the office door.
