Free Web NovelChapter 379: Chapter 379: The Escape Journey_1
Aiden felt a bit dazed.
A princess from the Empire? In his prison? And now being pursued by the Gistastonian Secret Police led by Earl Hofman?
He had originally assumed the criminal was probably just an ordinary person almost driven to sell themselves by usurers, never imagining that such a big fish would come in.
"I have heard of your deeds, and judging from the fact that you are being hunted by the secret police, it must be quite close to the rumors, right?" Aiden suppressed the astonishment in his heart and said calmly, "But I didn’t expect you to flee to the autonomous state... No, were you originally from the autonomous state?"
"I was born in Pine City because my mother is from the autonomous state, and my father didn’t let me obtain Gistastonian citizenship, after all, I’m just an illegitimate daughter," Sera replied.
"If you were a Gistastonian, maybe you would have been sent there after the trial," Aiden responded, "Did your father do this to protect you?"
"To protect me, he shouldn’t have let me be born into this world," Sera said with a cold expression.
Aiden could see that she was in low spirits, but he couldn’t think of any comforting words at the moment. After some thought, he decided to be a bit more realistic, "Committing a crime on purpose to get into prison is still a crime. Your plight is indeed sympathetic, but at least you’re safe now. Gistastonian’s Royal Secret Police may be powerful in their own country, but they can’t cover the sky with one hand in the autonomous state."
"They won’t give up. They will find a way to have me die in prison," Sera suddenly said, staring intently into Aiden’s eyes, "You could also sell my life to them directly, couldn’t you? My life is valuable now."
After laying out the situation, the fear that came from the unknown disappeared, replaced by a sudden surge of desperate courage. Contrary to her earlier evasive and timid gaze, she now dared to look straight at Aiden, issuing this soul-searching challenge.
"Sell you?" Aiden raised his eyebrows slightly, "This place is a prison, not a slave market... Forget it, even if I gave some sort of assurance, you wouldn’t necessarily believe it, right? I now know the reason why Gistastonians are hunting you, but how did you manage to escape to Silvertown?"
"I originally lived in the Evergreen District of Pine City, which is very close to Gistastonians. The day after the new king was enthroned, I received an anonymous letter, telling me to leave immediately. At first, I was skeptical, but after thinking about it overnight, I still packed up and went to the tavern to hire a bounty hunter with a good reputation as a bodyguard..."
"Thinking of hiring a bodyguard right away? Your ability to act is indeed not bad," Aiden commented.
Sera’s expression stiffened slightly, and she replied, "Someone taught me what to do in dangerous situations. Since I didn’t have a clue, the bodyguard found a place near my home that was suitable for surveillance, suggesting I live there with her to observe for a while, and then the next day we had a group of secret police in plainclothes break into my residence," Sera replied.
"If they were in plainclothes, how did you know they were secret police?" Aiden asked, raising his hand. freewebnovel.cσ๓
"Because I recognized the person leading them, he is a leader of the secret police..."
"Earl Hofman?" Aiden raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," Sera said, lowering her eyes.
"The Director of the Royal Secret Police personally looking for you, your brother the king really gives you face," Aiden nodded, "Speaking of which, you actually recognize Earl Hofman? He must have been in disguise when he came for you."
As the name suggests, secret police are not the kind to show their faces easily, and their missions are generally not made public by the media. The images of people arrested or executed by the secret police might make the newspapers, but the secret police involved in the cases are usually not reported. Earl Hofman is quite well-known, but Aiden doesn’t have his photograph.
And the princess was actually able to recognize the person from their hiding place from a great distance away.
"When my father was alive, he had assigned him as my language teacher and bodyguard for a while. We... were very close," Sera said, exhaling deeply. "I’ve seen him in disguise before, I can recognize him."
"Since he was previously assigned to protect you, how can you be sure he’s here to lead people to kill you?" Aiden asked again.
"If he was here to protect me, would it be necessary to bring a bunch of people in the middle of the night to pry open my door, and then search my house?" Sera’s face showed a somewhat desolate smile, "He even personally assembled men to encircle Sang City. When the bounty hunters took me away from Sang City, the pursuers... opened fire on us!"
"I see, the Royal Secret Police are loyal to the king, and with the new king, the object of their loyalty changes," Aiden nodded, "and then you fled all the way to Silvertown?"
From Sera’s reaction, her relationship with Earl Hofman seemed to be more than very close.
However, this was not important to Aiden. What he was more concerned about was whether all this was merely a coincidence or Melissa’s arrangement.
"We wanted to take a train to the Empire, where Gistastonian forces have a hard time operating. Initially, we planned to transfer through Black Iron City, which is closer, but we encountered pursuers along the way, and then we switched to Silvertown," Sera answered.
Dragon Spine Empire and the Kingdom of Gistas have been long-standing enemies. Secret agents from Gistas would almost certainly be treated as spies if discovered in the Empire, so there was nothing wrong with their travel plans.
"Who decided on the itinerary?" Aiden inquired.
"I proposed going to the Empire, then she took me towards Black Iron City; when that route was blocked, we diverted to Silvertown," Sera replied.
"So why did you hide in jail after arriving here?"
"The secret police arrived in Silvertown before us and had locked down the train station. After the bodyguard realized that pursuers from Gistas were the ones after us, she abandoned the mission right here and told me to figure it out myself. When I was at my wit’s end, hiding in jail was her suggestion," Sera answered honestly.
"How did you originally choose this bodyguard?" Aiden asked another question.
"I found an agency; they recommended a few people, and I picked the one with the best reputation," Sera frowned slightly.
Aiden fell into deep thought after listening.
The entire itinerary from the start was filled with uncertainties. It seemed as if the bodyguard led Sera here, but the bodyguard was also chosen by Sera herself. Moreover, the bodyguard did not initially plan to come to Silvertown. If they had not encountered resistance on their way to Black Iron City, they would not have ended up in Silvertown.
If it was the conspiracy of the goddess of schemes arranged through computation, the whole event would be more predictable... Of course, it’s also possible that the opponent’s arrangement was actually more meticulous than he had imagined, and Sera’s description did not reveal the full scope of her plans.
But the reminder from the anonymous letter was rather crude. If Sera had given it a night’s thought, it would have been another outcome; her escape journey would have been over before it even began.
Who sent that letter, after all?
