Free Web NovelChapter 60: Chapter 60 You’ve Been Sold_1
"If you kill someone now, you’ll never have a way back," Aiden said. "You’ll be nothing but her tool for murder, hunted by the Tribunal of Heresy, living like a rat in the streets."
"Don’t listen to him, he’s the one who used you as a tool." Meiruki Junne interrupted Aiden impatiently, "He’s the one who planted that demon contract on you, and if I hadn’t helped you remove it, he would certainly have killed you by now!"
"That’s right, if the demon contract were still on Avansa I wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, I don’t go easy on prison escapees," Aiden replied emotionlessly, glancing at Avansa, "I told you this as well, Avansa."
Meiruki Junne was slightly taken aback, this response was somewhat unexpected. She had thought Aiden would argue a bit, but he admitted it outright. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"But at least I don’t lie to you." Aiden looked straight into Avansa’s eyes, "This prison is the only place where you can truly live. Once you leave, you’ll only survive a few years in this woman’s lies, and then die miserably."
Avansa’s eyes widened, Aiden had told her outright that she couldn’t leave the prison.
Her intuition told her that Aiden wasn’t lying to her because she couldn’t think of a reason to refute him, and Aiden had never lied to her.
In the outside world, she was the queen of assassins, and countless people wanted to use her, and just as many enemies wanted her head.
If she left the prison, she would have to continue killing, returning to those blood-soaked days.
The next time she was caught, she would definitely be sentenced to death. Even if she could luckily evade capture, she wouldn’t live many years, with a body riddled with the corruption of magic potion and demon contract.
"Don’t listen to his nonsense, do it now!" Meiruki Junne urged Avansa, "Listen to Mommy, Vannie... I’m the only one in this world who loves you."
"You’ve turned her body into one that won’t live past thirty, and you can still say such rubbish without changing your expression. You’re really rotten to the core, Meiruki Junne!" Aiden said coldly, "Face reality, Avansa, no one in this world loves you. You’ll never have that in your life, but at least you still have the hope of living peacefully. That woman is the one who caused you all this harm; by getting rid of her, you can have that chance!"
A peaceful life...
Something stirred in Avansa’s heart. From a controlled assassin to a prisoner at the bottom, she had never experienced true freedom, and therefore she never found life in prison inconvenient.
If anything, the life here was incomparably more comfortable than her past one. There was no longer any need to live amidst the glint of knives, no need to be constantly on edge. All this, as long as she complied with the rules and refrained from killing.
Even if she lacked moral discernment, the profit-driven motivation lurking deep within her told her she should stay here.
One thing Aiden had learned from over a decade of work was that people are motivated by self-interest.
To reform a criminal, instead of using intangible emotions, it was more straightforward to make the prisoner understand that a legitimate life was more reliable than crime.
In the past two years, he had never deliberately tried to foster any emotional connection with Avansa. What he did was simply to arrange for Avansa to live as normally as possible within the prison.
As long as Avansa developed a hint of self-awareness, she would realize that her past life was even worse than that of a prisoner in the jail.
Seeing Avansa’s expression reveal uncertainty, Meiruki Junne sensed something was wrong. She reached out to grab Avansa’s shoulder, but at that moment, Avansa violently shook off her hand and put distance between them.
"Vannie?"
Not only was Meiruki Junne taken aback, but even Avansa herself looked astonished.
It was a reflex she couldn’t understand herself. By the time she came to her senses, she had already defied the command of her "mother."
"Well done," Aiden said with an appreciative smile.
Ophelia, who had been staring agitatedly on the side, finally couldn’t bear it any longer. "Stop dilly-dallying. If we drag this out any longer, the riot squad will be here! Kill this man first and get out of here!"
Meiruki grew increasingly impatient as she glared at Aiden. In the two years that Avansa freed herself from her control, this man had influenced Avansa more deeply than she had anticipated, even causing Avansa to resist her commands.
Although she very much wanted Avansa to kill the man herself, to completely eliminate his influence, it seemed that there was no more time for dawdling.
Now she could only settle for the next best thing, letting Ophelia and the others take action to kill Aiden, then forcefully take Avansa away and re-brainwash her later...
Avansa had rejected her command to kill, but at least she still held a certain awe of her, with no intention of turning against her. The fear rooted in her from the past brainwashing was not so easily eradicated.
"Fine, do it," Meiruki conceded.
Ophelia stepped forward, blood seeping from the wound on her wrist and forming the shape of a claw at her fingertips.
Asenna also began to mutter incantations, as a mist-like spiritual body coiled around the tip of her wand.
Daili’s magic was also ready to be unleashed, and the shadows beneath Aiden started to roil.
Aiden looked around warily and finally fixed his gaze on Ophelia.
"Don’t resist, just accept your death. Even if that brat refuses to make a move, how will you survive a four against one situation?"
Ophelia mocked Aiden, convinced that he was as good as dead, for no matter how strong the man was, he couldn’t possibly deal with attacks coming from the front, back, and below all at once.
She seized the right moment, leaped forward, and her blood-red claws extended from her hand, stabbing straight at Aiden’s throat.
Meanwhile, Asenna coordinated her magic attack, as the surging spiritual body in front of her wand took shape, manifesting her most proficient attack, the necrotic "Wraith’s Howl."
But just as the spell was ready to be unleashed, Asenna suddenly raised the wand that was pointed at Aiden’s back, lifting it just above his shoulder, aiming it at... Ophelia, who had jumped into the fray.
"Huh?" Ophelia was taken aback for a moment.
The next instant, a skull ghost face that had shot out from the end of Asenna’s wand transformed in front of her and emitted a soul-shaking wail at her.
Caught completely off guard, Ophelia was struck by this blow and fell to the ground. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Meiruki was dumbfounded, but before she could react, the pitch-black claws that had emerged from her own shadow grabbed her limbs and hoisted her up.
"What are you doing!?" Meiruki was horrified as she turned around, realizing that it was Daili’s summoned shadow demon that had captured her.
Daili looked up at her, smiling silently.
"You’re wrong, it’s actually three against two," Aiden said to Ophelia who was on the ground.
It took Ophelia some time to recover. She looked up at Asenna with a face full of disbelief. "Why!?"
"That’s the way it is," Aiden let out a breath, "you two have been sold out."
