Free Web NovelChapter 72: Chapter 72: Haunted_1
"Haunted?" Aiden strode down the corridor, his eyes widening involuntarily upon hearing Flandre’s report.
"Yes, you’ll understand once you see it."
As Aiden followed Flandre around the corner to the corridor near the solitary confinement cells, he stopped in his tracks.
The entire corridor was shrouded with mist-like spiritual bodies, faint wailing could be heard, and the air was cold and piercing, as if in the depths of winter.
The light streaming in from the windows seemed to be drained by some invisible presence, darkening the hallway unnaturally, giving it a forbidding atmosphere.
"It really is haunted," Aiden immediately agreed with Flandre’s statement.
The entire solitary confinement block had turned into a ghastly haunted house; they might as well put a table at this end of the corridor and sell tickets.
It looked manageable now, but come nightfall, Aiden guessed few guards would dare continue their shifts here.
In the memories Aiden had inherited as an investigator for the Heretical Inquisition, such phenomena usually occurred only in haunted houses or tombs besieged by wraiths and used as a stronghold by necromancers.
He recognized that these formless spiritual bodies wafting through the corridor were actually wraiths emanating malice. Contact with these entities could slowly sap one’s life force, weakening them progressively, making them considerably dangerous for the living, which is why Flandre and the others dared not approach hastily.
"These are drifting out from Cell One," Flandre said, pointing to a room closest to them, reminding Aiden that it was where the cadaverous Slyne was held.
Slyne had willingly subjected herself to the necromancer’s Resurrection Magic for vengeance, harboring an extremely powerful wraith-like nature.
If not for the magical seal imprisoning her magic power, she would emit strong malice as she was now.
Even with her magic power sealed, she still retained some eerie traits, one of which was that anyone sharing a room with her would repeatedly suffer nightmares upon falling asleep, which is why hardly anyone in the core zone wished to be her roommate.
"Is the sealing enchantment functioning properly?" Aiden asked offhandedly.
"I’ve checked; everything is normal," Flandre nodded. "Should we increase its strength?"
"No need for now. Go to the library and call Asenna over to handle this; I will take a look at the situation myself," Aiden gestured.
That Slyne’s wraith-like nature was showing despite the enchantment—normally suppressing her magic power—still functioning suggested that her magic power had surged suddenly.
But Slyne had been confined in the cell since yesterday and, theoretically, should not have had any opportunity to engage in any mischief.
"Warden, this could be dangerous," Flandre warned from the side.
"It’s fine, I can handle this level of threat."
Having said that, Aiden licked his right index finger and then drew a rune on his left hand. This was a simple spirit-dispelling protection spell, another piece of magic knowledge inherited from the previous Aiden.
Then, he approached Cell One, peeking inside through the barred window in the iron door.
At first glance, he did not see Slyne’s figure.
Could she be sitting by the door?
Thinking this, he cautiously moved closer to the barred window.
Right there, Slyne’s ghastly pale, zombie-like face suddenly rose from beneath the iron window, startling Aiden nearly to death on the spot.
He tensely tightened his entire body, barely managing to control himself from crying out loud.
This haunted house... truly thrilling.
"Inmate 3271, can you explain what’s going on here?" Aiden struggled to compose himself, asking Slyne with forced calm.
"Warden..." Slyne gazed at Aiden with those ghost fire flickering eyes, answering a question with a question, "Please let me out!"
"What do you want to go out for?"
"I want to kill Carmilla! She beat my son to death!!" Slyne gripped the bars tightly, "I can feel it... My time is running out! I must kill her now!!"
After listening, Aiden could only heave a long sigh, "Stop talking nonsense, how could I possibly allow an inmate to commit murder in my prison?"
"Let me kill her! Can you imagine how I feel, seeing my enemy right in front of me and not being able to kill her!?" Slyne banged on the iron window desperately, her accusing voice breaking into a sob.
Aiden fell silent for a moment, fully aware that there was no way to communicate with Slyne in her current state, unlikely to get anything useful out of her.
Slyne was a serious offender from the core area, a grim and dreadful revenant, but if one were to set aside the fear of her, this woman was essentially just an ordinary mother who had lost her son.
Aiden had seen in the records that Slyne’s son had joined a gang in order to raise money for his mother’s treatment and was only fifteen when he was beaten to death.
"You damn old hag, can’t you just shut up? Your raging spirit is making this place unlivable! I can’t even get a wink of sleep!!" freewebnøvel.com
Carmilla’s roar, along with the sound of her kicking a door, suddenly came from the end of the corridor.
Aiden turned his head and saw Carmilla’s grinding teeth, her face emerging from the room at the end of the hallway; they had deliberately detained the two adversaries in the two farthest rooms from each other.
The spiritual body inherent to Slyne couldn’t normally affect such a long distance, but now her grudge had unexpectedly spread like this, affecting Carmilla as well.
Though with the robust constitution of a dragonkin, she wasn’t likely to weaken from just a bit of grudge. Still, the spiritual impact was unavoidable; this grudge could put living beings in an agitated and tense state, causing nightmares whenever they closed their eyes to sleep.
"Murderer! Give me back my son’s life!!"
Slyne shrieked at Carmilla, her revenant’s scream was so piercing that Aiden got a headache, and he could only furrow his brow and cover his ears.
"Give you back what? I’m already serving time, aren’t I? Your son was nothing but a gang member, isn’t it normal for him to get beaten to death? Don’t push me too far!" Carmilla kicked the door furiously in response.
At that moment, Asenna walked over with her magic wand. Aiden saw her say nothing, just pointed to the solitary confinement where Slyne was held.
Asenna nodded, understanding, and with a wave of her wand, instantly dispersed the grudge that loomed in the corridor. Then she pointed the wand at Slyne, who was still shouting angrily. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
In an instant, the ghost fire in Slyne’s eyes extinguished, and then, she collapsed as if she had fainted.
Asenna had forcefully suppressed the resurrection magic on her with necromancy, temporarily interrupting her consciousness as if turning off a machine.
"Hey, jailer! I can’t take it anymore. Just open the door and let me end this old hag, once and for all!!" Carmilla banged on the prison door, shouting at Aiden.
"I’m already handling it, are you blind? Just stay in your room and behave," Aiden glanced over sternly.
Carmilla glared back at Aiden, gave the prison door another strong kick, then retreated back.
