The warden who guards the witches.

There Is Only One Truth

　　"This is ...... Veronica's trial meeting?" Aiden responded.

　　"Yeah yea, in her broken dreams this scene is the most frequent." Faye was sitting alongside him in the seat next to him, and handed up a paper bag full of popcorn.

　　Aiden didn't take it and eat it, he still wasn't sure if the chimera would take advantage of the opportunity to screw him over, or maybe in reality he was cuddling and chewing on the pillows in the infirmary while he was eating in this dream.

　　This was a very strange trial session, the judge, prosecutor and jury members were all giants over three metres tall, all of these giants had no eyes and ears, their five senses were only left with their noses and huge mouths, it was very weird to look at.

　　And there were only two of them alive in the gallery, and all the other seats were filled with puppets with no facial features. After the judge pronounced the sentence, the hands of all these puppets seemed to be lifted up by invisible silk threads and began to applaud.

　　"Death penalty! Death penalty! Death penalty!" The puppets shouted in unison, repeating the judge's pronouncement - they had no throats or mouths, but they shouted nonetheless, as if there was a transparent puppeteer behind each puppet, who was using ventriloquism in unison.

　　"Why do all these people look so strange?" Aiden looked around.

　　"It's her dream world, and dreams are supposed to be strange. The images of these characters evolved based on the impressions these people had in her subconscious." Faye replied as she ate her popcorn.

　　"And what about her being like this herself?" Aiden pointed to the defendant's table again.

　　A little girl with wolf ears and a cool resemblance to Veronica was standing at the defendant's table, looking around at her hands and feet, her eyes overflowing with tears.

　　"A lot of people will dream about their childhood selves when they're insecure." Faye explained calmly, "In their memories, childhood is the time when they are at their most vulnerable. As soon as they taste a feeling of helplessness or aggression in adulthood, they will connect that feeling with memories of their childhood."

　　After hearing Faye's explanation, Aiden understood a little.

　　This was the impression that trial session had left in Veronica's mind: a trial where the prosecutor who accused her, the judge and jurors who tried her were giants she was powerless to fight, giants who were too blind and deaf to see the truth or listen to her defence.

　　The crowds of spectators were dumb puppets who cheered the end of the "evil werewolf biker brought to justice" without realising that they were being hoodwinked and manipulated.

　　She herself, even though she was born with the power of a pure-blooded werewolf, was still a weak and helpless little girl at the opposite end of the spectrum.

　　"Death penalty! Death penalty! Death penalty! Death penalty!"

　　The judge, the jury, the prosecutor, and the puppets in the gallery shouted in unison, while holding out a hand in a thumbs-down gesture.

　　In the old days, when the bad practice of slave gladiatorial combat still existed, the spectators would collectively vote on the life and death of the loser after a deadly fight, with the thumbs up signifying that they allowed the loser to live, and the thumbs down urging the winner to put the loser to death.

　　Veronica opened her mouth in aggravation and cried out, but not a sound could come out of her throat, it was as if an invisible barrier covered her and cut off all sound she could make.

　　The sound of the entire courtroom screaming at her to die was deafening, but all she could do was wave her hands comically and open her mouth in vain, as if she were in a silent film.

　　Aiden watched the absurd scene in silence, in reality countless people feared Veronica who was a pureblood werewolf, her violence and strength made the guards and prisoners fear her, it was assumed that the people and fellow inmates who knew she was a werewolf felt similarly.

　　In Veronica's own subconscious, however, everything was reversed; everyone here wanted to kill her, but she was simply powerless to resist.

　　Still, Aiden was very cautious, "That alone doesn't conclude she's innocent, does it? I've seen plenty of prisoners with twisted minds who insist that their crimes are justified and decide that the trial by law is a form of persecution against them."

　　"But I've seen many scenes in her dreams, but I just haven't found one that relates to the scene of her murder. If she was so concerned about her being sentenced to death, how is it possible that she didn't have any deep impression of the fact that she killed someone? It's quite counterintuitive." Faye raised a finger with a look of certainty, and even used her illusion to conjure up a detective's hat and pipe for herself, "So there's only one truth, she's been wrongly accused!"

　　"Okay, I see what you're trying to say." Aiden nodded thoughtfully, "Undo the illusion."

　　Faye snapped her fingers and Aiden's consciousness returned from the illusion to reality in the blink of an eye, just as Flanda pushed her way in from outside to salute him, "Warden!"

　　"Asked what?" Aiden responded, looking back.

　　"Their statements didn't match up at all during the first interrogation, so I asked them again, here are the transcripts." Flanda respectfully handed over the transcript.

　　Aiden quickly flipped through it, Anna and Catherine's confessions at the beginning both pointed the finger at Veronica, but many details contradicted each other, obviously there were problems - but it was understandable, Veronica's halfway killing was a completely unexpected situation for them, from the time they were fatally beaten up by Veronica to the time they were being escorted by the riot squad they didn't have a chance to match up their statements. They didn't have a chance to get their calibre right.

　　Then when they were interrogated by Flanda for the second time, their confessions became slightly more believable, they admitted to the fact of extorting Faye, most of the details were consistent with what Veronica and Faye had stated, the only contradiction was that they accused each other of being the main culprits of extorting Faye, and they themselves were just coerced accomplices.

　　"These two are really righteous people." Aiden smiled mockingly and handed the transcripts back to Flanda, "Both of them are put in confinement for ten days, with their treatment level reduced to the lowest. The extortion thing is going to be a separate case, congratulate them with their sentences being extended again."

　　"Understood, what should we do with Veronica on death row ......?" Flanda asked cautiously, after realising that she had almost wrongly blamed Veronica for being dictatorial, her attitude became cautious.

　　"Half a day in solitary confinement, then send her back to her room in the morning." Aiden immediately gave his instructions.

　　"Does she ...... have to be confined as well?" Flanda was a little hesitant.

　　"Hands to stop the two people in room six can be considered to be righteous and not pursued, but the soap she threw on the floor made the other inmates slip and crash, this fault is still partially responsible, we have to follow the rules and regulations." Aiden smiled.

　　"Okay, I understand, then I'll transfer someone from the night shift to watch her." Flanda responded.

　　"No, I'll go myself." Aiden waved his hand, "It just so happens that I have something to ask her alone."