The warden who guards the witches.

The Knowing Warden

　　The confinement room of the Rose Iron Prison was a secret room of less than three square metres in size, with facilities that consisted only of a squatting pit and a washbasin filled with water; there was not even a bedpan, and the prisoners could only lie down on the floor next to the squatting pit under blankets to sleep. There were no windows in the room, and communication with the outside world was possible only through the delivery opening in the iron door and a small square of fence above it.

　　Prisoners are confined to a space of less than three square metres, where they eat, drink, sleep and sleep, and it is truly a life of days and years. Compared to this place, an ordinary cell could be considered a paradise, so the prison would use confinement as a means of punishment for prisoners who violated discipline.

　　Aiden personally brought Veronica into the confinement cell and closed the iron door, then went out and moved a chair to sit in the doorway.

　　"What are you doing sitting here?" Veronica stood in front of the iron door and stared at him with a frown.

　　"The holding cells are supposed to be watched, in case an inmate crashes into the wall in the holding cell and kills himself things get big." Aiden returned slyly.

　　"Then at least get a female prison guard, how am I supposed to go to the toilet when you're sitting here?" Veronica gave him a scathing look.

　　"Don't worry, I'll leave after a few chats." Aiden said placing a greaseproof paper bag in the delivery opening, "Eat?"

　　"What's this?" Veronica didn't take it right away, but could already smell the aroma coming from the grease paper packet - werewolves had far more sensitive noses than normal people.

　　"Open it and see if you don't know."

　　Veronica suspiciously opened the greaseproof paper packet, hot air with a strong aroma gushed out, and wrapped in the grease were a few pieces of roasted chicken wings and chicken thigh meat.

　　Veronica subconsciously gulped, the smell of grease, spices and honey being roasted by the fire was particularly enticing in this late night.

　　But she still restrained herself and stared at Aiden warily, "Nothing to offer, you didn't put any strange drugs in it."

　　"Save your breath, I don't want to lose my job yet." Aiden smiled disdainfully, "The stuff is here, you can eat it or not."

　　Veronica hesitated for a moment, but finally put the greasy paper bag away and turned to sit with her back against the iron door.

　　"What exactly do you want to do?" She asked through the iron door.

　　"Like I said, just wanted to have a chat with you, it's also the warden's job to keep an eye on the mental health of the inmates."

　　"Mental health? What the hell?" Veronica looked sceptical.

　　"I'm not kidding you, I've added the position of counselling the inmates in this prison." Aiden said in a serious tone, "Occasionally I'll interview the inmates and be a knowing warden."

　　The addition of psychological correction positions was also something Aiden had learnt from his experience in his previous life, and he had implemented this initiative before when he had not yet become a warden. The prison system in this world was still rather crude, and although there were already psychologists in the outside world, no one had ever thought to pay attention to the psychological problems of criminals.

　　"But what do we have to talk about?" Veronica relaxed a little.

　　"There's plenty, like your and my hobbies and annual income and whatnot ......"

　　"You're going on a blind date with a death row inmate?" Veronica got his joke and pulled her mouth up into a smile as well.

　　"Then talk about your murderous journey."

　　"I didn't kill anyone." The smile instantly faded from Veronica's face, and her voice sank with it.

　　"Then talk about how you were wrongly accused." Aiden said seamlessly.

　　"You ......" Veronica was stunned for a moment, "are willing to believe that I was wrongly accused?"

　　"How could I?" Aiden replied without hesitation, "This is a prison, filled with thieves, robbers, liars ...... and murderers, I dare not say there are no good people in the true sense of the word, but there are only a few. Few criminals have seriously faced their own culpability, all feel that they are wrongly accused, do our line of work most taboo easily believe the prisoners."

　　"Then why are you asking me?" Veronica's eyes dimmed.

　　"While I don't believe you at the moment, I'm willing to listen to what you have to say." Aiden leaned back in his chair and said calmly, "I've read your case file, and there really is something that doesn't make sense."

　　"......"

　　Veronica was silent for a long, long time, long enough to make Aiden wonder for a moment if she had fallen asleep.

　　Finally at last, Veronica spoke, "I don't know what to tell you when you ask me that. If I had killed someone, there's certainly a lot I could confess. But the truth is that I just didn't kill anyone, I was on patrol that day as usual, I came home from work as usual, and then the next day, I was somehow arrested."

　　"I see in the case file that you had a confrontation with the victim the morning of the murder, is that true?" Aiden simply asked the questions in order.

　　"Yes. I arrested the owner when their shop was selling fake alcohol. Then the family came to the police station and made a scene, it happens all the time." Veronica recounted calmly, "The person cursed me and tried to obstruct my office, I was going to detain her as well, but my colleague stopped me."

　　"How did she curse you?"

　　"I can't remember the rest, anyway, the worst curse was that I was a bastard born from a w***e screwing a dingo."

　　"Seriously, that really didn't get you killed?"

　　Putting his heart in the right place, Aiden himself found it impossible to listen to such over the top words without getting a headache.

　　But Veronica let out a cold laugh, "Heh, if I have to kill someone just for such a sentence, then I should have been killing people since I was eight years old, and I've been doing it since then. Warden, you're a normal person, I'm afraid you can't understand what it's like to experience being born different from others. I've been in the cavalry for almost six years, and there are corpses in the cavalry, and there are scum who take and take and take, and even if I don't compare myself to these people, I think I've done a pretty dedicated job. But even so, every month there are still anonymous letters from civilians sent to the police force, making comments in the hope that my superiors will sack me, the only reason being that I'm a werewolf, and those letters have cursed me even worse than that."

　　"Okay, so ......" Aiden was a little embarrassed for a moment and hurried to get the conversation back on track, "What time did you return your sidearm, that day?"

　　"Exactly half past twelve." Veronica answered in seconds.

　　"The victim was killed at twenty minutes past twelve, that's why you were suspected." Aiden nodded, "The crime scene was in the precinct you patrol, wasn't it, weren't you around at the time of the murder?"

　　"Because of what happened that morning, I was switched to patrol other precincts in the evening, and my superiors were worried that I might start a dispute when I passed by that pub."

　　"But in the end, the investigation team determined that you snuck into that pub while on patrol and killed someone because the sidearm you left in the vault was missing a bullet." Aiden mentioned the most crucial piece of evidence.

　　"This, I honestly don't know what's going on ......," Veronica lowered her eyes, "I just returned my sidearm that day as usual, and I checked it when I picked up my sidearm to go on patrol, and during that time I didn't even fired a gun."

　　"Are you serious?" Aiden frowned furiously.

　　"I'm telling the truth, believe it or not."

　　Veronica said back without a good grace, Aiden's sudden doubt making her feel a little uncomfortable inside.

　　"No, I mean, you really can't figure out what's going on? If you didn't kill the people, it's obvious that there's only one possibility."

　　"What are you saying?" Veronica pricked up her ears at once.

　　"If what you're saying is true, then of course the person manning the custodian vault committed perjury to frame you ah."