"Little imp, do you need me to use ’Sacrifice’ to erase the memory you just had?" the Goddess of Revenge asked, standing beside Aiden.

"I’ll think about it later," Aiden replied.

At that moment, he realized Abigail was a

"I think it’s faster this way," Abigail said calmly.

"You could have just walked through the main entrance," Aiden sighed. "Why didn’t you contact me when you arrived?"

"That was my original plan, but I changed my mind as I was about to reach the gate. Your prison is surrounded by spies, and the Blood Moon Cult’s vampires are hiding around the jail..." Abigail spoke slowly, "To avoid being ambushed unexpectedly, I thought it would be better to slip in quietly."

"Even the followers have been gathered; it seems that guy is really planning to make a move today," Aiden said, furrowing his brow.

"Where are the prisoners that need healing?" asked Abigail.

"The plague is too virulent; I’ve already cured all the symptomatic prisoners. The problem is with some asymptomatic ones, and there could be another outbreak at any moment, so I’ll need your help then," Aiden explained. "Additionally, I hope you’ll allow us to keep in touch at any time using the Great Witch’s credentials."

"Do you need me to clean up those vampires on the way back?" Abigail asked. "My abilities are a perfect counter to theirs."

"No need; with the barrier up, they can’t get in. If they keep hiding outside, you might not be able to find and eliminate them all," Aiden replied, gesturing for her to follow. "Let’s go to the office first. I’ll update you on the situation."

"Okay," Abigail nodded quietly, following Aiden before taking a careful look around the corridor. "It feels like the hallway has been spruced up a bit since the last time, repainted."

"Most of the prison’s facilities have been refurbished in the last six months, which cost a fair amount of money, and that’s largely thanks to our collaboration with you..."

Boom!! 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Before Aiden could finish, a loud roar interrupted his speech.

"What’s that noise... Hmm?" Abigail frowned slightly. "Warden, is there a problem with your barrier?"

She keenly felt the oppressive force that had been interfering with her magic power since she entered had vanished, indicating that the prison’s Anti-Magic Barrier had a problem.

Upon hearing this, Aiden’s expression changed subtly. The recent roar seemed to come from a shallower location below, not the Mithril Dungeon where Melifilia was imprisoned, but rather the alchemy circle maintaining the Anti-Magic Barrier.

"Warden!" A guard hurriedly rushed over from around the corner of the corridor ahead. "The sealed area downstairs—"

"Take me there right now," Aiden interrupted her with a raised hand, then turned to Abigail, "Get in touch with Lamia and the others, tell them to keep an eye on the cell area!"

...

Meanwhile, in the core zone cells.

The prisoners in the jail started to stir.

"What’s that noise, thunder?"

"Strange, magic power..."

"Magic power is restored!"

"We can use magic again!!"

...

In this prison, over eighty percent of the inmates could use black magic, or they had some sort of magical power as a non-human species. When the barrier suddenly disappeared, everyone felt their magic power returning.

We can escape from here now—that was their first thought.

"Daili..." Presia whispered in cell number twelve, "don’t act rashly. We can’t handle it if too many people riot all at once."

"I know." Daili picked up her magic wand, "I’m worried about the rioting inmates seeking revenge on us."

They weren’t thinking about escaping for the time being, knowing that they had a deal with Aiden and some divine entity stored with him. There wasn’t much for them to do even if they did escape.

However, many inmates in the core area, like them on red alert, and yet not entirely obedient to the prison, were there. They could handle one or two escapees, but now that the magic abilities of all inmates in the entire prison had been restored, if a group of them started a collective riot, any attempt to stop it rashly would likely end in death.

Although they had promised to help Aiden maintain order in the prison, it really wasn’t worth risking their lives for.

On the contrary, serving Aiden had offended many inmates and now they were likely to become targets for revenge.

At this moment, Avansa, Camilla, Ophelia, and Asenna shared similar concerns, all realizing that the atmosphere in the prison was becoming somewhat strange.

This unprecedented accident was making many inmates restless; should someone take the lead, it could trigger an avalanche-like chain reaction, resulting in a riot of historic proportions.

"Feels like we won’t last a few seconds," Camilla nervously clenched her fists, starting to mentally count down to a large-scale riot.

One second... two seconds... three seconds... ten seconds... thirty seconds... one minute...

Yet a full two minutes passed and there was still no excessive commotion from the cells; the inmates were just whispering amongst themselves, with no one igniting the spark of riot.

"Hey, don’t you guys want to escape?" a necromancer in one cell shouted at another across the way.

"Well, you go first then!" a witch in the opposite cell retorted.

Another cell was quietly discussing inside: "Should we go? The barrier has actually disappeared, we won’t get this chance again if we miss this village!"

"Calm down, have you all forgotten what happened last time when we followed that idiot pirate in an escape attempt?"

"Could this be Aiden playing tricks on us?"

"Possible, we can’t afford to take the wrong side again!"

"Then should we wait for others to go first, then follow? If there’s trouble, we can still capture those in front and earn some merit!"

...

Inmates in the core area, one after another, gathered at the door, their eyes exchanging glances in the long corridor. No one could read others’ thoughts. Some wanted to escape, others didn’t; some doubted whether it was another catch-and-release trap by the warden, some thought about decreasing their sentences by capturing escapees rather than escaping with slim chances, and most were indecisive, just wanting to follow others’ actions—after all, the pioneers get shot at... The air thickened with suspicion.

To their surprise, Daili and her companions noticed that the prison had changed more than they thought over the past half-year. A year ago, such an incident would have likely led to the core area being razed to the ground by rioting inmates turning it into a bloodbath directed against the guards.

But now, Aiden’s influence over the prison had risen to the point where even his absence made inmates wary enough to restrain their actions. This influence had turned into an invisible collar around each person’s neck, limiting their moves.

The inmates... had suddenly become unusually self-aware.

But this didn’t mean the inmates would remain compliant forever. If the disappearance of the barrier persisted, those undecided inmates would gradually lean towards the decision to escape and the outbreak of a riot was only a matter of time.

Just then, an inmate suddenly reached out and twisted off the bars on the cell door.