The Prison

"Pwehehe!" Chirped several prisoners who tried their best not to laugh out loud. Because after their long effort to open the prison lock with a stick, they finally succeeded. "Boss, our door can finally be opened! Here, let me open yours too." They said to the prison next door, where their captain was being held.

"Hh, don't mind me. You guys just go ahead before the guards come back." Said Irigen who was still slumped at the end of the room. Unlike his subordinates, not only was he locked up, he was also chained and shackled so he couldn't use his magic.

"It's okay!" Replied the fat and short one. "My ex-wife just gave the guards sleeping pills, so they won't wake up until noon!"

"But you'll need until evening to open my shackles." Irigen said again. But because his men were still seriously tricking the door lock, he raised his voice. "I told you not to, you idiot!" He shouted. "If I run away now I won't be able to meet that woman again!"

With confused faces, his three underlings looked at each other. "Boss, why are you being so naive? Have you forgotten that nobles never keep their word?"

But Irigen smiled instead. "But that woman is not a noble."

"But she is the girlfriend of a noble!"

"Of course not." Irigen replied, still stubborn. "Judging by the way they bicker, they must hate each other."

"Me and my second wife also used to fight every day, but she still accepted my proposal!"

Hearing it from a man who had 3 wives, Irigen was shaken. "...Really?"

"Of course! Within 2 days, they'll definitely get married!" He replied again. And as soon as they were able to unlock it, they went straight to Irigen prison to start removing the shackles too.

"Oi, just leave my legs!" Irigen exclaimed then. "Just take off the shackle in my hands so I can use my magic--"

Knock Knock. But suddenly they heard someone knocking on the iron frame at the door. That's Loir.

"Who would've thought that you have such good subordinates now? Even though your old ones left you without second thoughts." He said, which of course started to draw out his sword and brandishing it on those 3 lousy pirates. "Ah, or they just don't know your true nature yet."

But instead of listening to Loir's chatter, Irigen's gaze was already fixated on the women standing outside the door. "You really came!" He exclaimed. 'And she looks even prettier!'

Although the one who answered it was still Loir. "Well, she's worried that your wound hasn't healed yet. So she wanted to check it." He said, and he turned towards Aria. "I told you he's fine. Too fine in fact."

But because Aria still had a worried face, Loir sighed softly. "Fine, you can check him. While I chained them up." He grumbled as he started herding the 3 pirates back to their prison cells.

And after making sure that Loir was some distance away, Aria finally walked into Irigen's cell and kept her voice as low as possible. "I'm so sorry. If only I had come earlier, you and your men might have already escaped from here." She said, rather felt bad.

So of course Irigen was confused. "Aren't you the one who will get in trouble if I run away now?"

"Well, maybe." She replied with a bitter chuckle. "Rather than that, does your wound still hurt or anything? Even though it has closed, you might still feel the sword's curse."

"Huh? O-Of course! It still hurts a lot!" He replied.

Aria knew that Irigen might be exaggerating, but she checked anyway. Though than the scars, what was more worrisome were the shackles that held his hands together. The problem is that unlike the ordinary one, not only the wrists, it also held his whole arms.

And by the way it looked, it also seemed that it had a setting that would injure his hands immediately if he tried to use any magic.

"...Doesn't this hurt?"

"It is! And you know what's worse? I can't scratch my itchy head!" Replied Irigen. His answer eased her worries a bit, but Aria knew Irigen wasn't lying.

"Alright, miss Aria." But then Loir returned. "It's time to go back. Your two friends seem to be making trouble upstairs." He said.

And with somehow a heavy heart, Aria was forced to leave Irigen. Although oppositely, Irigen looked just fine. "See you again, miss!" He said brightly.

But as soon as Aria and Loir returned to the main lobby, the sight that greeted them was the figure of Mr. Bishop who was pulling the collar of one of the soldiers--and Feny who was hanging on his neck as if intending to break his neck.

"W-What are you guys doing?" Called Aria who hurriedly ran over to Feny and pulled her down from the poor soldier.

Although even in that situation, Mr. Bishop still went back to his protest. "On the poster it clearly says 100 gold coins. Why is it only 50?!" He complained as he slammed the money bag in his hand onto the table. "Give the remaining half!"

"Commoners like you may not know, but that's what taxes are!" Replied a bald soldier there. "And I even heard that it wasn't you who actually caught those pirates." He added.

Everyone immediately turned towards Aria. So while trembling, she replied, "Bu-But even so, isn't tax usually takes only one-tenth?"

"It's gone up to twenty." replied the soldier. "And that doesn't include the costs of managing Irigen and all of his men, which are more than 20 too. So that's all you can get."

"And why should we have to bear all of that?" Feny protested too.

"Because you're the one who brought them here!"

"How does that make sense?! You piece of clams--"

For a few moments, everyone immediately went back to arguing and shouting at each other. It was so crowded that Aria couldn't even interrupt one bit. Rei had indeed said that they would not give it away easily, but who would have thought that they would pull each other's hair like this.

"W-What should I do…?!"

But when she was panicking like that, Loir suddenly patted her shoulder lightly and smiled a little. "They're quite stubborn, I see. Did you promise to give them a share if they help you?" He asked, though Aria could only stay silent.

"Then I'll help." He continued. "As long as you're willing to have dinner with me later. How about that?"

"..." Aria knew she had to say no, but in this situation, rejecting him didn't feel right either. And because she also couldn't call Feny for help, Aria was forced to think by herself. "Um, b-but I have other business this evening."

"Then how about after this? I could at least show you around how to spend that much money." Loir suggested again.

Aria had actually planned to help Mr. Bishop's work and move to Rei's rented house later, but no one would complain to her if she postponed that plan, right?

"...In that case, please help me." Aria finally said, even though she already had a feeling that she might regret it.

With a satisfied smile, Loir walked over to his bald friend. "They're right, you know." He started. "Detention management should not be borne by them. The problem is if we do, our wages should also be deducted every time we put someone in prison, don't you think?"

With a sharp silence, his colleague's expression immediately contorted with gloom. "Mr. Gerard will not like your attitude."

"...Yeah, what's new?" Replied Loir flatly, who then raised his voice again. "Plus, the actual tax deduction has been calculated before we wrote it on the poster. The original reward was nearly 130, so 100 coins was already the whole reward." He continued.

"I already guessed!" Exclaimed Mr. Bishop.

The bald soldier still looked irritated and looked like he was going to punch Loir. But then Loir smiled first and patted his shoulder. "Just give them the money, will you? What's so hard about it? It's not like we use our money either."