Chapter 35
After leaving the visitation room with joy, a guard led me down the stairs.
Fortress Prison was designed like a maze to prevent prisoners from escaping. Every time you descended a floor, you couldn’t just go straight up to another floor in one go.
In other words, you couldn’t move from the basement to the top floor in a single flight of stairs. For example, to go from Basement Level 1 to the second floor, you had to climb one flight of stairs, walk down a long corridor, and then climb another set of stairs at the far end of the corridor.
No wonder meal distribution took so long. If the stairs had been conveniently designed, prisoners wouldn’t have been served cold food.
Anyway, this design had one more inconvenience besides making escapes difficult and chilling the food.
It was the leers thrown at anyone passing through the corridors. Prison cells weren’t enclosed by walls or doors that blocked the view; they were made of bars.
This meant that while guards could monitor prisoners from the outside, the prisoners could also watch anyone passing by in the corridors.
Even worse, the first-floor cells, where commoners were kept, were shared rooms with multiple inmates, unlike the solitary cells in the underground prison.
“Pretty thing, did you do well in your lawyer visit today? Seeing you so often with the lawyer, aren’t you getting close? If you cheat, will your traitorous knight shed tears? Haha!”
I ignored the prisoners whistling and waving from both sides. I just kept walking straight, hearing their jeers echo behind me.
“Hey, hey, don’t just look ahead. Talk to us a little! Acting all high and mighty, huh?”
Some glared disapprovingly, some mocked, and some shouted lewd insults. Sometimes the guards would bang the bars to quiet them, but not always, so I had to endure their unpleasant remarks as I passed.
Suddenly, even without the guards banging the bars, the prisoners fell silent. Someone had appeared from the opposite staircase and stopped midway in the corridor.
I stopped in my tracks, seeing someone I hadn’t expected to meet here. He also stopped in front of me.
It was none other than Rihardt, who should have been in the underground prison at this hour.
Why is Rihardt here?
He held a cardboard box containing all his belongings. I stared at his trembling eyes and asked,
“Rihardt… where are you going?”
The answer didn’t come from him but from someone else.
“Prisoner 14395 will stay in a first-floor cell starting today.”
“Why move him suddenly?”
Rihardt looked at me with a tender gaze.
“I don’t know whose order it was, but they told me to move cells. We can’t share food through the bars anymore.”
So, he could no longer sneak between cells at night to exchange meals.
Was it because of that? Had Kyle discovered that Rihardt and I had been secretly communicating past the guards’ eyes?
It was a reasonable guess, but with Kyle away from Fortress Prison, I couldn’t understand why Rihardt had to be moved now.
This would ruin my plan to escape with Rihardt. It would be harder to meet frequently and plan an escape like before.
I immediately protested.
“Moving cells like this is unreasonable! I’ll talk to the warden…”
“And who are you to refuse a cell transfer?”
A deep voice and heavy footsteps came from behind. Turning my head, I saw the head guard approaching.
“All prisoners must follow the guards’ instructions. You know what happens if you disobey, right?”
“Why suddenly move Rihardt’s cell?”
The head guard stopped, hands clasped behind his back, a dark shadow falling beneath his hat.
“That’s not for you to know.”
“Let me see Kyle. I’ll persuade him.”
“The warden hasn’t returned yet. As the warden’s absent, I am in charge of Fortress Prison. If you have something to say, speak to me.”
“But…!”
“Of course, I won’t grant any request to keep prisoner 14395 in the underground cell.”
Why was the head guard suddenly taking control over Rihardt? Or… was it me he was concerned about?
At his signal, the guards grabbed Rihardt by both arms to move him.
Perhaps sensing this might be their last moment together, Rihardt resisted and called out desperately,
“Veronica! Just a moment, please let me speak with you!”
“……”
“Can’t we at least exchange a proper greeting?”
“Wait! Don’t pull him away!”
But the guards ignored our pleas, silently pulling Rihardt and me in opposite directions.
I reached out, and he reached for my hand.
Our fingertips almost touched, but they slipped away. Rihardt couldn’t hold my hand.
The guard pressed my shoulder, pinning me in place, while Rihardt receded down the corridor until he was just a small figure inside the new cell.
I stared down the empty, silent corridor until the door closed behind him.
Then the head guard spoke in a subtly mocking tone.
“Such a heart-wrenching couple. Moving a cell, and you act like it’s a lifetime separation.”
I turned to glare at him, still waiting there.
“You’re the one who tortured Rihardt, aren’t you?”
“If by ‘torture’ you mean intense interrogation, then yes.”
This wasn’t Kyle’s order. With the warden absent, the head guard probably acted on his own.
But why? He had no reason to hold a grudge against Rihardt or me. His sudden hostility was puzzling.
He stepped closer, whispering threateningly.
“Instead of worrying about other prisoners, why not focus on your trial? You won’t have time to spare. Confident about the outcome, huh?”
“My lawyer and I are preparing. Barring any surprises, I can get a reduced sentence.”
“Is that so? Then your days in Fortress aren’t long. But remember this: mention Kaisnis in court even once, and you better hope to be transferred. Staying here would make your prison life unbearable.”
“……”
“I’ll make sure of it. Unlike the warden, I show no mercy to prisoners.”
The head guard left after issuing his sharp warning. I could only watch his indifferent departure.
For a brief moment, I was led back down to the underground prison by the guards’ hands.
Alone in the underground cell without Rihardt, it felt unusually quiet and lonely today.
Saying goodbye to Rihardt without a proper farewell was deeply frustrating.
Even if he were acquitted or transferred to another prison after a reduced sentence, this wasn’t a hopeful situation. I couldn’t simply accept the head guard’s unilateral decision.
Our plan to escape together was now in jeopardy.
Why is the head guard so loyal and troublesome?
I never thought someone I didn’t even care about would become such a hindrance. I bit my lip in frustration.
Honestly, I wanted to ignore his warning and expose Kyle as the real culprit in court. I was barely managing to get a reduced sentence, yet now I had to hide Kyle’s crime!
Ah! I want to blow everything up!
I had no chance to discuss plans with Rihardt, which made the frustration worse.
A few days later, with the trial approaching, I paced anxiously in my cell. Unlike me, Kyle appeared completely relaxed and summoned me.
