Book 7: Chapter 30: Locked Up |
“Arrest you?” Lauren’s mouth twitched violently. She sized Lilith up again and again with a serious look, as though trying to confirm whether something was fundamentally wrong with her.
“Miss Jasmine.”
“Hm?”
“You said before that you were a doctor, right?”
“I think I did.”
“Then why don’t you examine your own brain first?!” Lauren slammed her hand onto the table and shouted furiously, “Demanding that I arrest you for no reason at all, do you seriously have some kind of illness?!”
“How could you say that?” Lilith puffed out her chest and declared with utmost seriousness, “I’m doing this for love and justice!”
“Hah?”
Love and justice? Wasn’t this obviously because there was something wrong with her head?
“Well… technically, yes.”
“Second, isn’t handling stuff like that your Inspection Bureau’s responsibility?”
“…It is indeed under the Inspection Bureau’s jurisdiction…”
“And the criminals are standing right in front of you, so shouldn’t you arrest them?”
“If they’re criminals, then of course we should, but—”
“Then doesn’t that settle it?”
Lilith leaned across the table enthusiastically, grabbed both of Lauren’s hands, and shook them vigorously with tears glimmering in her eyes.
“As criminals, we’ve deeply realized the sins of our actions and understood how we’ve stained the beautiful things in this world. We’ve been consumed with guilt, unable to sleep or eat in peace. In the end, in order to uphold the love and justice of this world, we voluntarily came here to surrender ourselves. Now that you think about it, doesn’t that sound perfectly reasonable?”
“It sounds reasonable my a̲s̲s̲!” Lauren nearly collapsed on the spot. “There’s seriously nobody like you people, okay?! Most people would do everything possible to avoid punishment, but you’re voluntarily throwing yourselves straight into the muzzle of a gun! And besides…”
Her expression suddenly turned suspicious. “I have this feeling that you two are plotting something.”
“Nonsense!” Lilith stood up and pointed righteously at her own utterly serious face. “Look at us. Do we look like people with some sinister scheme?” She abruptly grabbed Liana beside her and squished the soft flesh of her cheeks. “Look at how dumb she looks. Does she seem capable of plotting anything?”
“Mghh… Mountain Ghost is so mean…”
“Ahem. Anyway, Miss Lauren, you have to trust us. Everything we’re doing is for the sake of upholding love and justice.” Lilith pushed Liana aside, coughed twice, and continued, “Think about it. Even the third young miss of the Ye Family getting thrown into prison for breaking the law… what an enormous deterrent that would be for other criminals.”
“Whether it’s intimidating or not, I don’t know,” Lauren replied flatly. “What I do know is that once Landon finds out our Inspection Bureau arrested his daughter, he’ll probably come here and fight us to the death.”
“Wouldn’t that just make things even bett— ahem.” Lilith rubbed her hands together and winked. “Then just don’t tell him, right?”
“……” Lauren fell silent.
“Sigh, looks like there’s no other choice.” Seeing that Lauren remained completely unmoved, Lilith reluctantly unleashed her trump card. “Then we’ll just obediently leave and go around telling everyone outside that the Inspection Bureau was intimidated by the Ye Family’s influence. The Ye Family openly assaulted people right in front of the Inspection Bureau, yet you people didn’t even dare fart. But I’m sure the mighty and magnanimous Inspection Bureau wouldn’t care about a few rumors like that, right?”
With that, Lilith grabbed Liana and prepared to leave.
“You—!” Lauren was furious. At this point, Lilith was practically threatening the Inspection Bureau outright. But the worst part was that Lauren genuinely couldn’t treat that threat as a joke. Because the very foundation of law enforcement was trust.
The Inspection Bureau truly couldn’t do much against the Ye Family, but that was the sort of thing everyone understood privately without saying aloud. It absolutely could not be dragged into the open.
The moment it became public knowledge, the Inspection Bureau would be finished.
“Fine. Fine! Since you want it that badly, I’ll grant your wish.” Grinding her teeth, Lauren turned toward her subordinates and ordered, “Men, cuff them and throw them into the cells.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The officers immediately placed handcuffs on Lilith and Liana.
Lilith wore a cheerful grin and cooperated willingly. “Oh right, there’s something I wanted to ask.” Just before being led away, Lilith suddenly spoke up.
“What is it?” Lauren frowned immediately, afraid she was about to pull some bizarre stunt again.
“It’s nothing major, really. I just wanted to ask one thing…” Lilith leaned closer and asked expectantly, “Do you provide meals here?”
Lauren: ???
***
The prison was dark, damp, and oppressive. The anguished cries of prisoners echoed endlessly through the corridors. This place was the nightmare of every criminal in Maplefall Town, a hell no one ever wished to enter a second time after experiencing it once.
And yet, at this moment, two utterly out-of-place girls skipped into the prison while humming little tunes and bouncing along with light steps.
“So this is a prison?” Lilith looked around curiously.
“Wow, those chains are huge.” Liana also found everything fascinating. This was her first time ever visiting a place like this.
“Other than the poor lighting, it actually looks pretty nice.”
“Nice… heh…” Walking ahead of them was Lauren. She had originally intended to let her subordinates handle the escort, but came personally just in case.
“Lauren, you b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲! If you’ve got guts, let me out and fight me one-on-one!” The moment Lauren appeared, a heavily battered man rushed forward baring his teeth while violently shaking the iron bars. It looked as though he held a blood feud against her.
“His name is David. He was the mastermind behind the family massacre a year ago, the kind of monster who personally drowned two infants to death.” As Lauren led the way, she thoughtfully provided commentary along the route.
In truth, she was trying to scare the two girls a little. Unfortunately for her, these two mentally questionable young ladies showed no signs of being frightened whatsoever. Lilith even walked up and greeted the prisoner on her own initiative.
“Go ahead and keep yelling. Starting today, we’re neighbors now.”
David shot her a cold glance without saying a word.
“Oh my, that’s not very friendly.” Lilith scratched her head, completely unconcerned.
“You two will stay here for now.” Lauren found a relatively clean cell without other prisoners inside and opened the door. “Get in.”
“Okay, okay.” Lilith and Liana obediently entered the cell.
“And don’t cause any trouble for me.” Lauren shut the cell door and issued a warning.
“How could we?” Lilith looked perfectly innocent. “We’re just two weak little girls with no strength to even tie up a chicken. Now we’ve even been locked in prison. How could we possibly cause trouble?”
“I certainly hope so.” Lauren turned to leave.
But suddenly, Lilith reached her hand through the gap in the iron bars and grabbed the corner of Lauren’s clothes. She looked at her with sparkling anticipation. “Hungry hungry. Food food.”
“…I got it.” Lauren impatiently shook her off. “Lunch will be delivered soon.”
“I want pork chop rice. I heard it pairs perfectly with prison cells.”
“…You really do have a strong sense of ceremony, don’t you?” Lauren’s mouth twitched.
“Hehe.”
“That wasn’t a compliment, you idiot!” Lauren nearly choked from anger. She truly didn’t want to remain here for even another second. After leaving the prison, she casually pulled over one of her subordinates. “Go buy food for those two weirdos. And while you’re at it, notify the Ye Family to come retrieve their young miss.”
“And before the Ye Family arrives, if those two have any more requests…” Lauren pondered for a moment before gritting her teeth and saying, “As long as it’s not excessive, do your best to satisfy them.”