Chương 143: The One They Call The Strongest
A few days passed since Sebastian entered the prison, after frequent contact with Scotch, he managed to narrow down the location of the Inheritor he was looking for to a single floor.
The only problem was that the floor was near the deepest level of the prison. The deeper one went underground, the hotter the cells would be.
"Are they crazy? Who would build a prison inside a volcano?"
The prison was an active volcano, and they made a prison by remodeling it with the power of a Sage.
But, even if one had the power to do something, they didn't necessarily have to do it.
Volcania by itself was a country with many active volcanoes and frankly speaking, a volatile country that could collapse at any day. Even with the power of a Sage, stopping multiple eruptions wasn't something that could easily be done.
Nevertheless, the country stood its ground until today. When volcanoes erupted and covered the houses with ash, the people built on top of them. When lava spread, they created channels to divert them. They managed to live in a dangerous environment by adapting to their surroundings.
"Just goes to show how much they don't want these prisoners to see the light of day…"
During Sebastian's stay here, he realized that while it was indeed the most secure prison on the continent, it still wasn't safe from corruption. Many that came here were either falsely accused or committed crimes that weren't worthy of the death penalty, but had them worsened through other means.
'A rough estimate would be thirty percent of the prisoners are the result of corruption.'
The rest were true death row inmates.
There was only a little more than a week left for Sebastian to find the Inheritor and escape. Scotch wasn't able to get his cuffs off but as long as he had a weapon, he could still do something.
'According to Scotch, they should be coming around…'
And as expected, the ones he was waiting for arrived. A couple of armed guards that were sent to inspect the cells periodically.
It didn't take long for them to reach Sebastian's cell and after they made him go to the corner, he waited. When they were just about done looking through his cell for anything, Sebastian stepped forward and tripped on his chain.
"Woah!"
He fell down face first with his arms raised. The guards looked at him as if they were looking at an idiot before leaving the room.
Once they were out of sight, Sebastian sat down on the ground and revealed a dagger in his hand.
"Bringing extra weapons for insurance isn't the wisest option."
Sebastian smirked and hid the dagger under the stack of hay. Though he was an assassin, it wasn't as if he only had jobs that involved killing people. He had a plethora of things to do and from them, he learned various skills he wouldn't have learned living honestly.
Sleight of hand, for example. Sebastian managed to steal a sheathed dagger in an instant without letting either of the guards know. Though, they'll probably know soon, they wouldn't be able to find it.
…
"Did you get it?"
"Yeah."
"Are you sure about this? If you get caught, forget the chopping block, they'll cut you down on the spot. There are no ordinary guards here, all of them are Inheritors trained to kill."
"This weapon is just insurance."
"Hah… We have a couple of people to spare, do you want them?"
"...Actually, I do. Can they cause a commotion for me?"
"You want a distraction? Well, they can, but I doubt it'd be big enough to lure guards from the other floors."
Scotch gestured with his head. Sebastian followed the direction he pointed to and saw around give guards.
"There are at least twenty guards on this floor alone. Even if they do cause a commotion, it'll only last for a couple of minutes. You still want it?"
"I have a way."
Sebastian looked around as he lifted more planks of wood before talking.
"The guards will conduct a search because of the dagger soon, your boys just need to cause a commotion during that time. It'd be best if they riled up a few other prisoners as well."
"Hoh… Great idea. If the prisoner has a potential weapon on them, it'd attract more attention. What will you do about the other floors?"
"I can handle it."
"Alright, I'll trust you. Also, Rex says he wants to meet you."
"Where is he?"
"By the quarry."
"..."
Sebastian looked at Scotch with a blank expression. Scotch flashed him a grin and slapped the giant rock beside him a few times.
Resigning himself to his fate, Sebastian sighed and carried the planks to their spot before lifting one of the rocks. The veins on his muscles and face bulged until he managed to stabilize himself. He let out a deep breath and took his first step.
It may have just been his imagination but the ground felt like it shook with each step. He had lifted heavier things with the help of energy but this was the first time he did so without it. It weighed at least five adult men, if Sebastian were to roughly gauge it.
Scotch whistled in admiration seeing him walk. Though Sebastian's muscles were well-defined, Scotch didn't think he would be able to lift the stone without the help of energy.
After all, he was twice as big as him and his arms were thicker than Sebastian's legs. If thugs were to come across him, they'd bow their heads and run the other way, that was how threatening he looked.
Yet, Sebastian managed to keep a consistent walking pace even when Scotch had trouble with it.
Sebastian did his best to maintain his breath and managed to reach the quarry in a quarter of an hour. He dropped the giant rock on its spot and sat down on the floor. He slicked back his sweaty hair with his hand as a woman approached him.
"Sebastian, was it? I'm Liz, Rex's right hand, nice to meet you."
"It's a pleasure."
Sebastian shook her outstretched hand. Her hand was rough and coarse, as expected of someone working in a place like the quarry. She also had more muscle than the average prisoner.
"It's pretty impressive to lift something as heavy as this. I expected you to arrive in around two hours at the earliest."
"I've received those kinds of comments a lot. I may not look like it but I do have a lot of muscle and I'm confident in my strength."
"As expected of someone who's been framed to have killed a house head."
Sebastian looked at her with a hard to read expression.
"What? You're curious as to why I think you've been framed? I mean, isn't it obvious? Even by a coincidence, there's no way an Adept would be able to kill a house head. I would know, Rex is a Caster, after all. Even at his weakest, he would smack the living daylights out of an Adept any day."
Liz looked proud. It wasn't the type of pride that one gave to a friend, but more a family.
'Like a mother looking at her son's accomplishments…'
"Ya ready to meet with Rex?"
Sebastian nodded. Liz reached out to Sebastian, he gladly took her help and stood up. They wordlessly walked under the watchful eyes of the other prisoners.
"They're just curious, Rex is a pretty big person in these parts. Anyone associated with him is a force to be reckoned with, though I don't think that even they expect that Rex is assisting a prison break."
Liz laughed. If it were any other prison, then it wasn't strange for three or four prisoners to be planning a prison break. However, where was this? It was a place where men enter once, then spend the rest of their lives working and rotting inside.
In fact, just on his way to the quarry alone, he spotted a few collapsed and a couple of carcasses. During the mornings where they were gathered, some cells were opened and the residents never came out. The guards didn't even bat an eye before moving onto the next cell.
Even if Sebastian himself had yet to face the harshness of the prison, it didn't mean that it was a nice place. One could only imagine how many souls were lost in this place.
"My guess is, you've seen a lot of death. Might've slain more than just a couple dozen people after being accused, huh? Anyone sent here, whether they be the most innocent of the crop or the most heinous criminals, they all need time to adapt to this kind of environment."
Waking up to see a dead body and then continuing your day spotting more. They weren't even buried properly, some were just left where they died and some were dropped in a ditch.
"...it's nothing new to me."
"Unless you're crazy, you'll never get used to death."
Sebastian stayed silent. He continued walking until they saw a thin man with glasses hanging down his shirt being surrounded by a bunch of thugs.
From afar, it looked like he was being extorted, like they'd jump him at any second.
"He's strong."
"Oh, you can tell? Guess Scotch was right about you. Most people look at Rex and assume that he's weak, with his arms bare of muscles and face clean of any scars."
"Even if I were to use everything I have, I don't think I'll be able to beat him."
"You're confident enough to say you can even scratch him, that's more than enough!"
Liz smacked Sebastian's back a few times while laughing.
"Rex, I got him here!"
"Oh?"
Rex and the thugs surrounding him all turned to face Liz and Sebastian. The moment Rex's eyes landed on Sebastian, he felt a chill. His very soul felt like it shook just from Rex's eyes.
"Ah, sorry about that."
Rex began to unfold his glasses. Once he wore them, the pressure Sebastian felt disappeared.
"It takes a while to get used to. Nice to meet you, I'm Rex. You look exactly like your poster."
"...Sebastian Sol, likewise."
That day, two of the most dangerous men in prison met each other and sent the other prisoners into a panic.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
SeverTheHeavens
SeverTheHeavens This is the last of my stockpile, insanely few considering I had 9 months to write but yeah, that goes to show how troubled I was writing. When this chapter is posted, I'll have a few more chapters scheduled already so this isn't the last of the two day updates.
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