The chairman sat in the back of his car with his chauffeur driving him to Ostlich Correctional Facility for Women. The prison was located a bit over 12 kilometres away from the outermost eastern district of Paradis City. It was five miles away from a little city called Nact, a city of around 21,000 people. He looked at the other cars and trees passing by him as he made his way to the facility.
"Is there an emergency, sir?" his chauffeur, Gary, asked.
"An emergency?"
"Yeah, I mean, you said that you wouldn't call me until the end of the week, so this must be urgent," Gary threw three glances at his employer before he scratched his well-groomed beard.
"Well, I wouldn't say it's truly an emergency, but it is important for me to solve this situation."
Erwin said.
"This may be above my pay grade, but…" Gary cleared his throat. " What problem is there for you to solve at a women's prison?"
"You'll see, Gary."
"Wait, I'm going in?"
Erwin turned his head to his chauffeur. "Do you want to? You might find a date in there."
Gary chuckled. " No, I'm good. As a matter of fact, I got a date tonight."
"Really?"
"Yeah, she has Merudimian ancestry like me, but she was born and raised in Gallia, so she has a cute Galelic accent. It's actually our third date. I hope that we become an official couple after this."
"I see…Well, I wish you the best of luck." The Chairman said.
"Thank you, sir," Gary said happily as he made a left turn.
The Chairman nodded before he looked back out through the window. He focused his gaze on his reflection. Neat blonde hair, blue eyes and clean-shaven. Maybe if he were promiscuous or decided to settle down, he would have a wife or at least a child or two, possibly even three if he felt a little frisky.
Erwin quietly sighed somberly. But he couldn't …. he knew he couldn't…with such a dangerous job he decided to burden himself with, it's best for him to have as few attachments as possible. If he managed to figure out that Erwin had a family, it might be that incident all over again.
"Sir!"
"Hmm?" Erwin hummed, breaking his train of thought.
"We're here."
"Thank you," Erwin said as he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door.
He closed the door behind him before he adjusted his black blazer and approached the prison warden, who was waiting for him. The warden was average in height and build, wearing a dark grey three-piece suit with a white dress shirt and a black tie.
His hair was dark brown with grey at the temples, stubble on his face and showing signs of aging, evident with his mild case of Crow's Feet.
"Are you Mr.Smith?"
The Chairman put his hand inside his blazer before taking out his Adventurer Badge. "Yes, and are you Mr.Andersin? "
The middle-aged warden looked at the badge before looking back at him, before he turned around and told his co-worker to open the gate.
"Is the chauffeur going to stay or?"
"Yes. He will stay at the private parking lot," The Chairman tucked the badge back in his blazer pocket.
Erwin turned to look at his chauffeur and swiped his right hand, signalling him to follow him as the prison gates started to open.
The prison was surrounded by a tall iron fence, around 15 feet tall, with electrical barbed wire at the top, so anyone who made physical contact with the cables would be immediately shocked. The watchtowers around were 5 feet taller than the fence, with two enforcer snipers stationed at each one.
Two of the prison enforcers led Gary to the private parking lot as Erwin and the warden entered the facility, making their way to the designated prison cell.
"Tell me, what happened exactly?" Erwin asked.
"Apparently, she turned herself in after murdering her old man. When the public enforcers went to the scene, she was sitting on the floor across from him. She was staring at him…don't know if she regretted it or not, but she didn't resist, and now, she's here."
Erwin sighed irritably, 'Great. As if I don't have any other issues that I need to deal with…'
"I'm assuming it wasn't in self-defence?"
"Nope," The warden shook his head. "There were no signs of any form of injuries on her; self-defence wasn't viable."
"How long is she going to be in prison?"
" Girl is serving a life sentence." The warden declared.
"A Life sentence?"
"Yup.A life sentence with no parole. Come on, Mr.Chairman, she murdered that man in cold blood."
"But that's if I can't convince her to take the deal," Erwin added.
The warden nodded. "According to my guards, she hasn't spoken a word since being in here."
They entered the cafeteria with long tables with circular chairs around them. Erwin sat down on one of the circular chairs. He secretly adjusted himself, trying to get comfortable, but the warden laughed.
"Seats ain't comfortable?" Mr.Andersin asked, chuckling a bit.
"They're not supposed to be," The Chairman said, pretending.
"My guys were getting her as soon as we saw your car, so give it a minute or two," Mr. Anders said, looking at the silver watch on his left wrist.
Mareldia had to separate parts of their prisons between metahumans and regular humans because of the massive strength difference between the two. Even though the metahuman prisoners would wear hyperion cuffs at all times, that doesn't dampen their physical capabilities, so there will be incidents where metahuman prisoners would kill their regular human prison mates with just their physical strength alone.
Even the government started to create metahuman-only prisons, although there are only 15 on the continent so far, only 5 out of the 15 are fully operational.
The door opened, revealing the specified inmate with three prison guards around him, with 2 of them having guns in their hands.
The young woman in the light blue jumpsuit stared blankly at the ground as the guards gently pushed her to walk. She sat down across from her superior as her blank gaze drifted up to see the chairman.
She had fair skin, with eyes slightly downturned and thin dark blonde eyebrows. Her hair was short and blonde with bangs on both sides of her face, with a slight taper on the sides of her head. She wore a white long-sleeve shirt under her jumpsuit with thick hyperion stone cuffs on her wrists and ankles with a chain linked in between them to make it harder to walk and nearly impossible to run.
Mr. Andersin got up and fixed his tie. "Welp, I'm going to leave you two alone. We'll be outside."
Erwin nodded in response as the warden and his guards left the cafeteria. He closed his eyes to help focus on the ground below him, using the small vibrations from the footsteps of the warden and his guards. He heard their footsteps going further away from the cafeteria.
'They must have a lot of faith in me,' The chairman opened his eyes.
He crossed his arms before he calmly put his forearms on the metal table. "Hello, Ms.Hayes.Are you enjoying yourself here?" The chairman asked.
Her blue eyes were fixated on his. Her blank stare turned into an irritated one. She slowly rocked back and forth before sighing.
"Do you have anything you want to say?"
"What is there to say, Mr.Chairman?" Hayes asked. "I know what I did."
"Well, you could start off explaining why you killed your father," The chairman asked in a serious tone.
Her eyebrows furrowed. "He was a piece of shit, that's all you need to know."
"How long have you been here?"
"2 and a half weeks."
"And do you know why I'm here?"
"I have an idea," Ms.Hayes shrugged. "But you wasted your time coming here. I'm not leaving."
"Is that so?" The chairman leaned forward to close the distance. "Ms.Hayes, I recommend that you rethink your decision. You know that if I leave this room, you would be spending the rest of your life here? With no chance of parole?"
Ms.Hayes averted her gaze from her superior. Erwin sighed and leaned back to increase the distance from his B-rank adventurer. He took a glance at the camera in the corner of the room.
"Look, I'm here to get you out of here. But you have to follow my rules."
"Rules…" Hayes placed her hands on the table. "Will I be watched?"
"Yes," the chairman lied. "I will force you to be in a group to be supervised. They will report to me weekly about your behaviour and if I find out that you did any unjustifiable murders…" he noticed a bread crumb on a table. He pressed his right thumb on it, crushing it.
He threw a glance at Nanaba, who was looking at his hand. He swiped and flicked the bread-made dust off his thumb with his fingers.
"Do you understand?"
"Hmph, if I'm going to be a prisoner under you, what would be the difference between your form of imprisonment and this prison's?" Hayes asked.
"Well, for starters, you technically wouldn't be under imprisonment. Instead, you would under my specialized parole and your assigned teammates would keep an eye on you for me," The Chairman explained.
"I work alone. You know that, Erwin," Hayes leaned forward.
Erwin looked at her before he spoke to her in a more serious tone, "And you lost those privileges when you killed your father, and you refer to me as Mr.Smith, Mr.Chairman or sir, is that clear, Ms.Hayes?"
Hayes grumbled and averted her gaze.
Erwin leaned forward, "I repeat, is that clear, Ms Hayes?. And you look at me when I'm talking to you, Nanaba."
Nanaba closed her eyes for a few seconds before she looked at him, disgruntled. Her nostrils flared, and her breathing started to become ragged.
"I suggest you control your breathing right now, Ms.Hayes. I'm your only chance to get out of this prison alive."
Nanaba started to take quick, deep breaths, trying to suppress the anger inside of her.
Erwin leaned back and sighed, "Listen, Ms. Hayes. I wouldn't be here if I did not value you as a fellow Adventurer."
Nanaba chuckled hoarsely, slowly tapping the cold steel table, "Value me? Let's be honest here, Mr.Chairman. You don't actually care about me. You only need me because I'm one of your best Blacklist Adventurers, and you don't want one of your little precious weapons to rot in a prison."
"You are not a weapon to me, Ms. Hayes," Erwin said. "I see you as a valuable asset to the association. No less than that."
"I'm only a B-rank, sir," Nanaba pointed out. "Surely, you have many B-rankers under your authority, and just like any other B-ranker, I'm just as expendable as any one of them."
"That's not true," Erwin countered. "None of them has your ability. Each of the adventurers has an ability unique to themselves, and you have quite the exceptional one, I might add."
"Wow, thanks for the compliment, Chairman," Nanaba said sarcastically, leaning back in her seat. "Anything else you want to discuss?"
The chairman stood up. "No, we have nothing more to discuss. Good luck, Nanaba."
He reached and placed a firm hand on her slender shoulder before he started to make his way out the door.