Chapter 4: The Broken-Down Confessor
2022-07-14 Author: I'm Just a Pigeon
While a group of people laughed as they gathered around the newcomer named Mundungus, William began studying the so-called System off to the side.
First, whenever he called for it in a low voice, the System would materialize before him as a transparent screen—even if he was pressed tightly against the wall.
Currently, the System had a total of four panels: [Personal Panel], [Gacha Panel], [Inventory], and [Achievements].
Ignoring the others, William first accessed the Personal Panel.
[Li (Lee) · William]
[Age: 17]
[Human]
[Wizard]
[Magical Power Level: Normal Adult Wizard]
[Specialties: Magic 2, Eloquence 1, Learning 1, Arithmetic 0, Language 0...]
(Innate Talent has a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3. Acquired Training has a maximum of 0.)
No matter how he looked at it, that last note was pure mockery.
Putting aside the fact that his Magical Power level wasn't even given a number, the complete absence of a single plus sign on the entire Personal Panel was telling enough.
Clearly, something like a 'System, add points' function was out of the question.
That "Eloquence 1" made William fall into deep thought. So, his ability to get by with his stories wasn't just because of the lack of entertainment in prison?
With this doubt in mind, he casually opened the Inventory. Inside lay a single, solitary card: [Mundungus the Deserter].
But after clicking on it now, some more character information had appeared on the card.
Mundungus Fletcher (Awe): Theft 2, Magic 1, Stealth 1, Communication 1...
Special Card locked, Collection Card locked, Friend Card locked, Unknown Card xN locked.
Huh, so he was basically a mini gacha pool. According to the message from when the System unlocked, he could probably get a few treasure chests out of this Mundungus?
After closing the Inventory and finding that the Achievements page was full of grayed-out question marks, William switched directly to the Gacha Panel.
Great. Still no prompts.
He spent another ten minutes scanning every corner of every panel for any translucent or microscopically small text, but still found nothing.
No hints, no restrictions. He had to guess what everything did.
This was even worse than having restrictions—but he had to use it anyway.
That being said, William had absolutely no intention of using that escape card to get out of Azkaban.
This wasn't because everyone in the prison cell was a genius and so pleasant to listen to, but because he only had one year of his prison term left. Escaping now would just get him wanted by the Ministry of Magic and hunted by Dementors. It just wasn't worth it.
"Little William, what're you doing? Lying there all quiet. Upset about losing your money? Let me tell you, listen to me. Next time we're out in the yard, gather a crowd and tell them a few stories. You'll get those lost Galleons back in no time."
Big Guy, with an irrepressible, sleazy grin on his face, stuck his head next to William's and continued to egg him on.
William shoved him away irritably. The man looked like he would squat in an alley with a blade and mug people in the middle of the night, yet here he was working as a broker. It really made William suspect the Hit-Wizards had arrested the wrong person back then.
"Still interrogating him?"
"Not even close. He started repeating himself after making up eighty crimes. Nine-Fingers smacked him twice, and now he's trying his best to come up with more lies."
Everyone knew the newcomer was making it all up, but nobody cared. The Dementors sucked away all their happiness, so they had to find their own fun. Bullying new inmates was a tradition. Besides, anyone who ended up in Azkaban was, nine times out of ten, not a good person.
At that moment, amidst the group of spectators, the newcomer gritted his teeth and stated his ninety-first crime.
"Um, when I was a student at Hogwarts, I went to the girls' dormitory to peep."
Amidst whistles and jeers of "I knew it!", Nine-Fingers, acting as the priest, responded with a wide smile, "You will be forgiven. Is there anything else you have to say?"
The newcomer let out a long breath, then tensed up again and started wracking his brain to invent the next crime.
"The girls' dormitory? Boys can't enter the girls' dormitory!"
Just when everyone was feeling satisfied, a refuting voice suddenly piped up from the crowd.
Everyone turned to look. The person being stared at subconsciously shrank back, then lifted his head and argued defiantly, "What are you looking at? I've tried."
This time, he successfully avoided the fate of being beaten up.
The group of spectators turned their gazes, gleaming with malicious intent, toward the utterly bewildered Mundungus.
"Tsk. Well, well. We give you a chance to confess and repent, and you dare to keep lying to us?"
Nine-Fingers could no longer maintain his feigned righteousness. He put on a fierce expression and pointed at Big Guy next to William to intimidate the newcomer. "See that one over there? He's been in here for two years and has beaten three prisoners to death. Those Dementors just chewed them up and buried the bones under that wall over there. Didn't even add to his prison term! This is Azkaban; people dying is perfectly normal!"
Words like these were devastating to someone who'd never been in prison before. Trembling, the man sat down and hugged his head.
"Boss, just go ahead and beat me up! I've even confessed to being too lazy to change my underwear as a kid! I really have no more crimes to confess!!!"
His cry, tinged with tears, amused the surrounding crowd. They went through the motions of beating him up, then tossed him a rag and told him to go clean the toilet.
Mundungus didn't even have the desire to resist. He obediently ran towards the toilet. Nine-Fingers cheerfully gave him some pointers while also moving his own luggage out of the way.
The prisoners, grinning from ear to ear, lost their desire to keep hazing the newcomer. They gathered together, pulled out a set of wizard's chess pieces carved from stone, and crowded around a drawn chessboard to set up a game—the pieces weren't enchanted; it was just to scratch an itch.
William didn't join the crowd. He glanced at Mundungus struggling with the toilet in the corner of the room and ultimately gave up on the idea of putting more pressure on the man. A whole stack of locked cards was right there, plain as day. The only variable that could change was emotion, and there were plenty of other emotions above 'Awe'.
But continually shearing the same sheep was a bit much. The card's hint that the man was bad news could be used as a reference, but not fully trusted. To keep tormenting someone who was already so obedient would be going too far.
Just as he withdrew his gaze, the Warden spoke up, his eyes fixed on William.
"What, Little William? You think we were a bit too harsh?"
*How on earth did you see that?*
William subconsciously wanted to roll his eyes but held back. Thinking it was too harsh was the reaction of a normal person. If he said he wanted to be even harsher, everyone in the cell would probably treat it as a bedtime joke.
"Alright, look at that sullen face of yours. More than half the people in this prison are scum. That Mundungus has a history of sticky fingers. It's only right he learns a lesson in here. You're a lucky kid. No one looks down on you for your crime, and you're easy on the eyes, so you haven't been hazed. A piece of work like him, if you don't teach him a lesson, he'll be ransacking everyone's bunks in a few days. Hmph."
The Warden shook his head, ending his lecture with an extremely disdainful tone. He lay back on his pillow and closed his eyes—he had brought in a large haul of goods from the outside today and had made many trades among the various cells, so he was exhausted.
Seeing this, the others also lowered their voices to a minimum.
As time passed, the moonlight shifted away from the narrow window, and the entire prison cell sank into darkness.
Another night in Azkaban came to an end.
(end of chapter)