Chapter 274: The Pirate Princess After patrolling the entire Core Area cell block back and forth, Aiden and Franda once again returned near the main gate. Passing Cell Three, Aiden paused slightly. He looked inside the cell. "Mad Hailo," incarcerated here, sat on her bed, with disheveled hair, staring blankly at the opposite wall, her expression a strange mix between a smile and not. Most of the time, Hailo was actually quite quiet, just sitting there with a distinctly abnormal expression, lost in unknown thoughts. However, when she had an episode, it was quite severe. She would cry and laugh, dance wildly, and occasionally self-harm. If anyone was near her during such times, she would unhesitatingly try to attack them, attempting to take a part of their body as a sacrifice to her evil god. Aiden wasn't sure if she simply didn't remember that the Dominator she served had vanished, thus desperately trying to reconnect, or if she actually knew and was trying to resurrect the Dominator through this method. After learning about "Mad Hailo" situation from Mephilia, Aiden had attempted to communicate with her several times, but to no avail. Forget extracting specific information about "Mr. Bloodcloth" or the Hatred Authority; even holding a normal conversation with her was difficult. When quiet, she was essentially completely detached, only reacting slightly to basic commands like eating, changing clothes, or bathing. Any other words directed at her would only elicit a blank stare, occasionally accompanied by an abnormal smile. When agitated, even if restrained by the mercury golem's shackles in a visitation room, Hailo would constantly try to stand up and attack, while spouting gibberish. Just then, Hailo noticed Aiden's gaze, slowly turned her face towards him, then tilted her head ninety degrees sideways like a typical female ghost from a horror story, a distorted smile appearing on her face. "No matter how many years pass, seeing her still gives me the creeps," Franda, unaware of Aiden's thoughts, remarked from the side. "Fortunately, as long as she's kept locked up, she won't cause trouble." Except for bathing, Hailo was basically never let out of this cell. Though mad, she could still manage basic self-care. A delivery slot on the cell door allowed for food and clean clothes to be passed in. The purpose of incarcerating her in Rose Iron Prison wasn't rehabilitation, but purely containment of a dangerous individual to prevent her from harming ordinary people outside. Official source is NoveI[F]ire.net Aiden started walking, leaving the Core Area with Franda. As the main gate closed again, Aiden heard strange, discordant singing coming from Cell Three: "Who are you, who are you? Can't be killed, can't be broken, so pitiful, so pitiful, ahahahahahaha!!" They had just left the cell block when a guard strode over, saluted his superiors, and handed over a document: "Warden, this just arrived, an urgent official document." An extradition request from the Empire—that was Aiden's first thought. But racking his brain, he couldn't recall any recent inmate arrested in the autonomous state who would warrant a specific extradition request from the Empire. He immediately tore open the document and scanned it, his eyes widening. Franda glanced over from the side and also froze. "Huh? Not an extradition request? Instead, they're transferring a prisoner... to us? From the Empire? Is this correct?" Aiden and Franda had seen similar documents quite often, but one from the Empire... was indeed rare. Due to the special circumstances surrounding the signing of The Covenant, the autonomous state had provisions to accept requests from other countries to "extradite" convicts tried in those countries for violating The Covenant back to the autonomous state, where the autonomous state would then carry out the punishment on behalf of that country. Simply put, not every country on the continent possessed prisons with the containment capabilities of Silver City's Thorn and Rose Iron Prisons. Some smaller nations struggled to find a single prison capable of perfectly containing an S-class fugitive. In such cases, the country would send the captured criminal to the autonomous state to serve their sentence. The reason Aiden and Franda were surprised was that the Dragonspine Empire rarely sent such requests. As a major power occupying the northern part of the southern continent, the Dragonspine Empire had quite comprehensive judicial facilities. While their domestic prisons might not match the two large prisons in the autonomous state funded collectively by The Covenant nations, they weren't drastically inferior either. They had the capacity to incarcerate most criminals who violated The Covenant themselves, making transfer to the autonomous state unnecessary. "It's a pirate, named..." Aiden flipped to the prisoner's file. "Anne Drake?" Drake... Aiden couldn't help but pause. He recognized the surname. Wasn't that the surname of the pirate mentioned in the Blood Progenitor's letter, the one holding the Codex Anverus? He quickly skimmed the attached file and soon understood the reason. This Anne Drake seemed to be the daughter of that prominent pirate of Red Shark Island, Navie Drake, known as the "Pirate Princess." However, aside from this "Pirate Princess" title, Anne Drake appeared unremarkable. Her file recorded she knew some simple black magic, was proficient with firearms, led a crew of forty-five pirates, and committed twenty-six robberies near the Coral Sea region with a small warship named the Hippogriff. These robberies were mostly completed "peacefully." Overall, a run-of-the-mill pirate, perhaps slightly notable for knowing some black magic. Judging by her individual strength or the crimes committed, placing her in the Core Area seemed below the average standard here. But at the very end, there was a record that made one doubt their eyes. Apparently, four years ago, Anne Drake had been captured once before in the Empire and incarcerated in the capital's most secure prison. Then, this seemingly ordinary "Pirate Princess," with the help of her father's Red Shark pirate crew, successfully escaped, taking twenty-nine other inmates with her and stealing some prison supplies in the process. During this entire incident, they caused zero casualties.