## Chapter 1111 – A Prison Inspection Filled With Emotion and Tears

“Welcome, Paladin. I heard that someone like you would be arriving soon. I’ll guide you right away.”

Official notice of my arrival had already been given. I nodded and followed the guard into the prison.

I quickly surveyed the surroundings as I entered.

“Oh.”

It truly felt like a top-tier prison.

A tomb-like space where irredeemable human garbage met their end.

The very air was thick with despair, similar to the atmosphere of a secluded village where serial killings had occurred.

I’m talking about serial killings intentionally committed by a village chief and his residents, who were obsessed with bizarre magic and grotesque customs. Because the residents systematically concealed these facts, such an atmosphere naturally permeated the area.

This place smelled like that.

Like something you’d smell on a sinking shipwreck.

“…”
“…”
“…”

Above all, armed guards were patrolling everywhere, and as expected of people working with human garbage, they all looked like first-class murderers. Those guys could probably slaughter criminals without any guilt.

That fact pleased me.

No need to replace the staff.
I’ll just do a quick check and keep them on.

“If those devilish guards are protecting the facility, there won’t be any security issues.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Is that building the office?”

The office looked decent enough.

“Yes, it is.”

Was it built using prisoners?

If so, their despair must be embedded in the beams. From a feng shui perspective, such buildings tend to last a long time. I’m already starting to feel good about this.

ㅡEverything is to my liking.

Looking at the ironclad defenses surrounding the place, I strongly felt that the inside operated under rules different from the normal world.

Those living within this `cage` couldn’t possibly possess normal sensibilities.

That was obviously true for the prisoners, and the same went for those who dealt with such top-tier criminals. In any case, those with such twisted sensibilities were bound to express their bizarre personalities and character traits in some way.

It was easy to guess what kind of small society they would create without even seeing it. In other words, the Suskes Prison was similar to the inside of a solitary confinement jar, with a few paranoid rules and punitive elements added like DLC.

The seasoned Kim Kkat could sense all of this before even entering the prison office. Ah, how bright is my insight? I am the badass Heavenly Demon Kim Kkat.

Soon, I arrived on the third floor of the office.

ㅡCreak.

“Warden, a VIP from the Order has arrived.”

The guard who opened the door said, and I looked straight ahead.

“Ah, you’ve arrived. I’ve been waiting.”

A plump but sharp-looking man stood up from his seat, gave me a businesslike smile, and bowed.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Kim Kkat, Paladin directly under the Saintess. Just call me Paladin.”
“Yes, nice to meet you, Paladin. I received the official notice before you arrived, but does that mean you’ll be the owner of this place from today?”
“That’s right. And you are?”
“Yes.”

ㅡAhem.

He cleared his throat and opened his mouth.

“I’m Jabong Daily Johnson, the warden of this Suskes Prison.”
“Jabong Daily Johnson?”
“Yes.”

What kind of name is that?

“I’m just someone employed by the Brass Celestial Angel Society, not a clergyman. But I believe in the Verdian God, so I would appreciate it if you would treat me comfortably. I’ve heard a lot about your reputation, Paladin.”
“If that’s the case, I’ll treat you comfortably.”

Just a simple believer, then.

“But it’s peculiar. Why did the Order hire you for a prison they own?”

That’s what I was wondering.

“Ah, that’s… an old story. Back then, the paladin-turned-wardens who were appointed would beat the prisoners to death almost every day, so they eventually decided to hire a civilian, I heard.”

Ah.

“Even though they’re heinous criminals, they’re not death row inmates, after all. So I’ve been managing this place for seventeen years. There are people dispatched from the Order, but they’re all gentle, so we’ve been running it without any major problems.”

True.

Come to think of it, that makes sense.

The people imprisoned here are all top-tier criminals who have committed heinous crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, rape, habitual theft, and aiding heretics.

Even though they’ve avoided the death penalty, the paladins wouldn’t just let them be. They’d probably use them as sandbags whenever they were bored, treating them like expendable goods.

As the saying goes, the position makes the man, and even the most rational paladin would inevitably have such tendencies amplified if they were to sit in the warden’s seat.

“Hehehe, hearing that, I think I understand. With that reason, they would have no choice but to hire a civilian. Anyway, please give me a tour of the prison. I’ll decide on the operating policy while listening to your explanations.”
“Understood. Let’s go right away.”

He straightened his clothes, gathered a few documents, dismissed the guard, and left the room.

I walked with him.

My first impression of the warden was that he seemed trustworthy. This gloomy man, who seemed to live only on infinite hatred for criminals, had the eyes of someone who knew how to use that hatred correctly, even if he wasn’t physically strong.

In other words, he was like a seasoned merchant.

Let’s see if my eyes are accurate.

A warden with seventeen years of experience should be decent enough.

“The structure of the prison consists of this office building, the prisoner quarters where the inmates reside, the cafeteria, and over there, the production facility. All of that is surrounded by a defensive wall. With a reliable defensive wall and numerous guards, there have been no successful escapes so far.”
“Hoh.”

He began to give a rough explanation as we walked.

“The number of prisoners incarcerated here is 522, and… the percentage of those who complete their sentences and return is about 70%. Currently, there are 43 employees, which is the combined number of guards and supervisors.”
“Is that number sufficient?”
“There’s no problem because one paladin and two priests have been dispatched from the Order. Even if a riot were to break out, it wouldn’t be a problem to fight alongside the paladin, even if the weakened prisoners attacked with crude tools they’d made. But that’s never happened before.”
“I see.”

He’s experienced, so his answers are seamless.

“The dispatched personnel are all managing the prisoners. I’m worried because they never seem to rest.”
“True. Those people are workaholics. But you said they were gentle, how are they?”
“Even though they’re gentle, they’re not without a combative nature, so they often step up to punish prisoners.”
“Hmm.”

I can picture it all in my head.

We arrived at the prisoner quarters.

“Well, this is the prisoner quarters where the inmates reside. Everyone is currently working in the production facility, so it’s empty right now. Let’s check the inside.”
“Alright.”

The prisoner quarters was a three-story building that was quite long. I immediately opened the door on the first floor and then opened the iron door of prisoner room number 1, which was at the very front.

ㅡClang.
ㅡCreak.

“Huh!”

I gaped.

What unfolded before my eyes was a space that maliciously reinterpreted the barracks of an army from the 1980s. A narrow, dusty room with no personal space to be seen, just a slightly longer room.

“Twenty prisoners sleep in each of these prisoner rooms.”
“Twenty people!”

Twenty people go into this narrow space!

If they lie down side by side, that’s it…!

The only hope for the prisoners packed in so tightly was the very small window that was open on the opposite side, near the ceiling. There was nothing else.

“Prisoners are strictly prohibited from owning personal belongings. They don’t need shoes anyway because they work indoors. Therefore, it’s very cramped, and there’s nowhere to hide escape items.”
“Ooh!”

It’s incredibly cramped.

It was a structure where you’d be scolded by the people next to you if you didn’t stand at attention even when you were sleeping. No, with twenty people, even if you stood at attention, you would inevitably overlap with the person next to you a little.

Is this the only sleeping space allowed for prisoners!

“They live in a place like this…!”

I was greatly surprised.

“Next, we’ll go to the cafeteria. It’s almost mealtime. I’ll show you the prisoners eating.”
“Cafeteria!”
“Meals are provided twice a day. Lunch and dinner.”

We immediately headed to the cafeteria, and the guards lurking around us noticed us and saluted.

“This is it.”

The cafeteria was quite large.

And the supervisors and guards were controlling the numerous prisoners with weapons in their hands. But those weapons were by no means made to subdue or suppress the prisoners.

Even if I washed my eyes and looked again, they were war weapons that seemed to be useless for anything other than killing.

“Those are the prisoners, then.”
“That’s right.”

The prisoners were clearly people whose humanity, as well as their appearance, had been completely ruined. It seemed clear that only those whose souls had been completely annihilated could have such an appearance and empty eyes.

They were quite thin, probably because they were living through all sorts of hardships, and they had dark circles under their eyes.

Shabby and dirty.

Those people were standing barefoot in worn and tattered clothes, waiting for their turn in a daze, but strangely, they were hugging the bowls they were holding as if they were determined to protect them no matter what.

It was like looking at starving people in a slum.

“You bastards!! The warden is here!! Why isn’t anyone greeting him!!!”

Soon, a supervisor nearby raised a murder sword and shouted.

“H, heok!”
“U, uh oh!!”
“Aaaah!”

The prisoners, who were almost in a fit of panic, looked this way while receiving their rations.

“G, good afternoon, Warden!”
“Good afternoon, Warden!”
“Good afternoon, Warden!”

They greeted me loudly, as if twisted and hideous baby birds were begging the mother bird, who couldn’t die, for food.

ㅡChuk.

The commotion stopped when the warden raised his hand.

“They listen to the warden very well.”
“Because that’s how I made them.”

The rations were resumed.

The people who were giving out the rations were also prisoners. However, they were a little fatter, and they were just using ladles to scoop some kind of gruel-like food and put it into the prisoners’ bowls.

The prisoner who received the food went to a chair and sat down, then began to devour it ravenously.

“They’re eating so greedily.”

Even Yuan Shu right before his death wouldn’t eat honey water like that. The prisoner shoved the gruel into his mouth like someone being chased by something, and then went straight out of the cafeteria.

“But what are they eating?”
“It’s gruel made with various cheap ingredients. Let me show you. Hey, bring me one of the prisoners who’s eating.”
“Yes!”

The supervisor immediately grabbed a prisoner with rough hands.

“A, aah…!”

The terrified prisoner was still holding his bowl of rice dearly. I looked at the contents inside, and it was clearly not something a person could eat.

“They eat this kind of thing?”
“It’s the prisoners’ meal. I saved as much as possible on food expenses. But I have to make them move, so I know it’s nutritious in its own way.”
“Is this nutritious?”
“I’ve never eaten it, so I don’t know what it’s actually like. But seeing as no one has died from malnutrition, it must be okay.”
“I see.”

The prisoner was sent back, and he devoured the gruel ravenously before going outside.

“Ah, now mealtime is over. Mealtime is about 10 minutes per person.”
“10 minutes!”
“Next is the production facility.”

We immediately headed to a place called the production facility.

As far as I knew, this was where prisoners produced products.

And I could see the same thing I knew.

ㅡDrrr, drrr.
ㅡTaktaktaktak.

The production facility was a kind of factory.
A space where manual labor was carried out in a factory style.

Numerous prisoners were sitting in their seats, making something. And they were doing their work silently, without anyone opening their mouths. Very diligently.

It didn’t seem like they were looking at people, and it didn’t seem like they were looking at machines. The prisoners were just looking at the work with empty eyes, as if they were something cursed, with no soul to be found, and were just manufacturing something.

“We’re producing shoes right now. We’re grinding down the prisoners to produce them in large quantities. The daily working hours are about 14 hours. With one day off a week.”

He added that everyone worked hard because they would be punished if they didn’t meet their quota.

“The profits from selling these products are used to pay the salaries of the prison staff, and the remaining money is sent to the Order. The amount is considerable.”

So they’re making money by running the prison like this.

They were literally exploiting the labor of the prisoners.

The warden was a kind of entrepreneur.

“Since running the prison is entirely at my discretion, the more I increase profits, the more I get. That’s how I’ve been running the prisoners.”

The warden said it without a care.

“This!!!!!!!!!

So I shouted.

“So harshly!!!!!!”
“Pardon?”
“So harshly and cruelly!!!”
“Pardon?”

A terrible space!

A hell where there are no human rights!

“You were violating the human rights of heinous criminals!!!!”
“Y, yes?”

A junkyard where you can’t find any rights as a person!

“It’s so wonderful!!!!”
“Yes…?”

Poor, inhumane, and cruel!

“Wonderful, Warden!! This Paladin is moved!!!!!!”

ㅡClap clap clap clap!
ㅡClap clap clap clap!
ㅡClap clap clap clap!
ㅡClap clap clap clap!

I clapped.