novelnext Chapter 707 - Visiting the in-laws: Ancient City of Kalina (Part 3)
Chapter 707 - Visiting the in-laws: Ancient City of Kalina (Part 3)
After sending the anonymous letters, the spreading of the issue got traction quite quickly since these instances were known to everyone in the city but no one just wanted to speak about it. Now that the central government has made its move, the witnesses that were previously quiet has gotten the courage to speak as well and more evidence is coming out to support the claims (with some assistance from me, here and there, too).After the investigation, another round of compensation was ordered to be paid out to all the confirmed victims who won their cases. As for the jewels, money and gold that I got from the Cassia treasury, I had it sold off and exchanged for money somewhere far away with the help of my husbands living in the capital and other places. With the money I got from there, I am planning to give a part of it to the Quillon family who has been paying off the unjust contracts and rescuing the employees under the Cassia family that were enslaved.
The Quillon family has also recently started a school to give free education to commoners who wanted to make something of themselves. To earn the public’s trust and also counter possible issues that can be brought about by what the Cassia family did in the past, they also made their own version of fair contracts. Once the official stamps are ready from the governing bodies that were created by the central government, they will start issuing contracts with the said stamps. As for the previous contracts, they plan to send them for review as well and get them stamped retroactively to ensure that they are all clean, legal and binding.
After everything that went down with the investigations, the Cassia family did not even try to retaliate, fearing that if they piss off the royal family, everything else that they have earned throughout the generations will be lost. They do not have the right to since it is not like they were only family affected by the crack down and audit. It just so happens that most of their members are onto shady dealings so they were the ones hurt the most once the punishments came in.
Most of them obediently resigned from the positions they were holding. Some accepted being demoted and getting a pay cut then they even signed off the IOUs to pay off what they owe the victims and those of taxes and business fees. They must have thought that the amount won’t even put a dent in the coffers that have been filled by both legal and ill gotten wealth over the years.
Well, their deepest coffers that they kept hidden from the government and the public have already been emptied by me. The compensation had to go to the rightful owners of the books and all their victims from the previous years especially those whose family members died in the process. Why would I use my own resources for that? Even if we don’t win all the cases, I will make sure that all victims are compensated properly.
Nobody seemed to have checked the area of the main coffers or the old storage room for quite a long time because of how dusty the area was and it was even filled with the scent of bibliosmia. Since I have taken all the original copies and also confirmed which ones were stolen or forcefully bought for compensation so I can return them to their rightful owners, there is no need to keep the storage any longer.
Yes, I started a fire since it is the perfect way to get rid of paper. Yeah, it is arson of the vigilante kind. I am confident that no one will come by to check inside the room since the corrupt family would do their best not to let the anybody know about the location of their secret coffers. They would surely wait until the issues died down before checking on them.
It would be too late before the Cassia family finds out that everything inside their private book room and their coffers are gone and turned to ash. I kept the heat and the fire contained within the rooms through a barrier spell. The rest of the slavery contracts are kept in there too so they got destroyed in the fire too. This saves a ton of money for my father-in-law’s family since they do not have to buy out people anymore and the rest of those working for the Cassia household are free now without those contracts.
As to how these forcefully employed people would know that they are finally free, the slave mark that were placed on them when they signed the contract would have disappeared within hours of the contract being destroyed. They will then be free to leave the confines of the places designated for the workers without them getting any punishment or backlash.
As the news spread quickly amongst the contracted workers, the best part of everything I have heard so far was the news about the enslaved people fighting their employers as those people tried to stop the workers from fleeing. There were some Cassia family members and staff that ended up with scratches, bruises and in some worse cases had some broken bones, bleeding heads and a lot of their property being destroyed during the escape of the freed workers.
I made sure to discreetly let all the workers know about the contracts being destroyed beforehand while giving them instructions to not let their employers get a hint of it. From there, the workers from the Cassia household started disappearing without a trace while some chose to escape with a bang.
Most of those who escaped quietly chose to escape in pairs, bringing with them those that were sickly or advanced in age for safety reasons. As to where these people went to, they found refuge under the Quillon household, the arch enemy of the Cassia family as per my instructions as well.
I already sent a letter in advance to the Quillon household about the things that were about to happen (the audit of the Cassia household), about my upcoming in-law visit and about the people that will be coming to them for refuge soon. I also told them about the money I would be sending in to support the people that will be asking for refuge under their household.