Chapter 24

Nothing much came from their complaints since no one dared to openly defy Hilma and she also immediately moved to solve the problem.

It has been easy, truly easy. Desperate people were easy to find. Offer a beggar a future for themselves and their families and they will fight the world for you.

Offer an orphan or street rat a piece of bread and they will cut throats. In less than a handful of weeks, there were no more homeless people in the lower district and Seven Hands solved their number problems.

True, they would still need to be well trained, but at the moment cannon fodder was enough.

They were easily put to work. When she communicated the results to Satoru, she felt a certain degree of happiness in his words as he congratulated her.

He also suggested to put up some basic rules on payment and days off. She was unsure at first.

After all, giving too much freedom to your workers could backfire easily, but she was amazed at how well it generally worked.

They still had some minor problems, but the benefits far outshone them.

'Happy workers are hard workers.' She remembered the words Satoru used to describe the benefits of his idea and indeed it has been so.

She didn't visit the working places of Seven Hands often, but from reading the reports she got from the Administrators, the rate of incidents and brawls decreased incredibly, making such things a rarity.

It has been a good investment. The people now had working hours and days off to spend as they liked, a minimal pay for each hour depending on the job and small militia groups were created to patrol the low and middle districts.

Even normal commoners no longer saw them so badly since they made sure peace was ensured in the districts and thanks to their recruitment, there were almost no more thieves around.

She also began to reform the various departments. Since the Finger that managed the drug department was gone, Hilma decided to completely disband that department.

Of course, once the word spread, little criminal groups tried to fill the void left by the disbanded department, but they were easily put down by the new militia.

The brothel department was probably the one who received the greatest change. She was still in contact with Cocco Doll.

Nowadays, their roles were reversed, and he was using their good relationship to avoid incurring Satoru's wrath in any way possible.

Hilma didn't mind that since that gave her enough influence on him to do as she wished without opposition from him.

She completely disbanded the human slave traffic since, while profitable, it made them far too exposed.

She also began to reform the normal brothels, filling them with experienced women instructed to learn everything possible from their clients, with a certain level of discretion of course.

It would be a long process to replace all the normal prostitutes with trained ones, but once the project was completed, they will have a full spy network completely hidden around the whole kingdom.

All the other departments received smaller changes to adapt their various fields, making them more ordered and harder for the kingdom guards to track.

After all, no one would put their nose where there was no smell to follow.

In short, while difficult, the results she received were promising. A bright future seemed ahead. Sometimes she couldn't believe that this was really happening.

She was terrified to wake up one day, only to discover that everything was just a dream, and she was still sleeping in a bed with one of those pig men next to her.

She trembled at the thought of it, but she immediately steeled herself. She would go on no matter what.

She will reach the top together with him, the one who gave her hope, the kind undead magic caster, Satoru.

{Renner's P.O.V.}

The third princess of the Re-Estize Kingdom entered the Sorcerer's Shop as she always did, but today was different. Today she was about to confront a certain someone about their past.

To gain such information cost her much, both in terms of resources and time. This made her understand that she needed a spy network as soon as possible.

It was bad enough that someone like that got this near to Satoru without her knowing sooner.

With those thoughts on her mind, she marched toward her objective, Gazef following her.

"Oh, Your Highness, I didn't expect you today. I'm afraid Satoru is currently attending one of the Merchant Guild's meetings. He is most busy since he joined them."

The blond woman behind the counter said with a pleasant smile. Renner put up one of her fake smiles in return. 'I already knew this. This is exactly why I am here…'

"That's quite okay. I hoped I could be able to exchange some words with you today. Would you mind going somewhere a little more private?"

The princess asked, the woman's face expression turned into confusion.

"Of course, Your Highness. Please follow me."

She said before escorting her to the usual living room where she met with Satoru. The woman closed the door behind them.

They both sat at the table opposite each other.

"Could I offer you something to drink, Your Highness?"

The blond woman asked.

"No, thank you, I'm only here to speak with you."

She said. Now she could see some hint of wariness hidden behind the woman's eyes. 'Good, she is not taking me lightly' Renner thought.

"May I ask what you would like to speak about?"

She asked, Renner's expression didn't change 'It's time'.

"Hilma Cygnaeus, bastard daughter of the deceased third son of the Baldur noble family and the whore Marinette Cygnaeus, prostitute working under the organization formerly known as Eight Fingers, nowadays named Seven Hands, assistant of Satoru the magic caster… did I miss anything?" She asked rhetorically.

She enjoyed the results of her words as Hilma's body froze.

"No." She finally responded after a tense silence.

"You are not even going to deny it?" Asked Renner, her gaze now fixed on her prey. The prostitute flinched; Renner enjoyed the reaction she caused.

"Would there be a point in denying it?" She asked after composing herself.

"But I'm curious, how did you find out?" The prostitute continued trying to use a tone as calm as she could manage in that situation.

Renner internally smirked.

"Oh, I assure you, it hasn't been easy. I had to ask many people and link many dots together before reaching you. I had to dig through many-"

The princess stopped as soon as she noticed that the prostitute's hand was now under the table. 'You sneaky little rat, you almost got me, good try.' She internally complimented.

"You know, before coming here, I instructed Gazef Stronoff to stand by behind the door. As soon as I begin to scream, he will barge into the room… are you sure you can cut my throat faster than the Warrior Captain can behead you?" She asked. Unexpectedly the prostitute smirked at her.

"Should we try?" She asked.

'You bitch.' Now she was truly getting on her nerves.

"What would you gain by cutting my throat? Apart from your head being placed on a pike in the central square of course." Asked the princess.

"If the Kingdom would be satisfied with just that, I wouldn't mind too much."

Now it was Renner's turn to feel a shiver going down her spine. She never felt such an emotion before… was this… fear? Was she scared of this woman?... no, it wasn't this woman that scared her. It was her willingness to die to protect what she stood for.

"Why?... Why do you care about your organization so much?" Renner asked now genuinely curious.

"My organization has nothing to do with this, what I want to protect is a person… someone I care far more about than anything else in this world, I will sooner die than let the Kingdom ruin him."

Renner was sure the woman believed every word she said. This was certainly unexpected. She thought she would be confronting some rat begging for her life… She was clearly mistaken… This woman… was far more similar to her than she thought possible.

A new approach was needed before things got out of hand.

"The Kingdom can burn for all I care… Listen, this can easily end well for all of us. I don't know why you choose Satoru or what your goal is exactly, but if you let Satoru be, I will help you find another to use for whatever you need to do. The only one I care about is Satoru. Leave him be and I will help you however I can."

'Stabbing you in the back as soon as possible could solve all your problems.' She joked inside, but for now she needed to resolve this situation.

The prostitute looked at her surprised. Was that… shock? Renner asked herself. Hilma seemed hesitant to speak.

"So… you are here… because you think I'm using Satoru to achieve my personal goals?"

The prostitute asked hesitantly. Renner didn't remove her stern gaze from her.

"Wasn't that point already cleared?"

She said, voice plain and emotionless. Hilma flinched once more at her tone.

"Satoru is the only beautiful thing in this rotten world. I would do anything for him…"

Renner felt her expression shift into a little smile. It was a natural one.

Hilma's eyes widened and she gulped loudly. They remained silent for a few more seconds.

"P-princess, I think you may have m-misunderstood something." The prostitute said.

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