The One Responsible

"At first, it seemed like everything was going as planned," Varian continued, his voice becoming thick and lower.

"The noble sent money and food to us as promised, and the villagers who agreed to work for him were sent off to his estate. But a month later, we started receiving letters from some of them."

"They told us that they weren't working as servants in a noble household as we were led to believe. Instead, they had been forced into factory labor, working long hours under harsh conditions… They were no better than slaves." Varian's face crumpled as pain flickered in his eyes. He found it hard to say the last few words of his sentence.

"But how could that happen? Didn't they have a way to leave?" Charlize gasped, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief. She had been studying rules and laws in the academy, so she knew a few things about how the world works.