Ki listened to the report and then asked. "Is there a reason for the gambling halls change of working? Usually they got by with what they had under their bosses management. Has he changed his stance?"
"Not exactly, he has been pushed out by his men and someone new took over the gang. The boss now has no say among his men anymore since they are blinded by the benefits before their eyes." Marilyn looked a little serious. "He was one of the few within the slums that was firm in their stance of not buying and selling illegal drugs and capturing and selling slaves. He managed to open a gambling hall and made it expand, although there were quite a few people who owed him a debt he still used the debts as a way to get the people in debt to work off the money they owe. Most of the people who worked for him were originally those who owed him and were spared. Now that the rules have changed those with debts have been dealt with according to the new rules, they have had a finger removed or even a hand as a warning. Even worse for higher debts they seized everything from those people and then sold them as slaves."
"I see… so there is nothing we can do anymore about this. If we want to take control of the situation we need to be patient and find the right opportunity to act. For now we should focus on gathering the like minded people who have been pushed out and give them a place to work. I think they would be good targets for you to recruit." Ki shook her head in disappointment towards the development of the situation. 'Most gambling places need to have strict rules in order to have a good public image, once that is ruined it will begin to gain a lot of criticism from the public. What they have done right now is essentially suicide, but with the current state of Wolfden city not many would care. They may even be planning to take the money from their actions and then escape during the chaos.'
"Keep an eye out for those who are fleeing from Wolfden city whether they are ordinary citizens, nobles or those from the slums. Some will be useful to gather more information and to recruit if they are worth it. If it is someone who has taken advantage of the chaos to loot and kill then capture them and interrogate them thoroughly. List their crimes and send them to the blood shadow group." Ki thought for a moment before turning to Isaac. "What do you want to say?"
Marilyn nodded while Isaac finally spoke up with a complicated look on his face. "Young miss, I don't know if I should say it but there may be a possibility linking the gambling hall to the Bombyx family. You mentioned to look out for the actions of your grandmothers sisters family and anything that could come back to hurt the family."
"No need to be hesitant, I have a feeling the two subjects are connected so just speak up." A cold light flickered in Ki's eyes at the mention on Celene's family.
"She has been spending even more lavishly recently to keep up with the nobles spending and to keep up with the trends along with her daughter. She has also got a teacher for her grandchildren, with the money her son gets from working with the Bombyx family and the money should barely cover for her expenses. However that isn't the problem, I hear that her husband has been seen in the gambling hall a lot recently. I am worried that he may already have been entrapped by them, it's unlikely that he can pay back the debts with the families current wealth even if they sell everything they have. That is… they don't exactly have the best sense when buying things so may have been cheated by some merchants so the overall value of some or more of their items in their possession may be much lower than what they paid for."
"I knew they would cause trouble and it would fall back onto us eventually. Right now the biggest issue is that Celene knows about our families location, our wealth and our strengths. Well… she knows what we have allowed her to see anyways. Most likely she will leak out our information during her time of desperation and tell them to get the money owed from us. However this group of people are known for being short sighted and driven by greed, the worst case scenario would be that they will send men to the village with bad intentions." Ki clenched her fist in frustration. 'I had a bad feeling but is this really the time for it to happen? It may be a little earlier but it does sound like the a valid reason why we were attacked in the previous life. If that is so then the blood sect recruits are hiding within Wolfden city and already found a place to settle down, right under everyone's noses they took over the gambling hall.'
"We need to prepare for visitors into the village, keep everyone's vigilance as high as possible. This is a test for the village but also a test for those who are working as informants within the village. If my guess is correct we may come face to face with those who are truly behind the scenes or at least some of their footmen. We will wait and see how everything good plays out before striking at them. So no slacking on training during this time." Ki quickly ordered everyone. "Isaac be prepared for damage control and dealing with how to manage pieces of land which has been taken from traitors within the village during this trial. Rashida I want the blood shadow group ready to be able to strike at a moments notice and Marilyn I need you to keep me informed on any additional information that may prove useful during this time."
Rashida rolled her eyes. "Young miss we will be ready but do you really think that you and Marilyn aren't training enough lately?"
Ki shook her head while looking at her with pity in her eyes. "You cannot guess the strength of the people they send and even if they do send those we can deal with then what about the next time? We need to be prepared to deal with them, if we can't we need to prepare a way in which we can handle them. Whether it's a trap, assassination or simply poison."
Rashida nodded upon understanding her young misses thoughts, Isaac bowed his head deep in thought while Marilyn had a fiery light in her eyes at the mention of a battle happening soon.
"If I guess your plans correctly you wish to let them infiltrate the village to test the response time of our spies correct? What about the other villagers? Are we testing their loyalty? This could be dangerous…" Isaac mentioned as the other two left the room.
Ki sighed before stating with a serious face. "Things like this may happen again in the future and at an even larger scale. Those that cover our families wealth or resources, those driven by hatred or simply sent to disrupt our families actions or business. Eventually the village will be tested and then is the time when some villagers may be tempted by outsiders and betray us. We need to weed out those who can or can't be trusted, the spies within the village have not had much of a difficult life while collecting information over this time but they need to increase their vigilance so this is a good chance to put them to the test."
"Those that enjoy peace for a long time are often the most venerable to being swayed during times of war. A person can be threatened or bribed to put poison into a water source, spread confusion within the place they live or even tell the enemy information that may end up harming others." Ki clenched her fist and declared. "We have protected them all well during this time in the dark but who knows if all of them were truly worth staining our hands with blood. Many places in the past had warriors who shed blood for their people but the corruption within the city led to the warriors being led into a trap designed by their own people because of greed and envy towards them. I do not wish to repeat history, I may not be able to control every event but at least I can try to use this situation to help identify who I should and shouldn't be putting my life and the lives of my people on the line for."