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After the guest from the capital had left. Lucas, Sambor, and Alden were the only ones left inside the guest house discussing city affairs. As the primary Merchant of the city lord, Sambor was pleased to inform his lord that the Windsler Family had been silent recently. Even when Sambor had gone and humiliated them in public, they did not react.
Sambor unfolded that Jacobs Windsler was not in Summer city, or his current whereabouts were unknown. This gave Sambor an ominous feeling to risk his standing seat and secretly plant spies in the homes of the Windsler Family. Most of the Family were too busy dealing with other matters to know they were being spied on.
Yet Sambor's fruits of labor have not yet rotten. Justin, or preferred name Justin Windsler is the acting chairman of the Windsler family business to Sambor discovery.
Sambor tales piqued Alden's interest as he described the Family's current circumstances to him vividly. Jacobs Windslers younger brother is the current chairman who occupies the Family's seat. Sambor had given Alden a depiction of the current chairman's daily means of living. The spies secretly followed Justin's abnormal behavior that not even the Windslers family knew.
A brothel-keeper named Liz was interrogated, and all prostitutes performing in the house confessed.
The spy learned that the brothel's high-class prostitute, Else Aystett, a red-haired young noblewoman in her early coming of age, exactly 19 years of age, had turned to prostitution.
A charming young woman who, by chance, fell over heels for Justin Windsler, and due to her falling noble house, Else was desperate to keep her status afloat, Else connected with Liz. Else willing to any man's bidding for a modest fee created quite a network for herself.
As a matter of fact, concubinage was often an appealing option when it came to economics. It could be an easy way for poorer nobles' families to make beneficial social connections and gain monetary support for their families. Once in a while, concubinage even led to marriage. At least that was what Else had thought, she was born in the house Aystett, and the eldest daughter of Aystett fell in Justin's honey trap words.
And as a result, she had become pregnant with Justin's unborn child. When Justin discovered this, he had forced Else to swallow an abortifacient drink that he had mixed with an Alchemist aid.
Then, Else miscarried, whom the other women reckoned to have been about 20 weeks old. At the brothels-keep hidden quarters where the unborn child lays, Liz had brought a pail of water into Else's room as she lay in agony and had seen the child's body laid out on a bench 'Dead.'
After the incident had happened, Liz, the brothel-keep, and Else were bribed to keep quiet. To her greedy thurst and unsatisfied, Liz forced Els back to work only a few days later and swore her to secrecy. And as such, things had returned to normal in the brothel for a couple of weeks. But it was not long until some of the prostitutes began to speak among themselves about what had happened. Liz overheard a prostitute named Layla speak of what she had seen; Liz, afraid of what Justin would do to her and her reputation, sent Layla away to work in the public brothel near Olm, a Place where no respectable brothel attendee would choose to go willingly.
Olm was the hub of criminals, thugs, and low life of Summer city. A place where the most brute of men roams, no woman would dare to do as they wished. Banished by the aristocrat's nobles and judge, Olm was the only sanctum of safety of the lowest.
But it was too late to stem gossip about the incident. Some regular clients had even begun to talk about what had happened, wondering aloud how it could be that Else, 'who had been big, was now so small.'
Things came to a climax when two of Justin's official's henchmen from the Windslers family in charge of monitoring the brothel paid a visit.
They were told about the rumors of what had happened accidentally. Thus it eventually reached Justin's ears. An investigation was imminent and was conducted by the noble's circle.
In a furious confrontation, Justins secretly reached the brothel house. He burst in on the women while they were eating and delivered a savage beating to Else; while she screamed defiantly, Justin retorted back even louder that he would have to hack off her arms and legs to keep her quiet.
Later, as it finally became clear to Liz and Justin that their cover-up had failed, they approached Else secretly to offer her a bargain. They would agree to help her a settlement sum and a promise to leave Summer city with her falling Family safely in exchange for her silence, Else agreed.
When the time came to enact the plan, Else left the brothel house secretly at night. Accompanied by Justin's henchmen and headed for the city gate, in a distraction, Liz made a show of asking where Else had gone and ordered the women to search the brothel for her. Even while they joined in the search, all of them knew how things really were. But, as one of the prostitutes, Margrette, later testified, Else had already told them all about the secret plan. After hearing that, Liz could only sigh about it and made the women never to speak of what had transpired.
When Alden read the report, the handle seat he sat on was crushed; Alden tore it away with one grip. He turned to Lucas, and Lucas put his head down. Alden asked him why none had reported to him about such misconduct.
Lucas added that due to the Windslers family being the direct Family previously, they have the leisure to garner income, no matter what. The Van farrow family's rule states that they would not question any misconduct if the revenue was produced. Simply the Van farrow would turn a blind eye to such things.
Alden massaged his head and swore that he could feel his head would explode with a headache. Yet Alden retracted his statement after hearing Sambors respond.
'What' Alden spoke with wide eyes starring at Sambor.
Sitting halfway down the seat, Sambor loudly stated that Else and the Aystett family never left Summer city. While Justin and his henchmen were cautious not to alert anyone, Sambor, on the other hand, was not just anyone. He, the underground backbone and the taskmaster of the lower plebian, had been keeping tabs on the Windslers family since the day he planned to crush them. Therefore anything or anyone from the Windsler family doing something disgraceful, Sambor would know about it first.
And as such, he knew which route Justin would prefer to send Else and the Aystett family. Sambor spoke of Justin sending out almost 200 of his family soldiers towards a small village ahead of time for another plan. Justin bribed the garrison head knight and stated that his 200 soldiers were only out to deliver some expansive ornaments to the neighboring Count that Alden could only describe as a bootlicker.
Alden knew this count, Eleon Wilding Trushi; he has visited Alden twice a month and has not stopped articulating how great his father and Family are. Even when Trushi was bidding his farewell, Alden recorded the time of 90minutes; none stop blabbering coming from the men's mouth.
Anyways, While Justin promised to escort Else and her Family out of Summer city safely, Justin did not promise to keep them alive outside. Therefore he planned to have them massacred secretly. Yet it all rebound to have the 200 soldiers slaughtered by Sambor spies hidden in the village.
Red, black, and gray are the new colors of a beautiful, luscious village, which has become a devastating war stage. Sambor vividly describes the scene as littered with bodies, weapons, and carnage. The air, which would typically carry the sounds of a large waterfall, small rivers, and nature's wildlife, was a hellish symphony of screams. Of course, the villager was not harmed.