I see now, that makes a lot of sense. Leo doesn't have that precise personnel so he's hiring Leal's mercenaries for abductions, perhaps even the investigation and information gathering of a potential slave.
If that's the case, it means Leal's mercenaries are a bunch of high-class assassins and infiltrators. I mean, they are going around abducting nobles without getting retaliated on or much more found out, that alone is already saying a lot.
That's the last piece I need. Now, all I have to do is to fix this problem.
Now, I have to move on to the second part of my plan.
I said my goodbye to Mister Heizou and rushed to the Fang faction headquarters while Rafaela was still sleeping in our room.
After passing through the street where everyone was gawking at me, I reached the headquarters.
I opened the metal double door, went inside, and found Xin and Leo sitting on the black round metal table, they casually stared at me with their newly awake eyes while taking a bite of the bread in their hands.
"Oh, do you need something, boss?"
I put my hands on my waist and faced them.
"I'm going to conduct a meeting, and gather the faction leaders."
Leo and Xin stared at each other and slowly nodded. "Sure."
I cleared my throat as I stared at the three people sitting in front of me while I was standing. We were inside the living room of Rainden's mansion to conduct a meeting. It's a good thing all of them agreed to come and she didn't reject my request for me to perform the meeting in her mansion. Although she's keeping a close eye on Leo.
The vase that he accidentally destroyed must be very expensive.
At the left corner, Raiden was leaning on the white sofa while glaring at Leo sitting at the opposite side of the hall, a few meters away from her was Leal crossing his feet while attentively waiting for me to start, on the other hand, Leo was just casually sitting on the sofa while leaning his back and arms on sofa's backrest.
I pulled my sleeves. "Where is Xin?"
"He said this meeting is only for the faction leaders so he decided to don't attend," Leo answered my question.
Now, I'm almost certain that he really doesn't like the idea of having a huge responsibility.
Well, can't blame him though.
"I see. Then, let's start the meeting."
"What is this meeting all about, Troy?"
"That's a good question, Raiden, our meeting is about the current and future situation of the town. Before that, once more, I want to explain what my goal is for this town. I already told you all about this but let me just repeat it for clarity."
All of them nodded at once.
"I want to establish a safe place where every race can live in harmony, and as you can see, the current town of Levaerûn is not much of a difference compared to what I'm trying to achieve. This town is already a place where every race could go. We just have to give it a little tweak and add safety on the board. There are a lot of things that we need to do and I'm counting on your cooperation. Do you have any questions about it?"
Raiden and Leal didn't say a word and just nodded.
"So, what are you planning, boss?"
"First, we need to establish some rules, official rules that every single person coming into this place should obey. Mandatory rules. We need to stop any form of violence in every part of the town, it's already been implemented to the citizens of Levaerûn, all we need to do is to enforce it on the visitors, especially to the territory of the Fang and Marionette factions. Now that I already have full control of the town, I want to make it officially effective immediately."
"I have no problem with it," Leal commented. "I will inform the Marionette faction about it."
"Much appreciated. Now that the easiest part is already out of the way, we are now going to dive into a bigger matter." I cleared my throat and pointed my eyes towards Leo. "Leo and Leal, about the human slaves, I have to ask you two to stop all the human shop operations, I don't think they're appropriate especially since humans are living in this town, and if we're going to make this place an open town for everyone, we should get rid of those shady shops of yours."
Leal just nodded. "Not a big deal, I'm just doing it because Leo is paying me to."
Leo shrugged. "I already saw it coming when you asked me about them. Sure, I'll terminate them right away, you are the new ruler now so it's all up to you. Even Xin didn't say a thing when I decided to make those shops so it's fair that I won't say a thing as well. However," He leaned towards me and a cruel smile emerged on his face. "Let me just get rid of them, they are my property after all, so it's fair that I can do anything I want about them, right, boss?"
This is where the problem begins.
"Don't kill them. Set them free, Leo."
His eyes immediately darted on me while indicating both annoyance and confusion at the same time. "Ha? What are you saying?"
"Just like what I said, set them free."
"Are you serious?"
"I am."
He stood up and chuckled. "Do you know what kind of monsters we are talking about? If I set them free, they will continue to do horrible things to the demi-humans who will become their slaves. And you are asking me to let them go? Those awful scum who called themselves humans? Set them free? Can you hear what you are saying?"
I shifted my gaze towards Leal and Tanya but both of them didn't say a thing.
They weren't showing agreement towards Leo, however, they were not showing any signs of opposition as well.
They just simply don't care about humans.
It makes me feel like I am the only weird one in here.
"I understand what you are trying to say, they are humans who enslaved, abused, and killed demi-humans. Though, haven't they already suffered enough?"
"Suffered enough?" He chuckled but this time, his laugh was filled with bitterness. "I have no problem cooperating with you to change this town to whatever kind of a children's playground you want it to be, I will take all my human shops down without saying a word. But setting those scum free? You can't have me do it. I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing this for the lives they have ruined just because they find destroying people's lives entertaining. They deserve more." He shook his head and stared directly into my eyes. "Of course, you will never understand me. There's no way a person who came from a superior race who never experienced what we inferior ones suffered will understand what it feels like to lose everything right in front of your eyes, and couldn't do anything to stop it from happening because we're too weak to even fight back." He turned his back at me and marched to leave the hall.
I can't argue with that, the only thing I have in me is the fact that I have lived my entire life as a human and I still can't understand what it's like to live as a demi-human.
Now I finally realized, all this time, I was looking at everything as a human. Have I forgotten? Even though it just happened because of some kind of curse... I am no longer a human, the people I am with right now are not humans, and pushing my ideology on them as a human who grew up in a peaceful world is extremely unfair.
I nodded. "It really is my mistake, forgive me, but before I leave that matter to you. Let me just tell you one thing, Leo."
He stopped.
I exhaled. "Those humans you are calling scum, once you kill them, you are just giving them the escape that they're wishing for, once they are dead, they could no longer suffer to atone for their sins. However, if you set them free, they are already scarred for life, they will remember every moment of their sufferings up until they breathe their very last, and it is the cruelest punishment someone could ever receive. And I know... you understand it more than anyone else. I don't have to experience it because I can see it in you, why not give them the taste of what it feels like?"
For a few seconds, he remained unmoved and finally unleashed a huge sigh. "What a troublesome fellow." He walked back to the sofa while shrugging. "I get it, I get it. I will set them free or whatever you want, I don't care anymore, you are the boss." He sat back and rested his arms on the backrest of the sofa. "What are you two laughing at?"
"Look at that adorable lion. Acting tough but still a softy."
"Ha? Did you say something, Grandma?"
"How delightful, did you already forget who you are talking to?"
"I'm in the middle of you, don't involve me with you."
"Alright, let's continue our meeting."
"Do you mean that's not all of it?" Leal asked.
I shook my head and smiled. "No. We're just starting."