Chapter 728 - Visiting the in-laws: Fortress City of Borg (Part 10)
After my personal investigation, my father-in-law and the shadows that he has assigned to me who turned out to be 3 people in the same age range as he was somehow ended up inside my room in the inn. They ate, slept and "worked" here for the past few days.The four men that suddenly became part of my responsibility to feed was amazed on how I had a storage space that never runs out of cooked food and even cooking ingredients. Of course, I am not that stupid to not have them buy cooking ingredients from the market when these uncles should have more than enough money on them. At least they were not alcohol-dependent oldies that throw up around my rented room after getting wasted.
Other than that, them staying here has proved to be quiet productive. I ended up renting the room in front of my current room for the guys because Yren started to act up, saying the room was too crowded for 6 people. I do agree with his reason though it was obvious that he was not happy that I stopped being intimate with him since the old guys arrived.
They were uncles and the other one is my father-in-law, true. Though Yren and I are married, it is weird to give these old uncles a show to see with us being lovey dovey and all.
Meal times are fun though since they took turns sharing the stories they have when they were younger. During those light-hearted talks, even my father-in-law shared some stories about Yren’s mother back when they were still in good terms. I eventually offered to heal up my father-in-law’s injuries on his face but he simply smiled. Just when I thought that he wanted to decline my offer, he smirked and said, that if I would heal him, I have to heal all of his crew too to be fair.
I ended laughing while Yren started complaining about his father being too much and that he hated the idea that I have to meet the other members of the mercenary group. The four older men laughed out loud like good old pals and started teasing my husband about him turning into a green-eyed monster.
Eventually, I still agreed with my father-in-law’s so-called "dare" much to my husband’s complaints. I simply reasoned that it can be taken in as part of the dowry I owe my father-in-law. I also plan to financially support Wrath and create a connection between them and Noir for better information control.
As for our work time, the information that was gathered both legally and illegally, we found a lot of cases that the current ruling families in the Fortress of City of Borg were guilty of. Most of the other nobles were only connected to bribing, tax evasion, illegal trafficking of people and corruption. The most horrible acts were still from the family of my father-in-law’s ex-girlfriend, the Avareone family.
For the other cases from the other nobles, the bribing was more of hiding the fact that not all requirements were met to open businesses, getting passes in selling illegal goods and protecting criminals for a price. Since the people are corrupt, why won’t they pass up with not paying taxes so they can steal more. As for illegal trafficking, it was more of kidnapping free people and turning them into soldiers but treating them as slaves for the arena.
The arena was also part of the crime ring as people die here almost everyday, both slaves and voluntary participants. The place was never declared as a business or a government-owned establishment though public funds were used thus though it earns a lot of money each day, the territory does not get its proper share of the profits. No declared sales or profit means that there were no taxes paid on whatever was being earned.
Another issue with the arena is the fact that the management never paid the families of the fallen, the correct amount that was prescribed as benefits by law for dying on the job. The people who participate in the arena were fraudulently tagged as soldiers in the documents but were never included in the city’s payroll for government workers. Anyways, everything they have done over the years was just like them digging even a deeper hole for themselves every time.
After completing all the proof I needed, I sent over all the documents to Aurum’s storage space that he is sharing with me so that the palace can receive it faster and with no risks of tampering. I was planning to leave immediately after everything is done but due to the promise I made with my father-in-law about healing him and his crew, I had to extend my stay and I even have to stay at the headquarters of Wrath for several hours each time for the next two days.
Yren kept his face covered during the visits though his father has told everybody in Wrath that he finally found his son. My father-in-law agreed to it since he does not want anybody to find out who my husband really was. Though he made it clear that his son does not want to have anything to do with managing the mercenary group, it may still breed jealousy and competitiveness in some of the "greedy bastards" in his crew as per his words.
Mercenaries were crude and speak without filter for sure but I never thought that they were flirts as well. I could no longer count how many times the younger members of the mercenary group tried to hit on me, even going as far as removing their clothes so I could inspect more closely "what they were made of" as they say. I could only smile awkwardly and look away each time they did.
My father seem to know what his people were doing but let them be much to the anger of Yren who was forcibly taken away by the older men to meet others. Their excuse is that Yren doesn’t know a thing about healing and would just disturb me with my job. Well, it was also beneficial in a sense since if my husband saw how these men were trying to hit on me, this mercenary group will surely lose a lot of members in an untimely manner.