Cleaning up the mess created

Ki went to talk to Agnes after her return and began to explain her gains during the inspection. "Grandmother, I am back and the rumours should be dealt with soon and those connected to the invasion have been dealt with."

Agnes heard her words as she calmly talked about the deaths of others so casually and clenched her fists with a face full of worry. "Little Ki, do you have to get involved with all of the dirty work? You are still young, it's too much for a child of your age to take on their shoulders. I'm worried this will affect you in the future and you will grow too used to taking human lives."

'It's too late now, my hands have long been stained with more than 60 years worth of blood… before it was to preserve my own life and achieve revenge. It was my selfishness that led to so many deaths but this time I have many I wish to protect so I cannot make any mistakes. The goal may still be to protect them because of my selfishness but at least the goal is more noble than seeking revenge so the extra blood on my hands will not affect me much.' Ki looked at her grandmother with appreciation after seeing the worry in her eyes. 'Maybe there were a few people I had regrets killing or that got caught up in the power struggles but in the end I can't control everything. This time I cannot be as reckless so everything out of place that is a potential threat must be removed before it becomes a problem. The villagers who betrayed, the blood sect recruits, the gambling hall men and anyone connected to them can not leak anything to the outside world now.'

Ki stopped thinking about unless things and concentrated on the present situation. "Don't worry grandmother, the reason I can be so calm about their deaths is because they are our enemies. Life is a precious thing, especially the lives I care for and those whose lives I wish to preserve. If I did not take immediate action or chose to forgave them then many other innocents would be harmed or even die so I would rather remove them to avoid future troubles."

Agnes sighed and pressed her brows. "Fine, I cannot help with these things so I cannot exactly understand that worlds perspective. After all I'm a merchant, I just trade, sell goods and invest in land and people. The idea of harming others wouldn't cross my mind unless it was to send people to deal with problems like bandits or criminals who attacked our carriages or businesses. I never had to deal with any of those matters personally and settled it with money but I can see you prefer to take a more direct approach."

Ki nodded and spoke in a relaxed voice. "If my subordinates do not trust me then how can they follow me? I need to set an example that I am different from the other nobles and gain their long term trust and cooperation. If I continue to use them while hiding behind the scenes all the time I fear they will feel I am not worth following."

Agnes frowned and shook her head. "No. What you have displayed so far to your people is far beyond what others would expect from you. I believe you will have many faithful followers behind you in the future not because of your status or wealth but because of your bravery and your strong determination. I believe many chose to stay because they recognised your individual worth and not your status as the eldest miss or the next head of the family."

Ki looked a little embarrassed by her grandmothers praise so changed the subject. "Anyways… My trip to the city this time was successful in order to begin stabilising the businesses in Wolfden city. The rumours will begin to dispel as false after word spreads of my visit to each place of business and offered a bonus to those who performed well during this time. As for the tea pavilion I have closed it down temporarily because of their failure to keep the staff under control during the confusion, those involved will be punished accordingly and new staff will be brought in from those trained within the family."

Agnes eyes turned sharp and coldly spoke. "So it seems some of the people decided to bite their masters hands while they were weak and helpless. I'm sure it's already dealt with but we need to take measures to keep our business stable and prevent issues like this in the future."

Ki nodded. "We need a couple of quality inspectors to visit the places of business to check the goods sold and their quality. For each business they need to know about our set goals for each business and their goals for the quality to be reviewed upon their visit. For example the service and the quality within the tea pavilion must be maintained as high quality as possible and go according to our recipes and guidelines so it would be very strict. We can use this to set a standard and the inspector can see if this is being maintained and report back to us, if it drops to an unacceptable level then we need to personally visit to further investigate the cause behind the drop of quality as there may be problems with the staff there. I will also begin to insert the people trained on the art of tea into all of the tea pavilions in the future."