The mines

Thanks to the nature of the unorthodox alliance Ki did not need to deal with the Wraith family personally for Rayleigh's sake and could keep a low profile.

News also spread to many tribes and small towns or cities about the borders defences being destroyed so many people braved the cold and left their homes or shelter and travelled to the border and began to enter the central lands.

Thanks to the plans of communicating with the merchants from the north many unnecessary fights or bloodshed was avoided but that did not mean there weren't cases of troubles within the northern parts of the central lands.

In fact within several cities many new gangs or mercenary groups appeared within the slum area of cities made up of northerners that began to cause some conflicts.

Under Marilyn's organisation was Nox's forces that controlled the gangs of the surrounding cities so the moment any groups appeared in their territory they were quickly subdued and brought into the organisation or swiftly dealt with.

Many of the groups appeared in the central lands with not many things so quickly found themselves without a way to survive within the cities so quickly turned to committing crimes and soon they began to group together but were soon subdued by Nox and any that insisted on acting like plunderers and murderers were struck down by the blades of the reapers.

As for the larger groups of invaders they had began appearing setting up camps at the border, within the forest or beside various cities or strongholds in hopes that they can find a weakness within the defences and plunder the lands.

A couple of groups appeared at the villages gates and walls during the two months with their weapons in hand or with ill intent so were refused entry but some did manage to slip through the gates as they appeared to be looking for a place to stay and work so they were accepted.

Those accepted within the village weren't left to act as they please, Ki had a wide range of spies planted all around the village and also had the law department so if someone so much as sneezed she would know of it immediately.

Several people had been caught for trying to harm the villagers in various ways or committing various crimes but the most recent was a small group that entered.

The young man who had high potential within the law department had a keen eye and quickly noticed an oddity within the group.

The young man had messy brown hair and dark eyes and an ordinary looking face with slightly tanned skin from being exposed to the sun a lot but he looked very healthy and well trained.

He stood upright as he faces Ki and then began his report. "Spencer Riddel reporting to the young miss. I have detected an urgent matter regarding one group of the northern people who settled within the village. They have been frequently seen exiting the village and they have used the excuse of going hunting but from what I have noticed they are a threat. It's suspicious why they need to leave so often to hunt when they should have enough food provided within the farms to trade with the money they have worked hard to earn. Most of the times they didn't even return with any prey so it was a little suspicious at first but it's happened too often so I suspect they are meeting with another group or are originally spies sent in to help the invaders from the inside and give them intel."

Ki and Isaac sat opposite him as he read out the report on the current ongoings of the village and any suspicious activity.

Ki looked over the reports and then looked up with a serious look on her face. "It's happening again… you can leave the rest to the other departments as this is now considered outside of the law departments jurisdiction. What I need from you is to gather intel and evidence on their collusion with an outside force that has bad intentions towards the village and be ready to capture those within the village. Those convicted can be sent to the mines to work, their duration of their stay will depend on the severity of their crimes."

After Ki put aside some funds to purchase several profitable mines from her previous life's knowledge she needed workers there to do the heavy lifting and mining jobs nobody else wanted to do.

The family did hire some workers to help within the mines but to save costs Ki put in place some conditions.

Slaves who did not have much use and wished to be free could apply to work in the mines to pay off their debt to the family and gain their slave and master certificate of ownership from the family.

They were able to work off their debts and gain back their freedom but could continue to work in the mines to provide them with a little money to help start up their new lives.

Criminals could not be kept within the prison cells for long periods of time so Ki put forward a solution.

Those that have been captured and judged according to law all are given a sentence according to the crimes committed, if they aren't sentenced to death then they are sent to the mines to work of their sentence.

Those that had committed the most heinous crimes would be sentenced to death but those who were caught committing lesser crimes like removing their weapon in public, threatening others, fighting in public and theft would be imprisoned, sentenced and then sent to the mines to work off their sentenced crime.

Those with the intent to commit crimes would be given lesser crimes would have their sentenced reduced compared to those that committed them and get between 10 years to life within the mines but serious crimes like having the intent to do larger crimes like poisoning the villages water source or other acts of genocide would be immediately sentenced to death.

Those who were given a sentence over a couple of years were implanted with a Gu worm for insurance purposes so that they did not try to revolt or escape before their sentence is served.

The criminals status would become even lesser than that of a slave so their treatment wouldn't be that good and they would have to undergo harsh daily life working without payment so it suited Ki's needs.

Larger prison cells were set up near the mines to keep the prisoners within so that they could keep the prisoners behind bars when they aren't scheduled to work and need to eat and sleep.

Spencer nodded. "I will leave it to you and the strategist on how to handle the outside the village. If you can please try a method that helps to capture them."