Chapter 256: The First Probe

In the room, a rough-faced man was sitting on a chair facing the black-haired maid.

He had thought some formidable person would come, but he never expected it to be a little girl.

As one of the more influential people in the crowd, he had been elected to negotiate. He sat here, and although Lucia did not seem imposing, he still appeared very nervous.

Of course, that was mainly because Wendy was standing by the door, leaning against the wall, her gray robe concealing her figure.

Although her curves still showed she was a woman, being so mysterious probably meant she had extraordinary strength.

The man took Wendy as Lucia’s bodyguard, so he tried his best to show respect to the young maid before him.

After Lucia sat down, she spoke.

“Please tell me what happened and what demands you have.”

“This…”

“Please go ahead. I won’t threaten your life.”

“…”

Under Lucia’s sincere gaze, the man hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up, telling her what had happened.

From this man’s account, it was about a colleague who worked at the gel factory. Unfortunately, he fell from a high place in the factory.

The man died on the spot, but the factory failed to provide the promised worker’s compensation.

Instead, they claimed the worker had committed suicide. According to him, the factory fabricated the suicide to pocket the compensation money.

That man had a wife and children, and he had a job at the factory—what reason would he have to commit suicide?

Although the man looked rough and seemed like a simple person, someone who could command respect had to have some brains.

He spoke tactfully, only vaguely hinting that the responsibility lay with some corrupt individuals in the factory.

Lucia did not express an opinion yet, as this was only one side of the story. Then she let another person come in.

A thin man with sharp eyes and a flattering smile on his face—his mercenary and calculating nature was written all over it.

Lucia frowned internally, but she suppressed her expression and asked the same question as before. This time, the answer surprised her.

The shrewd man did not side with those people.

Instead, he began to ingratiate himself with Lucia and backstabbed those who had chosen him.

He said that man had indeed committed suicide, and it was definitely not the fault of the Chamber of Commerce or the factory managers.

He even offered to act as an inside man to divide the protesters and make them collapse on their own.

He practically had “Buy me” written on his face.

This was undoubtedly the fastest way to handle things, but Lucia clearly did not want to do that.

If this was Enya’s test of her ability, doing so would definitely earn her a big zero.

However, Lucia did not immediately respond. Instead, she said she would consider it. Then came the third person.

Compared to the first person’s mediocrity and uselessness, and the second person’s refined selfishness, this third person gave Lucia a different feeling.

Although he was unkempt with a stubbly face, he sat upright, showing no fear at all. It was as if he believed he was in the right.

Lucia became serious and asked the same question again.

This stubbly man spoke methodically, telling what he knew. It was mostly the same as the first person—the gel factory worker fell to his death, and the factory ruled it a suicide, refusing to pay compensation.

Lucia asked calmly, “Some people left earlier. Do you know where they went?”

“Maybe they got scared. They are just ordinary people in this city. Going against a big chamber of commerce like Lily of the Valley won’t end well, so leaving is understandable.”

“But you still walked in. You didn’t take the chance to leave.”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you leave?”

“Because I’m not afraid.”

“Why aren’t you afraid?”

“Not afraid is not afraid.”

The man’s voice was forceful and full of confidence. In contrast, Lucia’s voice sounded soft and weak.

But Lucia did not show any timidity. She looked directly into the stubbly man’s eyes.

“Is it because you have nothing to lose?”

“…”

The stubbly man’s gaze was firm, unshaken by Lucia’s insight.

Lucia lowered her eyes and said calmly, “I don’t have anything to lose either. When I was very young, I was sent to a big estate and trained to be an excellent maid.”

“…”

“That’s a bit off-topic… What I mean is, we are all human. There is no difference.”

Lucia raised her eyes and smiled.

The stubbly man walked out.

This time, it was the factory manager who came in.

He entered nervously, fearing that Wendy might do something unusual. His attention was on Wendy, and only secondarily on Lucia.

Seeing that he had not sat down for a long time, Lucia prompted him.

“Sit down.”

“Okay, Miss Lucia.”

The factory manager sat down uneasily, and then Lucia asked him the same question.

His answer was, “That was definitely suicide, or someone pushed him down. Those guys wanted to use the man’s life to cheat compensation!”

The factory manager was agitated. Lucia calmed him down.

Now that she had heard the facts from both sides, it was time to start looking for physical evidence and witnesses.

Lucia and Wendy left the house and found the dead worker’s wife and child among the crowd, as well as the corpse of a man with a blurred face.

A sallow-faced woman, holding a baby in her arms, knelt beside the corpse, sobbing softly.

When she saw someone coming, and it was a young, beautiful girl in an exquisite maid’s long skirt, the woman immediately broke into loud cries.

She crawled on the ground, grabbed Lucia’s black skirt hem, and looked up at Lucia with a grief-stricken face.

“Madam, I beg you, I really beg you. There are two more children at home. Please, for the sake of the children’s father who worked hard in your factory, give us some money.”

“I…”

Facing such a scene, Lucia did not know what to say.

She turned to look at the man’s corpse, whose face was blurred and which emitted a smell of blood and decay, then looked at the crying child in the woman’s arms.

“What is his name?”

“His name is Beck, and this child is Ham.”

The woman released Lucia’s skirt hem and said apologetically, “Sorry, sorry for dirtying your skirt, Madam. I’m so sorry. I was too emotional. I feel really terrible inside.”

Lucia was silent for a moment.

The workers were still surrounding them.

Seeing this, they thought of their own wives and children, and imagined that they might suffer the same fate one day.

The emotions that had been soothed by the song began to stir again. Today him, tomorrow me!

Seeing a possible future for oneself almost firsthand had a huge impact on people.

Moreover, these workers were less educated and easily stirred up emotionally.

If not for the gray-robed person and many fully armed knights behind Lucia, they might have surrounded her to demand a clear explanation for the dead Beck.

“Beck,” Lucia murmured.

She shifted her gaze to the woman, knelt on one knee on the dirty ground, and reached out her slender, delicate hands to hold the woman’s thin, calloused left hand.

Lucia looked directly into the woman’s eyes and said, “Please rest assured. I will find a way to get enough compensation for you and your children. If you encounter difficulties in life, the farm should be able to arrange a job for you. The pay there will be enough for you to raise your children by your own hands.”

‘If possible, please do not send your children to be servants for others. You must let them have their own future.’

That was what Lucia wanted to say, but in the end, she did not say it out loud.

After all, it was very difficult for a woman to raise three children on her own.

In this world, sending children to be servants for nobles and wealthy merchants could no longer be described as a minority—it was an absolute majority.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!” The woman’s eyes widened, and she almost kowtowed to Lucia.

Lucia stopped her and had someone arrange food and lodging for the woman.

This puzzled the factory manager, but it was an order, and he had to follow Lucia’s instructions.

Leaving the crowd, Lucia went into a room that had been arranged for her.

Sitting on a chair, she seemed to deflate, slumping into the chair.

‘What am I going to do…’

Although she had made promises and calmed the crowd, the real problem was not yet solved.

In fact, only now was the problem truly unfolding.

Compensating a bit of money was like a grain of rice to the factory or the Lily of the Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The real trouble was the worker’s compensation system established when the factory was built.

Someone was now testing its boundaries to use it for further attacks.

This was hard to defend against.

Lucia closed her eyes tightly, thinking about how to handle the next steps. As she was worrying, Wendy walked over slowly.

Wendy couldn’t understand much of what the humans were saying.

Her human language was not yet proficient, only enough for simple communication with Lucia. But that was sufficient.

She came to Lucia’s side and said, “That woman, lying.”

“What?” Lucia suddenly opened her eyes, sat up straight in her chair, looked up at Wendy beside her, and pressed, “You say she’s lying? Which specific part is a lie?”

“…”

Wendy frowned slightly.

Lucia had spoken a long sentence, so she could only understand word by word and piece it together.

She blinked and said, “All.”

Lucia frowned deeply, carefully recalling all the information she had heard. Then she stood up from the chair and walked to the door.

The gel factory manager was called over.

Lucia had him retrieve the employee information and asked about what kind of person Beck was.

The answers were all vague.

She called the workers over, and after multiple inquiries, no one knew much about Beck.

They only knew that he often drank alone.

But they were also surprised that this solitary man actually had a wife and three children.