Milady didn't just sit there; she got up, went to the kitchen, picked up a cleaver, and began chopping at the empty cutting board again and again.
The residences the Tower family assigned to its low-ranking members were all packed together. Walking through this residential area, you could clearly hear who was starting a fire, who was arguing... She didn't know if Aunt Hong had gone far, but just in case, she wanted to let Aunt Hong think she was making dinner as usual.
Everything was clear now: if Clan Leader Charos had already ordered the clan's security department to investigate, then it meant one thing, without a doubt. After everything, the letter had ended up in his hands.
'Why?'
Milady tapped the cleaver in her hand for a moment before finally flinging it aside.
She bent over, leaning against the kitchen counter. The emotions she had just suppressed, the ones she hadn't had time to feel, all rushed up at once in a vicious backlash—'Had she gone to such great lengths, put herself in danger time and again, and struggled endlessly to find a way out... only for it all to be a complete waste of effort?'
'My mother swallowing wet sand, my mother touching a Pollution Crystal... did she deserve any of it?'
'And Charos is just untouchable?'
She sank to the floor without realizing it, curling her body into a tight ball. If a groan escaped her throat, she didn't hear it. Her ears were filled with nothing but the roar of her own blood.
She didn't understand.
Milady's confusion, pain, and indignation felt like a living creature, gnawing at her insides. She was tormented by the question "why," yet she had no answer—didn't the Judgement Family strictly forbid the Sea Wave Concerto Political Families from developing private industries?
All the Haidu People knew that the status and wealth of families like the Tower family were earned by handling pollution, a small price to pay for the scraps let slip through the Judgement Family's fingers. To ensure their own unrivaled position in Haidu, they had always been careful, never giving the Political Families any chance to grow too powerful. To legitimize this, they even enacted a new law. Legally speaking, Charos's actions were a crime.
She knew the letter had been successfully delivered into the hands of the commander's sister, but why didn't the Judgement Family make a move? Why did they give the letter—or the information—to Charos instead?
Milady slammed a fist onto the floor. The skin over her knuckles split and bled, but she didn't notice in the slightest.
'It was almost as if... they were intentionally condoning Charos's actions.'
She slowly raised her head from the kitchen floor.
'After thinking it through and through, there was only one possible answer. The Judgement Family had known all along that Charos had an underground casino.'
'In other words, Charos's underground enterprise was actually being condoned.'
As soon as she reached that conclusion, the tangled mess of her thoughts and doubts began to unravel.
The Judgement Family wasn't acting because the Tower family was still obedient and compliant. When they decided the Tower family was no longer obedient enough, when they needed to punish or even remove Charos, they would have a ready-made excuse—Charos's illegal enterprise.
'Since all the Sea Wave Concerto Political Families were being watched with suspicion, how convenient would it be to have leverage that could be used to convict one of them whenever they pleased?'
Milady gave a silent laugh and wiped a hand across her face.
She had indeed thought the world of adults was too simple. But it wasn't in her nature to wallow in accidents and mistakes, unable to pull herself free. Since it had come to this, she had to find a way to protect herself. 'What could she do to distance herself from the matter of the secret letter?'
In the process of sealing and sending the letter, she was confident she hadn't left any traceable clues. There were, at a minimum, several hundred people in the casino that night. Even if a few had seen her and remembered her, they wouldn't know who she was. Thinking it over and over, Milady realized the greatest risk was the functionary from the clan affairs office who'd been sent to rush her on the pollution cleanup.
He was the only one who knew Milady had found out about the "operation."
He was the only link that could connect Milady to Charos's underground enterprise. Otherwise, as long as Milady pretended not to know about Charos's illegal business, it wouldn't matter how many casinos Terry took her to—it would all be the same.
'How could she keep him quiet?'
Milady paced back and forth in the room, as restless as a caged animal.
She considered many methods—begging him, bribing him, threatening him... but none of them were viable. Not only did she have no power or money, but she was also utterly alone and knew nothing about the functionary. The moment she betrayed any hint that she didn't want him to speak, it would immediately tip him off. That functionary was no fool; he would definitely realize Milady was connected to the secret letter.