Chapter 81: Utility
"Most of Marquess Gulliver’s knights were stationed in Prudencia Palace, at the borders, or in his fief and didn’t know what was happening throughout Prudencia. They may have had suspicions about it but they were not part of it. He had controlled the information they could get so his knights would remain loyal to him. The knights who were involved would, of course, be punished according to the laws of the Empire," Ferdinand explained and Arabella nodded.
It was a relief that most of the knights were not part of it. Only a select few who were closest to Gulliver.
’Still, there are too many mercenaries. He must have hired them to do all the dirty work for him so he could just shirk the blame and come clean in case they get caught.’
Executing all those people would indeed be too much even for Ferdinand. He already had a reputation as a violent person and executing that many people would make it worse.
Knowing that those mercenaries were beating up common people, with her way of thinking from her past self as a villainous Empress, Arabella couldn’t avoid thinking she wanted them killed.
But that wasn’t what they need. The anger of the people in Prudencia might be temporarily doused but they would continue to suffer the after-effects of what Gulliver had done.
They still had to get out of the financial crisis and food shortage they were suffering from.
She recalled the mercenaries who went as collectors in Rowell County. They had buff and sturdy bodies. What if they made use of the strength of those people in something useful instead?
She could recall that in other kingdoms, they allowed prisoners to do service to lessen the year of their time in jail.