Chapter 118: Chapter 118 Fairness part 1
"Hey, did you all hear? Something big happened at the palace last night!"
"I have some inside information. Apparently, a gang of thugs from the 'Syndicate' attacked the palace and killed the visiting imperial envoy."
"Oh my! That's not all. My uncle is in the knight's order. Let me tell you, the palace was a bloody mess last night. The imperial envoy was nothing. Almost all the nobles and royals from top to bottom in our Ilinor who attended were massacred by those thugs!
Even the old king died! That day... tsk tsk, according to my uncle, it was truly a river of blood!"
"Now that you mention it, when I got up in the middle of the night yesterday, I seemed to see some light in the sky near the King's Tower. I, I thought I was still half-asleep and hallucinating."
"Then, then what do we do? Is Ilinor finished? Are those Syndicate thugs going to kill us next?" A resident who seemed to be from out of town was now trembling with fear.
But the informant in front shook his head and continued with a hint of excitement:
"You're overthinking it. Apparently, those Syndicate bandits specialize in killing nobles and big landlords. Not only will they not harm us commoners, they'll actually benefit us!"
"Huh? B-Benefit us?"
More and more people gathered in the early morning. In fact, they weren't very concerned about the dramatic changes in the palace, because it was too far removed from them. Moreover, that night's bloodshed, under the dual control of Reji and the crown Princess, was limited to the palace and did not affect any other areas.
For the masses in the royal city, if the Crown Princess hadn't deliberately released the news, even the bottom-level commoners would not have noticed and would be completely unaware of the changes.
Of course, it's different now.
Everyone was originally concerned about how they would "benefit", but the first sentence from this "informant" greatly disappointed many people.
"The Syndicate thugs said that from now on in Ilinor, nobles are not allowed! If there is one, they will kill them!"
It was clear that this "informant" was an educated commoner, so he spoke very excitedly. He had long despised this noble system where people's lives were branded from birth. Now he was enthusiastically announcing this good news to everyone.
However, to the ears of the people...
"F-From now on there will be no nobles? Then who will give us work, who will give us land? Where are the benefits? We won't even be able to afford to eat. Damn it! Those hateful Syndicate people!"
"That's right. I still owe that noble several months of rent. Now that the he is gone, who should I pay back? Will I be thrown in jail as a deadbeat?"
"It's over! My little daughter finally managed to squeeze her way into a noble lord's mansion, but hadn't even sat as a servant for a day. Now she'll have to come back. What can we do? Without noble lords, who will support her?"
Most commoners still seemed unaware, which was understandable. The aristocratic system had lasted for hundreds of years, and under such a system, very few had the opportunity to attend school and acquire knowledge.
So the "informant" hastily added more explanation:
"Everyone, don't worry. The Syndicate also said they will fairly distribute the aristocrats' property and land to everyone! Each household will get a share based on the number of people!"
"And you, yes, the one who just mentioned rent - you don't have to pay it back! You can apply to the new officials and that house can directly become yours!"
"You, you, right, the one who said you can't afford to raise your daughter. Now that Ilinor's Crown Princess is in power, she will soon give us money, and also provide many jobs. By then, your daughter won't need you, she'll be able to support herself!"
Many people still didn't believe it.
Changing mindsets is not that simple.
Everyone even longed for the aristocrats to come back and "save" them again.
It wasn't until the following days, when the benefits truly materialized, that people started to come to their senses. To put it simply, the village really started handing out gold bars.
Only then did everyone begin to realize that the aristocrats were not the masters who saved them.
On the contrary, they were the bloodsucking vampires who had been exploiting and depriving them of the fruits of their labor.
70% of Ilinor's wealth was concentrated in the hands of the aristocrats and royals.
Following Reji's principle of 'fairness', the Crown Princess began to return these resources and money to society on a large scale, distributing them to the grassroots people. This included land, houses, as well as food, education, healthcare and more.
Of course, Yuffie made her own changes and policies. Whether it was land or housing, they were not given away for free, but rented to the commoners at extremely low prices.
The difference between this and giving it away was that these resources remained under the unified regime of Yuffie's royal power. It was equivalent to the royal power always regulating the "fair" social distribution, preventing another form of "aristocracy" from emerging.
However, the drawbacks of this policy were also very obvious. Once the ministers and officials under the Crown Princess started to become corrupt and harbored evil intentions, the entire system would quickly collapse.
Unless there was an extremely powerful eye that could monitor the officials at all times.
….
At a certain minister's mansion.
It didn't take long, only three days, for someone to start having crooked thoughts. The minister was nominally implementing the Crown Princess's fair distribution, but in reality, the commoners being allocated now were all forcibly having a portion of their money deducted under the name of "kickbacks", which went into his own pockets.
Of course, he didn't dare to be too greedy. He only took thirty percent from each commoner and continued to distribute the remaining seventy percent to them. No one would discover such small tricks.
However...
In the middle of the night at the mansion, a group of mercenary adventurers came looking. Luna, her face filled with disgust, used sorcery to strangle this maggot-like minister to death. She then followed Eagle team leader to continue on to the next official's location.
Beneath the minister's corpse, which died with eyes wide open, a shadow flickered. The Shadow Demon slowly departed to go monitor the next high-ranking human.
Of course, Reji's control over Ilinor would not be based on just words alone.
Reji also had to selectively employ the tactics the demon race should have used back then, such as using the Shadow Demon clan to become the demon race's eyes among the humans.
Apart from Yuffie, no one knew of the demon race's existence. Fear stems from the unknown. When one official after another who harbored ill intentions died in succession, even the greediest of people could clearly distinguish which was more important - their lives or money.
Even later on, countless ministers and officials took the initiative to request charitable donations to Yuffie, the new queen of Ilinor. They wanted to dedicate their wealth to respond to Yuffie's policies and contribute to society.
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