For that reason, Charlotte had never entertained the idea of overhauling Castel Domain in one fell swoop from the start.
She simply couldn’t do it.
Her plan was to root out the forces behind the scenes, execute the ringleaders, then slowly deal with everything else after consolidating her position and stabilizing her rule.
Once her authority was recognized, once her faith was secure, wouldn’t Castel be at her command?
After pacifying the officials of Silver Mining City, Charlotte declared that she would no longer accept any other visits for the near future.
This was mainly aimed at the Nobles, with the commotion in Castel’s silver mines being so great, it was likely that the Nobles would soon get wind of it and hurry over.
Receiving officials from the Directly Administered Domain was one thing, but since she had decided to formally meet with the Nobles of her domain at the banquet in North Port a week later, if she opened up meetings before that, she wouldn’t get a moment’s peace before the banquet.
In a way, it was an indirect expression of her dissatisfaction to the Nobles, after all... she had the right to be unhappy about the Mithril mine incident.
As if to confirm Charlotte’s prediction, envoys from various families started arriving at Silver Mining City one after another over the next few days.
"They’re making a clean cut pretty quickly, aren’t they? One by one, in such a hurry to distance themselves from the Mining Workshop affairs?"
Listens to the variety of visiting reasons and expressions of loyalty from the Nobles’ envoys, Charlotte chuckled lightly.
Of course, she had not met a single one of them; these were messages the envoys had tried in every way to pass on, some even shouting about their grievances in the hotel lobby before being carried off by the guards.
"Tell them I suspect that there are Nobles within the domain colluding with Cultists, and before the banquet in North Port, I do not intend to meet with any Nobles."
Charlotte said as she looked at the list prepared by Sebastian.
After she spoke, she turned her gaze to Sebastian:
"Is that all there is with the things hired by the workshop managers?"
"That’s all there is. Besides finding out which families roughly support them from behind, the crimes committed by anyone will only end up implicating some unimportant characters."
"I’ve even employed the power of Spirit Control you bestowed upon me to interrogate them, but these managers... seem to know not much, and many of them are driven to hide the truth out of their own greed rather than orders."
"Master, I suspect that they may have been subjected to some kind of mental suggestion, but they... are just pawns, and the true Bloodline behind them probably had plans to discard them long ago."
Sebastian said respectfully.
"Perhaps, but... the person behind the scenes can abandon these managers, yet still needs the Nobles to work for them. Being able to trace back to the families involved is enough, even without evidence."
Having finished, she stretched languidly and commanded:
"Wrap up the transition of the Mining Workshop as soon as possible, and then let’s return to North Port, hmm... take those problematic managers along as well."
Sebastian respectfully bowed:
"I will follow your commands."
It took another two days to reorganize the workshop, and then Charlotte left Silver Mining City.
This time, the Mining Workshop had a major overhaul, with about two-thirds of the managers being dismissed from their posts.
As for the remaining third, it’s not to say that every single one of them was free of issues, but that was the limit for Charlotte.
She still needed people to get things done; she couldn’t really afford to completely paralyze the Mining Workshop.
The same old strategy—take care of those with major issues, warn those with minor ones, let them realize once again who the true Lord was.
And as soon as she returned to North Port, Charlotte received another important piece of news from Bold Duchy.
Bold Duke... had passed away.