Nick received the guards with the people from the shed walking behind him.
They were still carrying the same objects they had held in their hands when Nick had caught them.
Nick handed them over and instructed the guards about what to do.
Next, Nick handed the report from the assassins over to the captain and told them to apprehend everyone mentioned in it and to search for evidence with all their power.
Tearing down walls.
Tearing up the floor.
Destroying furniture.
They were allowed to do all of that as long as they found evidence.
He also told them that if anyone dared to threaten them, they also were to apprehend that person and do the same thing to their home.
And like that, the upper layer devolved into chaos again.
Houses were destroyed left and right, and several people were apprehended.
The guards also went to the exit that Nick had found, which led to the middle layer.
The smashed corpse of the man behind the steel plate was retrieved, and every friend of the family was put into custody and interrogated.
The interrogators of Crimson City had their busiest day in years.
A couple of days later, the final report arrived at Nick's office.
Eight people from the upper layer were definitely involved, 15 might have been involved, and another 15 from the middle layer had known what was going on.
Many of them said that they were blackmailed, but Nick didn't care.
If they were blackmailed, they must have done something illegal, which could be used to blackmail them.
Otherwise, they could have simply gone to the guards.
In the end, a total of 33 people were sentenced.
The most severe offenders were executed.
The less severe ones had all their belongings seized and were thrown into the Outer City with nothing to their person.
Any children were put into orphanages in the Inner City, which quickly got additional funding from the city.
Then, the city became silent again.
The upper layer had to recover first.
There were not many people living in the upper layer, and every person who was apprehended or executed was known by basically everyone.
When everything was said and done, Aria asked Nick something.
"What do you intend to do with all the belongings and businesses the city has seized?" she asked. "Do you intend to keep them?"
"Kind of, but not completely," Nick answered. "Having businesses run by pencil pushers working in administration will just make them collapse. You need a businessman to run businesses at peak efficiency."
"I was planning on holding interviews for any capable businesspeople in the middle layer. The city is willing to hand the majority of shares over to them."
"However, anyone willing to accept these businesses will have their right to privacy revoked. All their belongings, offices, and homes are free to be inspected at any given moment. No valid reason for a search necessary."
"The government will retain 40% of the shares to make additional profit, but the companies are allowed to run themselves. The revocation of the right to privacy will make it extremely risky to do any shady things."
"New businesspeople will ascend to the upper layer, and since they have no right to privacy, they would be stupid to try anything illegal. At least, until they become comfortable and greed takes hold of them," Nick said.
Aria raised an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted to make the city earn as much money as possible. Wouldn't keeping the majority of shares for the city result in more profit for the city?"
"In the short term, yes," Nick said. "However, if the city starts running things, the businesses will either collapse or lose a lot of their profitability. Businesses need autonomy to contend with other businesses."
Aria just looked at Nick. "If you think so, sure."
Aria was still annoyed with Nick due to his relationship with Julian, but she couldn't help but admit that his recent choices, while very ruthless, benefitted the city a lot.
If the businesses kept operating at similar profitability as before, the city would gain tens of millions of credits every month in additional revenue.
However, that wasn't even the most profitable thing Nick had done.
Absorbing Ghosty's Lab did not only increase the Zephyx output of the city by a lot, but Ghosty's Lab was also the company that made most of the technology used in suppressing and working with Specters.
This meant that Containment Units, Barriers, Zephyx Suppressors, and similar things were now bought from the city directly.
In the last couple of days, Aria had become uncertain.
Yes, Nick had colluded with a Specter, which was one of the worst things a human could do.
And yet, many good things had come from it.
Thanks to colluding with a Specter, Nick had found and apprehended the False News.
Julian was also the reason why Nick was as educated as he was now.
Julian's protection had allowed Nick to grow and become the Liaison, and until now, his policies had shown remarkable effect.
So many issues that had seemed impossible to solve had been solved in less than a year.
Guard corruption.
Having a proper army.
Having way more Specters.
The False News.
The lack of Manufacturers.
Corruption in the upper layer.
Any of these things had seemed impossible just a year ago.
Sure, the city was getting fewer taxes from the Manufacturers as a whole, but the additional revenue streams more than made up for that.
Aria was conflicted.
Nick was ruthless, and he had done many shady things in the past.
Yet, Crimson City was improving.
That was undeniable.
"You don't seem to make any mistakes," Aria commented absentmindedly.
"The present reflects the past," Nick answered. "I made more mistakes with more devastating consequences than basically anyone in the city. The fact that I made so many mistakes in the past is why I'm not making many in the present."
"The more shit you go through, the more you learn."
Aria could see the truth in Nick's words.
Naturally, Aria had also made many mistakes in her past, from which she had learned.
'Maybe I'm too passive,' Aria thought. 'While Nick's results are great, I can't forget that he is essentially making himself a target for every powerful person in the city. He's betting with his life every single day.'
"That reminds me," Nick suddenly said. "We should ask the gate guardian if she wants to do something else. Having a Specialist stand in front of a door is a waste. We should station two Veterans there in the future."
Aria nodded. "Sure, I'll deal with it."
Then, Aria left the office.
Nick glanced at the door. 'She seems a bit different. Wonder if that's a good or a bad thing.'
Nick looked at the calendar in his office. 'The Specter report is due in a week. I didn't want to sour my relationship with Kugelblitz just yet, but I don't think they will try to do anything until the next meeting. The tax benefits are still too good for them. Also, this won't exactly be my fault.'
The Specter report was a yearly report that every city had to send to Aegis.
If Aegis was very interested in a Specter, they were going to confiscate it and use it for the good of humanity.
Nick finished the report within a day and handed it over to Aria to look through.
Aria looked through it and noticed something peculiar.
In one of Kugelblitz's Specters, Nick had referred to a classified code.
If there was sensitive or secret information that nobody was allowed to see, someone who knew that secret could reference a classified code in a document.
One needed access to Aegis' database with fitting clearance to read what the code referenced.
As the Liaison, Nick had his own credentials, and he could read any secrets he had access to.
Aria went to check what the classified code referred to, but the database said that her credentials were not enough to view that information.
'What did Nick find out about the Fiend of Darkness? Is there something in there that we didn't find?' she thought.
Naturally, the classified code was mentioned in the part of the report dealing with the Fiend of Darkness.
'Did he actually get in touch with the Nightmare?'
Aria shook her head.
'Impossible. I went in there myself, and I couldn't find it. Also, the chances that the Fiend of Darkness directly leads to the Nightmare are minuscule.'
'Light doesn't even work in there. You would need to blindly walk away from the harpoon, and nobody would do that. That's suicide.'
In the end, Aria signed the report and sent it to Aegis.
Not even a single day later, a team of Agents arrived in Crimson City.
They were there to confiscate the Fiend of Darkness for the good of mankind.
Kugelblitz could do nothing but grind their teeth.
"You don't need to worry," one of the Agents said. "You can still work with it for a price."
"It's going to be contained within Crimson City, but in one of the city's Containment Units. Not in one of yours."