The Fourth Life She Guarded Me Chapter 43
She had always been kinder than I was.
And it was precisely because of that kindness that she had loved me, protected me, and trusted me as if I were her own child.
I had received every benefit that came from her kindness; I had no right to accept only the parts I liked.
—
Over the next several days, Grandmother reorganized the family.
The former leader had been in control for many years, and nearly everyone in an important position was from his own faction.
If you obeyed him, you advanced.
If you didn’t, you were pushed aside.
So while the family had plenty of positions, very few of the people in them actually knew how to do the work.
The people below had ideas but no chance to rise.
Many initiatives that would have benefited the family were choked off in the middle layers.
The lowest-ranking members did the most work and received the fewest resources.
Grandmother used to manage only her own mountain.
Now, with the entire family in her hands, she didn’t flinch.
Anyone unwilling to cooperate with the new rules, she simply threw out.
The people she expelled shouted one after another.
“You’ll ruin the family sooner or later!”
“Without us, you won’t be able to keep anything running!”
“If you keep this up, you’ll drag yourself down, too!”
Grandmother acted as though she heard nothing.
They weren’t the only people capable of doing the work.
She promoted people directly from the lower ranks.
Many family members who had long been kept down suddenly got their chance.
They could hardly believe it.
In the world of magic, once you belonged to a family, it was hard to change sides. Truly severing yourself from your bloodline brought all sorts of trouble.
So even when people knew the family was a mess, many of them could only endure it.
Now Grandmother was here.
At last, they saw hope.
Especially the women mages.
They had always been capable but had long been held down by the men above them. They had clearly done much for the family, and their strength was not lacking, yet they could never rise.
After taking control, Grandmother first reordered everyone by strength.
The top-ranking women mages were all promoted to elders.
Those new elders were afraid they might not do well, so the moment they secured their positions, they trained desperately.
Grandmother also poured the family’s resources into them.
She even took quite a few rare materials from me to forcibly raise their strength.
And I simply opened my spatial bags and let her take what she wished.
I had actually thought about just giving every treasure to Grandmother and letting her decide how to distribute them.
She refused.
“What’s yours is yours. Every bit the family takes from you now is a debt. It all has to be repaid later.”
I smiled at her.
Grandmother was still Grandmother.
She couldn’t bear to let me suffer even the slightest loss.