Did Mel and Cassandra know about the malignant tumor that was the indentured labor system? Of course they did, intimately and completely.
They weren't politically inexperienced idealists like the research-obsessed Jayce, when the bill was first submitted to the council, both of them immediately saw the problems.
But they didn't voice any objections during the debates and simply went along with the majority vote to approve it.
Politics, after all, was rarely about conscience and frequently about survival.
As for Mel's reasons for complicity, well, she genuinely didn't have a choice in the matter.
She absolutely loathed slavery in all its forms, and despised the indentured labor system just as much, recognizing it as merely slavery wrapped in legal terminology and bureaucratic paperwork.
But she had been powerless to oppose it. The House Medarda was a Noxian warlord dynasty, and the slave trade had been a cornerstone of Noxian traditional business operations for generations.
In recent years, with Noxus expanding aggressively across multiple continents, the supply of war captives and slaves had vastly exceeded market demand, creating an economic crisis.
To salvage the collapsing slave market and prevent total financial catastrophe, almost every influential family in Noxus had been assigned "dead quotas," numbers they had to fulfill regardless of personal feelings or moral objections.
The House Medarda had been given an enormous quota. If they couldn't sell the assigned slaves, they had to purchase them anyway and absorb the losses.
In this context, Ambessa couldn't move the surplus slaves, so she kept sending them to her daughter to handle.
Whether Mel used them in her family's business operations or sold them to third parties, they had to be dealt with somehow, warehousing human beings indefinitely wasn't sustainable.
But Mel's factories were all cutting-edge, high-value Hextech industries.
What they desperately needed were skilled mechanical technicians, educated engineers, and high-level creative talent, untrained slaves couldn't even perform basic maintenance work, making them completely useless.
Selling them to labor contractors was the only viable option. Killing them outright or dumping them into the sea to feed the fish wasn't exactly practical, both morally and logistically. At least as indentured workers, they could survive a little longer and potentially earn their freedom eventually.
Souds not bad, right?
So she had turned a blind eye to the indentured labor law's passage. In fact, she had quietly benefited from its implementation.
If Jayce hadn't suddenly developed a conscience and exposed this festering cancer to public scrutiny, she would've just kept pretending ignorance indefinitely.
But now that Jayce had spoken up, she naturally had to play the role of justice's passionate champion and find ways to help him deal with it.
As for why she didn't do anything before, don't ask. Asking would be impolite.
Cassandra's stance, on the other hand, was much more ambiguous. She had been a typical political fence-sitter for most of her career. When the indentured labor bill came up for voting, she had also simply followed the crowd and approved it without making waves.
But strangely enough, none of the House Kiramman's business operations employed indentured workers, all of their facilities used genuine Piltover citizens exclusively, paying full wages and benefits.
Workers from Piltover's citizen class and indentured laborers performed essentially identical tasks, but the former earned at least five times more than the latter for the same work.
Kiramman employees enjoyed standard 8-hour workdays, two full days off per week, insurance coverage, and numerous other benefits that were considered revolutionary by Piltover standards.
Piltover's labor laws, designed to protect the city's foundational citizen population, required that at least half of any company's workforce consist of legal residents.
But to minimize labor costs and maximize profit margins, most business owners in Piltover used as many indentured workers as legally possible. In actual practice, indentured workers usually comprised 70% or more of most workforces.
Some truly heartless business owners pushed the ratio as high as 90% or even 100%, exploiting every legal loophole available.
Even more puzzling to outside observers, Cassandra was remarkably active in charitable work, helping the elderly, providing aid to struggling families, and sponsoring educational opportunities for impoverished children.
She didn't limit this philanthropy to Piltover but extended it into Zaun as well, where the House Kiramman had established and funded their own charity foundation.
Of course, this wasn't driven by genuine humanitarian compassion. She was long past the age of youthful idealism, and her family's financial resources wouldn't sustain such generosity anyway without purpose.
Most of the House Kiramman's traditional businesses, except for their lucrative investments in Hextech development and Zaun's emerging communication sector, were barely breaking even due to their unusually high labor costs. They maintained market competitiveness primarily by building customer goodwill and brand loyalty.
At this stage of her life, she was simultaneously a calculating councilor, a profit-driven merchant, and a ruthless business matriarch, the only arena where she still displayed genuine human emotion was in matters concerning her family and daughter.
But in the future, if Zaun were somehow defeated in the coming conflict, she would likely revert to using cheap labor just like every other business owner.
After all, the only reason she was currently maintaining this moral facade was because she understood that Zaun harbored deep, burning hatred toward the heartless elite of Piltover. If Zaun won the inevitable war, they would certainly launch a massive purge of collaborators.
Maintaining the crafted image of a "conscientious and law-abiding businesswoman" was purely about protecting her family from retribution, ensuring they didn't end up decorating lampposts throughout the city.
Someone with great public prestige, widespread popular support, and high propaganda value, even if Cipher wanted to eliminate her family during post-war purges, he'd have to pause and consider: Is the cost worth the satisfaction?
Currently, it wasn't just Piltovans who thought of the House Kiramman as fundamentally "good people," many Zaunites shared that opinion based on their charitable work.
But today, finally provoked by her daughter's naive but passionate moral stance, Cassandra had decided to bet everything on Zaun's victory.
She knew the true extent of Zaun's military capabilities through her business connections. While they might not be able to crush Piltover through brute force alone, her hesitation until now had always stemmed from her well-founded fear of Camille's mysterious but powerful backers.
A few years ago, even when Swain and Ambessa had joined forces in action, they hadn't been able to eliminate the Clan Ferros permanently. That failure had made her realize that the Ferroses enjoyed protection from top-tier Noxian powers as well.
In this regard, Mel and Cassandra's interests were perfectly aligned.
Eliminating the "indentured labor system" was intended to serve as a pledge of loyalty to Zaun, but Cassandra was prepared to go even further by risking her own daughter's safety.
It was a classic case of playing for keeps, a high-stakes gamble where only real sacrifice could prove real allegiance. That's why the House Kiramman would lead the charge, with Mel offering crucial but secondary support.
The House Medarda was already powerful and well-connected. Ambessa was a political and military ally of Swain, Zaun's most important external protector. Mel didn't have to risk everything the way Cassandra was prepared to do.
As for how to deal with the indentured labor system, both of them share the same core strategy.
A brute-force approach would inevitably fail. Rather than attempting to tear down the system violently and triggering resistance from all of Piltover's interests, it was far better to co-opt and gradually retool existing structures.
So they planned to have Caitlyn step forward as the public face of reform, while Cassandra played the role of the doting but reluctantly supportive mother.
Mel and Jayce would use their combined influence in the Council to push through legislation that would replace all current labor contractors with Caitlyn's organization, effectively formalizing a "government-sanctioned underworld" operating under her direct control.
From that point forward, all matters related to slave trading and indentured labor management would become Caitlyn's responsibility, not as a sheltered noblewoman, but as the city's officially recognized "Underworld Queen."
Even the special industrial zones previously reserved for labor contractors would fall under her jurisdiction, protected by her identity as a high-ranking councilor's daughter and heir.
Any enforcers who had experienced unpleasant confrontations with her in the past wouldn't risk interfering with her new operations.
Of course, this entire public narrative was merely a performance, a smokescreen designed to obscure their true intentions.
The real plan involved Cassandra and Mel coordinating secretly with Zaun's leadership, arranging for the deployment of large numbers of well-equipped, high-tech combat personnel to reinforce Caitlyn's organization and transform them into an effective paramilitary force capable of eliminating the existing labor contractors.
You might ask: "Where does a supposedly civilian organization acquire so many advanced military weapons?"
The answer was simple: Her best friend Jayce had provided them as part of his commitment to social justice.
Don't like that explanation? Feel free to file a formal complaint against Councilor Talis.
You might wonder: "Where did they recruit so many elite combat specialists?"
Again, the answer was straightforward: Cassandra couldn't bear to see her beloved daughter operating without proper protection, so she had temporarily reassigned personnel from her family's private security forces.
Have a problem with that arrangement? Submit your concerns directly to Cassandra's office.
This way, Caitlyn's underworld organization would become a wedge driven deep into Piltover.
When the moment for action finally arrived, this asset would serve as Zaun's primary beachhead for the liberation of Piltover's oppressed populations.
Not only would tens of thousands of indentured workers be freed from bondage, but by offering such a strategic advantage, Zaun would have every reason to accept this pledge of allegiance with gratitude.
That was also why Cassandra and Mel had coordinated their planning through private channels, without informing Cipher directly, his approval wasn't necessary for the preliminary phases.
And with this ambitious gambit in motion, once the plan achieved success:
Even without requiring a political marriage alliance with Zaun, Caitlyn would become indispensable as the heroic vanguard in the struggle against Piltover's corrupt establishment, and the House Kiramman would ascend to unprecedented heights of influence.
They would transform from a merely commercial financial dynasty into a true military-political powerhouse.