The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 101

Chapter 101: An Unexpected Gain

The man in black turned his head at the words, and when "he" saw the young man's face clearly, he couldn't help but blurt out, "The Crown Prince?"

Joseph was also somewhat surprised: "A lady? Do you know me?"

"Oh, um, I've seen you before."

Eymond quickly grabbed the dagger from the black-clad person's waist—though it was nearly impossible to use in the carriage, for the Crown Prince's safety, it was better to take it away—and then pointed to her mask, signaling to Joseph whether it should be removed.

Joseph shook his head slightly and asked the person in black, "Who are you? Why is the Duke of Orléans chasing you?"

"I... you can call me Tulip." The woman in black gave a vague response before continuing, "I just went to the Royal Palace of Roial to fetch something, and those guards started chasing me like crazy."

Joseph frowned. "So you're a thief?"

"Strictly speaking, yes." The woman in black suddenly inhaled sharply, then pressed down hard on her shoulder, her voice trembling. "But everything I've done is for equality and justice."

Joseph then noticed that blood was seeping out from between her fingers. "You're hurt?"

"It's just a little wound, it's nothing." The woman in black shook her head. "Now, you can hand me over to that guy, Philip. He should thank you."

Philip was the Duke of Orléans.

Joseph shook his head. "First, tell me your real name. Second, what did you steal?"

"Why should I tell you?"

Joseph didn't waste time arguing with her and signaled to Eymond. "Eymond, please check what she stole."

"Yes, Your Highness. Miss, I'm sorry..."

"Don't touch me!" The woman in black quickly shrank back, gritting her teeth. "Alright, I'll tell you. I took a few promissory notes and contracts from the Royal Palace of Roial's document room."

"Promissory notes? Contracts?"

"Yes, from Mr. Lenotre and a few of his partners." She inhaled sharply again, clearly in pain, but continued, "In recent years, their harvests haven't been good. Their wine cellar business is struggling, so they borrowed some money from Philip... Now they can't pay it back, and Philip wants to take their wine cellar, their houses, and their land!

"Mr. Lenotre's son is also seriously ill, and if the Lenotre family loses everything now, he will definitely die! Oh, and those people working in the wine cellar, they will lose their jobs too, and won't have money to buy bread."

Joseph rubbed his nose. Although he believed that debts should be repaid, it sounded like Lenotre had suffered great insult and persecution when it came from her mouth.

However, he had no objection to making the Duke of Orléans uncomfortable.

"Alright, so you snuck into the Duke of Orléans' document room and only took a few promissory notes? Didn't you happen to find any evidence of him conspiring with foreign countries or embezzling, anything like that?" Joseph sighed regretfully. With that "Tulip" nickname, she seemed like a typical impulsive youth.

"No..."

"Tell me who you are, and I might consider letting you go."

The woman in black was stunned. "Really?"

"Really."

The woman in black remembered seeing the Crown Prince help a pair of homeless siblings outside the Paris Angel Store and managed to squeeze out a smile. "As expected, Your Highness, you're not... ahem—Alright, my name is Solène. Anna Solène."

Eymond quickly searched his memory and told the Crown Prince, "Your Highness, she's the sister of Viscount Fritz."

Joseph found it amusing. A noble from the Palace of Versailles, out here at night dressed in all-black to steal things in the name of "justice"...

He heard the calls of guards approaching from a distance and signaled to Eymond. Eymond immediately opened the door and got out of the carriage.

The carriage had barely moved a few steps before it was blocked by two fully-armed guards, one in front and one behind.

Eymond immediately stepped forward and loudly said, "What do you want? This is the Crown Prince's carriage!"

The captain of the guards at the Royal Palace of Roial, who knew him, hurriedly bowed and said, "Count Eymond, we are arresting a thief..."

"I don't see any thief. Alright, move aside." Eymond waved his hand. "Don't delay the Crown Prince's journey."

When the guards saw that Kessold had also brought the Crown Prince's personal guards along, they didn't dare say anything more and motioned for their subordinates to clear a path for the carriage.

Several carriages quickly passed through, and after traveling a considerable distance, Joseph instructed to stop after they turned into a small alley.

He gestured toward the carriage door and asked Solène, "Are you sure the wound is fine?"

"Thank you for your concern, it's nothing."

Solène began to step out of the carriage, but suddenly remembered something and turned back. "Your Highness, as a token of my gratitude for helping me escape, I can tell you something."

"I overheard a conversation between Philip and the British ambassador at the Royal Palace of Roial today, and it seems like it involved you."

"Oh?" Joseph's eyes brightened. He hadn't expected such an unexpected gain.

"Philip said he hoped the British would let Necker serve as a financial advisor and participate in some negotiations you proposed. And he suggested that it would be best to exclude Archbishop Brienne and have Viren and Necker take the lead. But it seems the British didn't agree."

"Oh, and Philip also mentioned that the 15 million francs his banks invested in Britain had been finalized, and now a few more banks are hoping to invest 10 million francs in Britain's automatic looms."

She finished speaking, turned, and exited the carriage. Holding her shoulder, she turned around and bowed to Joseph. "Once again, I sincerely thank you, Your Highness. Also, please keep this a secret."

Eymond handed her the dagger. The girl took it, strapped it to her side, nodded in gratitude, then spun gracefully, vanishing into the night like a black cat.

Joseph smiled. He hadn't expected that there were actually people in this era who fancied themselves as knights, fighting for justice all on their own, and even more surprisingly, a young girl at that.

As the carriage started moving again, he thought back to Solène's words, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. These banks were using French funds to help the British advance the industrial revolution!

A total of 25 million francs—probably more than half of that had been earned from the interest on France's government debt. It seemed the financial sector needed a thorough overhaul.

Before long, the convoy arrived at the Royal Industrial Planning Bureau's office in Paris.

Joseph quickly entered the small building and found it still a bit disordered, as they had only just begun moving in the day before.

He entered the director's office at the back and immediately saw a neatly stacked pile of documents on the desk—these were the industrial situation reports for France he had asked his assistant to organize, and they had arrived so quickly.

He suddenly smiled and shook his head. As France's head of industry, he had been thinking about food production all this time instead of focusing on industrial matters.

Joseph sat down in the chair and began flipping through the documents. Eymond quickly brought a candelabra with five candles to provide extra light and quietly instructed a maid to make a cup of tea.

After reading only ten pages, Joseph's brow furrowed tightly.

Last year alone, in Lyon, France, there was an accumulation of over a million francs worth of textile products. Nearly a hundred textile workshops had gone bankrupt, causing more than 3,000 workers to lose their jobs...

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