Chapter 2: Return from Vacation

"If someone greets you, give them a warm hug. If it's a woman, compliment her appearance. If there's an unexpected situation, just laugh it off and say, 'What a lovely day it is today…'"
Charlot Mecklenburg kept repeating these mental affirmations to bolster his confidence, trying his best to remain calm and unhurried.

Roughly ten days ago, Charlot Mecklenburg was still Huang Haisheng—a high school math teacher born on Earth with a standard university education.

He had no idea how he had "died."

His last moments of life were a blur, with no clear memory of what had happened. When he regained consciousness, Huang Haisheng had become Charlot Mecklenburg, an imperial civil servant who happened to be on vacation.

Charlot Mecklenburg worked in the Central Government Office as a first-class civil servant, ranked forty-first in the bureaucratic hierarchy of the Fars Empire, performing clerical duties.

The nation he now served with diligence and received his salary from was a mighty empire entirely absent from Huang Haisheng's memories.

Charlot Mecklenburg was originally a native of the Old Continent, born in the Behemoth Principality (a vassal state of the Fars Empire). He later moved to the empire for his studies, and after graduation, secured a prestigious job in the capital, Strasbourg.

The first few days after his transmigration were nerve-wracking. After all, anyone facing such an inexplicable situation would struggle to stay composed.

Fortunately...

At that time, Charlot Mecklenburg was on vacation.

He had rented a small house by the seaside in Cynes, where his neighbors were strangers, giving him the time and space he needed to calm down and adapt.

Huang Haisheng quickly concluded that assuming Charlot Mecklenburg's identity and living a normal, orderly life was his best course of action.

Through the transmigration, he had acquired most of "Charlot Mecklenburg's" memories, along with fragments of ancient knowledge, allowing him to blend seamlessly into this fantasy world with its distinctly classical European aesthetic.

Yes, this was a fantasy world.

Here, there were gods, wondrous creatures, forbidden ancient artifacts, giants, shamans, vampires, magic, combat energy, alchemy, as well as extraordinary beings and objects.

This world was governed by nine True Gods.

In an incomprehensibly ancient era, the nine gods had forged a divine pact, the Code of the Gods, decreeing that the gods would take turns ruling the world in centuries-long cycles, each known as an Epoch.

It was now the thirty-fifth year of the Lady of the Black Moon's reign over the world, coinciding with the fifth epoch of the Fars Empire's establishment.

Charlot Mecklenburg stepped into the Central Government Office, wearing a composed smile and greeting everyone warmly.

However, every face he passed seemed indistinct. The original Charlot had stored only low-resolution memories of his colleagues' appearances, making it impossible to recognize any of them clearly.

It was akin to how most people can recognize acquaintances when they see them but struggle to recall their exact features when alone. This is a minor limitation of human memory.

He made his way to the office he remembered, which he shared with over twenty other clerks. Although not a private workspace, it was still far better than working in the main hall with the rest of his peers.

Just as he pushed open the door, a stern middle-aged woman called out, "Mr. Mecklenburg, you will be assigned a special task in the coming days."

Charlot smiled faintly, searching his memories to piece together the speaker's identity.

This middle-aged woman was his direct superior, Mrs. Aldegonde, a strict and authoritative veteran of the government.

"Understood, Mrs. Aldegonde. I will do my utmost to complete the assignment."

Mrs. Aldegonde looked slightly surprised. She had expected Charlot Mecklenburg to decline—this task was notoriously challenging and something few were willing to accept.

Still, since Charlot had already agreed, she saw no reason to argue. "Take this identification letter to Kilmainham Prison, where further instructions will be provided."

"Here is one écu as compensation for this temporary assignment."

Charlot smiled faintly, taking the envelope Mrs. Aldegonde handed him. As he did, he searched his memories and quickly recalled information about the empire's currency.

The empire had three currency units: écu, flor, and centime.

One écu equaled ten flor, and one flor equaled one hundred centimes.

The écu, meaning "shield" in the imperial language, came in denominations of one and five, made of gold and highly valuable. Only the wealthy and high-ranking nobles possessed large amounts of écu, which had become collectible items and rarely circulated.

Flors were initially weight-based, equivalent to a pound of silver. Under the reign of the third emperor, they were minted into silver coins, colloquially referred to as "Old Flor." In the fourth epoch, paper currency of equivalent value, known as "New Flor," was issued in denominations of one, five, ten, twenty, and fifty. The silver coins had virtually disappeared from circulation, and a single flor was equivalent to about 1,800 to 1,900 RMB in purchasing power.

Centimes were the only coins still widely circulated, available in denominations of one, five, ten, twenty, and fifty, with no paper currency counterpart.

A single écu was considered a generous bonus for such an assignment, roughly equivalent to one and a half months of Charlot's salary.

Indeed, as a first-class civil servant, Charlot earned a weekly salary of one flor and seventy centimes—a high wage that even allowed him to take annual vacations.

Although his short tenure had left him with little savings to purchase property, forcing him to rent, he was still regarded as an exceptional young man among the empire's youth.

This was precisely why, at social gatherings, women often sought his attention; Charlot Mecklenburg was an outstanding imperial gentleman with a promising future.

Mrs. Aldegonde, being a stern and concise person, returned to her desk after giving her instructions.

Charlot turned and left the office, exiting the government building. Waving casually on the street, he hailed a public carriage, which stopped quietly for him. The driver waited as Charlot boarded, then set the horses trotting again.

Sitting in the carriage, Charlot felt the jostling of the ancient mode of transportation as he opened the envelope, pulling out a ten-flor note and an official letter of introduction.

The empire did not issue any paper currency denominated in écu; both the one-écu and five-écu units existed only as gold coins.

For this reason, the empire had a peculiar custom that often puzzled transmigrators: people habitually referred to ten-flor notes as one écu!

Charlot placed the ten-flor note in his wallet, tucked the letter into the breast pocket of his coat, and crumpled the envelope into a ball, tossing it lightly out of the carriage. It landed squarely in a street-corner trash bin with impressive precision.

The empire's sixth emperor, Julius VI, had a compulsive obsession with cleanliness. His intolerance for the sewage and trash scattered throughout the city had led to the establishment of a waste management initiative. Yet, like many imperial projects, it was only partially successful. The use of trash bins persisted solely in the Val-de-Vas district.

Val-de-Vas was home to the imperial palace, the Central Government Office, the nine major temples of the True Gods, and the empire's four most prestigious universities.

These esteemed elites enjoyed living in a clean environment.

As for the other districts, they were left to the whims of fate.

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