The banquet ended before nine. As the castle's owner, the Little Duke brought the Dull-Hair King, Bubu Wang, and Amu to tour his father's collection.
In the castle's study, Su Xiao sat beside Finance Minister Walkley. Red tea, pastries, and other refreshments were laid out on the wooden table between them.
Walkley held a cigarette holder between his fingers. The cigarettes in this world weren't filled with tobacco, but with the tender leaves of a four-season tree.
"Duke Kukulin, you didn't come this time because of that military funding matter, did you?"
Walkley lightly tapped the cigarette holder in his hand as white smoke curled through the room.
"Of course not. I came this time..."
Su Xiao stopped mid-sentence and looked at the wooden table beside him. A small transparent scale, about the size of a fingernail, was attached to its side.
"I mainly came to investigate the stolen crown."
"The stolen crown?"
Walkley clearly hadn't heard that the crown had been stolen. In truth, Su Xiao had simply made up the excuse.
"You want to know more?"
"Not particularly. I'm old, and I care less and less about power. When you think about it carefully, it's really nothing special. The more things you have, the more you have to give up. Before I turned thirty, money was everything to me. Before I turned fifty, power was my life. But after turning seventy, I realized that power couldn't solve the problem of having to get up three times every night. It only made me get up more often."
Walkley shook his head with a laugh, as though savoring something—or perhaps regretting something.
"This thing is irrefutable proof that the thief visited the Duke's residence."
Su Xiao peeled the transparent scale off the side of the wooden table. After entering the