Theft, Monthly Votes, and Recommendation Votes

From that point on, the First Consul of the Faruon Republic became the first emperor of the Iron Glory Empire.

However, he was also the last emperor of the Iron Glory Empire. Seven years ago, Emperor Renard suddenly went insane, and the prime minister at the time immediately led men to seal off the palace and place the emperor under house arrest.

After stabilizing the political turmoil within the empire caused by the emperor's madness, the imperial power slipped from the hands of Emperor Renard and was taken up by the prime minister. The emperor was then sent by the prime minister to an asylum on Napo Island; there had originally been an imperial summer palace on that island, which was later converted into an asylum serving the emperor alone.

It looked like he was being sent to the island for treatment, but in reality, it was exile.

The former imperial prime minister became the current head of state. The imperial autocratic system did not change; the head of state retained the imperial institutions, and the former palace became the current office of the parliament.

This is the current political history of the Iron Glory Empire as known to Gallo.

"Twenty years ago, Emperor Renard suppressed the royalists and a group of nobles from the Faruon Kingdom era. But after the Iron Glory Empire was established, the emperor did not confer any new titles, and later, when the prime minister exiled the emperor and became the head of state, there were no longer any conferred nobles in the empire." Gallo looked at Stur and confirmed, "So Sacia Taylor is a noble from the Faruon Kingdom era twenty years ago."

Stur said, "Not just an ordinary noble, but a true high noble. In Nankan County, where my hometown is, the vast majority of the land is under the name of Marquis Taylor. Her family's wealth is unimaginable."

Stur continued to explain, "Although Emperor Renard suppressed the kingdom's nobles, their residual influence still exists. Most of the nobles who were lucky enough to avoid the suppression fled to the overseas colonies that the Faruon Kingdom held in the Southern Continent and other regions.

Even now, the empire has only taken back a portion of the overseas colonies from the Faruon Kingdom era, and some are still controlled by the former fugitive nobles.

Seven years ago, after the head of state took office, in order to control the situation, he engaged in limited cooperation with the former nobles. Within the empire, the privileges of the past nobles could not exist.

But they were allowed to return as ordinary imperial citizens, and the wealth they brought back would not be directly confiscated, provided they paid an entry tax on their overseas assets!"

Gallo nodded. At the very least, he had figured out that Sacia Taylor's true identity was that of a noble from the former kingdom era—perhaps the daughter or granddaughter of the former Marquis Taylor.

When Malcolm indeed found the novel The Nightingale and the Rose on the left side of the third bookshelf in the Aofan Bookstore as Gallo had described, he paid for it right there in the shop.

He took the novel, left the Aofan Bookstore, and arrived at an inn at the end of Lubo Lane. He went inside, walked up to a room door on the fourth floor, and knocked a few times in a rhythmic pattern as agreed.

The door opened from the inside. The person within looked at the returning Malcolm and immediately accused him, "You shouldn't have approached that kid. It will disrupt the rhythm of Miss Taylor."

Malcolm ignored him completely. He walked to the window, which looked out onto the street of Lubo Lane, where he could see the outdoor seating of the Moonlight Cafe to the east.

He muttered to himself, "It's a good thing that kid isn't working inside the cafe. If he were sitting inside, monitoring him would be very troublesome."

"You..." Seeing himself ignored, the man was somewhat exasperated.

Malcolm said flatly, "I just went to verify... whether that kid's memory and reading ability are truly as miraculous as they say.

And now I am reassured. Perhaps he is the only one who can complete this. I hope the Goddess of Luck is on our side."

As if to verify what he had just said, he fished a one-Fenso coin from his pocket and tossed it into the air.

"Can that kid do it?"

The coin landed and was caught by Malcolm. He opened his hand to find it was heads-up, showing the number. He immediately laughed, "So the Goddess of Luck is on our side."

He then asked, "I'm a bit hungry now. Actually, I should be here to replace you two so you can rest and go get lunch, but I'm starving."

He tossed the coin again: "Should I go down and eat lunch now, and then come back to relieve you two after I'm done?"

The coin landed, number-side up.

Malcolm laughed, "So... the Goddess of Luck is still looking after me. I'll go out for lunch first and come back in a while. You two continue the surveillance."

He turned and opened the door to leave, leaving the two people inside the room dumbfounded, not knowing what Malcolm was playing at.

Malcolm walked out of Lubo Lane and arrived at the next street. There were many restaurants here, and at this time of day, one could still see many students from the Imperial Industrial University coming here to solve their hunger.

Finally, he stood in front of a clean restaurant, from which the scent of buttered bread and a type of caramel pudding wafted out.

He took out the Fenso coin again and whispered, "Is it this one?" The coin landed, heads-up.

Seeing the result of the coin toss, he pushed the door open with satisfaction.

The restaurant was already quite full, filled with the aroma of pan-seared steaks and bread. As expected, the Donglushi-style caramel pudding was the specialty here.

Malcolm found a seat against the wall and ordered a steak, a glass of rye beer, a fifth of a pound of buttered bread, and a serving of caramel pudding.

He ate his satisfying lunch, pleased that the favor of the Goddess of Luck had led him to choose this restaurant.

After eating his fill, Malcolm felt his energy had recovered quite a bit. He paid the bill, left the restaurant, and headed back to the surveillance point in Lubo Lane.

Just as he was about to leave the street and turn directly into Lubo Lane, he was suddenly bumped hard by someone rushing in the opposite direction.

The other person paused slightly, said nothing, and hurried away.

Malcolm rubbed his shoulder, which was aching from the collision, and cursed under his breath.

He instinctively felt his coat pocket; his wallet seemed to still be there, so he didn't think much of it, assuming it was just some clumsy person.

He completely failed to notice that when he was bumped, besides his wallet, something else had been silently and skillfully lifted from his pocket by a nimble hand.

Returning to the fourth-floor room of the inn where the surveillance point was, he said to his two exhausted companions, "Alright, you two go eat. Leave this to me."

The two exchanged a look and immediately stood up to leave the room.

Malcolm sat in the chair by the window and habitually reached for his pocket watch to check the time. He reached into his inner coat pocket, pulled out the watch, and froze for a moment, then took his wallet out of his pocket.

"No!" He rummaged through his other pockets, his face gradually changing.

"Damn it!" Malcolm slammed his fist onto the windowsill, burning with rage.

The wallet wasn't lost, and the pocket watch was there, but the key thing was... the forged "Clovin" identification document that had been kept with the wallet!

In the Iron Glory Empire, forging or impersonating official credentials—especially those belonging to a department as fearsome as Clovin—would lead to unimaginable consequences if discovered!

That was not as simple as just going to jail.

He had previously used this fake credential to successfully bluff Professor Vanason, but he never expected that a moment of carelessness would lead to it being stolen by a petty thief, which could invite massive trouble.

Panic and anger intertwined, but then he thought that his worry and panic might be unnecessary; after all, a thief had stolen a Clovin credential from a passerby.

The other party would surely be even more terrified, thinking they had stolen from a real Clovin agent, and even if they discovered the credential was fake, the thief would not dare to report it, as that would expose their identity as a thief and lead to severe punishment under imperial law.

He subconsciously reached into his pocket again, pulled out a one Fenso coin, and after a moment of thought, tossed it into the air once more.

"That thief won't report it!"

The coin landed with the number side facing up, and Malcolm immediately felt at ease.