Blood Port, inside the prince's office.
Galahad stood in the room with a dark expression, his eyes sharp enough to kill.
"So that maid named Zoe really dragged you around the slums for an entire day?"
Galahad nodded.
"What kind of hobby is that, going to the slums to watch people suffer? Hmm, I have heard of people like that. Or maybe she was handing out money to the poor?"
Galahad's cheek twitched. No longer caring about his image, he cursed under his breath, "Damn it, it was neither! That maid went around the slums asking those lowlifes about their lives one by one, then wrote it all down in a notebook, saying she wanted to use it to write a novel!"
"Write a novel?"
The prince froze for a moment, then burst out laughing.
"What novel? A love story in the slums? Who would she even write that sort of thing for? Would people who can barely afford food pay to read her novel?"
"And who would want to read stories about those poor people anyway? Hahahahahaha."
After laughing for a while, the prince looked at Galahad, whose face had gone black as the bottom of a pot. Rubbing his stomach, he said softly, "All right. Other than Miss Zoe, did you find anything else?"
Galahad nodded somewhat stiffly.
"Your Highness, I sent people aboard those Castel ships under the pretext of maintenance and inspection. Though they look much like ordinary ships from the outside and appear to be made entirely of wood, the insides are different."
"How so?"
"That ship moves forward by using the two wheels on its sides to paddle through the water. But unlike known paddle steamers, there was no mechanism inside driven by livestock or people to turn them."
The prince stiffened, then blurted