An unexpected gain

Upon hearing this, the Black-clad Man turned his head, and when he saw the boy's face clearly, he couldn't help but blurt out, "Crown Prince?"

Joseph also somewhat surprised. "It's a lady? You know me?"

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

Eman snatched the Rapier from the Black-clad Man's waist—though it was practically unusable in the Carriage, it was better to remove it for the Crown Prince's safety—and then Mask to Joseph, indicating whether he wanted to remove it.

Joseph shook his head slightly and asked the Black-clad Man, "Who are you? Why is the Duke of Orléans chasing you?"

"I... you can call me Tulip," the woman in black mumbled, then added, "I just went to the Royal Palace to get something, and the guards chased me like madmen."

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

"Strictly speaking, yes," the woman in black said, suddenly gasping for breath before pressing her hands firmly against her shoulders, her voice trembling slightly. "But everything I've done is for equality and justice."

Joseph then noticed blood seeping from between her fingers. "Are you hurt?"

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

The Philip she mentioned is the name of 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 with her and gestured to Eman: "Eman, search her and see what she stole."

"Yes, Your Highness. I'm sorry, young lady..."

"Don't touch me!" The woman in black quickly shrank back, gritting her teeth as she said, "Fine, I'll tell you. I took some Promissory Note and contracts from the Royal Palace's Archives."

"Promissory Note? Contract?"

"Yes, it's Mr. Lenoir and several of his partners." She took another breath, clearly in pain, but continued, "The harvests haven't been good these past few years, and their Wine Cellar is struggling, so they borrowed some money from Philip... Now they can't pay it back, and Philip is going to take away their Wine Cellar, house, and land!"

"Monsieur Lenoir's son is also seriously ill. If the Lenoir family loses everything now, he will surely die! Oh, and those who are still working in the Wine Cellar, they will also lose their jobs and have no money to buy bread."

Joseph touched his nose. Although he felt that it was only right to pay back debts, the way she said it made it sound as if Lenoir had suffered a great humiliation and persecution.

However, he had no problem with upsetting the Duke of Orléans.

"Well, so you sneaked into the Duke of Orléans's Archives and only took a few Promissory Note? Didn't you also grab some evidence of his collusion with foreign powers, corruption, or other illegal activities?" Joseph sighed regretfully. And that nickname "Tulip"—he's practically a delusional teenager.

"No..."

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

The woman in black was taken aback. "Really?"

"Real."

The woman in black, recalling the scene outside the Paris Angel Shop where she saw the Crown Prince helping the homeless siblings, forced a smile, "Indeed, you have a kind heart... cough—well, my name is Soleil Anna Soleil."

Eman quickly searched his memory and said to the Crown Prince, "Your Highness, she is Sister of Viscount Frez."

Joseph found it somewhat amusing that a Nobility from the Versailles Palace would dress in black and steal from the Royal Palace in the dead of night, all in the name of "upholding justice"...

He heard the shouts of guards approaching from afar, and turned to give Eman a wink. The latter immediately pushed open the door and got out of the carriage.

The Carriage had barely moved a few steps when it was blocked from both sides by two squads of fully armed guards.

Eman immediately stepped forward and shouted, "What are you doing? This is His Crown Prince's carriage!"

The captain of the guards at the Royal Palace recognized him and quickly bowed. "Count Eman, we are apprehending a thief..."

"I didn't see any thieves. Alright, move aside." Eman waved his hand, "Don't delay His Highness's journey."

When the guards saw that Kexer was also approaching with the Crown Prince's personal guards, they dared not say anything more and signaled their men to make way for the Carriage.

Several Carriage sped past and drove quite a distance before turning into a small alley, at which point Joseph ordered them to stop.

He gestured towards the car door and asked Soleil, "Are you sure the wound is alright?"

Thank you for your concern, it's alright.

Soleil was about to get out of the carriage when she suddenly remembered something and turned back, saying, "Your Highness, as a way of repaying you for helping me out of this predicament, I can tell you something."

"I overheard a conversation between Philip and the British Ambassador to France at the Royal Palace today, and it seemed that you were involved."

"Oh?" Joseph's eyes lit up; he hadn't expected such an unexpected bonus.

Philip said he hoped the United Kingdom would allow Necker to serve as their Finance advisor in the negotiations you proposed. He also said it would be best to remove Archbishop Brienne and have Vergennes and Necker take the lead. However, the United Kingdom did not seem to agree.

"Oh, Philip also mentioned that the 15 Livre his banks invested in the United Kingdom last time has been finalized, and now several other banks hope to invest another 10 Livre in Automatic Loom in the United Kingdom."

After she finished speaking, she turned and got out of the car, clutching her wound as she turned back to Joseph and curtsied. "Thank you again from the bottom of my heart, Your Highness. Also, please keep this a secret."

Eman handed her the Rapier. The girl took it, tucked it into her side, nodded her thanks, and then, with a sway of her slender waist, vanished into the night like a black cat.

Joseph smiled. He hadn't expected that there would actually be someone in this era who considered herself a knight-errant, upholding justice single-handedly, and a young girl at that.

As the car started moving, he remembered Soleil's words, and a chill flashed in his eyes. These banks, taking France funds, were helping the United Kingdom advance the Industrial Revolution!

A whopping 25 Livre, and probably more than half of that came from interest payments on French Government debt. It seems the financial sector needs a serious overhaul.

Shortly afterward, the convoy arrived at the Paris office of the Industrial Planning Bureau.

Joseph strode into the small building and saw that it was still a bit messy, since they had only started moving yesterday.

He arrived at the Director's Office at the very back and immediately saw a neatly stacked pile of documents on the desk. These were documents about the state of France industry that he had his Assistant compile, and he hadn't expected them to arrive so quickly.

He suddenly laughed and shook his head, realizing that as the head of France industry, he had spent the entire journey thinking about how to obtain food.

Joseph sat down in the chair and began to look through the documents. Eman quickly brought over a candlestick with five candles to increase the light for him, and then quietly instructed a maid to make a cup of tea.

After reading only ten pages or so, Joseph's brows were already furrowed.

In Lyon, France alone, over a million Livre worth of Textile products were stockpiled last year. Nearly 100 Textile Workshop went bankrupt, resulting in the unemployment of more than 3,000 workers...

Since another girl is appearing, it's not too much to ask for some monthly tickets and recommendation votes, right?

(End of this chapter)