Girls' New Fashion

Jinghua Book Pavilion,

Talking to smart people was easy. Joseph smiled and nodded. "Guizot was likely guilty of hiring a killer and sheltering criminals. I will explain everything clearly to Her Majesty the Queen."

"Your Highness truly is the embodiment of justice." Mono immediately placed a hand over his chest and bowed. "Please believe me, I will forever be loyal to the King and Her Majesty the Queen, and forever loyal to you as well!"

"Thank you for your loyalty. Oh, and your scimitar too. I like it very much."

A huge weight fell from Mono's heart. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, he hurriedly took his leave.

Joseph suddenly remembered that the Minister of the Interior was responsible for managing municipal affairs throughout the nation and supervising the police. That meant Mono was the one who would decide the next Paris Police Commissioner.

Most of his future efforts would be focused on finance, so Police Reform needed a reliable person to help carry it through.

Besides, he could use the Police Department as a shell to conceal the intelligence agency he was planning.

He raised a hand to stop Mono and asked, "By the way, may I ask who will take over as Paris Police Commissioner?"

Mono immediately recalled the Crown Prince's Police Reform and answered without hesitation, "Naturally, we must first listen to Your Highness's opinion."

Joseph nodded in satisfaction. "Very well. I will do my best to offer you advice. Also, I firmly believe that Guizot's actions had absolutely nothing to do with you. Please, take care."

"Thank you for Your Highness's trust." Mono gave a deep bow, retreated three steps, then turned and left.

After walking more than ten meters away, he finally let out a long breath. Yet he no longer dared regard the Crown Prince as some easily manipulated youth. In the carriage just now, the Crown Prince had controlled the conversation from beginning to end, composed and at ease, giving Mono the same feeling he had once felt when facing Louis XV.

He instructed the coachman to return to Versailles Palace and muttered under his breath, "As expected of the Child of Divine Grace. It seems I should keep some distance from the Duke of Orléans from now on."

Joseph's party set off again. After traveling for another hour or so, a melodious bugle call suddenly sounded ahead, accompanied by the lively beat of war drums.

Eman quietly reminded him, "Your Highness, we have arrived."

The carriage soon stopped. Two unfamiliar nobles stepped forward. One opened the carriage door and bowed as he waited for the Crown Prince to descend, while the other placed a wooden step beneath the door.

"Welcome back, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

Joseph stepped down from the carriage, nodded to the two men, and looked into the distance. More than a hundred honor guards in crisp uniforms stood in rows on either side, their swords raised toward the sky.

In the Marble Courtyard before the main gates of Versailles Palace, several hundred nobles had gathered as well, crowding the stairs as they gazed eagerly in his direction.

The moment they saw the Crown Prince appear, cheers erupted one after another, drowning out even the band's music.

Joseph was somewhat surprised. "What is this for?"

The two nobles hurriedly replied, "Your Highness, the King and Her Majesty the Queen are personally welcoming you."

Joseph pressed a hand to his forehead. This spectacle made it look as though he had returned in triumph from war against an enemy state...

It was hardly surprising. Ever since ascending the throne, Louis XVI had buried himself in making locks and done nothing worth showing off. The Queen was a woman of limited ability, barely able to cope with state affairs. Coupled with rumors of her extravagant spending, the royal family's prestige had gone from bad to worse.

This time, the Crown Prince had made a name for himself in a single stroke. He had thrown the Paris Police Commissioner into prison and wiped out nearly every criminal in the Saint-Antoine District in one sweep. He had already become the talk of all Paris.

With such a capable son, how could Louis XVI and the Queen refrain from making a grand display of it?

Thus came this unprecedented welcoming ceremony. In truth, many nobles unqualified to stand in the Marble Courtyard were still waiting eagerly inside Versailles Palace.

Joseph walked between the honor guards and immediately saw, standing at the very top of the steps, an elegant and beautiful woman in a purple silk gown with a broad skirt, a snow-white sable fur shawl, and two long feathers rising from her towering coiffure.

It was Queen Mary.

Beside her stood a plump, pale man, half of his body tucked behind her. He wore a blue velvet coat embroidered with fine silver thread, a black tricorne hat, and black calfskin heeled shoes. His expression was somewhat nervous. He was the current King of France, the famous locksmith, and a sufferer of social anxiety—Louis.

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Chapter 16: Girls' New Fashion, free.

Jinghua Book Pavilion,

Sixteen.

Joseph hurriedly quickened his pace and walked toward them.

With every step he took, the nobles on both sides bowed their heads in salute. Before the gates of Versailles Palace, it was as though an enormous multicolored wave were slowly surging up the stairs.

Just as Queen Mary revealed a kindly smile and prepared to open her arms to welcome her son, a young noblewoman in a low-necked gown to Joseph's right seemed to have frozen stiff. Her pale body swayed, and she toppled forward.

Joseph reflexively raised a hand to catch her. "Are you all right?"

The girl closed her eyes and curled her icy body closer into his arms.

The noble ladies around them immediately had fire blazing in their eyes, secretly gritting their teeth. That bitch Alisa! She actually used such a despicable trick to get close to the Crown Prince!

The former Crown Prince had been utterly ordinary, even somewhat useless. Though his status was illustrious, his reputation among noble ladies had been rather poor.

But now, tales of how the Crown Prince had stunned Lagrange with his knowledge, swept clean the criminals of the Saint-Antoine District in two days, and solved a murder case in three minutes had long since spread through the girls of Versailles Palace, growing more and more legendary with every retelling.

Talking about the Crown Prince and gathering news about him had become the new fashion among Versailles Palace's young women. Of every three sentences they spoke, two and a half were almost certainly about the Crown Prince.

The Child of Divine Grace had become the dream lover of every girl. Even if they knew the gulf in their Status was far too vast and they could never marry him, they would be satisfied just becoming his mistress.

The tall girl on the left thought to herself, Hmph! I can do that too!

She immediately tossed her fan beside her feet and cried softly, "My dress is squeezing so tightly I can barely breathe." Then she tilted her head and fell toward the Crown Prince.

Joseph hurriedly caught her with his left hand. The air around them instantly filled with the scent of vinegar. For a moment, dainty cries of "It's so cold," and "My head suddenly feels so dizzy," rose and fell, while more than a dozen soft, fragrant bodies toppled toward him one after another.

Just as Joseph was at a complete loss, Guard Captain Kexer stepped forward, lifted the two girls in Joseph's arms one in each hand, then shouted to the guards behind him, "Quick, help the young ladies up!"

"Yes!"

The unconscious noble ladies squinted and saw the burly guards charging toward them. They immediately cast off the pull of Earth's gravity, miraculously stood straight again, and became incomparably poised.