Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 182 Peace and Ordinary Life

For the next month, Li Wei stayed in his clock tower, enjoying a rare period of peace and leisure.

Of course, even when he had nothing to do, he didn't forget to keep up with the current situation in the world through news and radio.

Despite the fact that the empire has been plagued by civil war, terrorist attacks, and a plague outbreak over the past year, making it seem like it's on the verge of collapse, the situation in other countries is not much better.

With the spread of steam-powered machinery technology, other countries on the continent also began to carry out reforms. The purpose of these reforms was naturally to make the country strong and prosperous. But what happens after a country becomes strong and prosperous?
They definitely want to get their revenge!
The most hotly debated political topic in the Empire right now is the unexpected proposal by the Francis Republic to form an alliance with the Empire. The reason is obvious to everyone who isn't blind: the Francis Republic still harbors resentment over being defeated by the Kingdom of Krant and forced to cede territory.

Now that Francis's old monarchy has been overthrown, those nobles who were once considered the culprits have all gone to the guillotine. As the newly established Francis regime, they certainly hope to reclaim the lands occupied by the Kingdom of Crant.

After all, this was the very slogan these revolutionaries used to overthrow the aristocracy and seize power. If they couldn't even do it themselves, they would probably be the next ones to go to the guillotine.

Therefore, the Republic of Francis is now eager to fight the Kingdom of Krant and avenge its previous defeat.

The Kingdom of Krant was well aware that the other party had ill intentions, but the Kingdom of Krant was no pushover either. They chose to sign an alliance treaty with the Sasha Alliance in order to coerce and confront the Francis Republic.

To put it bluntly, it's a warning to the Franciscan Republic: Don't get excited, I have brothers here!

The Franciscan Republic thought, "Oh, so you're the only one who knows how to greet people? Don't I know how?"

So they turned around and signed an alliance treaty with the Western European Empire, which turned the Kingdom of Crond into a country besieged on both sides.

Both sides are currently making loud pronouncements, and the Franciscan Republic, adhering to the principle of recruiting as many people as possible, has come to the Empire to seek an alliance treaty.

However, regarding the request from the Francis Republic, the Empire was actually... not very interested.

As mentioned before, Francis rose to power by stepping on the empire after its decline, and he was responsible for many of the empire's separatist movements.

The two sides didn't get along very well to begin with, and now the Franciscan Republic is eagerly coming to ask for an alliance. It may sound good on the surface, but who would be willing to do this without offering some benefits?

Military alliances are for fighting. You think you can just come over, flatter me a bit, and expect the Empire to send people to their deaths? How could that be?

Not to mention that Francis has a history of selling out his teammates.

When the Kingdom of Francis and the Kingdom of Krant were at war, Krant directly caused the collapse of the entire territory of Francis. However, there were still some who resisted within Francis. A young girl led a Francis army to fight a guerrilla war against Krant and successfully thwarted the offensive of the Kingdom of Krant.

The girl's series of victories greatly boosted Francis's morale. If everything had gone smoothly, Francis, under the girl's leadership, could have completely defeated the Kingdom of Krant's offensive and recovered the entire territory.

But the Francis nobles, with a knife to their throats, didn't think that way. When the Kingdom of Krant sent people to threaten them, saying that if these cowards surrendered decisively, they pretended to resist, made contact with the girl, and then sold her location to the Kingdom of Krant.

Then the Kingdom of Crant launched a full-scale attack, and the young girl, outnumbered, was captured in public. Not only that, she was also considered a witch by Francis's Holy Church for spreading heresy and ultimately burned at the stake.

This aroused great anger among the Franciscans and became the fuse that ultimately overthrew the Franciscan dynasty.

The Empire was also quite displeased with this. Although there was no official statement, rumors circulated that the girl was actually a descendant of one of Emperor Arthur's twelve knights. This was one of the reasons why the Francis nobility wanted to deal with her; after all, Francis and the Empire were at odds, and if the girl revealed that she was a descendant of Emperor Arthur's twelve knights, who knew what would happen?

In addition, the girl was very popular among the Franciscan people at the time, and the nobles were afraid that she might lead the peasants to overthrow their rule, so they simply sold her.

"Give to friendly nations rather than to our own slaves," that's basic practice, we're all too familiar with it.

In terms of national strength, the Empire is currently the undisputed number one on the continent, and if it continues to develop, it will inevitably return to its original position. From the Empire's perspective, it would be more than happy if other countries on the continent were to fight to the death and suffer heavy casualties, ideally all of them would decline, so that it could return to the top of the world without lifting a finger.

The Queen herself did not comment on the alliance with the Franciscan Republic. After discussion, the Parliament decided to shelve the matter and continue to implement the Empire's current policy of "splendid isolation".

Anyway, the empire has land, money, resources, people, and technology, so it's not afraid of anyone coming.

However, judging from this, war seems inevitable.

Li Wei glanced at the newspaper, sighing inwardly. This world didn't have nuclear weapons, so wars between large and small nations were common, and empires were no exception. The Queen had declared her intention to restore the empire to its former glory; who knew if she might also want to reclaim the territories that had separated during the empire's decline?

Well, Li Wei thinks this is quite likely, especially considering the Queen's move to subdue the state religion; it's probably laying the groundwork for future legal claims. After all, according to records, the separation of those territories was backed by the Holy Church, which naturally made the Empire quite dissatisfied.

If Li Wei were to speculate, he would think that the Empire's current policy is to sit on the sidelines and watch the two sides fight, waiting for the war to break out. Once the Kingdom of Krant attacks and annexes those separatist territories, the Empire will then find an opportunity to attack the Kingdom of Krant and, at the same time, naturally subdue those separatist territories.

After all, if the Kingdom of Krant were to launch a war, the more territory it annexed, the more troops it would need to expend. Once the Kingdom of Krant was exhausted, the Empire could then wait in comfort and launch an attack, which would be the perfect outcome.

Of course, that's what I think, but what the reality will be like... well, who knows.

If he could, Li Wei would not want to get involved in the war, but unfortunately, as things stand, as long as he lives, the war is probably only going to happen in the next few years.

We have to come up with a solution. Hmm... at least we can't just wait passively. Otherwise, if we just shove the gun into his pocket and send him to the front lines to fight, where can we complain about that?

Unfortunately, Li Wei doesn't have any good solutions at the moment, so he can only wait and see how things develop.

Thinking of this, Li Wei put down the newspaper in his hand and picked up the report next to him.

Although a terrorist attack occurred in Steel City, Uncle Hank's steam car exhibition was quite successful. Letters and reports from Uncle Hank indicated that the Bismarck region had already confirmed that it would order a large number of special vehicles from them, including ambulances, police cars, and trucks.

Well, another sum of money has come in. The year-end bonus is going to be interesting.

The internal separatism in Melicia was finally settled a few days ago. According to the court's verdict, the imperial separatists, led by Samuel and Washington, were sentenced to death by hanging for treason, and all their property was confiscated.

The general-governor of Melicia was also dismissed. Although the specific reason was not given, Li Wei guessed that it was because his wife's affair with the rebels had been discovered, and the latter was probably already in jail.

Looking at it this way, he realized he'd been involved in quite a few newsworthy events in the Empire this year. In fact, many news outlets had reported on Li Wei, which was another reason why he didn't want to go out. Going out meant reporters would always want him to talk about the details of the Melisian civil war or the Steel City terrorist attack, and even the situation of the young lady who committed suicide on the North Star had been inquired about.

It was truly tiresome for Li Wei; he'd much rather stay home, reading, listening to the radio, and drinking sparkling water—how comfortable! Fortunately, nothing strange happened during this time. Only Katie would come over every few days to chat with Li Wei and play board games to pass the time. Of course, her main purpose was to hear Li Wei's experiences investigating cases in various places, which she found incredibly exciting.

"That's great! I want to go too, it'll be so much fun!"

"Don't you say you can't leave the Fog City?"

"It's just that everyone is too protective of me."

When this topic came up, Katie had a lot of complaints.

"I'll be going to other places with everyone during the New Year or some events, right? They're just worried about me not being able to go alone. It's so troublesome! My older sister is here, it doesn't matter whether I'm here or not, but they still insist on making me stay here. No way, I have to convince Mother when I get back that I want to go with you next time!"

"I see."

So it turns out this person is overprotective. Actually, Li Wei can understand it, since it seems Katie's family influence is in Fog City, meaning they can take good care of her there. But outside of Fog City, it's hard to say, so they don't let her go out.

But Katie had nothing to do in the foggy city, so she was quite bored... No wonder she disguised herself and ran around everywhere before.

"By the way, do you remember Pink Lady?"

"Yes, of course, what's wrong?"

"I went there again recently, but it was already closed."

Katie became quite excited when the topic came up.

"Because recently, differential machines have become standard equipment in various departments, many places are recruiting people to check and recruit punch cards. Many of the ladies who used to work at Pink Lady have gone to work there!"

"Yes, that's indeed quite good."

Li Wei nodded. Compared to working as a hostess at Pink Lady, doing a technical job was indeed a better choice.

Of course, if we're talking about Li Wei, the biggest problem with Pink Lady is actually her illness.

After all, the medical technology in this world is really... hard to say.

Speaking of this topic...

"Katie, how are you feeling?"

"Me? I've always been in good health and rarely get sick."

As she spoke, Katie proudly waved her little fist at Levi.

"Okay, that's good. It's best to take as little medicine as possible."

After all, every medicine has some degree of toxicity, but in Li Wei's opinion, given the Empire's medical level, the toxicity of that medicine was probably more than three-tenths...

"By the way, Mr. Li Wei!"

As she spoke, Katie seemed to have thought of something.

"You've received the invitation to the New Year's Eve dinner, haven't you?"

"Yes, I received it. But isn't this a bit too early?"

There was still a month or so until the end of the year, and Li Wei didn't expect the invitations to arrive so early.

"There are specific rules for this, because we need to prepare the clothes to wear to the New Year's Eve dinner."

"...Wouldn't a regular dress be acceptable?"

"Of course not."

Upon hearing Li Wei's question, Katie immediately raised her eyebrows.

"It's a good thing I asked, Mr. Levi. If you were to dress like that to attend the New Year's Eve dinner, you would be seen as disrespectful to the royal family!"

"Is it that exaggerated?"

"Of course...that's right!"

As she was talking, Katie suddenly clapped her hands excitedly.

"Come with me, I'll take you to a shop where they can definitely prepare a dress for you for the evening."

"Well, that's fine."

Li Wei thought about it. He had nothing to do lately anyway, and he wasn't short of money. Since Katie said she wanted to prepare a new dress, he might as well go and take a look.

Thinking of this, Li Wei stood up.

"Then let's go check out that store you mentioned."

(End of this chapter)