Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 341 This is getting interesting.
For the Empire, summer is indeed a social season. Most people finish their work in the spring, and summer is almost the time for all kinds of socializing.

Of course, for nobles, socializing was also part of their job.

However, for women, it's not that simple; they undergo a so-called "social debut." Simply put, when a daughter of a family reaches a certain age, she will appear at formal birthday parties to signify her official entry into the social world.

In modern terms, it's somewhat similar to a coming-of-age ceremony.

Of course, the banquet will invite respected elders from all walks of life, as well as men and women of similar age to the young ladies who are debuting. In a sense, it can be considered a different kind of matchmaking.

The reason I'm going to go into so much detail is because this is the banquet that Li Wei is about to attend.

According to the invitation, Erica Cromwell of the Cromwell family will be making her official debut at her birthday party at the Crescent House, and everyone is cordially invited to attend...

The post itself is fine. As mentioned before, such banquets usually invite young talents to introduce each other to the main character of the banquet, which can be considered a kind of alternative matchmaking.

Li Wei was also in his early twenties, and as the Empire's renowned detective, a count, and a Knight of the Thistle, he was undeniably a promising young man. Generally speaking, he would be a highly sought-after figure in social situations. Even disregarding his status and talent, Li Wei's good looks alone would attract countless women eager for a romantic, close encounter with him.

However, Li Wei's identity is indeed... a problem.

He was a Knight of the Thistle, belonging to the royal family—a staunch royalist—and a sword-wielding noble (though his order of knights wasn't yet fully formed). Furthermore, Levi wasn't just a mindless warrior; he was the empire's renowned detective. This made it very difficult for the nobles to win him over.

At the dawn of the steam industrial revolution, the Queen's reforms brought capitalists into the nobility. However, strictly speaking, they only held the status but not real power.

Currently, the empire's nobility is divided into three categories: royal nobility, sword-wielding nobility, and robed nobility.

The royal nobility are, in the literal sense, nobles related to the royal family; the sword-wielding nobles are basically nobles who control the army; and the robed nobles are capitalists who acquire noble status by marrying into other noble families and spending money.

As the saying goes, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun; this is an eternal truth.

The Queen has two forces completely loyal to her: the royal family and the sword-wielding nobles. That's why she dares to allow capitalists into the aristocratic circle.

After all, as long as the royal family and the military are loyal to the Queen, capitalists who merely acquire status through money are nothing to fear.

Olivia's Baskerville family is descended from one of Emperor Arthur's twelve knights, belonging to the royal family and having impeccable lineage. That's why Her Majesty the Queen entrusted the Baskerville family with the management of Delicat, an important grain-producing region of the empire.

As for the Cromwell family... well, that's a bit special.

The Cromwell family was once part of the sword-wielding nobility—they were a military family whose members had served the country in the military for generations. However, in the previous generation, the Cromwell daughter fell in love with a capitalist and married him.

This infuriated the head of the Cromwell family, who even announced that he would expel his daughter from the family. The incident caused quite a stir in the aristocratic circles of the Fog City.

At that time, Cromwell's daughter was already engaged to a young and promising military officer. And they seemed to be mutually in love; no one expected that this young lady would abandon her fiancé and marry a businessman.

The matter should have ended there, but later, Cromwell's eldest son died unexpectedly, and he and his wife had no children. This left the Cromwell family without an heir, and just then, news came that the eldest daughter who had married the capitalist had given birth to a son.

After much deliberation, the head of the family decided to bring the young lady and her family back to the Cromwell family. No matter how much he hated that damned capitalist, the boy also had Cromwell blood in his veins and could inherit the family business in the future.

However, after that, the Cromwell family's identity became somewhat... complicated.

Cromwell was originally a key figure among the sword-wielding nobles, but the current head of the family is old and probably won't live much longer, and his grandson is not yet old enough to inherit the family headship (Olivia is an exception, because her entire family has died...).
Therefore, after the current head of the family dies, it is very likely that the capitalist who married the eldest daughter will become the head of the family.

In this way, the Cromwell family would change from sword-wielding nobles to robe-wearing nobles.

The latter... in the hierarchy of contempt within aristocratic circles, naturally belongs to the lower end.

Erica Cromwell, who made her social debut at this birthday party, is the youngest daughter of the young lady. However, the invitation was not sent by the parents of the birthday girl, but by Earl North Cromwell—the elderly current head of the Cromwell family.

Hmm... After figuring out the Cromwell family's connections, Levi felt that the Earl of Cromwell's invitation to him was probably not intended to introduce his granddaughter to a potential partner.

Although the information Levi gathered from Kane about the Cromwell family wasn't much, based on the information he had collected so far, he suspected that Earl Cromwell probably didn't get along with his daughter and son-in-law... What did he want from him this time?

Could it be that this count intends for me, as a detective, to find out something and send that capitalist son-in-law to jail?
Actually, Li Wei didn't have to go, but after thinking it over... his gossipy spirit of watching the drama unfold still prevailed.

Why do people like watching detective and mystery novels? It's just to see the petty squabbles between people.

If I could participate in person, as long as I wasn't the one who died, wouldn't I just watch the whole thing unfold?
Free food and drinks, gossip to read, and maybe even a few people will die on the spot to demonstrate a brand new killing method. Where else can you find such a good opportunity?

Li Wei also invited Katie to join them for some gossip, but Katie immediately lost interest when she heard it was a noblewoman's debut banquet. She preferred to stay in the tower and play with Alice, her dog Betty, and the little mermaid—who looked about sixteen or seventeen, but whose mental age seemed to be about the same as Alice's.

That's normal, though. When Li Wei was a child, he also hated being taken out by his family to attend this banquet and that banquet, to meet this relative and that relative, and to call them uncle, aunt, sister-in-law, uncle, etc. He almost forgot who he was.

But then again…

"This rain is really heavy." Driving on the mountain road, Li Wei sighed helplessly. In this era, there was no such thing as weather forecasts, and the Crescent Moon Pavilion that had invited him to this trip was located deep in the mountains. It was sunny when they set off, but after only halfway into the mountains, a torrential downpour began.

"Luckily, I had the foresight to install windshield wipers."

Looking at the windshield wipers swaying incessantly along the edge of the glass, Li Wei nodded in satisfaction.

Speaking of which, there's a tragic little story behind the invention of the windshield wiper in Levi's world. The original inventor of the windshield wiper was Kearns, a worker at a Ford factory. Initially, he invented the wiper simply to sell it to Ford and make a little money. However, after Ford extracted all of Kearns's information about the wiper, they simply discarded him.

Kearns claimed that Ford infringed on his patents, but Ford ignored him, resulting in Kearns having a mental breakdown and being confined to a mental hospital by Ford.

After being discharged from the hospital, Kearns continued to sue Ford, and it took him twelve years to win the case.

As a result, he spent twelve years, his wife and children separated, and he finally received a $1000 million settlement, but his wife never came back.

But Ford made more than $5 million from this windshield wiper.

This shows that capitalists are all the same.

Of course, Levi wouldn't allow such a thing to happen. Who would dare infringe on his patent? He wasn't Karns…

Even the world's richest person only has one life.

The rain is still falling.

The forest path was extremely dark. Li Wei slowed down and casually picked up a teacup from the side and took a sip of tea.

Just then, he saw a dim yellow light appear in the distance.

Is that the place?
Upon seeing that glimmer of light, Li Wei immediately perked up. Surely there couldn't be another mansion in such a remote and godforsaken place?
With that thought in mind, Li Wei gripped the steering wheel again and drove the Phantom forward.

After a while, Li Wei finally drove out of the dimly lit forest road, and then he saw a huge lake beside the road. The lake looked quite large, like a huge moat surrounding the area. Not far from the shore of the lake, there was a rather magnificent Western-style building.

That should be the Crescent Pavilion.

Arriving at the entrance of the Crescent Mansion, Li Wei looked up and gazed at the towering mansion before him. Even in the pouring rain, the mansion appeared quite magnificent. The dense ivy covering its exterior walls spoke of its long history.

Li Wei parked the car, then opened the door, got out, and went to the gate, ringing the doorbell.

"Ding dong."

As the doorbell rang, a moment later, an elderly man who looked like a butler opened the door and was clearly surprised to see Li Wei.

"Sir, may I ask who you are...?"

"Hello, I am Li Wei. I have been invited to Miss Cromwell's birthday party."

"Hey?"

The old butler was taken aback by Li Wei's answer.

"But Miss's banquet is the day after tomorrow..."

"Hey?"

Li Wei was slightly surprised by the old butler's answer.

"But the invitation I received said today..."

As he spoke, Li Wei took out an invitation from his pocket and handed it to the old butler, who took the invitation, looked at it carefully, and then suddenly realized what it meant.

"Ah, so you are the distinguished guest that the master invited... Please come in."

As he spoke, the old butler opened the door for Li Wei with great courtesy, while Li Wei straightened his trench coat and began to think.

The birthday party doesn't start until after tomorrow?
So why did Lord Cromwell summon me here today?
Um……………

Li Wei suddenly realized that this was getting interesting.

(End of this chapter)