"A thief?"
Inside a room at the Faloro National Museum, Adele furrowed her brow slightly upon hearing Sansone's voice, then continued speaking with a puzzled expression.
"Can you be clearer? What kind of thief? Could it be that someone else took advantage of the chaos during the Cold Moon Revolution to loot the Temple of Beauty?" Adele asked Sansone, while Sansone, wiping the scattered cigarette ash with a handkerchief, began to speak.
"The thieves I speak of are not common bandits... but a group of despicable national parasites, shameful petty thieves from the late Bourbons. Since Robert's ascension, they have been eating away at the foundations of this Kingdom, and then, as the great tree was about to fall, they abandoned it and fled."
"National parasites... you mean... corrupt officials or something?" Listening to Sansone's words, Adele continued to ask directly, and Sansone, who had almost finished wiping the ash into the ashtray, then replied.
"You could say that. Robert was known as the Greed King; he was greedy, and naturally, his officials were also greedy. At that time, the entire Bourbons Dynasty was immersed in a climate of extreme vanity, ostentation, and extravagance. Money was being spent everywhere, and there were parasites everywhere. And the one who stole Maria's Light... was the biggest one among these parasites, Dubois."
"Dubois? Could it be Armand Dubois? If I remember correctly, wasn't he Robert's prime minister? He's generally said to be a scoundrel who successfully escaped judgment, an accomplice to Robert's tyranny, the prime minister known as Robert's lackey?" Listening to Sansone's words, Adele blurted out her knowledge of the name Dubois, while Sansone, having finished the last bit of his cigar, responded.
"Yes... the lackey prime minister Dubois... In some plays nowadays, he's usually portrayed as a fawning sycophant who faithfully executed Robert's tyrannical orders and occasionally offered treacherous advice to persecute loyal and courageous people. But how many people would have thought that this prime minister was not some so-called'scoundrel,' but a true ambitious schemer, the secret driving force behind a series of tyrannical measures during the Robert Dynasty, and the direct reason for Robert becoming that way."
"He wasn't Robert's lackey, but Robert's manipulator. The so-called Greed King Robert was merely his puppet."
After finishing the last puff of his cigar, Sansone exhaled a puff of smoke with a serious expression and said. After listening to Sansone's words, a hint of confusion appeared on Adele's face, and she asked directly.
"Robert was Dubois's puppet? What exactly happened? Can you tell me?"
Listening to Adele's question, Sansone unhurriedly extinguished the cigar butt in the ashtray, then seemed to be responding and narrating at the same time.
"After Xia Er and Maria died in a mysterious shipwreck, according to the Bourbons' law of succession, Robert was crowned king. However, although Robert was the first in line to the throne, he was hardly ever trained as an heir. This was because shortly after Robert was born, Xia Er seemed to have successfully advanced to a complete Scarlet, possessing a long lifespan of several hundred years. He didn't need to consider the issue of an heir in the short term."
"Xia Er was flamboyant, confident, energetic, and exceptionally talented. He believed that Faloro could enjoy several hundred years of peace and prosperity under his rule, and he almost never considered what the Kingdom would do if he died in the short term during his reign. He spent hardly any dedicated time and effort cultivating his children, merely providing them with ample material support and admonishing them to abide by the rules before letting them do as they pleased. This was the same for Robert; thus, like his siblings, Robert spent most of his time in a comfortable environment of luxury and enjoyment, not concerning himself with state affairs, and was never trained to be a king."
"Therefore, Robert lacked the qualities of a king from the start. He was completely unprepared for Xia Er's death. After hearing the news of Xia Er's death, he cried hysterically for several days, even crying when he was pushed onto the throne. He was completely at a loss when faced with the immense power in his hands and didn't know what to do. His father, who possessed great power, suddenly died inexplicably, causing him to be constantly shrouded in fear from the beginning of his reign. He was suspicious and paranoid, distrusting everyone and suspecting everything, always believing that someone wanted to harm him."
Sansone sat in his chair and narrated silently. Listening to Sansone's words, Adele seemed to have guessed something and said.
"Panic... suspicion... lack of confidence... It seems Robert's mental state was very poor when he ascended the throne. Is this the reason for his later tyranny?"
"You could say so. Extreme inferiority stemming from his own abilities, extreme fear stemming from his father's death... created Robert's extremely suspicious and volatile personality. He thought everyone wanted to harm him, so he used the power in his hands to defend himself irrationally and madly. The result was that as soon as he took power, he began to kill indiscriminately, personally beginning to destroy his Kingdom."
"Robert's personality wouldn't easily trust others, but once he trusted someone, he would become dependent on them. Unfortunately, the one who gained his trust was Dubois."
"Dubois was a mysterious person. As a merchant, he gradually approached Robert by making large donations to Robert's court multiple times. Then, by some unknown method, he gained Robert's trust and was appointed as the financial manager of his court, then promoted to Minister of Finance, and soon after was directly appointed as Prime Minister."
"In mundane history, Robert ordered Dubois to carry out countless tyrannical acts, but the reality was that Dubois, after gaining Robert's trust, manipulated this weak-minded king through his dependence on him, gradually seizing control of the late Bourbons Dynasty."
Sansone continued to narrate to Adele unhurriedly. Adele's expression became slightly solemn after listening to Sansone's words, and then she spoke.
"So... the main responsibility for the Bourbons' demise lies with Dubois, then?"
"No, I believe the main responsibility still lies with Robert; his character weaknesses of inferiority and suspicion created the key vulnerability of the dynasty. The secondary responsibility is Xia Er; his arrogance created Robert's personality. After that are external factors such as Dubois and the Church, especially Dubois, who infinitely amplified his influence by exploiting Robert's weakness, ultimately leading to the demise of the Bourbons."
"Dubois was a despicable opportunist with a long-standing plan. He was like a dirty leech, eyeing the dying Bourbons and attaching himself to suck wildly." Sansone said to Adele with a serious expression, and Adele then spoke.
"An opportunistic schemer? What do you mean?"
Adele asked Sansone thus, and the other party was silent for a moment before lighting another cigar and slowly beginning to narrate again.
"Robert's widely known title is 'Greed King'. The source of this title is his frantic wealth accumulation during his reign. He not only levied various harsh heavy taxes on all classes but also extensively plundered various rare treasures from the people of Faloro. People often say that Robert collected such vast wealth to support the decadent Bourbons Royal Family's eating, drinking, and entertainment, maintaining their extravagant and dissolute lives, but the truth is not so."
"Other members of the Royal Family in the late Bourbons did not enjoy the wealth accumulated by Robert; instead, they were also targets of Robert's plunder. Where the wealth Robert collected from the entire Kingdom over several years ultimately went has always been a mystery. No one knows where all that money ultimately went?"
"Robert's wealth ultimately went nowhere? This... this is impossible. Did Robert only collect money and not spend it? If he didn't spend money, why would he collect so much wealth? Just to be a pure miser? What was the meaning of him collecting so much money?" Listening to Sansone's words, Adele's expression showed confusion, and Sansone, while smoking his cigar again, slowly replied.
"So that's the mystery. Robert collected so much wealth, yet he neither indulged in luxury, nor undertook large-scale construction, nor engaged in excessive military spending..."
"On the eve of the Cold Moon Revolution, Robert had displayed powerful extraordinary abilities of The Path of Depravity to suppress earlier rebels, his strength even surpassing the Chalk level he should have been at before. Therefore, the revolutionaries believed that Robert, having collected so much money, was secretly planning some major project or preparing some powerful secret weapon. This secret had strengthened Robert's power, reaching the height his father had reached."
"The revolutionaries became extremely vigilant because of these suspicions. They used items supported by the Church to investigate Robert's palace, which he had moved out of Flotz, but they were also hindered by the powerful extraordinary ability of the'Shadow'. This further confirmed their previous suspicions and made them plan their actions even more cautiously."
"But what everyone didn't expect was that when the revolutionaries finally had everything ready and officially launched the revolution to attack Robert's palace, they encountered almost no decent resistance. Robert's palace was easily breached and occupied, and Robert's body was found on the throne in the palace. Before the revolutionaries' attack began, he had already died there, the cause of death being poisoning."
"The victory against 'Greed King' Robert during the Cold Moon Revolution was easier than most people thought. On the contrary, it took a lot of effort to deal with the other Bourbons Royal Family lords. The biggest question, however, was that after the revolutionary victory, the revolutionaries conducted a thorough search of Robert's palace but found almost no treasures. Later, the revolutionary government tallied the Bourbons' accounts and found that Robert's royal treasury had almost only inflows and no large-scale expenditures."
"Both the royal treasury and the palace were empty, and there were no large-scale expenditures recorded in the accounts. The vast wealth that Robert had amassed during his reign simply disappeared without a trace. And along with this wealth, Robert's most trusted favorite official, Prime Minister Dubois, also disappeared. Therefore, almost everyone linked the sudden disappearance of the national wealth to Dubois."
"However, unfortunately, the revolutionary government's development of the extraordinary system was incomplete for a considerable period after its establishment, and it lacked the extra capacity to pursue Dubois. By the time the revolutionary government was stable, it was already too late to pursue Dubois..."
With a very serious expression, Sansone slowly narrated to Adele. After listening to his statement, Adele also frowned and spoke with a solemn expression.
"So... that string of Maria's Light was also among the wealth that disappeared during Robert's time? Did that prime minister Dubois take it?"
"That's very likely. After all, this was the largest theft case in Faloro's history. The whereabouts of Maria's Light have been unknown since the Cold Moon Revolution, so it should be related to the great Robert theft case."
"If you are determined to find those crystals, I'm afraid I'm powerless. After all, it has been a hundred years since the great Robert theft case occurred, and there is still no answer. I can't help you."
After taking another puff of his cigar, Sansone slowly said to Adele. Hearing him say this, Adele couldn't help but fall silent. Just as she was about to say something else, she heard the voice from within her heart. After a slight pause, Adele spoke to Sansone again.
"I understand the general situation. Regardless of the stolen crystals for now, Captain, I wonder if I could borrow this Golden base for a while?"
"Heh... borrow? I thought you would ask me to give it to you directly. It seems I misjudged a bit."
"This Golden base, without the crystals, doesn't have much value itself. Leaving it here would just collect dust. If the followers of the Judge of Heaven find it useful, then take it directly. In a sense, it originally belonged to them anyway." Sansone said so. Hearing Sansone agree so readily, Adele was slightly surprised, and at this moment, the other party continued to speak.
"However... I also have a small condition, and that is that you need to leave me a reliable and discreet contact channel so that I can contact you smoothly anytime, anywhere. Also, if you find any valuable clues in your investigation of Dubois, you need to inform me. I also want to understand where such a large sum of Faloro's wealth ultimately went?"
Sansone made his request to Adele thus, and Adele nodded after a slight pause, speaking.
"I understand. I agree to your condition, Captain."
As she spoke, Adele picked up the Golden base placed on the table.
...
Just as Adele and Sansone's conversation ended, in a high-end hotel somewhere in Flotz, on the balcony of a suite, Dorothy, wearing a plaid cotton dress, slippers, and with her white long hair scattered behind her, stood up from her chair, stretching towards the distant sky and letting out a big yawn.
"Ughhh~~ This is uncomfortable..."
After finishing her yawn, Dorothy rubbed her eyes, wiped the corners of her eyes, and then muttered to herself.
"I thought I finally found a clue... but this clue is only half... the other half was stolen, how boring. It seems the information about the Golden level... is not that easy to get..."
Dorothy said this, then she began to rub her shoulders while contemplating, thinking about the latest information she had just obtained from Sansone.
'Armand Dubois... a shrewd opportunist, a greedy leech sucking wildly on the body of a decaying dynasty? The real great thief, interesting... What is his identity? Does this person from a hundred years ago still exist today? What does he intend to do by collecting such a vast amount of wealth?'
Dorothy pondered thus, and at this time, many thoughts had begun to surface in her mind.