Chapter 150: Daily Affairs |
Regarding Ovelia's invitation, Levi thought about it for a moment and agreed. The two parties agreed to head to Bisbalu in a week to attend the Steam Machinery Exposition.
After all, Levi needed a break, and he still had some matters to handle in Mist City. For example, checking on the results of his investments.
When Levi arrived at Anvil Street again, it looked almost no different from before. Well, not completely unchanged.
At least Levi noticed that the factory displaying the Kelida Steam Machinery Craft sign had grown from a single workshop to three. Judging by the highly familiar vehicle models running back and forth on the street from time to time, they were doing quite well, at least for now.
"Ah, Mr. Levi!"
Uncle Hank was still dressed in his usual worker's attire, wearing grease-stained overalls as he enthusiastically welcomed Levi inside.
"Long time no see. How have you been lately?"
"Not too bad. From the looks of it, your business seems to be developing quite well?"
"Yes, just as you can see, Mr. Levi."
"Following your advice, we divided our vehicle models into high-end and low-end tiers. The high-end cars primarily serve the nobility, while we are currently marketing the low-end public vehicles to various public offices, which has been highly effective so far. Of course, this is largely thanks to you driving the Phantom around Mist City, which frequently prompts people to come and inquire with us..."
At this point, Uncle Hank rubbed his hands together. Although they had run a lot of advertisements, in his opinion, their best advertisement was still Levi and the Phantom. Since Levi often drove the Phantom all over Mist City, it naturally drew a lot of attention.
Among them were many wealthy, idle young heirs. To Uncle Hank, these young masters were excellent customers.
They spent money lavishly and were willing to pay as long as it suited their tastes. Not only that, large luxury items like steam cars were hard to hide, which meant the parents of these young heirs could easily spot them.
If the parents liked them too, it meant their company would open up sales to the upper class. In fact, it happened exactly as Uncle Hank had anticipated.
Although these young heirs had many demands and some were quite troublesome, Uncle Hank's company genuinely received several orders from the upper class through them.
After all, compared to those monstrosities that looked like steam locomotives merged with tractors, the steam cars produced by Uncle Hank were much more elegant, luxurious, and perfectly aligned with high-society aesthetics.
Aside from that, the other group of clients Uncle Hank targeted according to Levi's advice was the public offices.
Currently, the entire Empire was undergoing mechanical development at the Queen's command, and public offices were naturally no exception. More importantly, since they weren't spending their own money, these departments were very generous with their orders as long as one approached them the right way.
Drawing from his memories of his past life, Levi had also designed a few specialized vehicle types for Uncle Hank, such as police cars, prison vans, ambulances, and transport vehicles. These tailor-made vehicles naturally piqued the interest of those specific departments.
Furthermore, with the Queen's current mandate that all of Mist City must transition to mechanization and completely abandon horse-drawn carriages, specialized funding was available for this purpose. Uncle Hank also agreed to give the other party some small kickbacks on the pricing, so he smoothly secured the orders from these public offices in no time.
"We are currently operating at full production capacity while maintaining high quality, of course. I expect your dividends this year might reach eight hundred to one thousand pounds! It will only increase in the future!"
Uncle Hank grew more and more thrilled as he spoke. He had already set a goal for himself: not only would he dominate the Mist City steam car market, but he would also become the steam car tycoon of the entire Empire!
"Oh, right, I haven't told you yet, but we plan to take our latest steam car to participate in the World Steam Machinery Exposition. There will be a race showcasing steam cars from various countries at this exposition, and I believe our steam car will definitely take first place!"
"A steam car race..."
Listening to Uncle Hank's cheerful chatter, Levi's eyelid twitched as he recalled his only experience going to watch a car race, which had turned into a literal sauna experience.
"Well, regardless... safety first. Our customers wouldn't want to see the cars they're sitting in blow up into the sky."
As a founding shareholder who only collected dividends, Levi didn't have high demands. As long as Uncle Hank didn't run the place into the ground, it was fine. Thus, after chatting with him for a bit, Levi left Anvil Street and headed to the police department to meet with Inspector Lestrade.
It happened to be lunchtime, so the two found a spot in the restaurant opposite the police department to sit down, eat, and talk. Levi took the opportunity to give Lestrade a gift—a small decorative item he had casually bought from a stall in Merisia. Incidentally, he had given similar trinkets to Irene and Katie as well.
"I read about that case on the Arctic Star. What was the deal with it in the end?"
Everyone cared about different things. For Inspector Lestrade, he was clearly more interested in the murder case that occurred on the Arctic Star.
"It wasn't actually that complicated. The beginning was exactly as the newspapers reported."
"And the rest?"
"The rest isn't hard to understand either..."
Levi briefly explained the part about the vengeful spirit haunting and killing people. After listening, Inspector Lestrade nodded.
"I knew that report sounded a bit strange. What kind of ordinary criminal commits suicide out of shame after killing someone, let alone when the victim also committed suicide? Of course, I'm not saying such people don't exist, but it's very bizarre for two to appear at the same time. Though if every case were like this, it would be great. We wouldn't even need the police to catch criminals in the future. A debt has its debtor and a grievance has its source; whoever commits murder gets killed by the victim's vengeful spirit, and that solves everything."
"Are times tough lately?"
Levi took a sip of tea and asked curiously, while Inspector Lestrade shook his head.
"It's not exactly tough. I set up that Scientific Investigation Team like you suggested, and I have to admit, they really are somewhat useful. But in my opinion, solving a case still requires visiting the scene, and those research folks are all so pedantic. They don't understand human nature at all. They constantly make grand proclamations about the cases, saying 'I feel this' or 'I think that'... What a joke. If whoever they think is a good person is actually a good person, wouldn't they become the Holy Lord?"
At this point, Inspector Lestrade complained heavily, causing Levi to chuckle.
"It's very simple to change that. Just don't let them know."
"Don't let them know?"
"Ultimately, you only need their knowledge to solve the case, not to train them into qualified police officers, right? Therefore, you don't need to tell them about the case details or the suspect at all. You just need to hand over the evidence from the crime scene and ask them to test it. They don't need to know anything else, do they?"
Levi could understand Inspector Lestrade's frustration. Ordinary people and police officers were different after all. The police constantly dealt with various criminal suspects, many of whom were experts at using their advantages to cheat, deceive, and play the victim.
Inspector Lestrade had also complained to Levi about a case involving a female perpetrator. She had thrown a tantrum in public in front of the police, and since she was heavily pregnant at the time, she looked very pitiful. The technicians all found her tragic and felt that Lestrade and the other officers shouldn't be so harsh with her.
And the result? This heavily pregnant woman was a murderer who had committed several robberies and homicides. She was simply throwing a tantrum because she relied on the fact that her pregnancy would prevent her from being sentenced to death.
However, the judge was no pushover either. He directly sentenced her to imprisonment, ordered the child to be taken to an orphanage after birth, and subsequently had the woman hanged.
Ordinary people might think this woman was pitiful, but weren't the people she robbed and murdered pitiful too? That was why police officers were incredibly fierce and ruthless toward criminals. Yet, in the eyes of ordinary citizens who didn't know the truth, the suspect looked weak and fragile, so if a police officer was fierce toward them, it was clearly the officer's fault...
This was exactly what frustrated Inspector Lestrade right now. Those scientific investigators were flawless on a technical level, but their emotional intelligence was collectively dismal. If someone cried and knelt before them to plead their innocence, they immediately believed the person was wronged and would go through fire and water for them.
This left Inspector Lestrade quite exhausted, unable to tell whether these people were smart or stupid.
Levi's current suggestion opened a new window for Inspector Lestrade. Indeed, his mission was not to turn these technical nerds into excellent police officers; he merely needed their skills to determine the condition of the evidence from the crime scene. Therefore, these people didn't need to know the details of the case or the suspect's information. He had been foolish before, thinking that since they were cooperating with him on the case, he had to share all the information. As a result, the sharing had caused problems.
But then again...
"Come to think of it, you really are a detective."
"How so?"
"Ordinary people don't cause someone to die wherever they go."
"Look at what you're saying. It's not like people die everywhere I go."
Levi made it clear that he was not the God of Death and absolutely refused to take the blame for this.
"I walk around Mist City every day and frequently eat at different restaurants. What, has the homicide rate in Mist City spiked?"
"Hahaha, I didn't mean it that way. I was just talking casually. After all, a murder case on a luxury cruise liner isn't something you see every day."
"That is true."
"You won't be traveling far again anytime soon, right?"
"I plan to go to Bisbalu to see the World Steam Machinery Exposition..."
"Young people really do have energy. If I travel far, I don't want to move for half a month after coming back."
As he spoke, Lestrade patted his round belly and drank the last sip of his coffee.
"Bisbalu isn't close. How do you plan to get there? By boat?"
"I plan to take the Orient Express. I've already booked the tickets."
"Ah, I've heard of it. If I remember correctly, it's the most luxurious train within the Empire. Tsk tsk, rich people really know how to enjoy themselves. If I were to take a trip on it, it would probably cost me a year's salary."
Lestrade laughed heartily.
"Of course, if any case happens on it, maybe I can travel on public funds."
"I don't think that train falls under your jurisdiction."
Levi shook his head helplessly.
"Besides, I don't think any case will happen."
"It's best that way."
Inspector Lestrade laughed.
"Well then, I wish you a pleasant journey this time."