Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Scheller was greatly surprised. Although the set of clothing was made from ordinary materials, it was clearly meticulously designed and tailored, worth at least 3 to 5 florins. That’s roughly around 10 francs.

For such a set of clothing, it’s almost unbelievable that the French Government is asking for it to be given to workers for free.

Could it be that their King is truly sent by Jesus to save the French people?

Of course, Joseph didn’t intend to “save the world.”

When he initially included the clause about providing workwear in the “Labor Security and Safety Act,” he was entirely focused on supporting the textile industry in Lyon.

Yes, all factories offering free workwear can receive government subsidies, 1 franc and 3 sous per set, but it must be custom-made in French textile factories.

Subsequently, the textile factories in Lyon focused their efforts on competing for this massive contract, designing seriously and trying to keep costs as low as possible.

Ultimately, due to the huge demand across France, the cost of workwear became extremely low, with the price of one set being only 3 francs and 3 sous.

Moreover, the workwear wasn’t given away to workers. If they resigned, it had to be returned to the factory.

Therefore, for factories, the expense of custom-made workwear wasn’t significant, and it could be used to win over workers, ensuring they worked more diligently, which made the regulation acceptable.

Currently, in the big cities of France, workers, in order to save money, still wear their workwear even after work, which led Mrs. Scheller to mistakenly think it was “fashionable.”

The Scheller couple opted for “light travel,” unwilling to take the city bus wagon, so they carried their luggage, inquired along the way, and finally found their cousin’s residence as twilight approached.

Baron Scheller looked at the rather narrow two-story house in front of him, feeling somewhat uneasy in his heart.

He softly said to his wife, “Elijah’s life doesn’t seem as affluent as he claimed.”

The latter nodded silently.

This house was far inferior to their residence in Vienna, typically chosen only by junior clerks or small tradesmen.

Therefore, cousin Elijah likely boasted to them in his letter.

It seemed he wouldn’t be able to come up with the 1700 florins to lend them.

Baron Scheller took a deep breath, having come all this way, he might as well give it a try.

He stepped forward and knocked on the door. After a while, there was the sound of someone coming downstairs from inside, followed by a slightly chubby middle-aged man with small eyes and brown hair opening the door: “You are… Ah, my dearest sister, and Labo! Why has it taken you so long to arrive?”

He hurriedly ushered the two inside: “Old John wasn’t feeling well today and took leave. I was upstairs drinking, ah, here, let me take your luggage.”

Scheller had just walked through the door, when he smelled a rich fragrance.

He turned and searched for the source of the fragrance, quickly finding several wooden boxes at the foot of the stairs with beautiful paper labels.

The fragrance was emanating from there.

“Please sit down, I’ll get you some wine,” Elijah warmly invited them, “Oh, old John happens to not be here today. Looks like I’ll have to go out and buy dinner. Fortunately, there’s quite a nice restaurant nearby…”

Mrs. Scheller asked puzzledly, “Isn’t Erin at home?”

Erin was her cousin’s wife.

“She went to see an opera,” Elijah’s voice came from upstairs, “You know, I’m not interested in it.”

“But shouldn’t you accompany her?” Mrs. Scheller immediately regretted saying this; it was likely because her cousin was strapped for cash and couldn’t afford two tickets, so his wife went alone.

Elijah came down with the wine, dismissively saying, “Someone’s with her, don’t worry.”

“Ah? Who’s that person?”

“That’s Viscount Jonathan. They get along quite well.”

The Scheller couple exchanged a glance, faces full of awkwardness.

“Um, could you really just let them… ah, so casually…”

“What’s the harm?” Elijah laughed, pouring them wine, “After all, this is France, you need to get used to it. Oh, I have my own Lady Yegate.”

Scheller hurriedly changed the subject: “I heard you’re now in the cosmetics business?”

“That’s right.” Elijah gestured towards the boxes at the foot of the stairs, “Those are them. Oh, I was worried about thieves, so I kept the stock at home.”

Scheller felt a chill run through his heart.

His cousin’s business consisted of so little merchandise, it surely couldn’t be very profitable.

They likely came for nothing.

Elijah suddenly asked, “By the way, how’s that child Lucas doing?”

Mrs. Scheller, desperate to save her son, spoke directly without hesitation: “Treason charge. But if we can raise 3000 florins by next April, we can save his life.”

Elijah nodded gravely: “Luckily money can solve it. How much do you still need?”

Baron Scheller glanced at his wife; she clutched her hem tightly and said, “We’ve raised 1300 florins. But Labo can find a job at the newspaper, over the course of a year we should be able to save another 200 florins, so…”

Elijah quickly calculated: “Don’t wait a year, it’s best to resolve Lucas’s matter as soon as possible.

“Just last week I received a payment of 4500 francs, I’ll go to the bank tomorrow and withdraw it for you.”

Scheller was surprised by his real agreement, hurriedly adding, “So much money, you’re really going… to lend it to us?”

“Of course, my dear nephew is in danger,” Elijah said.

Scheller, taking a deep breath, adhering to gentlemanly principles, said, “Forgive me if I’m being presumptuous, but you don’t seem particularly affluent, isn’t such a large sum of money going to affect your business…?”

Elijah was momentarily stunned, then waved and smiled: “It’s only about 4 thousand francs, don’t worry.”

He pointed at the wooden boxes by the foot of the stairs: “You see, when these goods are shipped to Damascus, they can fetch over 10 thousand francs.”

“That much?!” Scheller was amazed, “Are those boxes full of jewelry?”

“Certainly not. You know I’m in the cosmetics business, those contain ‘Paris Angel’ Angel Water and face masks. The noblewomen of the Ottoman Empire go crazy to buy them.”

Elijah reassuredly patted his brother-in-law’s shoulder: “I’m a secondary agent for ‘Paris Angel’ in Damascus, I go there three or four times a year. The profit exceeds 15%.”

Scheller quickly calculated in his mind, according to his cousin’s statement, 4000 francs were merely his annual earnings.

He looked at Elijah incredulously: “I didn’t think your business was doing so well.”

Mrs. Scheller immediately glanced around the house in disbelief, asking: “But why do you live in such a… simple house?”

Elijah smiled wryly and shook his head: “This is a bustling district in Reims, where houses are extremely expensive. I purchased this shabby place for 18 thousand francs.”

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