The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1828 - 114: An Unexpected Ally

Sending Victor to investigate John Conroy’s financial situation couldn’t be more appropriate.

As everyone knows, the Parisian sleuth is best at dealing with people and extracting information.

He can disguise himself as a porter, roam the streets and alleys, fake being job-hunting while mingling in bustling inns and taverns, frolicking with a few pickpockets, robbers, and their ladies; or he can stick a ring of mustache around his mouth, appearing as a government official or country squire.

However, this is London, and Victor can’t exhibit his skills as freely as he does in Paris.

Of course, this isn’t about concerns for legal risks, but because Breaux Detective Agency has just arrived and hasn’t yet established its intelligence network.

In Paris, whether it’s master thieves, clever swindlers, brutal highwaymen gangs, or petty nameless criminals, Victor knows them all inside out. As for extortionists, whether it’s those forcing sales in street businesses or poets doubling as art critics and extortionists, most can’t escape Victor’s discerning eyes.

More importantly, due to his twenty-year tenure in the Security Department, Victor has an internal tally. He knows at least thousands in Paris holding onto parole certificates — many were prisoners during Napoleon’s reign. Victor remembers clearly who their wives are, how many children they have, how many external lovers there are, and what crimes they initially committed.

Thus, whenever a case arises in Paris, he usually first screens these people. Even if the crime isn’t related to them, they often know the true culprit.

In London, Victor loses this advantage, so he resorts to a simplistic approach.

He employs the oldest, most primitive, yet safest method: staking out.

Victor often said, "If you don’t know what he’s hiding, watch which door he enters. If you don’t know who he fears, see whom he bows to."

To solve this case, Victor brought in key operatives from Paris — Pan, Satyr, Cyclops, and Coconut Tree, his old colleagues in the Security Department — Breaux Detective Agency’s elite are all deployed.

These four have cars ready at any time in London, and all expenses can be reimbursed. While they drink in taverns, they coldly observe Conroy’s private life, determined to find out which ladies are involved with him, and who seeks to attach themselves to him, the popular Chief Steward at Kensington Palace. They scrutinize the locations he frequents and even check the trash bins outside his London properties.

While detectives from Breaux Agency tirelessly work like sewer rats for Sir Arthur Hastings, the man himself sits on a garden bench outside the Rose Hall at Kensington Palace, a cane across his knees, eyes fixed intently on the tightly shut glass door, his brows unconsciously furrowed.

He appears to be merely a tutor, sunbathing in the garden, ready to be summoned, but his nerves are taut with tension.

Because...

Baron Stockma has arrived.

Christian Friedrich Freiherr von Stockma — the name alone reveals he’s a typical German, especially with "von" in it, indicating German nobility. He was born in the Saxon-Coburg-Saalfeld Duchy in Germany, though one might say inaccurately as the Holy Roman Empire hadn’t dissolved when Stockma was born.

Speaking of Stockma’s education, it’s no less impressive than the story of Sir Arthur Hastings published in the "Gottingen University Journal."

During the Napoleonic Wars, amidst the chaos, he completed medical courses at Jena University and Würzburg University, earning his doctorate in medicine.

Post-academic, with personal and national grudges against Napoleon, Stockma decisively joined the army as an attending army doctor.

Almost simultaneously, not yet the King of Belgium, Leopold, due to the Saxon-Coburg-Saalfeld Duchy being occupied by the French Army, decided to journey to Russia to seek salvation for the lost homeland. He pledged allegiance to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and was incorporated into the German corps under the Russian military as a young foreign noble.

Leopold stayed in the Russian Army for eight years, participating in Russia’s Patriotic War of 1812, endured the defeat at the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig, and relished leading Russian forces into mainland France in 1814.

His rank steadily rose from lieutenant in 1808, by 1814 Paris Siege, Leopold had achieved Russian Army Major General and also repeatedly represented Russia at coalition military meetings as Tsar’s envoy and acting Lieutenant General.

Leopold and Stockma met during this military journey; both were compatriots with the same resolve for restoration in Coburg, and having lived and worked together for years in the Russian Army, their bond was naturally deep.