Life of Being a Crown Prince in France-Chapter 568 - 479 Mala’s Combat Power

Western suburbs of Paris.

In an office of the Official Investigation Bureau headquarters, Joseph looked at Demulan in front of him and glanced over the work report he had just brought in, casually asking, "Is Mr. Mara not here?"

"Yes, Your Highness," Demulan from the bureau replied, "He went to Poitou the day before yesterday."

Joseph recalled that the Count of Norfolk, Governor of Poitou, was one of the three governors opposing the abolition of the Tax Farmers, and he nodded slightly, "Is he investigating the Count of Norfolk’s case?"

"No, no," Demulan shook his head, "It’s the Water Construction Department, corruption in repair and maintenance costs."

Joseph frowned, then looked through the work report in his hands and asked, "Has Mr. Mara recently arranged a large number of new investigative tasks?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

Demulan helped him turn to the last few pages, indeed there were quite a few investigation plans.

But as Joseph scanned them, his brow furrowed even more—most of these investigation tasks were assigned only one investigator, and all had deadlines of 5 to 8 days. What could be uncovered with so few people and such little time?

Obviously, Mara was just going through the motions.

Joseph was somewhat annoyed. If it weren’t for the fact that the intelligence bureau was far less efficient than the Official Investigation Bureau, and investigating officials might provoke complaints from government staff, he would have preferred to hand the matter over to Fouche. Enjoy new tales from novelbuddy

He was about to reprimand Demulan but suddenly remembered that doing so might inadvertently benefit the Jacobins, so he sighed and stood up to leave.

"It seems Mr. Mara needs a bit of pressure," Joseph said as he got onto his carriage and then considered, telling Eman, "Go to the intelligence bureau."

"Yes, Your Highness."

...

South-Central France, Bourges.

Second-class investigator Cecilian from the Official Investigation Bureau listlessly flipped through the municipal financial records, unable to suppress a yawn.

Just as Mr. Mara had said, there seemed to be no issues with Municipal Commissioner Baron Basse-Ham and financial officer Mr. Comu; this investigation was merely a sad political manipulation.

The accounts were very clean. Over the past few days, Cecilian had also checked both their bank accounts and visited some officials acquainted with them, finding nothing amiss.

"That’s enough then," he closed the ledger, stood up, "In two more days, I can go back to Paris. This trip felt almost like a vacation."

As he left city hall and was about to call for his carriage, a burly man wearing his hat brim low suddenly burst out from a corner to his left, colliding into him.

"Hey, you sure walk elegantly!"

Cecilian loudly protested at the man, who seemed not to hear and disappeared into the crowd with his head down.

By the time Cecilian returned to his hotel and reached into his pocket to get his key, he felt a piece of paper.

He was certain he hadn’t placed anything like that in his pocket and quickly took it out to read. The note contained just two phrases: "Go back to Paris, there’s nothing for you here. Leave now while you can, continue further and you’re certainly inviting danger!"

Cecilian’s face flushed red. He was an investigator personally selected by Mara, a true Jacobin in character and principles, and he growled through gritted teeth, "Shameful coward, do you think this can scare me?! For the people’s benefit, I must expose your shameful acts!"

He tore the note to shreds, entered his room and wrote a letter to the Bureau, the main content being his feeling that there were severe issues in Bourges, requesting an extension of the investigation time for approval.

Then, he went out again and, thinking of the techniques Mr. Mara had taught him, he headed straight for the house of the most prestigious journalist in Bourges.

The man who had bumped into him outside city hall saw him leaving and couldn’t help but smile, writing a letter that night to his superiors in the intelligence bureau reporting that the "Ignite" plan was progressing smoothly.

Meanwhile, at the same time, investigators across France responsible for investigating those other 40 officials each encountered various scenarios.

Some were threatened by criminals with knives to stop their investigations. Others were robbed, all their collected investigation materials stolen. Some even watched as the documents they wanted to access were burned.

Quickly, these investigators, just as stubborn as Mara was incensed!

They had previously thought these officials were innocent, merely victims of political strife, yet it seemed none were clean. Their ownSide hadn’t even begun looking thoroughly before the others got nervous.

How could they justify themselves to the French people if they didn’t investigate and reveal everything?

Of course, these threatening incidents were all specially arranged by agents on behalf of the Crown Prince, following Fouche’s instructions. Investigating corruption wasn’t their forte, but they were experienced in orchestrating such incidents.

Meanwhile, Mara, who was in Poitou conducting investigative work, received a huge number of investigation requests within a few days. When he learned of the trouble his subordinates faced, he was furious.

He immediately wrote instructing Demulan to suspend some of the less urgent tasks if necessary and to allocate more personnel to assist those threatened investigators, determined to thoroughly clear out the involved officials.

The entire Official Investigation Bureau thus entered a state of "frenzy."

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

...

Half a month later.

Palace of Versailles.

Mara stood in front of the Crown Prince, his expression full of guilt, and said remorsefully, "Your Highness, I was wrong to doubt you before, please accept my sincere apologies. Just as you predicted, those officials indeed had issues."

"I’ve never blamed you. The facts have proven your work to be consistently excellent," Joseph said with a smile as he opened the report sent by Mara. In less than 20 days, this fighter akin to a "piranha" had extracted concrete evidence of crimes from 16 officials!

Primarily corruption, but also abuse of power, collusion between government and business, smuggling, and even a murder case!

Joseph felt momentarily that maybe he should let Mara manage the intelligence bureau, given such efficiency in uncovering leads would definitely embarrass Fouche’s subordinates.

However, he immediately dismissed the thought. The intelligence bureau needed to do a lot of "dirty work," and with Mara’s character, it was unrealistic to expect him to follow orders. Only someone like Fouche, with his kind of character, would execute any order unhesitatingly.

Joseph raised the 16 reports and spoke sternly to Mara, "Regarding these worms, these vampires, I entrust you to handle them fairly."

The Official Investigation Bureau had the direct right to arrest, and the detention time without evidence was even longer than the police’s. After finalizing the evidence, they only needed to submit an application to Joseph, gaining approval to then directly initiate prosecution.

"Yes, Your Highness!"

Joseph nodded in satisfaction and then looked at the investigative reports of the remaining 30 or so officials from whom conclusive evidence had yet to be obtained, his brow slightly furrowing.