He Became Napoleon’S Genius Son [EN]: Chapter 536

Edinburgh, the ancient capital of Scotland, boasts an old castle overlooking the sea.

“The riddle is solved! The culprit is among us!” a boy exclaimed with a cheerful laugh.

Once, this castle was a place where Scottish kings met their violent ends.

In a room within the castle tower, a boy’s cheerful laughter rang out. Of course, the situation was anything but cheerful.

For there was a dead body, a locked room, and people with bloodshot eyes, their voices raised in panic.

Among them, a woman who appeared to be a noble lady cried out, “Who are you accusing! There’s no one here to suspect!”

“On the contrary. This place appears to be a locked room, but it isn’t. The truth lies in a secret device!”

“What? Nonsense!”

The boy, Eugene, stealthily pressed himself against the wall.

-Click, clack. 탁!

Suddenly, a mechanical device hanging on the wall whirred to life, and the door swung open.

“As you can see, it’s a secret room created by the Edinburgh nobles during the Renaissance for private gatherings. Everyone.”

People gasped as they stared at the black wall that opened wide like the maw of a demon.

The locked-room murder that had occurred today had led everyone to consider only one possibility: a ghost.

Edinburgh receives little sunlight, and this castle is steeped in the history of unjustly murdered kings and nobles, so rumors of ghosts always lingered.

But an unknown boy had unraveled the trick.

Eugene smiled and announced, “So, a murderer could have entered the castle’s locked room at any time!”

“Wait, then the culprit is someone who knows about this room!”

“That’s right. So…”

Suddenly, Eugene pointed to one of the gentlemen and ladies gathered in the room.

“Robert Knox! You are the culprit!”

The reasoning behind this accusation wasn’t revealed, as logic wasn’t important to the people in the room. The only thing that mattered was the presence of a culprit.

Besides, the assumption became a certainty when the gentleman, Robert Knox, burst into laughter.

“Hahaha!”

The gentlemen and ladies were surprised by the laughter of Knox, a professor at Edinburgh Medical School, and questioned him, “Mr. Knox, aren’t you going to offer an explanation?”

“Why hide anything now! I needed a body for the advancement of medicine. That’s all!”

“So, this isn’t the first time?”

Knox glared and shouted, “That’s right. You too can become my corpses and contribute to the development of medicine! Burke! Hare! Seize them!”

Two young men named William Burke and William Hare rushed forward.

These three were the perpetrators of the serial murder case that shook history in the early 19th century.

Until now, everyone had been deceived by their gentlemanly appearance, until the boy, Eugene, arrived in Edinburgh.

In an instant, a silver pistol appeared in Eugene’s hand.

-Bang!

Burke, Hare, and Knox were startled by the loud gunshot and shouted, “It’s a pistol!”

“You can’t fire in rapid succession! Attack!”

“Kill him! Where’s the axe!”

So far, the three had killed a double-digit number of people.

Catching a boy in a room that was essentially a locked room seemed easy.

Besides, pistols in the 19th century were single-shot weapons, requiring time to reload.

But then…

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

The bullets fired in quick succession pierced their heads one by one.

Knox, Burke, and Hare all staggered and fell to the ground.

Eugene shrugged as he looked at the fallen serial killers.

“Sorry, but it’s a repeating revolver. The latest Nouvelle France product.”

The pistol in Eugene’s hand was a 6-shot revolver.

Just ten years prior, musket muzzle-loading guns were the norm.

This was truly a weapon born from the scientific innovation of the century, a tool of civilization that allowed even a young boy to defeat healthy men.

Eugene waved to the bewildered people in the locked room and headed for the secret door.

“Well, I’ll be taking my leave!”

“Wait! Even if they are murderers, murder is still a crime!”

“Oh, are you going to arrest the detective who caught the culprit?”

Eugene smiled at the police officer, an indispensable figure in the locked-room murder case.

“Mr. Alexander Black, if you need it, contact the London Metropolitan Police. Mr. Fox will vouch for me!”

Soon after, Eugene disappeared through the secret door, and the Renaissance-style door closed.

***

Of course, it was now the 19th century, and Edinburgh was more than just an old castle.

“Whew, another rewarding day! Huh?”

Eugene, returning to his hotel, stopped in his tracks.

The ashtray that should have been in front of the door was scattered.

One of the reasons Eugene, who didn’t even smoke, deliberately carried a pipe was to check for intruders.

Eugene quickly drew his revolver and rushed to the door.

-Click, clack!

The muzzle pointed at the head of a man who was also smoking a pipe.

“Who are you?”

“Are you going to kill even this old man now?”

“What? Mr. Damas?”

Henri Damas, known as the head of the Boarnais Cartel, France’s leading businessman, but in reality, everyone knew he was the Emperor’s financial proxy, the head butler of the Bonaparte family.

Butler Damas frowned as he looked at the Emperor’s second son speaking in English.

“Call me Monsieur Damas, Second Prince. What is the meaning of this?”

The Emperor’s second son, Eugene Bourbon Bonaparte Junior, smiled. His appearance was rather peculiar, wearing a hunting hat, a British raincoat, and carrying a pipe he didn’t even smoke.

He looked even stranger because he was quite young to be an adult, but from Eugene’s point of view, he was the very image of a detective from the popular bestsellers of the day.

“Hmm, I thought Rochejacquelin or Elly would come to catch me. Or Tournay.”

“Everyone is too busy to worry about a troublemaking Prince.”

“Oh, calling me Prince all the time makes me feel like I actually have some succession rights. If you really want to use a title, call me the Duke of Gibraltar, or Titular Duke.”

Damas shook his head.

“From now on, you must also manage the territory. England recently sold Gibraltar to France.”

Eugene hesitated and clicked his tongue. Gibraltar, a city at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, was originally British territory.

The reason he received it as a title was simple: it was a land that didn’t belong to the Hispanic Kingdom Union, only a claimed territory.

It was the perfect way to show he had no ambition for power.

Eugene frowned slightly and sat on the hotel sofa.

“These days, they’re even selling territories. It truly is the century of capitalism. At this rate, there will be rumors they’ll sell Alaska.”

“Who would buy that frozen land? The Duke of Siberia has no money.”

“Who knows if the country of the East, Zipangu [Japan], Korea, or Qing [China] will buy it? Anyway, why did you come to see me?”

Damas, the de facto head butler of the imperial family, stated, “Come home, Your Highness.”

Eugene Junior smiled and asked, “Really? Where is home? Paris? Seville? Or Miami?”

“Come to Paris. Her Majesty the Empress will also be returning soon.”

“Mom seems to be coming back with a pistol. Wouldn’t a divorce be better than assassinating the Emperor?”

Damas remained silent, because it didn’t sound like a joke.

The fact that Empress Marie Bourbon Bonaparte carried a pistol was known to everyone in the imperial family.

Of course, it was for self-defense, but the real purpose was different: to ensure the Emperor remained faithful.

No one knew what she would do with that gun when she returned.

Junior Eugene smiled and added, “Besides, the succession to the throne is my uncle and brother’s business. I prefer being outside.”

Eugene Junior wasn’t just wandering around.

Although it appeared to be an elected position, France had a long tradition of monarchy.

The Emperor’s sons were inheriting the blood of the old Bourbon royal family.

On the other hand, those who supported the Great Revolution wanted a pure revolutionary dynasty, the Bonaparte lineage.

It was strange that supporters of the Great Revolution relied on bloodlines, but it was a peculiar aspect of human psychology to be enthusiastic about noble bloodlines.

Therefore, Eugene Junior chose to pursue his dreams outside the troublesome succession battle.

Of course, that path seemed very strange to Damas.

“Are you just catching murderers like this?”

“It was small today, but I sometimes catch big criminals, like the Jardine gang that supplies opium to Qing.”

“That was a headache for the Suez Security Bureau. Isn’t that enough?”

Then, a strange voice came from the dark corner of the hotel.

“Yes. Now you have to go back and prepare to settle down, right? For example, marriage.”

Eugene Junior turned and was startled. There were two more intruders he hadn’t noticed.

The shadows, cast by the dark Edinburgh sky, obscured their features, but the slender figure clearly belonged to a beautiful woman.

Eugene Junior whistled and stood up.

“Oh, I think I saw a beautiful woman like you when I was young.”

“Beauty? Hohoho! You’re better than your father. At least your flattery skills are.”

“Actually, I can’t remember well. Who were you? There’s no way I’d forget a beauty like you.”

At that moment, the younger woman behind the beauty shouted, “You little Casanova! She’s your great-aunt!”

Eugene Junior blinked and opened his eyes wide.

“Oh, Pauline Nuna [term of endearment for an older sister or female friend in Korean]? Then, that person is…”

Then, a woman with fascinating beauty stepped into the light and smiled.

“Yes, our handsome grandnephew. I am Paola, Queen of Naples.”

Paola was Pauline’s Italian name.

***

Edinburgh, like London, is a port city.

“The rumor that you frequented my father’s bedroom was just a rumor, then?”

Sitting on a huge yacht owned by the Boarnais Cartel and drinking black tea, Eugene Junior inquired.

Unlike London, Edinburgh wasn’t a place where French people could easily come.

The fact that Queen Pauline was here meant she had been away from France for quite some time.

Even the rumor that she frequented the bedroom of the Fontainebleau Palace was just a rumor.

Pauline shrugged.

“Well, there used to be something like that in the past, but not now. I was busy chasing you.”

“Why?”

“Hmm, I heard you look like Eugene. When I met you, you only looked like him on the outside.”

Pauline winked and whispered, “I wonder if the inside resembles Eugene’s father, whom I’ve never met?”

Eugene Junior swallowed hard without realizing it.

She was his great-aunt, but her beauty was enough to make a teenager’s blood run hot.

It seemed his father, the Emperor, had been tempted for a reason.

But Eugene Junior, who had experienced all sorts of things, calmly replied, “You mean I’m a playboy.”

“Aren’t you?”

“I have a job. I’m a detective. My job is to catch criminals who threaten the peace of Europe.”

Then Pauline’s daughter, Princess Paulina of the Kingdom of Naples, snapped, “What’s the difference between that and being unemployed? You’re not making a penny!”

The era was the 19th century, when capitalism was rapidly transforming the world.

Even members of the royal family were treated as parasites if they didn’t earn money.

The second prince, without succession rights, who only spent money without earning a penny, had no right to complain.

But Eugene Junior was definitely shameless, like the Boarnais lineage.

“Oh, my beautiful fifth cousin. It’s thanks to detectives like me that my sister can ride such a luxurious boat and come all the way to Edinburgh.”

“What are you talking about? What did you do for me?”

“I catch enemies who threaten the security of the empire. For example…”

Suddenly, Eugene Junior’s eyes twinkled.

“I’m currently tracking Metternich. Someone Rochejacquelin couldn’t even catch.”

From the perspective of the French Empire, he was a national criminal.

Queen Pauline quietly looked at Eugene Junior and smiled, reminded of the old days.

“Oh, that sounds fun. Shall I come with you?”