Descending On France 1780-Chapter 15 - 012 As a decent person in Paris, one should naturally have a maid.

The butler led Anning to an empty building on the side of the Royal Palace.

"This place was originally the servant's residence of the Royal Palace, but it has been vacated recently as the Duke has reduced the number of servants," the butler explained to Anning, "The bedding is all newly replaced, and there's a bathtub in the room, but you need to fetch water from the first floor yourself to take a bath."

Anning nodded: "Understood, I can take care of myself."

"Also regarding clothes, we've provided a set of spare clothes for you on your bed, you can change into them after washing up. But for future clothing, you will need to find a way on your own, as the Duke's residence's clothing may not necessarily fit your size."

Anning: "Alright, I will go out and buy some suitable clothes for myself."

The butler bowed slightly: "Then I shall take my leave now, a maid will come to clean your room daily, please communicate any needs you have with the maid."

Anning suddenly got excited: A real maid!

But then he thought, these maids are usually middle-aged women, it's unlikely that there would be young and beautiful maids with blue hair like in the animations.

After the butler left soon, Anning was alone in the room.

He approached the window and forcefully opened it.

Outside the window was the street surrounding the Royal Palace, bustling with traffic and everyone in a hurry.

A child with a backpack shouted loudly on the street: "Come and see! A collection of the Queen's romantic tales! The latest volume! Only three coppers to take home!"

Anning was shocked; he hadn't expected that someone would actually sell the Queen's erotic books on the street. Had the authority of the Royalty really been swept to such a low point in this era?

He leaned out of the window and looked towards the shouting child, only to see many similarly dressed children with large backpacks coming out from the neighboring building.

He looked carefully at the sign on the neighboring building: Green Jade Printing Bureau.

So it turns out, this place printed the Queen's romantic tales! So the spread of these things is being pushed behind the scenes by the Duke of Orleans?

While Anning was observing, several people had already bought the booklets from the children, and the shiny copper coins were delightfully pocketed by the kids.

At that moment, a child saw Anning sticking his head out from the second floor and shouted to him: "Sir! Are you interested in the Queen's romantic tales?"

Anning touched his pocket and threw down three copper coins.

"Thank you for your patronage!" The child leaped slightly and tossed the rolled-up booklet up to the second floor.

Anning picked up the booklet, quickly flipped through it, and found that compared to the erotic stories of later times, this one was really bland.

—If I need money, I could write pamphlets for the Duke to smear the Royal Family!

But currently, Anning didn't have a great need for money, he still had a reward of 550 Crowns waiting to be claimed.

Anning tossed the Queen's erotic booklet aside, turned around, and went downstairs to fetch water for himself.

A few minutes later, Anning had prepared a bathtub full of warm water and delightedly stripped off his clothes and lay down in it.

The fatigue from his journey was instantly relieved; he leaned on the edge of the bathtub, almost closing his eyes and falling asleep.

An hour later, having thoroughly enjoyed his soak, Anning got out from the bathtub, dried himself a bit, and started getting dressed.

Just at that moment, there was a sudden loud noise from the street outside, and people exclaimed in shock.

Anning, halfway through putting on his clothes, hurriedly rushed to the window to look outside.

A load had fallen from a wine transporting carriage.

Broken barrels of wine were scattered on the ground, spilling the precious liquid everywhere.

Bystanders drawn by the smell of wine swarmed the area, desperately scooping wine from the ground to drink.

The coachman roared, "Stop it! This is the Viscount's wine! Get away!"

While shouting, the coachman raised his whip and desperately whipped at those stealing the wine, but this only incited more intense resistance; people rushed onto the carriage and tipped more barrels off.

The coachman cried out: "Stop! The Viscount will hang you rascals!"

A burly man snatched the whip away from the coachman's hand, grabbed the coachman's collar with his thick arm, and lifted him up: "This is Paris! A Viscount doesn't get to throw his weight around!"

Anning examined this strong man carefully; he wasn't dressed like a noble but wore patched black trousers and a dirty linen shirt.

Anning figured he was probably a worker from a nearby factory, just an ordinary Parisian free citizen.

In the future, they would be referred to as "Sans-culottes."

This 'Sans-culottes' threw the coachman off the carriage, and the swarming citizens stole all the Viscount's wine, the barrels being smashed as they fell from the carriage, and then they ferociously drank the wine inside.

Anning watched everything from the second floor.

Such an incident happening right in the heart of Paris, near the Royal Palace.

At that time, Parisian police appeared blowing whistles.

The wine-stealing 'Sans-culottes' scattered like birds, leaving behind just the chaos of a carriage and shattered barrels on the ground.

The police merely blew their whistles to disperse the crowd, without spending time to make arrests.

The mostly disrobed coachman got up and yelled at the police: "I demand their arrest! This is the Viscount's wine!"

The leading police officer patted the coachman on the shoulder: "Tell your master, welcome to Paris."

Anning smirked and muttered: "Welcome to Paris, huh..."

It seems that in this era, the security in Paris isn't so great.

Thinking this, Anning finished putting on the replacement clothes provided by the Duke.

There was a copper mirror in his room, so Anning went to the mirror to carefully examine his reflection.

— A white wig is missing.

The Duke did not provide a wig, probably because the Duke's servants thought that a leatherworker's son did not need such a noble item.

Anning could only simply comb his hair and tie it into a small braid.

In this era, Europeans all wore braids, similar to those in the Qing Dynasty.

After dressing up, Anning decided to go out and collect his task reward — a total of 550 Crowns in large bills!

He had just opened the door to go downstairs when he almost bumped into a maid.

At the sight of the maid, Anning was stunned for a moment.

He had always thought that the maid who would take care of him would be a matronly figure, but the Duke had sent a girl who looked to be in her teens!

The girl had brownish-golden hair, most of which was covered by a French maid's bubble hat.

The girl's rosy cheeks were slightly freckled, but that did not detract from her beauty.

Seeing Anning, the maid respectfully curtsied and said, "Mr. Frost, the butler has arranged for me to take care of your daily needs. Please tell me directly if you need anything."

Anning: "Uh... they actually sent such a young maid..."

The girl frowned: "What, do you think I am too young to serve you well?"

— No no no, I am afraid you will serve too well, actually!

Anning: "No no, I definitely did not mean that. Being young is good, being young is very good."

The girl asked with a stern face: "Are you going out?"

Anning nodded: "Yes, I'm preparing to go out."

"Will you be back tonight?"

"Of course I'll be back!"

"Then I will make up your bed and leave the door open for your return. If there's nothing else, I will take my leave now."

Anning: "Wait a second! What should I call you?"

"Generally, you can just call me 'maid' or 'hey'."

— Is this some kind of humor?

Anning: "That won't do. My name is Andy Frost. Miss, please tell me your name for easier reference."

"Vanni, Vanni Grey."

Anning: "Annie? Your name is quite common..."

"Vanni! Can't you pronounce VA?"

"Of course, I definitely can. Vanni, I've got it now." Anning paused, and to quickly move past the awkwardness, he continued asking, "Vanni, I have a question, where is there a bank nearby?"

"A bank? Are you looking to exchange money or make a deposit? If you just want to exchange your Crowns for cents, you can just go to the Jewish merchant on the bridge."

Anning thought for a moment, then responded, "I will go to the bank for a deposit and withdrawal first, then find the Jewish merchant to exchange the coins."

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Vanni: "Then... It might be hard to explain to someone who has just arrived in Paris, I'll go inform the chief maid and then I can show you the way."

Anning slightly frowned — feeling like a country bumpkin just looked down upon by a Parisian.

After the maid curtseyed and lifted her skirt, she turned to go consult with the chief maid, leaving Anning standing there.

Well, it makes sense. After all, her master is the Duke, and I'm just a guest staying at the Duke's place. They don't need to be too polite to me.

Anning smirked, suddenly thinking that when the revolution breaks out and he makes a name for himself, it'll be interesting to see if this maid's attitude changes.

— Wait and see, let me show off some skills of a future fence-sitter and become a significant figure in the revolution.

As Anning indulged in his thoughts, Vanni returned: "Let's go, Mr. Frost. Besides taking you to the bank, the chief maid asked me to accompany you to buy some fitting clothes. You... do have money, right?"

Anning was tempted to find a moment to claim he had no money, just to see the maid's reaction.

Before he could speak, the maid continued: "Never mind, the chief maid will notify the tailor shop that serves the Duke's family, after all, you are the Miss's benefactor."

So, the clothing issue was also solved.

"Do you prefer to walk, or shall we take a rented carriage?" Vanni asked again.

Anning: "Is it far?"

"A bit."

"Then let's take a public carriage."

"You wait here then, I'll go rent a carriage." Saying this, Vanni curtsied again and turned to leave.