"If someone greets you, give them a warm hug. If it's a woman, compliment her on her looks. If something unexpected happens, just laugh it off saying, 'What nice weather we're having today...'"
Charles Mecklen kept psyching himself up and tried to appear as calm and composed as he could manage.
About ten days ago, Charles Mecklen was still named Huang Haisheng, a high school math teacher born on Earth who had completed a standard university undergraduate education.
He didn't know how he had "passed away."
In the last moments of that life, his consciousness was fuzzy, with no memories at all. When he came to, Huang Haisheng had become Charles Mecklen, an empire government employee on vacation.
Charles Mecklen worked at the Central Government Office, holding the position of a first-class clerk, ranked at level forty-one in the imperial bureaucratic system and responsible for some clerical work.
The nation he worked for and earned a salary from was called the Fars Empire—a mighty state that never existed in Huang Haisheng's memory.
Charles Mecklen was a native of the Old Continent, born in the Behemoth Duchy (Note: one of the vassal states of the Fars Empire), moved to the empire to study, and after graduating, successfully secured a generous job in the capital, Strasbourg.
In the first few days after transmigrating, he was very panicked—as anyone would be in such a situation.
Fortunately...
At that time, Charles Mecklen was on vacation.
Renting a cottage by the sea in Senis, surrounded by strangers as neighbors, he had enough time and the perfect environment to calm down.
Huang Haisheng quickly concluded that taking over the life of Charles Mecklen and living his life step by step was his best option.
After transmigrating, he inherited most of "Charles Mecklen's" memories and acquired some ancient knowledge, allowing him to perfectly blend into this fantasy world with a style reminiscent of Classical Europe.
Yes, this is a fantasy world.
There are gods, magical creatures, forbidden ancient creations, giants, shamans, the Blood Clan, magic, Fighting Spirit, Alchemy, Transcendents, and Extraordinary Items.
This world was governed by Nine Great True Gods.
The nine deities had, in an indescribably ancient era, forged a sacred covenant called "The Laws of the Gods," which stipulated that they take turns ruling the world in hundred-year cycles, known as Eras.
It was the thirty-fifth year under the rule of Lady Black Moon, and also the fifth Era since the establishment of the Fars Empire.
Charles Mecklen stepped into the Government Office, flashing a composed smile, and proactively offered a friendly greeting to everyone he saw.
Every person who passed by was quite blurry to him; the original owner of the body had committed too few pixels of memory to most of his colleagues' faces, leaving him unable to recognize anyone.
Just as although we can recognize most acquaintances instantly, when alone, we can't picture the faces of those we know well—a minor flaw in human memory.
He made his way to the office in his memory, which he shared with more than twenty clerks. Despite not having a private office space, it was far better than working in the hall like some of his colleagues.
As he was just opening the door, he heard a stern middle-aged woman say, "Mr. Mecklen, you will have a special assignment these next few days."
Charles gave a slight smile, searching his memory to put together the image of the speaker.
The middle-aged lady was his direct superior, Mrs. Aldergund, a stern and austere senior government worker.
"Alright, Mrs. Aldergund. I will do my utmost to complete this assignment," Charles said.
Mrs. Aldergund was slightly surprised; she had thought that Charles Meklen would refuse, as the job was very difficult and almost no one was willing to take it on.
However, since Charles had already agreed, she would not cause unnecessary complications and said indifferently, "Take this identification to Kilmainham Prison, and someone will arrange the next step of your work."
"Here is one Aegeus, as a subsidy for your temporary work."
Charles smiled faintly as he took the envelope Mrs. Aldergund handed him, and quickly recalled the related memories of the Empire's currency.
The Empire had three currency units: Aegeus, Fu Er, and Sheng Ding.
One Aegeus equaled ten Fu Er, and one Fu Er equaled one hundred Sheng Ding.
In the language of the Empire, Aegeus meant shield, available in denominations of one and five, minted in gold, and very valuable. Nowadays, only the wealthy and the nobility possessed large amounts of Aegeus, which had become more a collector's item. It was rarely circulated in the market, and almost nobody spent it.
Fu Er was originally a unit of weight for currency, equal to one pound of silver. It was changed to silver coins in the third Era, and the people of the Empire called them old Fu Er. In the fourth Era, equivalent paper currency was issued and referred to as new Fu Er, with denominations of one, five, ten, twenty, and fifty. After the switch to paper currency, silver-cast Fu Er, like Aegeus, seldom appeared in the market and essentially exited circulation. Roughly, one Fu Er was comparable to the buying power of eighteen hundred to nineteen hundred RMB.
Sheng Ding came in denominations of one, five, ten, twenty, and fifty, with no paper currency ever issued; it was the only coin still circulating in large quantities.
One Aegeus was regarded as a very generous extra remuneration for temporary work, about equivalent to a month and a half of Charles's salary.
Indeed, Charles, as a first-grade clerk of the Empire, earned a high salary of one Fu Er and seventy Sheng Ding weekly, and he even had the ability to take an annual vacation.
Aside from the fact that he had not saved much due to a short duration of work and couldn't afford to buy a home, renting instead, he was considered a handsome young man among the Empire's youth.
This was precisely why at social gatherings there were girls who would touch his thigh; Charles Meklen was an extremely eligible bachelor with a bright future ahead of him.
Mrs. Aldergund, who was severe and sparing with words, returned to her own workspace after delegating the work.
Charles turned and left the office, departing from the Central Government Office building. He casually hailed a public horse-drawn carriage on the street, which quietly stopped for him. The coachman waited for Charles to board, then set the horses trotting again.
Sitting in the carriage, Charles experienced the bumpiness of this ancient mode of transport while opening the envelope, withdrawing a ten Fu Er note and an official introduction letter.
The Empire had not issued paper currency for any denomination of Aegeus; there were no one Aegeus notes nor five Aegeus notes, only gold coins for Aegeus.
For these reasons, the Empire had a custom that puzzled transmigrators: they habitually called a ten Fu Er note one Aegeus!
Charles put the ten Fu Er note into his wallet, tucked the introduction letter into the pocket of his coat, crumpled the envelope into a ball, and casually tossed it out of the carriage window, landing it impressively in a trash bin at a street corner.
Emperor Julius the Sixth of the Empire, who had a natural obsession with cleanliness, could no longer tolerate the openly flowing sewage and randomly piled garbage in the city. He propelled a municipal policy about trash bins. It proved that even emperors have their limits; the policy was not completely successful and only survived in the Val de Vaz District.
The Val de Vaz District was where the Imperial Palace, the Central Government Office, Nine Great True Gods' churches, and the four most famous universities were located.
These noble lords also preferred to enjoy a clean living environment.
As for the other districts, let the wind take them.