Whispering Verse

It's actually boring to stand and let others take pictures. While maintaining a smile, Shade's eyes were scanning the crowd.

So, he once again saw Miss Bayas in the brightly lit banquet hall. This time it was definitely not an illusion. The sorceress with long brown hair was wearing a long dress. When Shade saw her, she immediately made a gesture of silence, then turned her head and plunged into the crowd. It seemed that she did not want Shade to Knows what she's doing.

"At least she's not dressed up as a maid this time."

Shade whispered in his heart.

For a long time, Shade did not see Miss Bayas again. After the complete knighthood award process was completed, Shade, under the arrangement of the attendant, stood with several dukes, waiting for the king to award awards to other people who had received medals of honor.

He was holding the antique knight's sword in his hand, and his fingers kept rubbing the ruby ​​on the scabbard. This is just an ordinary item. Even if it is properly maintained, the erosion of time still makes this sword useless.

During the boring wait, Shade thought about hanging the sword in the living room of Room 1 on the second floor, so that every guest who came to entrust it could see it.

Only two people received medals of honor, and they were awarded separately. After that, the dozen or so people who were specially commended did not have the honor of being awarded by the king. They came to the stage together and were jointly awarded the "Tobesk Special Contribution Medal".

As for those who did not have medals, such as Captain Rades, their names were simply read out to thank them for their contributions to the king. But this is enough for the captain. This honor is enough to clear his name of "Eight-Gun Captain". After tonight, Captain Rades can pack his bags and wait for notification.

After this whole process, the time has gone from seven o'clock to half past eight.

The busy king will not stay here longer, but will return directly to the city. As for the other dukes, they have their own plans.

Probably because Miss Carina specially chatted with Shade for a few words, the other dukes also talked with him for a few words, so they knew each other. Because of the curse that the witch carries, Miss Carina rarely appears in public. This time's attitude undoubtedly shows that Shade is the one she likes.

After the awards were given and the king left, the banquet officially began.

The Dukes returned to the third floor together, and immediately a group of people gathered around wanting to talk to Shade. Reporters also followed with notepads. The number of business cards Shade received in just ten minutes was actually more than what was sent out today. Even more are going out.

Priest Augustus had warned that open interviews were necessary, so Shade had to answer everyone's questions in turn.

Even when someone asked him what he was thinking when he stopped the bullet, Shade, who was already dizzy from the question, opened his mouth and said:

"Everything is mortal, and everyone will die..."

My head immediately sobered up, and I threw away the thought of searching for the heavier mountains in this world:

"Perhaps a person's value is limited, but when he makes a contribution that exceeds his own value, his personality and soul will be sublimated at this time."

Shade didn't know what he was talking about, but looking at the people around him nodding, at least he didn't say the wrong thing. Of course, he also did not forget to praise the importance of the royal family to Delarian, praise the righteous god [Mr. Dawn], and at the same time help the church promote the Feast of Holy Prayer.

In short, Shade is really not used to this kind of social situation.

It took a full forty minutes to get away from the reporters, and when he was finally able to escape, before the men who wanted to talk to "Miss Carina's close associates" gathered around him, a group of young girls surrounded Shade.

After Shade exchanged some polite words with the girls, some of them wanted to talk to him "alone in the garden" or to listen to him tell some "detective stories" in private.

Shade was not stupid. Of course he knew what it meant, but he was very uncomfortable with the girls' enthusiasm and could only shirk other things. But despite this, there were still some handkerchiefs stuffed in his hands, with addresses written on them with lipstick or powder.

"You will get used to this, Mr. Hamilton, no, Lord Hamilton of Rejed."

Baron Lavender, who came to play cards with him, came over with a smile.

"Are all girls today so enthusiastic?"

He held the handkerchiefs and wondered what to do with them.

"I'm not passionate about you, I'm passionate about your identity and your relationship with Miss Carina. Now the Duchess of Saradir has almost made it clear that you are her person. Oh, what a lucky guy. , is Miss Carina interested in you?"

He smiled ambiguously, joking while patting Shade on the shoulder, and then led Shade, who was holding a sword, towards his friends.

Arriving from the first floor of the banquet hall to the second floor, Miss Bayas whom I saw half an hour ago was nowhere to be seen again. Although Shade was worried, nothing happened when he met her last weekend, and now that Miss Carina was on the third floor, there was no need to worry about any emergencies, so he was invited to attend Baron Lavender and friends' Rhodes Festival. card game.

These gentlemen had the best seats in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor of the banquet hall, occupying the sofa and coffee table. Sitting here and looking out, you can see the night view of Tobesk City and the starry sky on a summer night.

But people were more concerned about the Rhodes cards, but after Shade and Baron Lavender walked through the crowd at the banquet, they still congratulated Shade several times. Although most of the people present had titles and had a higher status than Shade, who only had the title of "knight", the Duchess's regard for him meant that his status was by no means as simple as a knight.

After being polite, he urged Shade to take out the new special card and display it.

Under the gaslight, every gentleman was very excited. Shade took out the cards from his pocket. Without touching the [Ancient Fairy Tale Pygmalion] that Baron Lavender was familiar with, he took out the other three special cards:

"Look."

He took out [Northern City, Coldwater Port City], [Eastern Landscape of the Old World, Lake Tees], and [Original Steam Engine, Mark 9]. People passed it around and told each other about the history of the past appearance of these three cards.

There are some people among them who know Shade's [Original Silver Moon] because they attended Duke Lucas' Rhodes game last Sunday night. Now that Shade had taken out these three cards, there were some people who had heard about the deck that day but didn't know who it was, so they thought that the rumored owner of the founding series of cards was the young detective.

Baron Lux was one of those people who only thought of this after seeing three cards. But Baron Lavender didn't know. He just told people excitedly that he had seen the [Northern City Coldwater Port City] at the auction house ten years ago.

When he heard that Shade got the playing cards from an old professor, he guessed that the buyer had later resold the playing cards due to his financial situation, and lamented that Shade was very lucky. Although these playing cards with special rules were not expensive, It’s extremely expensive, but even if you want to buy it, you may not be able to buy it.

Shade is the protagonist tonight, and of course people let him pick his opponents for the card game. After inquiring, Shade did not choose an acquaintance, but chose Baron Cobol, the younger of the group, to compete with him.

Baron Cobol is only about thirty years old. I just heard from Baron Lavender that he inherited the title from his father. This baron is a relatively wealthy noble who likes collecting antiques and Rhodes cards. He has five special cards in his hand, so Shade wanted to see them.

So the two players sat down with each other, and others sat on the sofa, or stood behind the players, with their hands folded on their chests, ready to watch the game.

This corner on the second floor of the banquet hall suddenly became lively, and from time to time, people would come over and join the crowd of spectators. According to the "common sense" that Baron Lavender spread to Shade, at any moderately high-end banquet, there will always be people playing Rhodes cards in the corner. This is also part of the culture of this era. The Rhodes cards originally issued by the Prophet Association to make money have become an important part of the Sixth Age civilization.

For outsiders, a different world without entertainment is undoubtedly very boring. Occult books and the refinement of a ringman's powers are fun, but occasionally find other entertainment. Shade's attitude towards Rhodes gradually changed subtly because of this. At least tonight, he still enjoyed playing cards in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows while watching the night view.

There are 54 cards in a deck, and Shade will certainly not put [Original Silver Moon] in it, so the deck contains four special cards, while Baron Cobol has five special cards in the deck. Although the two did not gamble and simply enjoyed the fun of playing cards, the people watching them bet with each other on who would draw the first special card.

The answer is Shade, [Ancient Fairy Tale·Match Girl] appeared first. Although the special rules were not triggered, the points themselves helped him win that round. The Baron's special card Moon 13 [Pirate King Skeleton Captain Victor] only appeared in the fifth game.

The special rules of this card are very simple. Throw a 20-sided die. If the number is less than or equal to 10, the number of this card is adjusted to 22; if the number is greater than 10, the number can be adjusted between 13 and 1.

It cannot be said that this card is useless, it can only be said that there are very few occasions where it can be used.

Baron has been playing Rhodes since he was a teenager and is a true master of Rhodes, while Shade relies purely on luck. Although Xia De won more, the overall result of the game between the two sides can be barely evenly matched.

Baron Cobol was even more interested in this tense card game, and even suggested that the two sides gamble with their own special cards, but Shade politely refused:

"I rarely gamble."

As he spoke, he looked up and saw Miss Bayas again at the stairs leading to the first floor. She seemed to have been forcibly held by someone, and she was dragged and forced to the first floor.

"Um?"

He stood up with his eyes widened and sorted out the cards in his hand:

"Everyone, I'm sorry, I have something else to do. I'll be back in a while."

As he spoke, he pointed upstairs, and the others nodded in understanding, thinking that he was going upstairs to meet the big shots. So Baron Lavender, who had been waiting for a long time, took Shade's place.

The expensive antique knight's sword that couldn't be used was left here for the time being. Shade walked towards the stairs. I glanced back and saw the people at the floor-to-ceiling windows nervously paying attention to the game. No one looked here, so they quickly walked down the stairs.

No matter what happened to Miss Bayas, he couldn't pretend he didn't see it.