Xia De didn't have to wait too long. After only five or six minutes, the unique sound of high heels hitting the carpet could be heard from the corridor outside the door. Judging from the footsteps, Leicia seemed to have brought a lot of maids with her.
He stood up from the sofa to greet her. After Leisia's maid opened the door, Leisia and the little princess Ajelina in a red dress walked in together.
The little princess greeted Xia De very gracefully, then raised her head and asked with concern:
"Knight, were you alright Wednesday night?"
This was the first time she had seen Xia De since the reading salon.
"It's okay, I was just unconscious for a day."
Xia De answered, then looked at Leicia. Her Royal Highness nodded to him with a smile, looking very polite:
"Mr. Hamilton, the incident on Wednesday night brought you bad luck for no reason. Inviting you to watch the opera today is a formal apology."
Although he didn't know why Leicia said that, Shade still answered according to her meaning:
"You don't have to blame yourself. The responsibility for this incident mainly lies with the Prophet Association. They have already compensated me. I heard that you also spoke for me in order to obtain the Founding Knowledge. Thank you very much. I am very healthy now and have no sequelae from that incident."
Leicia nodded, and the royal lady said softly:
"Then you have to apologize properly. I can examine your body myself. Gas poisoning is no small matter."
Ajelina opened her mouth slightly and looked up at her sister. Leisia's expression was very serious, as if she was talking about something serious:
"After all, I was the one who invited you to my reading salon. I have to take responsibility."
As she spoke, she waved to the maids behind her. These were all Leisia's personal maids, so they naturally knew what Her Royal Highness meant, and they retreated from the side door to the next room one by one.
Leicia said to Ajelina again:
"I want to talk to the knight about compensation for him, and also help him check whether he has other problems due to gas poisoning. Ajelina, go to the next door and help us guard the door. Don't let others in. It would be too embarrassing if others misunderstood that we were doing something wrong."
"Check your body..."
The little princess pursed her lips and looked at Xia De. From Xia De's expression, she understood that Xia De didn't know the reason for "physical examination" before he came. He might have been deceived by other reasons.
"I see."
Ajelina said dejectedly, looking at Shade reluctantly. As she walked towards the side door, looking back every few steps, Leicia had already taken off her red lace-up high-heeled shoes, holding the shoes with two fingers on her right hand, shaking them in front of Shade with a smile, and then placed them on the coffee table in an uncivilized manner.
Leicia sat sideways on the sofa, her legs in white stockings with garters pressed over Shade's thighs. Looking at the stockings, Shade thought of the witch's clothes he had seen in 5177 of the previous era.
Leicia stretched out her arms and hugged Xia De's neck affectionately, then turned to look at her sister who had not left yet, and said in a somewhat stern tone:
"Ajelina!"
The little princess lowered her head and walked to the side, and with a click, she locked the door on the other side.
"Put on the demon hunting ring, the demon's affairs..."
Xia De wanted to speak.
"She might think that I tricked you here with other excuses."
After casting the silencing spell, Lecia interrupted Shade with a smile, put the ring next to her high heels, bit her rosy lower lip with her white teeth, and looked at Shade closely with her beautiful eyes.
Leicia could guess what Ajelina was thinking. Of course, Leicia didn't care what Ajelina was thinking tonight, and she would not waste this precious weekend tryst time:
"Knight, let me check your body. I really hope you won't always be obsessed with our writer lady. The princess needs you sometimes. The opera is about to start. It's wonderful. A tryst once a week..."
(Yin Luna writes in the report...)
Without a good rest, even a ring warlock will be in poor spirits the next day. I got home at 11 o'clock on Monday night, but it was already midnight when I went to bed.
Anyway, early Tuesday morning, Xia De, who was yawning and walking downstairs in slippers to get the newspaper and milk, pulled out the long golden hair that was itching his neck from the collar of his pajamas, and saw the letter from Miss Gold on the doormat.
Last month's letter didn't arrive until almost mid-month, but this month's letter arrived on the third day.
The address on the envelope was still a remote town on the eastern coast of Delarion. Shad was already quite familiar with Miss Gold's handwriting, and in this letter, the lady told Shad a good news.
"Miss Gold has completely recovered from her illness."
Sitting at the dining table, Shade opened the letter and said happily. The writer, who had just started a short cohabitation, stroked Mia while eating. The cat did not resist because she had made breakfast.
"In the previous letters, this lady also said that some strange phenomena had occurred in the town where her family lived. I was a little worried at the time. I didn't expect that in just half a month, the matter was temporarily resolved by the church, and Miss Gold's illness was almost cured."
He said as he continued to read the letter.
"You originally planned to take a steam train to visit that town in the spring of 1854 to complete the last commission of the previous detective. Can you start planning your trip now?"
"Yes, if everything goes well, I plan to leave in April next year."
Xia De nodded and read the last line of the letter. When Miss Godd wrote a letter, she would stamp it at the end. Judging from the traces, it was an ancient metal seal, probably left by her ancestors:
"The town's affairs have been settled for the time being. Miss Gold plans to renovate the ancestral home this winter, sell off the family collections that are no longer needed, recover the title deeds buried in the courtyard, and deal with the family's abandoned banquet manor and farm. She told me that if the plan goes well, she wants to repair the dock in the bay and restore the town's maritime trade."
Shade smiled and said:
"It looks like that lady won't leave town in the short term, and she won't come back to Tobesk. I'm confident that I can convince her to sell Mia to me."
"Did she mention Mia again in her letter?"
Dorothy asked curiously, and Shade nodded again:
"Yes, the lady asked me again to take a picture of me holding the cat and send it to her. She still has a lot of feelings for little Mia and she wants to see the cat again before the end of the year."
"Photograph?"
Dorothy's eyes lit up, and she said casually:
"I noticed that there are no pictures of you in this house, except the one you sent Miss Gold in the fall. Since you're going to take pictures, you might as well take more. I know you don't like your face in pictures, but if you hang them in your house, it's fine. In fact, it would be strange not to have pictures of yourself in the house."
Xia De thought about it, tilted his head and looked towards his living room:
"That makes sense... I'll go to the photo studio this afternoon to make an appointment. How about we go take photos together at a certain time?"
He then suggested, and Dorothy nodded with satisfaction:
"Also, let's take a photo together. Since it's the end of the year, I also want to commemorate this extraordinary year. Take a photo and keep it. Maybe the literary award at the end of the year will really need my photo."
Nothing interesting happened on this boring Tuesday. Shade did not stay out all day. In addition to reading at home, he also wrote a reply letter to Miss Gold. Of course, he did not forget to ask about the variety of Mia in the letter.
There was no rush to submit the investigation report to Lord Cameron, so Shade went to the photo studio in the afternoon to make an appointment for a photo shoot. By the end of the year, the photo studios in the city were doing very well. In addition to allowing customers to take photos in person, the photo studios also allowed photographers and apprentices to bring their equipment to take photos at the door.
The former requires an appointment, while the latter only requires paying an extra amount of money and you can take photos immediately.
In order to save waiting time, Shad arranged for the photographer to come to his home at 4 o'clock this afternoon. After returning home and telling Dorothy, the blonde girl complained to Shad that he did not give her enough time to put on makeup.
As for this week's gift from "God's Gift Box", Shad only remembered it near evening.
The photographer had been working for more than an hour and had just left, making an appointment with Xia De to pick up the photos at the weekend.
He was preparing to go out for dinner with Dorothy. The clothes needed for traveling in winter were much more troublesome than those in summer. The writer finally packed her clothes and put on a red mink scarf - which she bought with her royalties a few days ago.
Shad didn't want Dorothy to wait any longer, and in his opinion, getting gifts every week was a very "sacred" ritual that shouldn't be done in a hurry. Therefore, the two of them and the cat went to Silver Cross Avenue for dinner, and then went for a walk in the university district when the lights on the street came on.
After returning home, Xia De finally went to the basement to take out the "God's Gift Box". He touched a handful of Mia to increase his luck, and then reached into the box:
"So far, I have only found the master key relic. Will I have any luck this time..."
My palm touched a thin metal object at the bottom of the box, and after taking it out, I found that it was a fountain pen. Of course, although it looks good, and there are cursive handwritten letters on the surface of the pen cap, it is just an ordinary object.
"Still no luck."
Shad sat back on the sofa somewhat disappointedly and handed the pen to Dorothy.
"This is a Mendy fountain pen, commemorative model of 1844."
Dorothy took the pen from Shad's hand, and said in a tone that Shad didn't know the value of the pen:
"Purely handmade, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the writing of the poem "Emperor's Ride", only 300 were made, and most of them were given to famous writers. Each one has a special number, and one was sold at an auction house in the city last year for a high price of 287 pounds!"
Apparently, Dorothy wasn't a well-known writer three years ago, so she had only heard of it.
"Now the total number has become 301."
Shade said with a smile, Dorothy uncapped the pen and checked the number on the inside, then she reached out and smoothed the position of the number:
"This one belongs to me."
She said with a smile, examining the pen lovingly.
Xia De nodded:
"Would you like to guess what my mission is this week?"
"Since the gift is a pen, the task is to write an article?"
"No, no, the children's tasks will not be that difficult. They are to practice calligraphy, or to be more precise, copying. You can copy anything, but the total number must be 300 words."
"That Old God really favors you, big boy."
Dorothy whispered, putting her right arm around Shad's neck and drawing him closer to her:
"I really don't know in which aspect you can be classified as a 'boy'."