The elf girl Emilia did not plan to stay in the Randall Valley for long tonight:
"It's my turn to sort out the chocobo feed tonight. If I sneak out and don't go back soon, I'm afraid I'll be busy until the early morning and won't be able to return to the dormitory. Then Aunt Susan from the Sixth Ring Road in the dormitory will scold me tomorrow morning..."
A worried expression appeared on her pretty face. After copying the ancient Elvish poem, Shade and Luvia watched her ride away on the unicorn again. The cold wind of the winter night passed through the branches, and the soft white figure gradually disappeared. Luvia whispered:
"I have contacted the local correspondence group and learned from them that this elf lady began to appear three years ago, and appears once a month on average. I checked the local records and nothing major happened here three years ago. She must have discovered a 'channel' that has existed since ancient times."
“Give yourself a holiday every month?”
Shade muttered to himself, thinking about the impact that gaining a "passage" that could take him to Saint Byrons at any time would have on him. Unconsciously, he actually missed those ladies who still missed him in the Fifth Era.
Starting from this Tuesday, the next few days were relatively quiet. Miss Benanis's followers went to investigate the whereabouts of the three auction items, Luvia, who had obtained the clue of the sublime language, was busy planning her own plan to obtain the spirit rune, and Miss Lathers was busy following her father's path, so that Shade often couldn't find her at the Wilde Opera House.
Of course, Shad did not have a lot of free time during this period. He was invited by Queen Diana to attend the wedding ceremony of the Duke's daughter in Tobesk on Wednesday night. Because Miss Carina and Shad had almost made their relationship clear, the Queen hoped to strengthen her relationship with the increasingly independent-minded Duchess Carina by winning over Shad.
There was a small episode at the banquet on Wednesday night. At that time, Shad was holding a glass of wine and talking about his detective story with Queen Diana, three princesses including Leixia and two noble ladies he didn't know.
Queen Diana put down the glass of orange juice and suddenly smiled and said to the others:
"Speaking of which, I have something good to tell you in private. I bet you would never have thought that one of us is giving birth to a new life."
"Um?"
Shad subconsciously wanted to go to Leicia, while Leicia was a little panicked and recalled whether it was hers or Dorothy's. Of course, no matter whose it was, she would be responsible for Shad.
But then Queen Diana pointed at herself and said with a smile:
"The next generation of the royal family will have new heirs."
“That’s great.”
Ajelina and her younger sister Alice Cavendish said together, and the others also gave their blessings. Shade secretly praised the king for his good health. The Cavendish royal family, which already had a large population, was going to have another one. "The Fire Leaper" Larus III was definitely the king who had the most descendants since the beginning of this era.
Two, they are twins, two boys.
"Huh? You can even see that?"
On Thursday, Shad finally had time to visit the local Stonemason Association in the Randall River Valley. Although he no longer needed to confirm who the stone statue in the church belonged to, he still wanted to investigate the rumors about the Stonemason Association's "moving sculptures."
Because there was no rush for this matter, after breakfast, Xia De lingered at home for a while, waiting for the possible client to come. It was past ten o'clock before he went to the distant city alone. When he arrived at the Stonemason Association, it was already eleven o'clock in the morning.
The full name of the association is "Randall Valley Stonemasons Guild", and its location is not in the urban area of Randall Valley, but in the slightly more remote northeastern part of the city. Two blocks away from the association, there is a train track connected to the quarry in the mountains, which makes it convenient for stonemasons to go to the quarry at any time or transport suitable stones.
The northeastern part of the city is the old town of Randall Valley, where the buildings are quite old and the alleys and streets are quite narrow. If the western part of Randall Valley is more like a big city that flourished in the steam age, then the time of the old town is still in the embryonic stage of the steam age.
This old town style exists in Coldwater Harbor, Fort Midhill and even in Tobisque City. It is the memory of the city.
I got off the carriage at the entrance of the narrow street and looked at the tall and ancient stone buildings on both sides. The old town is closer to the factories and mining areas outside the city that emit exhaust gas, so the fog is particularly thick. In addition, the streets are narrow and the buildings on both sides block the sunlight. Walking on the street is like entering a dark foggy world during the day.
The street where the Stonemasons Association is located is called "Stonemason Street", which is one of the oldest streets in the Randall River Valley. Most of the merchants on the street are engaged in businesses related to sculpture and stone trading. Stone sculptures can be seen everywhere on both sides of the street. In the thick fog that obscures vision, the stone sculptures look a bit scary.
But this place is not deserted at all. Merchants from all over the Old World gather here to purchase the works carved by local stonemasons. The name "Stonemason City" comes from this street. In the old days of the Sixth Epoch before the beginning of the Steam Age, this street was the center of the Randall River Valley.
At this time, everything went into decline.
Because of the "Prince Attack Case" that happened last week, when Shad came to the Stonemasons Association, he saw several local police officers, led by a detective with a star on his shoulder, recording something at the front desk of the Stonemasons Association.
Of course, this did not affect the normal operation of the Stonemasons Association, and there were still people coming and going in the association.
To be more precise, the Randall Valley Stonemasons Association itself is just an industry association formed by local stonemasons, and its rights are jointly granted by stonemasons. The main functions of the association include but are not limited to coordinating conflicts in the industry, acting as a broker to introduce business to merchants from other places, unifying the price of stone materials in the city, and representing stonemasons from the entire Randall Valley to attend certain important occasions. Of course, when a large business requires a large number of craftsmen, the Stonemasons Association is also needed to coordinate, such as the business of the Anjou royal family decades ago.
Shade came today still using the pseudonym John Watson, nominally to select a batch of stone statues to give as gifts to friends in Willendal. The number Shade requested was not large, so the association did not send a special receptionist or manager to receive him. Shade could walk around the association, check out the works of different stonemasons collected here, and then choose the craftsman he liked and place an order directly.
The weather today was really bad. When Xia De entered the association, it was still foggy outside. After he confirmed the area for viewing goods, it was still morning, but it was completely dark outside. Snowflakes were falling from the gloomy sky. Considering that it was already a sparsely populated month, this was most likely the last heavy snowfall of this winter.
The Stonemason Association is divided into four floors. The entire left half of the first floor hall is used to display stone sculptures, which even looks like a stone sculpture museum. When Xia De walked in, he saw that it was completely dark outside the window in the middle of the red velvet curtain, and snowflakes as big as goose feathers were falling. There were also many people who came here to look at the goods. Among them were ordinary people like Xia De who just looked around, and there were also wealthy businessmen or nobles who were dressed quite well and were led by the receptionist to select goods.
Shade didn't have a specific goal in mind, so he just wandered around the hall casually, even thinking that if he saw a statue he liked, he could buy it and give it to Princess Ajelina as a birthday present at the weekend.
The hall was filled with various stone statues, some of which were busts with pedestals, and some were full-length statues in a 1:1 ratio. He even saw a young man setting up an easel in front of the stone statue to sketch, but later he heard that this was a paid activity.
Merchants were crowded together. Xia De simply walked around and found no obvious traces of elements here, so he had time to carefully observe the stone sculptures. But soon, his attention was attracted by the row of oil paintings hanging on the wall. The oil paintings hanging in the stone sculpture hall, except for the portraits of the founders of the Stonemason Association at the door, were all heavy-color oil paintings depicting stone statues, and most of them were human statues.
These paintings are quite large, almost the height of an adult, and what surprised Xia De the most is that most of the figures in these paintings do not include clothes. In other words, most of the paintings belong to the category of human body/art.
"Long time no see, Mr. Watson. I heard about the card game between you and Mr. Oxenfurt. When I was in the Prophet's Society, I knew that anyone who could defeat me must be extraordinary."
As Shade was looking up at the painting, he suddenly heard a voice behind him. He turned around and saw the playwright Antonio approaching him. This gentleman was someone Shade had met when he was playing cards at the local Prophet's Association. He had lost a Sun 1 Forest Story: Silver White Snow Wolf to Shade.
"Oh, it's Mr. Antonio. Are you here to buy a statue as well?"
"No, no, I'm just looking for inspiration for the new opera libretto."
The writer, who was dressed quite fashionably in a brown leather jacket, said, and Shade also introduced his purpose. Then, they both looked up at the stone statue painting on the wall of a woman with her arms outstretched as if to hug someone outside the painting.
"Are you curious about why this kind of statue is only found in oil paintings, and why the statues shown are all wearing clothes?"
Mr. Antonio asked with a smile, explaining for the stranger "John Watson":
"On the one hand, it's because the city hall said that this kind of display is immoral... ... The regulations were made because of the conflict between the Stonemasons Association and the royal family. Oh, the conflict between the local stonemasons and the royal family is..."
"I know. I heard about it."
"That's easy to explain. On the other hand, the association found that naked statues are more likely to be stolen and damaged during display. Although the items on display here are worthless, frequent changes can be annoying. Later, they simply displayed the statues that were too exposed in the form of oil paintings."
As he spoke, he lowered his voice and added:
"Mr. Watson, you are an outsider and it is difficult to find a way. If you are interested in this kind of vulgar, I mean this unique style of stone carving, I know a craftsman who specializes in making this kind of stone carving."