Shad did not look back to see what was happening behind him, nor did he go to meet Dorothy and Tifa. The king's eunuch servant hurried over and told Shad not to take off his armor first, but to follow him to meet the king.
Since Shade won, there was no doubt about the outcome of the match. Five minutes later, with everyone standing up and applauding, Shade, wearing armor, walked up the steps to the highest point of the audience.
Queen Diana, Miss Carina, Resia and Ajelina were all here, in addition to several Cavendishes whose names Shade could not recognize. Ajelina seemed very excited, Resia nodded to Shade reservedly, and Miss Carina took the initiative to speak directly:
"Congratulations, Shade."
"Thanks."
Shade said softly, giving the initiative of the conversation to His Majesty the King.
This was a rare occasion for Shad to see Resia's father in the study of the Yodel Palace or outside of banquets. This man in his forties, who was a head shorter than him but looked very dignified, was dressed very formally, with a thick red fur cape decorated with gems draped behind him.
"Congratulations, Hamilton of Rejade, you have shown us your chivalry and superb knightly skills."
He spoke very kindly, and the reporters took this opportunity to find a good position to take pictures.
At this time, the king's servants had already brought the prepared championship prize. According to the practice of previous years, it was a metal shield with Shad's name and the Cavendish coat of arms - this needed to be prepared temporarily, so it would be given to Shad at the banquet in the evening, as well as a trophy symbolizing the "1854 Tobesk City Ring Ride Championship".
The trophy was made of pure silver and gold-plated, and was shaped like a knight on horseback.
"Hamilton, do you want the Duke of Carina to present the award to you, or my daughter Leicia to present the award to you?"
His Majesty the King asked again in front of everyone. Shade, who was holding the helmet, remained calm, but glanced at the two ladies whose names were mentioned. Miss Carina was next to the King. After all, she had the most power here besides the King. And Resia stood between Queen Diana and Ajelina, with a formal but kind smile on her face.
"Luckily we discussed this ahead of time, so I was prepared."
Xia De suppressed the little pride in the corner of his heart, and then said respectfully:
"Since I swore to uphold the spirit of chivalry in the name of Her Highness Resia before participating in this competition, then please present the award to me, Her Highness Resia."
This was actually not something that Shade and the girls discussed, but something that Miss Carina and Lecia discussed. It was even related to Lecia's concession that she didn't mind further breakthroughs in the relationship between Shade and Miss Carina.
Without asking for permission, Queen Diana gave her daughter a gentle push.
Her Royal Highness the Princess, wearing a sky blue dress, walked towards Shade with dignity, and under the flashing of the spotlight, she picked up the shield and trophy that symbolized honor.
Shade put down his sword and helmet, knelt on one knee on the red carpet at his feet to show his allegiance, and heard people talking about the grand banquet tonight.
He raised his head and looked at his princess. Leisia tried hard to suppress the burning passion in her heart:
"Hamilton by Ryder."
She called softly, and at that moment, Shad seemed to be able to see the blazing fire burning in her soul.
After accepting the title of champion, Shad was finally allowed to leave the arena and met Dorothy and Tifa in his own tent. The blonde gave him a warm hug, and Tifa asked the maids to help Shad take off the heavy armor:
"There's not even a scratch on it. We all thought that the relic's sword would scratch the armor."
The trophy that Shade was going to put together with last year's "1853 Big City Players Championship Trophy" was casually placed on the table. Then little Mia jumped over happily, and after being caught by Shade, she meowed excitedly.
"Could it be that it knows that there will be a big dinner in the evening?"
Shad was joking, and Tifa told him what happened after Shad left the tent while the maids were helping him take off his armor.
The evening banquet will be held at the royal manor next to the Edward III Arena, where the opening ceremony was held last weekend. It is 3:30 in the afternoon, and Shade actually has plenty of time to go to the Carina Manor to rest first.
But he did not leave immediately, instead he told Dorothy and Tifa about the Faceless Man. After waiting for a while, they soon saw Director Anros coming with two ring wizards, but this time the thirteenth ring wizard of the Church of Creation was not there.
The director congratulated Xia De on winning the championship, and Xia De returned the dove-shaped pendant and the sword:
"This sword is really useful."
He said with a smile, and after pretending to ask whether the "spy" disguised as a knight had been arrested, he watched the three people leave.
"Aren't you worried that they might suspect you're a ring wizard?"
Dorothy asked quietly.
"Don't worry, I didn't use excessive strength. I didn't even dare to use my full strength just now. Besides, it was all thanks to the serious illness I had some time ago."
As Shade spoke, the blonde girl showed a look of understanding:
"When Father Augustus went to your home to visit you, Bishop Owen of the Dawn Church also sent other people to your home to express his condolences. After all, you are considered a core believer. Since you suddenly fell ill, it definitely couldn't be the ring wizard... What a coincidence."
Tifa asked from the side:
"What will happen to the Faceless Man in the end?"
"According to the information I received, he will not be caught, but will hide again and fall into confusion until he completes self-devourment."
"So what is this angel-level relic all about? The mainstream view of the church and the academy is that he probably doesn't have any brothers at all, but rather that he had a personality disorder before he became a relic, and therefore fell into a crazy desire to complete himself."
Dorothy said this was from the information passed to the group by the college.
Shade shook his head, so Tifa asked the low-level and ordinary girls who were not suitable to know the information of angel-level relics to leave for the time being.
“In the Fifth Era when the Faceless Man lived, he did have a twin brother. But that brother did not disappear. He was eaten by him.”
Shad recalled the information given by Grace and Helen:
"I don't know exactly what happened, but when the two merged into one, he turned from an ordinary man in the Fifth Epoch into some kind of inhuman faceless monster whose gender was not even certain. This could be a conspiracy of the evil god, or it could be some extremely ancient transformation ritual. He completed himself, and then went crazy."
"So, the person he's looking for has been in his stomach all along?"
"You can say that. These humanoid relics seem to have their own tragedies."
After tidying up the camp a bit, the group rushed back to the Carina Manor to prepare formal dresses and long skirts for the evening party.
In Shad's later recollection of the grand banquet that night, all that remained were the magnificent banquet hall with lights reflecting everywhere, the brisk and joyful dance music, and the dozens of handkerchiefs and private items such as garters stuffed into his pockets.
At the banquet, he accepted an interview with the Tobesk Morning News. As the champion of this year's round-the-city riding competition, he expressed his thoughts on the chivalry spirit of the steam age. The most sincere part of Shade's speech was that he hoped that in the future round-the-city riding competition, Rhodes cards could be considered as one of the events.
On the first day of the competition, an accident occurred, and later he was assassinated. He even broke a leg during his recovery. He appeared in the banquet hall in a wheelchair. The Forlan brothers appeared with the earl. The preliminary negotiations were over and they were about to go to the Green Lake area. While the earl was temporarily pushed away by the servant, the twin brothers also expressed their congratulations to Shad for winning the championship and invited Shad to play Rod cards again when he had the opportunity to go to Willendel. He could also visit their racecourse-the Forlan family is quite rich.
Even though he was injured, Earl Lewis still tried to get close to the beautiful Duchess of the North. Only this time, the stranger, who had enough reasons to show his high spirits, approached and extended his hand as he did at the opera house. He did not wait for the Earl to shake his hand this time, but took the Earl's hand without any hesitation.
Queen Diana and King Larus III were both there at the time, so out of politeness, Count Lewis tried to shake their tightly clasped hands with a reluctant expression. Unexpectedly, Shade smiled at him, then exerted force suddenly, and then the Count's shout startled everyone.
Of course, Shad only nearly crushed the bones of his hand, and he remembered that he wasn't supposed to have much strength.
Although Count Lewis had an ugly expression at the time, no one reprimanded Shad for it. After all, he was the champion tonight, and he was defending his lover, so enjoying a little privilege could even be considered a romantic move in such social occasions.
Of course, the most romantic moment of the night was when Princess Leicia invited Shad and his female companion Dorothy to the lounge after enjoying the dance music, and let the knight show them his superb riding skills again. Leicia kept her promise and not only brought the "goods" sent by Miss Sylvia from Willendal City to reward Shad's victory, but also allowed Shad to do some very excessive things with the live rope trick... ...
Because they didn't have enough time, after the banquet, they went to the Carina Manor together to continue the long-awaited Red Butterfly Day. Of course, it would have been better if there hadn't been a shocking sound like a gas pipeline explosion in the distance in the middle of the night, which disturbed the three people's interest.