Xia De glanced at the withered and blackened roses in the window behind him, and then continued to greet:
"Mr. Asmon, long time no see. Heavy rain, night, flower shop, candles, our meeting this time, and in such an interesting environment. Would you like to sit down and talk?"
The demonologist did not care about the poor environment here and sat down at the table in front of the flower shop. After the sleeves of his robe brushed across the table, he placed the notebook he carried with him, which was even rolled up, on the table.
Shade pointed at himself:
"I spent most of the spring in the Randall Valley. I have to admit that the spring there is really beautiful. After the Golden Dawn Opera Company left the Randall Valley, I left too. Then I went to Willendel City. I wanted to go to Tobesk to watch the City Tournament, but I was delayed by some trivial matters... ... The bored police... ... came here to see if there was anything new during the negotiations between the two countries."
He smiled and said:
"I was at the scene of the assassination not long ago. I plan to write a good detective and spy novel based on that assassination. Hamilton's Detective Stories may meet its rival. Oh, by the way, there are rumors of demons in the Green Lake area, too?"
Mr. Sean Asmon leaned forward slightly, his dark eyes staring at Shade in the candlelight:
"Assassination? That was a brief rainstorm before conspiracy and war. But the unexpected encounter is indeed suitable for telling stories. Yes, there is a legend of demons in this local area, and that is why I came here. Rumor has it that the island in the middle of Green Lake is called 'Devil's Island'. I stayed in the Glass City for half a month, and then came here again to inquire about the legend of the Edwards family that declined a hundred years ago."
"oh?"
Xia De pretended to be interested, listening to the sound of rain and looking at the face of this strange man in the candlelight:
"So you're investigating this, interesting. Have you landed on the island? I heard that the island is covered in white fog all year round."
The demonologist's black eyes were also looking at Shade, and he shook his head:
"We didn't land on the island. After all, there are rumors that there are demons there. We can't contact them so easily, right?"
"You are so cautious. It's a pity that we are not in a pub now, otherwise I would really like to buy you a drink."
Xia De said with a smile, and the strange smile on the face of the man in the brown robe became even more intense:
"No, no, I prefer this cold and dark environment to the pub. It is really wonderful to tell stories with friends in such a wonderful environment. No need for drinks, Mr. Watson, do you want to play Rhodes? Just like before, I will use Rhodes cards to exchange for travel expenses."
"Why, did you get the special rules card again?"
Xia De was a little surprised.
"This is not luck. An old gentleman commissioned me to investigate the demonic curse that entangled his family. He took this as a reward. But in fact, there is no demonic curse there. It's just the figures of the adulterous gardener and the washerwoman at night."
He took out his deck and passed it to Shade across the candle. Shade flipped over the first card and saw a strange black figure dancing with a strange figure in a red dress in the background of the card, with a burning manor building behind them.
The sad opera, The Wedding at Lehman Manor, Suit Sun 11. When you draw this card, throw a coin to guess the front and back. If you guess correctly, and the total number of points in your hand including the hidden card is an even number, you can choose whether to discard this card and draw again.
"Oh, the Sad Opera series."
Shade sighed softly.
The "Sad Opera" series includes traditional operas that end in tragedy. The corresponding deck is the "Happy Opera" series.
In addition to the title of "Sad Opera", people generally call it "the fifteen famous tragedies". As for "The Wedding at Lehman Manor", it tells the story of the love between the gardener and the cook of the manor, and this love affair triggers the love-hate relationship of three generations of the family about love, ethics, wealth, and power, with the background of the grand national and national epic. All these contradictions broke out at a wedding banquet on a rainy night. In the end, the gardener killed almost everyone with a gun, and walked away with the body of the cook in the rainy night, and was struck to death by lightning in the final scene of the story.
At the end of the opera, all the named characters, including the pet dog and the named horse, died. It was a tragedy within a tragedy. Of course, this was also the kind of story Dorothy disliked the most.
Fortunately, this is a story adapted from traditional literature, not an ancient fairy tale, so Xia De doesn't have to worry about having to study it in depth in the future.
"Although this series was released more than ten years ago, because there is no reprint for the time being, and the card surface is very exquisite, the price of the Sad Opera series cards has remained high. Let me think... If I win, I will buy this card for 40 pounds. If I lose, how about buying this card for 55 pounds?"
Xia De asked the man across the table, who put his right arm on his legs and leaned forward slightly:
"No problem. Of course, we can't forget our unfinished story."
He took back his cards and shuffled them with Shad.
"Yes, yes. I look forward to hearing the continuation of that story."
Shade said from the bottom of his heart.
"So, Mr. Watson, do you remember where the story was?"
"certainly."
He looked at the candlelight and repeated the long and strange story amid the increasingly loud sound of rain:
"A mysterious being, who actually possessed the power of the devil as people knew it. It brought disaster to the world until it met a man without a wish. It then accompanied the man for his whole life because of the man's 'wish' to seal the devil.
After the man died, the devil took his soul and returned to his hometown overnight, devouring all his relatives. But those respectable people tried their best to protect the last boy. The boy did not keep silent to escape the devil, but made the same wish as the first man: I am willing to seal you with my life, just like my grandfather.
He then walked a long way, until one day, the grown-up boy met the girl he loved and fell in love with her. When she tried to persuade the young man to stay, he killed her, just to ensure that after his death, the devil would not turn into his appearance and come to take the girl's soul.
Shade sighed and placed the shuffled deck to the right of the candle, while Mr. Asmon's deck was placed to the left of the candle.
"The last story was really helpless and sad, but neither I nor the circus magician who was playing cards with us at the time can say that the young man's choice was wrong. If he hadn't done that, the girl's fate would probably be exactly the same as that of the young man's family."
"Mr. Watson, as a writer, don't you like tragedy?"
The two were about to draw cards. Although it was strange to play cards under candlelight on the street on a rainy night, the atmosphere was indeed very good.
Xia De nodded:
"Yes, I never liked tragedy."
The game adopted the most classic best-of-three system. If there was a tie, the game would not stop until one side won two games. There was no fancy gameplay. Xia De felt that facing this scholar who seemed to have come from the pre-steam age, he should stick to the traditional way.
The first hidden card and the second card were drawn. The card that Shade held up was Star 13, the largest number. He smiled, inserted Star 13 under the hidden card, and gently lifted the latter up, without hiding the idea of the first card:
"Sun 5, Star 13. Oh, this is a difficult problem for me in the first round."
The demonologist did not answer and continued to reach for his deck of cards:
"The protagonist of this story is still the grown-up young man. He killed his lover in a riverside village, and then continued his journey into the distance. He walked and walked, saw more things, and experienced more tragedies. After an unknown amount of time, the middle-aged man who sealed the devil in himself, on a rainy night, yes, a night like this, came to a village that was robbed by bandits."
"In just a few words, a person has gone through half of his life."
Shade commented, and finally reached for his third card:
"Maybe sometimes you really need to try your luck. Less than 4 is fine. I believe in my luck... Oh, Moon 1, it seems I am lucky. At 19:00, I will stop trading."
The demonologist on the other side of the table displayed Star 9, Flower 5, and Sun 10 together:
"It seems I still lack some luck."
Although he busted, he didn't seem surprised at all, and then started the second round with Shade:
"Even though it was raining, the burning fire still lit up half the night sky. The villagers' broken limbs were twisted in the village, and the wailing wounded were turned into ashes in the fire. A middle-aged man walked from outside the village and walked towards the robbers who were setting fire for fun in the rain. A dark shadow emerged from behind him, and the sharp sword sought justice for the innocent. Even if he didn't use the power of the sealed demon, he had become strong enough after all these years."
Sean Asmon smiled at Shade on the other side of the candle:
"And in the bandit group, he rescued a noble girl who was caught by the bandits while she was resting in the village. The bandits tried to demand a ransom from her family afterwards."
Shade sighed:
"I met the girl again. Since he has the responsibility to seal the devil, he should not get involved with anyone. I can see that his life was destined to be tragic from the moment he decided to seal the devil alone when he was young."
The first two cards of the second round came into Xia De's hands. He took a look and continued to draw cards, while the sallow-skinned man across the table stopped drawing cards, leaned forward with his body tilted, still staring at Xia De.