Throughout the entire day of Thursday, Shad, Miss Beas and Miss Annat stayed in No. 6 St. Teresa's Square, constantly analyzing their plan and using the large space in the basement to cooperate with each other in practicing magic.
Xia De gained a lot from this process, because it was like he was being taught how to fight by two girls.
It was then that he realized that in the nearly one month since he came to this world, he never seemed to have had the opportunity to fight any strange ring sorcerers one-on-one. The few battles that occurred were either because he had reliable friends around him or because he used the characteristics of relics to make targeted contact.
In the process of breaking into the ruins tonight, in addition to the dangers of the Silver-Eyed Man and the ruins themselves, they will definitely come into contact with the Ringwitch with Mercury Blood. By then, it is very likely that Shade will experience his first real Ringwitch battle.
During the day, no one visited St. Teresa's Square, but Miss Beas had to go back to Blackstone Security Company to work the two-hour shift at noon. When she came back, she brought back some bad news:
"The Orthodox Church will besiege the cultists of the Lord of the Blood Feast tonight, and our team has been assigned to take action as well."
"What?"
Both Shad and Miss Annat stood up from their chairs. The protagonist of the action that night was Miss Beas. If she was not present, then the action would be meaningless.
"It's okay, it's okay. Our team was not arranged to enter the banquet."
Miss Beas said as she sat on the sofa closest to the "snowing" area:
"We were asked to stand guard at the perimeter to make sure no one breaks in when the church is clearing out the cultists at the banquet. I've already asked for leave. The captain said that this matter is inherently dangerous, and it would be more in line with his thinking if I didn't participate."
Miss Annat immediately checked her notebook:
"That's fine. It doesn't matter if we're missing, but you can't be missing."
Xia De breathed a sigh of relief and continued to frown as he pondered the entire plan.
Mia squatted on the sofa nearby, using her little paws to fiddle with the holy emblem that could be used as a one-time "sunshine gun". No one paid attention to it, the orange cat gently fiddled with the holy emblem, gently moving its nose, as if sniffing something.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the two ladies left St. Teresa's Square first and agreed to meet Shad at the hotel near the printing house above the entrance to the ruins at seven o'clock.
Half an hour later, the sky was still bright, and the carriage happened to stop downstairs of Shade's house. After preparing enough cat food for Mia, Shade met the maid, Miss Tifa Servet, in the carriage.
"Everything went as planned. You didn't have to do anything extra at the party. Just follow the plan and leave."
She handed the invitation to Shade. The banquet was held at the mansion of Count Maupassant in the city. Count Maupassant was old and was recuperating in the family estate in the south. His son became a cultist who believed in the Lord of the Blood Feast a few years ago. He was one of the organizers of tonight's banquet.
The banquet invited many famous people in the city. On the surface, it was a "charity dinner" held by Maupassant Jr. to raise funds for the reconstruction of the Tobesk University District. In fact, all the invited guests were sacrifices to the evil god. The invitation letter to Shade was obtained by Miss Carina through special channels.
Since both the cultists and the Orthodox Church had a large number of people at the banquet, in order to prevent his identity from being exposed, Shad temporarily handed all the relics to the maid Tifa for safekeeping, just like the time when he went to Yodel Palace. Miss Tifa Servette gave Shad a stack of banknotes to use in the charity auction later.
"Is there anything I should be aware of?"
Xia De asked as he flipped through the invitation, and the carriage started slowly. The rain from last night had not stopped yet, but the rain was very light and did not affect people's normal travel.
"Don't go anywhere other than the planned place, especially don't go to the third floor. The third floor is basically full of cultists, including Mr. Lawrence, who is the incarnation of the evil god. Anyone who goes in and out of the third floor will be watched by the church and the cultists."
The maid said, and Shade nodded, looking through the invitation with a serious expression.
"There is nothing else to pay attention to. Just follow the plan. The young lady's carriage is parked in the alley outside the Maupassant Manor. She will come to rescue us if necessary. Remember, I will send you out of the manor after everything is over. During the banquet, you must not wander around."
"no problem."
Xia De nodded, but couldn't help but ask again:
"Will Mr. Hog Rundle, the thirteenth-ring warlock of the Church of the Sun, also appear at the banquet?"
"Yes, he used a special method to change his appearance and attended the charity dinner as a representative of the church. But you will not meet him, please rest assured."
Xia De nodded again, and the maid said softly:
"Don't be too nervous. I have been following the young lady since I was fifteen. We have experienced more dangerous situations. This situation is actually not that dangerous."
"What could be more dangerous than attending a banquet to sacrifice to the evil god?"
Shade couldn't help but ask.
"Two unknowable-level (level 0) relics went out of control at the same time. The council dispatched six great witches to suppress the accident. Even after that incident..."
She lowered her voice:
"A great witch died because of this."
"If you have time, tell me this story next time."
"OK."
The maid said softly, and Xia De took a deep breath and turned to look at the rain outside the window:
"Tonight, it finally begins."
This dinner with the theme of donation was actually a sacrifice ceremony of the cultists. The theme of "donation" had nothing to do with poor people like Shade. But the nobles and wealthy people of Tobesk seemed to like this kind of banquet very much.
By the time the carriage stopped at the gate of Count Maupassant's mansion, many people from other parts of the city had already arrived. At the gate of the mansion, there were also people waiting for Shade in advance.
Shade got off the carriage with the maid Miss Tifa, and five women came to greet them immediately, three of them were dressed as middle-aged ladies, and the other two were young maids.
The five people saluted very respectfully to the maid beside Shade. In the hierarchy of the Witch Council, Miss Tifa Servet probably belonged to the upper class.
These are all members of the Witch Council under the jurisdiction of Miss Carina. The five of them are naturally ring magicians, and Shade didn't even need to use the voice in his heart to judge. The maid told Shade about them:
"One six-ring, one five-ring, one four-ring, and two three-ring. Sorry, detective, the Church of the Righteous God is keeping a close watch tonight, so we can't bring in more people to protect you."
In fact, getting so many people was beyond Shade's expectation. After all, he had always thought that Miss Carina's only helper was Miss Tifa Servet, because anything the Duchess wanted to do was either done by the maid or Shade.
"I won't accompany you into the manor, and those who are protecting you won't get too close to you. Try to act natural. Your excuse for coming here today is to help the young lady buy a pen at the charity auction."
The pen was once used by the late famous writer Mr. Vincent Roberts of the Kingdom of De La Rio. Mr. Roberts, who died in 1850, had an unshakable position in the literary world of De La Rio for nearly thirty years.
"Try not to use the Ringwitch's abilities. The plan is very thorough and nothing will go wrong."
The maid gave her instructions again, and Xia De nodded, then joined the crowd and walked into the courtyard of the mansion.
Count Maupassant's mansion was incomparable to Lake View Manor and the royal manor outside the city, but the number of guests invited was no less than those two times.
During the banquet, the courtyard, the first floor and the second floor of the mansion are fully open. The courtyard and the first floor are lively banquets, and there will be some elegant banquet games, while the rooms on the second floor are used to hold small auctions, and the proceeds from the auctions are used to raise funds for the university district.
Every guest who comes to the banquet will receive a schedule for the auction.
It was then that Shad learned that to attend the banquet, he had to pay a 10-pound "entry fee" to the host. These fees would nominally be donated to the university district of Tobesk, but in fact, if the cultists succeeded, all the proceeds of the night would be divided between them and Mercury Blood.
The auction items were contributed by Count Maupassant and his friends, and there were even two Rhodes cards with special rules. But these two cards were auctioned very late, and Shade must have left here by then.
“This is my first time attending a charity banquet.”
Outsiders are very curious about this place.
The servants in the courtyard had already placed the dishes on the long table, and the guests gradually arrived. Entering the building, the men in formal suits and the women in formal dresses were completely unaware of the turmoil hidden in this banquet. However, Shade, who had a "very sensitive soul", only walked around the first floor hall a few times and found at least 6 unfamiliar ring sorcerers.
Xia De took the glass from the tray in the hands of the servant beside him. The glass was filled with translucent yellow wine, which looked a bit like pear juice.
The time had not yet come, so he stood on the first floor for a while, holding a glass, pretending to be serious. When he calculated the time, he walked through the crowd with the glass in his hand and went to the second floor.
At this kind of social dinner, guests could be seen gathered together to talk about things, and many people even stood on the stairs to talk about things. They would only go to the second floor to participate in the auction when they were interested in a certain auction item, and Xia De's current performance showed that he wanted to participate in the auction.
The corridor on the second floor is covered with red carpet, and the large oil painting hanging opposite the staircase is of Count Maupassant himself.
There were people almost everywhere here, and the warm atmosphere was more obvious than downstairs and in the courtyard.
The men in formal suits chatted with each other about the auction items they were interested in, comparing their respective targets. Shade was tense but relaxed. As he passed the stairs with the glass of wine, he heard the fat man use an outdated dirty joke to describe the patterns on a pair of metal vases that had just been auctioned.
The atmosphere of the banquet was extremely lively, the gas lamps were extremely bright, and people's emotions were extremely high. Those who knew the truth were waiting for time, while those who did not know the truth were still enjoying this quiet night.