There were no acquaintances of Xia De at the banquet, so he did not stop and went straight into the restaurant on the second floor with his glass of wine.
This is the larger auction room in tonight's charity auction. Each auction has 10 items, and there is a 15-minute break between each auction. Now is the break time after the auction. As soon as Xia De walked in, a middle-aged woman in a lady's clerk uniform came up to him:
"Are you Mr. Hamilton, who is here to attend the next auction on behalf of Miss Carina?"
She asked softly, and Shade nodded, knowing that the ordinary people in front of him were also arranged here by Miss Carina in advance. The Duchess was worried that Shade had never participated in a similar auction and something would go wrong.
The auction process is very simple. Guests make an appointment for a certain auction in advance, and then arrive at the restaurant on time and get a wooden number plate. After the auction begins, you can use the number plate to bid. Before the auction begins, you have time to view the ten items in this session.
"That person..."
The woman said softly as Shad took the number tag from her.
"Your three o'clock, black formal suit, gold buttons, mustache, and a tall black hat."
She lowered her voice, confirmed that there was no one around, and then whispered:
"The ring is on his finger."
Xia De nodded, and then naturally separated from the woman. He looked down at his number plate, which was actually painted and looked like a tool borrowed from an auction house.
The man standing in front of the wall looking at the painting at three o'clock is the target tonight. His real name is Steve Evant, and his true identity is a cultist who believes in the Lord of the Blood Feast. The Rebirth Ring was accidentally stolen during the transfer process of the Peace Church, and the person who stole the ring was naturally an undercover agent of the church who had infiltrated the cultists.
The ring itself did not remain in the hands of the respectable undercover, but was prepared to be returned to Mercury Blood by the cultists. It was impossible to return such an important relic in such a dangerous situation as today, so the ring was kept by the cult's ring warlock, Steve Event.
He is actually a woman, and is wanted by the Orthodox Church for many years. He uses the power of the ring to transform into a man so that he can appear in public.
But the witches who were cursed were surprisingly sensitive to gender. Miss Carina easily determined who had the ring. According to her:
"When a man uses the ring to transform into a woman, I still feel disgusted. And when a woman uses the ring to transform into a man, the feeling of disgust still exists. The former is like seeing a rotting corpse, and the latter is like seeing rotting excrement. The disguise of the transformation ring is useless in front of me."
Therefore, it was not that Miss Carina was able to steal information from the cultists, but simply that the use of the Transformation Ring allowed her to know who the target was.
Shade looked around, then took his number plate and went to the French window of the banquet hall to observe the collections for the next auction. His real plan was to get closer to Steve Ivant.
Of course, Xia De would not rashly talk to a stranger. Seeing that the target was standing next to the third auction item, he walked towards the first auction item and pretended to check it out.
The first lot of the next auction was a dark red dress hanging on a wooden rack. Although the dress itself was beautiful, and the jewel buttons and decorations were also very attractive, the dress was older than Shade's body. This was a dress worn by the queen of the previous generation. She wore this dress to attend the dinner on April 3, 1819 of the Common Calendar with the then King of Delarion. The speech of the king at that dinner was considered to be the beginning of the 30-year-long all-out war between the two human kingdoms in the Old World.
The dress probably had some historical value, but Shad couldn't figure out how the starting price of £80 was arrived at.
Just then, a noble lady came to see the dress, so he turned to look at the second item for auction.
The second auction item was an old handwritten book, which was placed in a glass cabinet by the window. The book title "Derraion Ancient Fairy Tales" was written in cursive letters on the book, but because of its age, no matter how carefully it was preserved, the ink had already faded.
According to the brief introduction on the glass case, this book is 60 years old and was read by Duke Michael de Maupassant when he was a child half a century ago. For people in 1863, it was an old book in very good condition.
At that time, the Maupassant family still had the title of Duke, so they were very wealthy. The writer of the manuscript was a famous writer of that era, who left behind a collection of essays, "Summer Nights", which is very famous even in modern times. It is said that Miss Louisa's award-winning work "A Midsummer Night's Wish" was inspired by this collection of essays.
"The starting bid was 30 pounds. I knew that at this auction, all the items would be bid at a premium."
Shad said this deliberately, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, but guaranteed to be heard by Mr. Event standing next to him.
After reading the old book, I looked at the third auction item. It was an oil painting hanging on the wall. The colors of the ink were so bright that they made people feel upset. The painting was called "Harvest Fields" and depicted the rice fields in autumn with gold, yellow and red.
The painter put a lot of emotion into the painting, so much so that when Shad took a look at the painting, he immediately felt a creepy feeling from the crazy colors, but he couldn't tell where this feeling came from.
“This is probably the charm of art.”
Shade spoke up, glancing at the side. Mr. Evant was concentrating on looking at the painting without saying anything. Shade then looked at the sign with the reserve price:
"Tsk, tsk, 160 pounds."
"This price, strictly speaking, is not high."
The middle-aged "man" finally spoke. He squinted his eyes and looked at the painting on the wall, his expression somewhat intoxicated:
"The artist's thoughts can be conveyed through his works, and the artist who painted this picture perfectly expressed his anxiety, uneasiness, and panic with warm colors instead of cold colors. This is definitely a pioneering work. Although this painting was only sold for 174 pounds at the Bifford Auction House five years ago, its artistic value is much higher than those unknown abstract paintings. (Note)"
Fortunately, all the people present were wealthy people who didn't know much about art. If such words had been uttered in places like art colleges or art galleries, it would have caused an uproar.
"So, sir, you have a deep knowledge of oil painting?"
Shade took advantage of the situation and asked. Iven nodded. Although he was still looking at the painting, he started talking to Shade:
"I am not from Delarion. In my hometown, I am actually engaged in the collection and preservation of art."
In this world, this kind of business seems to easily cultivate mentally abnormal people such as lunatics and cultists, and is an alternative "high-risk profession".