Mr. Mark and President Stan are both friends of Shad. It seems that these two gentlemen have nothing to do today. They actually invited Shad to the office upstairs for a post-get off work drink and talk about this year's Big City Players.
Drinking is prohibited during working hours, but people like to decorate their offices with fine wines. Calculating the time to get off work and having a drink with friends and colleagues is an elegant hobby of upper-class office gentlemen in this era.
Xia De had never been interested in drinking, but he was interested in the big city players, so he followed the two gentlemen up to the third floor.
The decoration of the president's office was relatively simple. It was not filled with antiques as expected. Even the paintings on the wall were ordinary landscape paintings. The wine in the wine cabinet was the only expensive decoration. The most famous prophet in Tobesk was talking to Shade about the origin and history of the wine.
It seems that the vice president of the association is a fan of Rhodes, while the president is a fan of fine wine. Fortunately, this is not an ordinary organization, otherwise the future of the Prophet Association is really worrying.
The three of them sat down and talked about the Demon Series Rhodes cards that Shade had recently obtained, the latest decks, and the big and small card games in the city. Just as Vice President Mark was making everyone laugh with the joke about the Rhodes cards and the drunkard, there was a knock on the office door.
The cat on my shoulder meowed at the door. It had developed a habit at 6 Saint Teresa's Square and would react naturally whenever someone knocked on the door.
But it was not the receptionist downstairs who informed Shadluvia that she was back, but the middle-aged fortune teller of the association who came to see President Stan about something. Something went wrong with the fortune-telling activity downstairs, and a distinguished guest was slightly injured while fortune-telling with his companions in the association.
"Injured? Which room?"
Mr. Stan stood up and frowned.
The Tobesk local association has a president and three vice presidents. Among them, Vice President Mark, a friend of Shad, is responsible for the Rhodes cards, and the other two gentlemen are responsible for divination business and the logistics management of the association respectively. If a guest is injured in the association, no matter what, he should not go directly to President Stan to deal with the problem, so it is likely that the identity of the guest is a bit troublesome.
"Sir, it's the large divination room at the end of the second floor."
Hearing this answer, Xia De and Vice President Mark also stood up. The room at the end of the second floor is the VIP room, usually used to receive guests of extremely noble status or with strict privacy requirements. Luvia and Xia De mentioned that room, and ordinary nobles were not qualified to use it.
"Which lady is here? The Rose Lady? The Raven Lady? The Loom Lady? Or the Thorn Lady?"
Vice President Mark asked, those women of noble status do not like to use their real names to participate in divination activities.
The female fortune teller wrapped in a scarf glanced at Xia De, and when no one objected, she whispered:
"The Loom Lady."
Vice President Mark's expression suddenly turned serious. Even Mr. Stan was startled. The high-level warlock frowned.
“These are really in trouble.”
As he said this, he asked Vice President Mark to stay here with Xia De, while he and the fortune teller left first.
But after this incident, Shade and Mr. Mark were no longer in the mood to chat. Shade was holding the cat and was curious about the identity of the "loom lady". Mr. Mark saw his curiosity and hesitated for a long time before he was willing to tell the other party's true identity:
"Normally, this is not allowed to be said, but you are related to Miss Carina after all, so it's okay to know the identity of that lady."
"Royal family?"
Shad asked.
"Yes, it's Her Royal Highness Ajelina Cavendish."
Seeing Xia De's bewildered look, Mr. Mark added:
"The sixteen-year-old princess was given a pigeon egg-sized ruby as a birthday present by His Majesty the King on her birthday this spring. This matter has been talked about for several months."
Of course, Shade didn't know what Mr. Mark said. He was away this spring, and the original owner Shade had just been taken in and trained by Detective Sparrow, so he didn't pay attention to such things. But he vaguely remembered Princess Ajelina Cavendish. Among all the children of King Larousse III, this princess was remembered for being the princess that King Larousse III loved most in private in recent years.
Before Ajelina Cavendish, all the other princesses who were deeply loved by the King had started their married life in political marriages. On the contrary, those daughters who were not loved by the King privately, such as Leicia, who was more like a capable minister by the King, were more likely to marry relatively freely.
From this perspective, the royal family is extremely realistic.
Seeing that Mr. Mark seemed to know a lot about the secrets of the nobility, Shad asked him about the other children of Larousse III.
Mr. Mark's attitude is the same as that of most nobles today. They all believe that Larousse III's harsh attitude towards his children and his behavior of allowing many adult children to participate in politics without a confirmed heir will most likely lead to drastic changes in the kingdom in a few decades.
He didn't say what the "dramatic change" was, but Shad could guess that it was a change of throne.
Unlike Leicia, who had been involved in government affairs at an early stage and could even be sent to visit Carsenrick, Princess Ajelina Cavendish, who occasionally came to the Prophet's Association with her friends to participate in divination activities, was the kind of princess that Shad could imagine in the traditional sense.
He receives training in etiquette, dance, and literature courses, does not get involved in the kingdom's political affairs, lingers in banquets and aristocratic salons, and likes to sneak out of Yodel Palace to have fun with his friends... Considering that the Prophet Association is not far from Yodel Palace, even a lazy cat held by Shad can complete the transfer between the two places within ten minutes. Therefore, it is hard to say whether such "sneak escape" is with the tacit consent of His Majesty the King.
But no matter how Larus III treated his children, it was not a good thing for the Prophet Association for a princess to be injured in the Association.
President Addis Stan is the most outstanding prophet in the Tobesk region. Shade thought that if he handled the matter, he would soon know the whole story and make a proper disposal. Unexpectedly, when Shade and Mr. Mark just talked about the rumor that "Prince Saxe broke into the Yodel Palace with a gun" that suddenly appeared in the city a few days ago, President Stan came back, followed by a panicked maid.
Xia De and Vice President Mark immediately pretended to be discussing the Rhodes card.
"Mr. Hamilton, I believe you are a detective?"
President Stan asked embarrassedly.
"Yes."
Xia De nodded and looked at the maid. The Prophet Association only had employees and servants, and there was no maid wearing a maid skirt. This must have been brought by a noble lady.
"I'm sorry, the following incident is a bit troublesome, and I need your help to investigate. Please rest assured that regardless of whether there is any result, this is considered a commission from the association, and there will be appropriate remuneration."
He continued, and Xia De hesitated before standing up and nodded in surprise:
"Got it, I guess that's fine."
In fact, the problem is very big. The fact that the princess sneaked out and was unfortunately injured is indeed not something that should be made public. Instead of going to the police, they went to "Hamilton of Rejad" who happened to be in the association to investigate. Normally, this is understandable.
But as Tobesk's best prophet, there is no way Mr. Stan could fail to discover the truth.
Even if it involves relics, the fortune tellers cannot predict the future. Then, as a ring mage, there is no reason for him to ask the "ordinary man" Shade to handle the matter.
So, thinking about it this way, the possible reason can only be that President Stan has discovered the truth, but it is not appropriate for him to tell the truth, so he came to find Xia De, who has the right identity.
"But what status advantage do I have over President Stan?"
As he walked along the corridor towards the staircase, Xia De thought to himself:
"Could it be that this involves some political factors, so President Stan doesn't want the association to get involved easily?"
But that was impossible, as President Stan didn't seem like the type of ring wizard who would dump his troubles on ordinary people.
Shade could have refused this commission, but the Prophet Association would back him up anyway, so he didn't have any major concerns.
Arriving at the second floor of the Prophet Association, I immediately saw several female employees of the association standing at the end of the corridor, placing signs prohibiting entry.
Mr. Stan greeted them and then continued walking forward with Shad.
Two burly middle-aged men were guarding the door to the room at the end. Since they did not have the Ouroboros symbol of the Prophet's Association on them, Shade guessed that they were the guards that the princess brought with her when she went out.
They took the initiative to help Xia De and his group open the door. The area of this VIP divination room was twice the size of a normal room, and it looked like the decorative wall between the two rooms was opened up.
The room was covered with curtains, and the red carpet was embroidered with interesting and bizarre patterns in gold and silver threads. The windows were closed and the curtains were drawn, and the room was filled with a pungent smell of spices.
When noble ladies are fortune-telling, they probably deliberately create the atmosphere of a dark room, but now all the gas lamps on the wall are turned on, making the room very bright.
Xia De first observed the abstract landscape oil paintings hanging on the wall to create a divination atmosphere, and then looked at the stone round table placed in the center of the room.
Xia De was very curious about how this thing was moved to the second floor.
There were quite a few people in the room. Young girls in skirts were sitting on the sofas against the wall to rest. A rough count showed that there were about seven or eight people. The old doctor was bandaging the red-haired girl with her apprentice, who was facing away from Shade. Two maids were standing by the sofa, looking warily at the stranger who entered the room.