The princess smiled and said to the stunned Shade, then motioned for Shade to sit down and talk:
"We just happened to meet here. Do you want to watch the opera together?"
Besides her, the maids were the only ones in the box; this time Ajelina Cavendish had come to the opera alone.
But she probably didn't know that Xia De was waiting for her sister, but really wanted to invite Xia De to watch the opera together, otherwise she would never invite Xia De to stay.
Shade himself did not want to be associated with more Cavendish, which would cause a lot of trouble. He wanted to find an excuse to reject the other party's invitation, but perhaps seeing Shade's intention, Princess Ajelina said:
"Knight, do you have other companions? Or are you waiting for someone? Oh, it doesn't matter, you can invite them along."
Ajelina Cavendish's attitude was very sincere, and Shade could not refuse it. However, he thought of the message that Leicia had just sent that she would not arrive for at least half an hour, so he said:
"Yes, Your Highness, but I can only stay here for half an hour. I have other things to do later. I came here to watch the opera today because I received a commission."
"No problem, but you must come to my salon next time. My friends are very interested in you."
The sixteen-year-old princess said happily, then motioned for Shad to sit down and talk, and asked her maid to pour tea and bring new cookies.
Rather than watching the opera, the conversation between the two was what really interested Xia De.
Although in the eyes of outsiders, Princess Ajelina was the kind of princess who was favored by the king, frequented banquets and salons, and was just waiting to be betrothed in a political marriage by Larousse III, but when it came to domestic politics and the recent news about Carsenrick, she could easily give her own opinions and insights, which were no worse than Shad had imagined.
She even knew something about the New World. Although Her Royal Highness the Princess herself did not like those remote places where there was not even a cake shop, she was very knowledgeable when talking about the kingdom's gains from the New World.
Of course, it was limited to very simple explanations, and more of them were strange things she heard from people around her. For example, she excitedly told Xia De that there was a cat in the New World that was smaller than an ordinary mouse, and was very cute and docile, did not shed hair, had a small appetite, and defecated at 8 o'clock every morning.
But the diet of this idealized pet was limited to fresh leaves of "cat-tail sage", a plant that could only grow in the New World. Therefore, the strange creature called "rat cat" by the expedition team was not brought to the princess.
"When that kind of grass can be transplanted to the Old World, I will definitely raise one."
The princess said to Shad, but Shad couldn't imagine himself having a new pet.
He could almost imagine the orange cat Mia squatting on the highest cabinet in the house, the whole cat hidden in the darkness, looking gloomily at the horrible scene of Shad interacting with his new pet under the gas light.
The two chatted while watching the opera, and the half hour passed quickly.
Princess Ajelina let Shade leave as promised, but before leaving, she once again invited Shade to attend her salon when he had time:
"When I first saw you in the courtyard on the second-floor terrace of Lake View Manor, I felt that you were different from everyone else."
The little princess praised:
"Don't refuse the invitation next time, knight. I have a good impression of you."
Xia De agreed with a smile, but then said that he was very busy recently and would not have time until a few months later.
After saying goodbye to the princess at the door of the box, Shad walked along the corridor to the stairs, intending to return to the box to continue waiting for Lecia.
At the corner of the corridor, he met three strange men in black windbreakers and hurried steps. Xia De stepped aside to let them pass first. The tall man in a black hat nodded to Xia De as a thank you. Xia De was very curious about these three gentlemen who actually came to watch the opera in casual clothes.
"He's probably the guard of a great noble."
He thought about what he would say to Leicia when he saw her later, and continued to walk forward with his head down. Because he was looking down, his eyes unconsciously looked at the floor under his feet.
Therefore, he saw a not dense string of red halos on the red carpet under his feet.
"Um?"
He didn't stop, but blinked twice and immediately figured out what it was:
"Is this the Echo of Blood? Can it be displayed passively now?"
Xia De was surprised to think that these red halos were indeed the manifestation of the blood echo. But he did not activate the magic, which meant that this magic could actively display relatively fresh blood at close range.
He had an idea and the halos disappeared immediately. It seemed that once the passive state was noticed and turned into active, Xia De could cancel it at any time.
"But where did the blood come from? Was it from the bottoms of the shoes of those three people just now?"
Since he had nothing to do now, Xia De stopped and walked back to the corner of the corridor, tilting his head to look at the three men.
The three of them stopped in front of Ajelina's box, and the person in front of them knocked on the door and covered the mouth of the person inside with his hand. The three of them rushed in and closed the door.
The corridor returned to silence, with only the sound of the opera still echoing. The three men did not notice Shade's head sticking out from the corner, and naturally did not know that Shade had seen this scene.
"What's going on?"
Shade raised an eyebrow and straightened his leaning body.
When they passed each other just now, the voice in his ear did not indicate that the three people were ring sorcerers, so this should not be the case that Shade was unlucky enough to encounter a mysterious incident again.
But the three of them were obviously not right, so Xia De restored the revolver that had been turned into a toy to its original state. Since he had seen this kind of thing, he naturally had to take care of it, not to mention that Princess Ajelina was Resia's sister.
He returned to the door, knocked and said loudly:
"Your Highness, I'm sorry, I put..."
He wanted to say that he had left something behind, but then he thought that once the three men found that the item that Xia De said was left behind did not exist in the room, then the other party would know that Xia De came prepared.
Then Shad said:
"Your Highness, I left the garter you gave me with you."
There were five women in the room, and Shade didn't believe that she couldn't find even one garter. And the princess didn't say she would give Shade a garter, so they knew that Shade had noticed something was wrong.
This kind of private room for the nobility was very soundproof. If Shade spoke loudly, he should be able to hear it inside, but he couldn't hear anything inside. After a long while, the door was finally opened a crack. The trembling maid blocked the crack in front of the door, shutting her mouth and looking like she wanted to speak but didn't dare to.
She actually handed Shad a garter.
It was decorated with white lace and a light pink bow fastened with pearls. When Xia De received it, he could even feel the body temperature on it.
"Your Highness!"
He held the door open, not giving anyone the chance to close it, but he also had no intention of pushing it open:
"I know I made you angry just now, so you don't want to see me, but please believe that what I did just now was definitely not an offense."
He winked at the maid who was blocking the door in front of him, and she looked at him while biting her lip.
"Please forgive me, otherwise I won't leave today!"
He said so.
After a few seconds, Ajelina's voice came from behind the door:
"Yes, Detective, I forgive you."
The tone of her voice was also wrong. Xia De was curious about who was so bold, so he continued:
"Your Highness, your eyes are as bright as stars, and your lips are more beautiful than roses. I beg for your forgiveness. Please meet me one last time. If you reject me in person, I will definitely give up this time."
Of course, Xia De didn't make up these words. He heard them when he was listening to the opera just now. The three men who had just arrived obviously didn't hear the actors recite these lines just now.
"Are you really going to leave after seeing me once?"
Ajelina behind the door spoke intermittently, and Shade immediately replied:
"Oh, yes, Your Highness, please believe me."
The room was quiet for a while. After at least half a minute, the maid who was blocking the door was suddenly pulled back. Then Ajelina seemed to be pushed out from the side and blocked the door again.
The little princess pursed her lips and looked at Shade. Her body blocked the view from outside, but at the same time blocked the view from inside. Shade didn't know whether Ajelina Cavendish had the habit of carrying steam bombs with her like her sister and liked to give them to others, so he assumed that she had no fighting ability.
After pressing down the hammer of the gun in his hand, he waved it in front of the princess:
"careful."
He made these lip movements, and then, regardless of whether Ajelina understood or not, he continued to speak the opera lines he had just heard:
"Even the stars shining in the night sky are not as bright as your..."
Ajelina winked at Shade, and her right hand suddenly moved, with her index finger pointing in three different directions. In the direction behind the door, breathing sounds could be faintly heard, which meant that she was trying to tell Shade the enemy's location.
"It seems she is not completely useless."
Xia De was not aware of what he was saying while thinking about something in his mind. But he knew very well that he couldn't delay it any longer, otherwise, no matter how stupid the people inside were, they would know that Xia De was stalling for time.
"Ordinary people are present, so I can't use the power of the ringmaster rashly. Even if I use it, I can only use it in a way that is not likely to arouse suspicion. It's a pity that the doctor hasn't got the spiritual crystal yet. Although the Luger revolver issued by MI6 has six cylinders, it can't fire continuously. The first thing I can do is to shoot down one person..."
Thinking in his heart, Shade has made a decision. He held the gun in his right hand and took out four Rhodes cards from his pocket with his left hand and held them between his fingers. (To be continued)