Seeing Shade take out the garter from his pocket, Leisia showed no expression, while Ajelina thought for a moment and said to Shade seriously:
"Mr. Knight, this is for you as a token of gratitude for saving me tonight."
"No, I don't need any thanks."
Of course, Xia De didn't want to take it. It was useless for him to hold the things, but Leicia unexpectedly asked Xia De not to be so polite:
"Shad, just accept it. You may not know that in the past, noble women in the upper class would express their appreciation for the bravery of knights by giving them garters; and now, noble women will also use the same method to express their admiration and love for the bravery of noble men. This is a very romantic and upper-class act."
This is not a lie. Outsiders have read similar records when they learned about this world through books.
Although Shad still didn't want to accept it, he could only put the white garter in his pocket after hearing her say so. Ajelina seemed very happy and invited Shad to attend his salon next time, and said that he must let him perform the card throwing again.
Leicia didn't seem to care at all.
When Mr. Anros arrived, the MI6 director pretended that he had not noticed that Shade was in the same carriage with the two unmarried princesses. He asked Shade to wait outside while he and two maids asked the princesses about the situation in the carriage.
Afterwards, without even having the chance to say hello to Shade, Resia and Ajelina returned to the Yodel Palace under the protection of a group of guards.
Shad stood with his boss, Director Dark Anros, and watched the convoy leave.
"Shad, you did a great job this time. Otherwise, that gun would have caused us trouble. I knew someone was reselling arms, but I didn't expect they would even sell operational guns."
Mr. Anros praised him. Shade wanted to be modest, but the gentleman lowered his voice again, tilted his head and asked in a low voice:
"But how did you end up hanging around with two princesses?"
"this... ... "
"Don't forget that Miss Carina is also watching you. I don't know what your relationship with the two princesses is, but you must be careful... Don't get involved in too much politics."
Shade looked at him in surprise, but Mr. Anros looked as if he had said nothing.
Mr. Anros admired Shade's character because of the last time he helped the woman find her lost child. This time, as the director of MI6, he should not have said anything casually.
"But speaking of which, how do you throw the cards with such force? I only know that some bored old gamblers would train this skill."
Mr. Anros suddenly asked again, probably trying to change the subject.
"Well... I think... since my main skill as an agent is in Rhodes cards, it would be useful to train myself in some interesting techniques in the future..."
"Playing Rhodes, hurting people with cards, and having a charm with girls... you will probably never be a qualified agent."
Mr. Anros sighed, as if he was regretting Shade's future.
After telling Mr. Anros what he had experienced, Shad returned home in a carriage.
It was already eleven o'clock in the evening when I got home. In the empty house, only the cat ran down from upstairs to welcome Xia De.
Since Leicia did not come to St. Teresa's Square, the four 1-shilling printing plates in the basement could only be hidden there temporarily. When Shad put the garter into the desk drawer, he touched the newspaper with numbers in his pocket.
The newspaper was picked up on Silver Cross Avenue, and Shade suspected that this was some kind of secret code. But he only knew words, not codes, so he couldn't do anything about those numbers.
I simply put it on the bookshelf, and that was the end of all the things to do tonight.
Xia De put his hands behind his head, sat on the chair behind the desk and looked up at the ceiling:
"Darkness, why haven't you come yet?"
(Mi Mia is running...)
The attack on Princess Ajelina Cavendish at the opera house did not cause much stir in the city of Tobesk, and Shad did not even see news about it in the Sunday newspaper the next day.
Early on Sunday morning, Dorothy came to visit in a hurry. The blonde girl, who had already learned about what happened last night from Leicia, complained to Shad that all her careful preparations were in vain. After sending Dorothy away, Shad went to the Prophet's Association to find Luvia.
Tonight he will be able to enter the Dreadfort for the third time to complete Mr. Riddle's gamble of life, but Shad has no idea about the last four stories.
Unfortunately, Luvia also failed to get more information from the association. It was not that the association did not have the information that Shade wanted to find, but the information about the prophet who lived in the early Fifth Era was top secret within the association.
Luvia applied in many ways, but failed to convince the association to let her read the sealed documents. But Luvia got all the information about the life gambling table of the secret-keeper-level relic for Shade. If he couldn't win the gambling game itself and couldn't find a breakthrough point from the old god, he could only try to find a chance to win on the gambling table.
"Um?"
Looking at the size information of the life gambling table, Xia De raised his eyebrows.
"What did you find?"
The purple-eyed girl asked curiously:
"I've also read the information. You can't take advantage of these features at all."
"No, no, not the characteristics, but the size. Look at this number."
Xia De put the document in his hand on the table and pointed out the length and width of the twenty grooves:
".4681 inches long (about 8.8 cm), .4841 inches wide (about 6. cm). Luvia, don't these numbers sound familiar to you?"
"Familiar?"
Luvia still didn't understand.
"This is the size of the Rhodes card."
Shade said with certainty
"Yeah?"
The female fortune teller frowned slightly:
"You actually measured the size of the Rhodes card? Let's not talk about that for now. The Rhodes card is a one-to-one imitation of the Universal Card, and the history of the Universal Card should be longer than the Secret Keeper-level (level) relic Life Gambling Table, which is what you call the Unknowable-level (level 0) relic God of Gamblers Gambling Table... ... Is the appearance of the Life Gambling Table related to the Universal Card? Otherwise, it doesn't make sense that the sizes are exactly the same."
"No, no, I don't really care about the relationship between the Vientiane card and the gambling table. What I mean is, Luvia, although I can't gamble on behalf of Mr. Riddle, what do you think would happen if I put the Genesis Silver Moon and the Genesis Balance into the remaining grooves? Would these count as two cards?"
Luvia was stunned for a moment. She was really shocked by this idea:
"Yes, the Vientiane Card is the only special item you can bring into the past, but if this happens... I don't know what will happen. However, even if it is useful and can give you the upper hand in that gamble, you have to find a way to fill the last two slots, otherwise the gamble will still not end."
"No, you're wrong again. It's one."
Xia De pointed at himself. Luvia retracted her surprised expression and nodded in understanding.
"Yes, one. Only one left...Shad, what are you going to do?"
"Rather than taking risks, we should be more conservative. When Darkness shows up in Tobesk next week, we will use his information to exchange for Mr. Riddle's information at the association."
Xia De said, and then carefully put away the information on the life gambling table.
Therefore, this Sunday, Shade did not use the time key from the Fifth Epoch 1784. Instead, he went to Coldwater Harbor during the day to check on the progress of helping the doctor collect materials.
But he did not forget to try to take out the gifts for the week from God's gift box after the clock struck midnight on Sunday night.
This was the fifth time that Shade had received a gift from the box, but he still had no luck in getting a relic. Under Mia's curious gaze, Shade actually took out a pair of red high heels from the box this time. The color was bright, the style was also very good, and the upper was dotted with diamonds.
But Xia De would rather have another screwdriver than a pair of high heels.
“Why does this thing appear?”
Shade stared at the shoes in his hand, puzzled. Finally, he thought that this gift box should be renamed "Prank Box". The innocent creator of the old god might be better called Mr. Prank.
This week's task is equally easy. In the next seven days, Shade needs to ensure that he can sleep for more than eight hours at night on three of them. This is not a problem for a detective working from home.
On Monday morning, a new client came to St. Teresa's Square after a long absence. But this time it was not a big commission. Old Mrs. Midra saw the detective advertisement in the newspaper and commissioned Shad to find her lost cat.
Mrs. Midra was a wealthy widow who lived alone. She had a deep affection for the blue-gray short-haired kitten she kept at home. Although it was difficult to find a cat in the whole city, Shad readily accepted the commission for the high commission of 10 pounds.
For an ordinary detective, 10 pounds is enough to sustain life for a long time. Therefore, detectives are the kind of profession that can make money immediately when there is business, even if there is no business during normal times. However, Shade’s advertisement in the newspaper did not attract many clients, because the frequency of detectives accepting commissions is really not very high.
Shad planned to carry out this commission by posting a missing cat notice in the newspaper and searching the neighborhood where old lady Midra lived. But before he left the house in the morning, Miss Carina arrived.
The witch had nothing to do with Shade, she just told him that Darkness had appeared again yesterday, and this time she appeared in a small country town only an hour's drive from Tobesk.
This was yesterday's news, which means that Darkness is now very likely to have entered the range of Tobesk.
"Shad, this time it wasn't the Council that discovered Ivan Darkness, it was the priest of the Peace Church in the town who discovered the devil's presence and after investigation found the second Chosen One who was wanted by the church. Shad, you can't imagine the current situation."
The red-haired Duchess sat on the sofa in the Shade family, holding a teacup in her right hand:
"The Orthodox Church has basically confirmed that Darkness's destination is Tobesk. Although they have deliberately blocked the news and prevented too much information about Darkness's location from being leaked, there will definitely be many unidentified high-level sorcerers in Tobesk in the next few days. There is even news that the Blood Spirit School, which was betrayed, has also sent high-level sorcerers to the Old Continent to deal with the traitors."
"So will the Council send new witches here?"
Shade asked curiously.
"Of course not. First of all, the attitude of the Orthodox Church towards the parliament is not very friendly. Secondly, am I not right here?"
Miss Carina pointed at herself:
"I am responsible for Darkness's affairs. After the Council evaluated the matter, it was decided that I should wait until Darkness becomes the Chosen One and then kill him with my own hands as much as possible. This is not easy. There are two thirteenth-ring warlocks in Tobesk, but I only have eleventh ring."
"The Council is going to make the Chosen One of Darkness disappear? I can understand that, but why do you want to kill him with your own hands?"
Shade asked curiously.
"I can't tell you that."
The Duchess smiled charmingly and used her right index finger to twist the red hair hanging beside her ear:
"It's like Tifa won't tell me more details about the investigation you conducted together last week."
Shade looked up at the maid standing behind the sofa. The maid smiled shyly at Shade. It seemed that she did not reveal the fact that they had encountered the secret servant. (To be continued)