With Director Anlos in the carriage, the four of them were not searched for weapons. Director Anlos still had things to do, so he separated from Shade after entering the Yodel Palace. If there were no other things, Shade probably wouldn't see his boss again at the banquet tonight.
It was 6:50 in the evening. At this time in Tobysk in late summer, only the last rays of the setting sun could be seen. The courtyard of the Jodel Palace was hung with ribbons and decorations. Well-dressed men and women greeted each other and walked towards the main building of the Jodel Palace from the entrance on the red carpet laid on the central axis of the courtyard under the light of the courtyard gas lamps.
The party is about to begin.
The "Yordle Palace" belonging to the royal Cavendish family is not actually a palace, but a palace complex located in the city center. It covers an area of about four to six St. Teresa's Squares. It is not only the residence of the royal family, but also serves as the political center of the kingdom.
Today was the Queen's birthday party, so the main building of the Yodel Palace was opened as the venue. Apart from the King and Queen's birthdays, banquets of this scale could only be held when entertaining the royal delegation of Carsenrick or when making some important awards.
Shad and Dorothy followed the crowd onto the red carpet, through the decorated courtyard and into the lobby of the three-story building.
Although it is a foyer, its area is larger than the three floors of Xia De's house including the basement and attic combined. There are corridors on both sides and two intersecting spiral staircases facing the main door.
After the furniture was removed, the place was decorated like a banquet hall.
Today's banquet was held on the first and second floors. In addition to the long banquet table, the clean floor was covered with red carpets. Under the light of the gas lamps and the crystal chandeliers overhead, everything here seemed to be sparkling.
Gifts could be handed in at the entrance of the banquet hall, and a butler-like man wearing a wig, monocle, and a red coat led the servants to record them at the long table at the door. Dorothy whispered to Shad that this man was the steward of the West Hall of the Yodel Palace and one of the butlers of the palace.
And when Shad asked her how many housekeepers there were, Dorothy didn't know.
"When Resia was little, she put a lot of effort into remembering everyone's names."
Of course, the gifts for the queen would not be opened on the spot, but the gift boxes were piled together for the queen to check. Xia De handed over his box casually. Although the box packaging was very good when viewed alone, it was a bit ordinary when placed together with other gift boxes.
Dorothy naturally brought a gift, too. She chose a silver vanity mirror. It was valuable, but nothing special. The Queen couldn't keep all the gifts from everyone, so Dorothy didn't bother to choose.
After registering at the door, Shad and Dorothy officially entered the main venue of the banquet.
Miss Carina has already told Shade the details of the banquet. At eight o'clock, the Queen will appear and thank the guests for coming. If King Larousse III is fine, he may also appear.
After eight o'clock, the courtyard is fully open. People who want to breathe fresh air can go for a walk outdoors. Bands and performers are also arranged in the courtyard.
At half past nine, the indoor dance officially begins, but it is only held on the second floor. If you want to dance, you can go up with your friends.
You can choose to leave after ten o'clock, but at that time, there will be some beautiful fireworks in the courtyard for half of the city to enjoy. The banquet ends at twelve o'clock, but it will last until one o'clock before those who stay for various reasons will leave. Therefore, this night is still a long time, if Shade is not thinking about Darkness, this is actually a rare moment of relaxation for him.
It seemed that everyone could find something to do at the party. Before Queen Diana appeared, people gathered in twos and threes, whispering about the party, or chatting with acquaintances about things at the Yodel Palace.
A few reporters also received invitations to the banquet. The cameras set up at the entrance of the banquet hall on the first floor recorded this magnificent scene after the flash went off. The photo represented what could be called the most prosperous scene of this era.
Shad and Dorothy went up to the second floor together and stood beside the long dining table. Shad listened to Dorothy introducing the guards and servants of Yodel Palace who were walking around.
But even Lesia couldn't recognize everyone here, so Dorothy could only briefly introduce those who she remembered.
"You and Leicia are both in Yodel Palace now. Will you be affected?"
Shade looked at the food on the table and asked quietly. Most of the noble banquets in Tobesk adopted a buffet style of food provision, even the Queen's birthday party was no exception.
"Don't worry, Leisia is now in the room at the corner of the west corridor on the second floor."
Dorothy gave the answer.
When this palace-style building was first designed, the first floor lobby and the second floor hall were planned as banquet halls. Although the two are quite large, they are not very large compared to the building itself. You know, the main building of the Yodel Palace was once the largest palace in the entire Old Continent.
This record was not surpassed until twenty years ago when the newly built royal palace in Carsenrick was built.
Marquis Grassley, who had extended a Rod card invitation to Shad at the opera house, found Shad on the second floor at 7:40.
At that time, Shade was holding a plate and looking at the white meat inside. The Marquis came to inform Shade with a smile that the Rhodes card game in the banquet would start at 8:30 and the venue would be on the second floor.
He heard from somewhere that last week Shad had won the King's Order: Substitute at the Three Cats Inn in Anthem Square in downtown with the Devil Series Rhodes deck, and excitedly asked Shad if he had brought the two cards.
"certainly."
Shade pulled the cards out of his dress pocket and shook them.
"That's good. I heard that there are quite a few people waiting to play Rhodes cards against you at the banquet."
The Marquis reminded quietly, and Shade felt that this "quite a few people" should include him as well.
"It's okay. I'm looking forward to seeing more special cards as well."
After the Marquis of Grassley, who was in high spirits tonight, left, Shad wanted to exchange views with Dorothy on the topic of banquet drinks, but Dorothy was probably tired of listening to Shad complaining about the difficulty of finding juice here, so she took him to meet her friends.
They were called "friends", but in fact they were just colleagues. Those people occupied a sofa area in the southwest corner of the banquet hall on the second floor. In addition to the writers, there were also some nobles who were pretentious and chatted with them.
As soon as he approached, Shade saw the playwright Mr. Prossie Newman, whom he had met once at the opera house after the exam week. Because it was the Queen's birthday party, he was not dressed as a scary woman like last time.
But even so, the makeup on this gentleman's face still tended to be ladylike, because Shad had never seen such a conspicuous pink lipstick color on any man's lips in this era.
But Mr. Newman also had the most people around him. This playwright who looked to be in his thirties was very famous. The play "The Revenge of the Prince" that Shade and Miss Carina watched at the opera house a few days ago was adapted into an opera by him from a knight novel.
"Look, here comes Louisa."
Probably because of Professor Louisa, many people here knew Dorothy. As a new genre of fiction, detective novels should not have been accepted so quickly by their peers, but seeing how they warmly welcomed Dorothy, the influence of Professor Louisa was probably greater than Shade thought.
"This is Hamilton from Rheed, the prototype of the protagonist of my novel."
Dorothy also introduced Shad's identity to her friends, and sure enough, all the writers from Tobesk who were invited to the party knew who Shad was.
There was no one who refused to shake hands with Shad Hamilton because of the rumor that "Shad Hamilton had his current status because he was with the Duchess." Shad was trying hard to remember who everyone was present, so that he wouldn't be unable to call out their names the next time he met them on the street.
In addition to the somewhat feminine-looking playwright Prossi Newman, other famous figures here include the 39-year-old poet Mr. Miles Garoff, who won the kingdom's highest literary award last year for his poem collection "Fallen Leaves"; Ms. Eva Swift, who came from Carsenrick and lived in Tobesk, hoping to get new inspiration from Delarion. She has the barony title of Carsenrick, and it was not inherited but obtained through her own literary achievements; Mr. Humain François, who has published thirteen best-selling novels and is good at adventure novels and travel novels. He holds the record for the highest number of contemporary Delarion popular novels; finally, there is the 41-year-old essayist Professor Mulder Goethe, who teaches at the University District of Tobesk and is also employed as a literature and grammar teacher for the royal family at Yodel Palace.
Compared with these people, Dorothy, whose career had just started to take off because of "Hamilton's Detective Stories", was not at all noticeable.
After Shad and Dorothy sat down on the sofa together, Shad became more popular. People were very keen to talk to Shad, talk about his detective career, or talk about Rhodes cards.
Eventually the subject came to the subject of popular fiction, and Dorothy had a chance to say a few words, and Shad was drawn into the conversation.
Of course, he didn't understand what literary creation was, but thanks to the many literary works and classics he had read in his hometown, he could say a few words about anything as long as it didn't involve the fundamental details of literary creation and poetry.
After all, you can’t write poetry in the exam in your hometown.