No matter what the reason, witches always hate men, so this is how they treat other men except Shade.
"Ms. Cassandra."
The person who came in was a middle-aged man dressed in fancy clothes. He wore a red formal suit with fancy medals and a flower in his reddish-brown hair. He wore dark red pants and a pair of white stockings on his legs. The socks covered the pants to the knees, which made him look particularly eye-catching.
He is about the same height as Shad, but thinner:
"Good evening, Lady Cassandra. Hmm, are there any guests?"
The "Earl of Campbell Darak" was very polite. Seeing that Miss Aurora was sitting opposite Grandma Cassandra, he stood at the door and did not walk in rashly. Of course, he also saw Shad standing by the wall, but he naturally regarded him as the background decoration in this picture.
"Let me introduce you. This is Viscount Aurora from Carsenrick."
Grandma Cassandra introduced.
"Is it Miss Xiwei Aurora from the Aurora family? The elegant flower of Canberra, the baroness who gallops across the ocean."
The Count smiled and greeted Miss Aurora, who simply nodded coldly.
"What is the matter, Count?"
Granny Cassandra asked again.
"I wanted to talk to you about business, but since you have a guest, I'll come back later."
He bowed slightly to the ladies, but did not turn away immediately. Instead, he took off his gloves and bowed with a complex set of movements:
"Oh, Miss Aurora of Cassandra, welcome to the city of Midhill Castle. I wonder if I would have the honor of inviting you to dance with me later? We can chat about my vacation estate in the west of Draerion."
According to what Shade knew about witches, they would probably politely refuse when they were in a good mood. But this time, Miss Aurora actually turned her head slightly and glanced at Shade, and the corners of her lipstick-coated mouth curled up and revealed a smile.
Shade had also seen this kind of smile on Miss Carina's face, which meant that the witch had a "good idea".
"Count, what a coincidence! Someone has already asked me to dance. It's a young man from Tobesk. Yes, very young, and also a noble. It is said that he has an unusual relationship with the royal family. He has invited me. But..."
She smiled and pointed at Shade behind her:
"This is my bodyguard. The young man from Tobesk is as brave as my bodyguard. If you can defeat my loyal servant, I think I can refuse the young man's invitation."
Shade knew that the witch was looking for fun.
“That’s great.”
Count Darak then raised his head and looked excitedly at Shade, who had just been used as a background.
The first thing he realized was that this "bodyguard" had an outstanding appearance, and then he saw the two pistols on Shad's waist.
After a moment's hesitation, he immediately shook his head:
"I am proficient in rapier, but there is no need for us to use force at the Fire Festival. This will ruin the atmosphere of this romantic bonfire party. However, I still look forward to dancing with you. So, I wonder if I can use another method to show my bravery with your loyal servant."
"What method?"
the witch asked, but Shade could hear that she was beginning to lose her patience.
"Rod brand."
The witch immediately laughed:
"Of course, Watson, go play a game with the Earl. Remember... don't lose too badly."
"Yes, ma'am."
Shade walked over from the wall and took out his Rhodes deck from his pocket. He pulled it in the air with one hand and flicked it with the other hand. All the special cards were ejected from the scattered deck in the air. Then, he hugged both hands at the same time. His right hand grabbed the deck without special cards, and his left hand grabbed the special cards.
He selected a replacement card from the reserve deck, then shuffled the cards with one hand, and came to Count Darak of Campbell:
"It's an honor to play cards with you, but I don't have any special cards. I'm just an ordinary player."
The slightly plump Earl looked at Shade's hand in surprise, and nodded after a long while:
"I have a special card, and you shuffle it so... beautifully."
"Thank you for your compliment. Let us begin. In the name of the elegant flower of Canberra, Xiwei Cassandra, I will defeat you."
They played the game using the basic rules of best-of-five, and even without adding any special cards, Shade still won by winning three games in a row.
He even drew a king and a blackjack, which made Earl Darrack of Campbell suspect that the armed bodyguard in front of him was a professional gambler or something like that.
However, he was very dignified and accepted the defeat. After praising Shade's Rhodes card skills, he left. However, when he was in close contact with the earl, Shade always felt that something was wrong with him, but he was sure that he was just an ordinary person, and there was no trace of the element on his body, so he didn't know what the reason for that almost "intuitive" feeling was.
Out of curiosity, he asked more about Count Darak, and then learned that the latter had a serious illness some time ago, and he stayed in bed for the whole summer before finally getting better. His thin figure was caused by the serious illness. Otherwise, as a nobleman who had no worries in life and had no bad habits except eating, drinking, smoking, women, and Rhodes, there was no reason for him to be so thin.
Because he wasted some time with Miss Aurora, Shad's plan to meet the local Rhodes players before the ball was completely dashed.
Seeing that the bonfire dance that was scheduled to start at 8:30 was approaching, Shad did not leave the lounge, but chatted with Miss Aurora and Grandma Cassandra about what he saw at the auction, complained about the auction price of the Rhodes cards, and then discussed the current situation of Midhill Castle.
When the time was almost up, from the window one could see couples of men and women or other groups gathering in the courtyard, and Shad stood up from the sofa, and in the smile of Miss Aurora, he imitated the actions of other gentlemen he had seen, pressing his left hand on his chest, waving his right hand in the air, and extending his hand to invite while bending slightly:
"Ms. Xiwei Aurora, may I invite you to dance?"
"certainly."
The witch smiled happily:
"Wait for me outside. I need to touch up my makeup."
The light makeup on her face looked good and no touch-ups were necessary, but Shade was wise not to point that out.
So he left first and waited in the courtyard. When saying goodbye to Grandma Cassandra, the old witch said with a little regret:
"Young man, I probably wouldn't be surprised if Carina pulled out a knife and stabbed you to death one day."
"Um, what?"
"Nothing. You look like someone who has a lot of skills. At least that's what the teacher thinks."
She shook her head.
"I will leave in a moment and go back to rest. Let me remind you again that the teacher's ceremony will be held on Monday. If you are interested, please arrange your other schedule for Monday first."
"I will definitely go. Yes, for the sake of solving the problem of Red Butterfly, I will definitely go."
Xia De nodded, and the old witch smiled with relief:
"Shad Hamilton, the teacher is actually looking forward to meeting you as well."
"Goodbye, then."
"Goodbye."
Miss Aurora asked Shade to wait in the courtyard first, and to dance with such a distinguished lady, Shade of course chose to wear a mask. His behavior did not seem abrupt among the guests at the banquet, because there were many people who danced with masks, and even more young men and women did so.
And Xia De waited for twenty minutes, and after the bonfire dance had already begun, he finally waited for Miss Aurora.
She changed out of the slightly complicated dress and wore a black and white dress with an amazingly thin waist. Not all women are suitable for such a style of dress, but for witches with extraordinary charm, all clothes are suitable for them.
Miss Aurora also wore a mask. After taking the hand that Shade extended, the two entered the bonfire dance venue. The central courtyard of the U-shaped castle was quite large. Dozens of bonfires were divided into four areas. There was a band playing beside the bonfire in the middle of each area.
The witches all seemed to be good at dancing, and even wearing beautiful black patent leather high heels, Miss Aurora's dancing skills were much more proficient than Shade's.
Both of them were wearing masks that covered the upper half of their faces, so their expressions could still be seen. Under the moon, beside the bonfire, Xiwei Aurora's face was reflected red. She looked really happy at the moment, leading Shade to dance slowly to the sound of the orchestra, and even introducing Shade to the famous music called "Heart of the Lake" in the slight crackling sound of the bonfire.
"Actually, I envy Carina sometimes."
She placed her head on Shad's shoulder and the two of them danced softly to the beat.
"What?"
"She always seems to get what she wants. Although her seat corresponds to a balance, I always think that she is actually blessed by fate."
The witch whispered softly in Shade's ear, and Shade knew that Miss Xivi Aurora had a high degree of favorability towards him. He had not figured out where this favorability came from, but his feeling would never be wrong.
"He is the only man who can get close to us. He has a good appearance, a good character, and outstanding abilities. He can even play a big role in the parliament's pursuit of the chosen one. Apart from being a low-level ring for the time being, I really can't think of any shortcomings you have."
As Shad listened to Miss Aurora's words, he heard "her" laughter in his ears, which was probably a mockery.
"But why did Carina meet you first?"
The witch with long brown hair asked, and then unexpectedly, she suddenly kissed Shade's ear. As Shade's face turned red, she left Shade's shoulder and signaled Shade to move.