Princess Margaret was the protagonist of this banquet, so she couldn't stay here for too long. After informing Miss Sylvia of the specific time and arrangements for going to the airship, she stood up and prepared to leave.
But as soon as she stood up, the princess pursed her lips and sat down again.
She glanced at her personal maid, who tactfully left the room temporarily. The princess then looked at Miss Sylvia's personal servant, the lady who brought Shade here, but the latter was unmoved.
Princess Margaret bit her lip again, and then asked softly:
"Teacher, you still don't want me to be your apprentice?"
Xia De in the closet held her breath, and the witch looked at her suspiciously:
"Margaret, we have discussed this issue many times. I am willing to be your teacher, but you cannot be my apprentice. You do not have the talent for space, and this cannot be changed."
"What if I could engrave the Space Spirit Rune on myself?"
The princess asked excitedly, but the witch still shook her head:
"You know my character very well. If you want to inherit my position in the parliament, you must know not only space but also mathematics. I want to find a student who can truly inherit all my knowledge. But mathematics... if you don't know it, you don't know it. Even if you gain knowledge through extraordinary powers, your logic and way of thinking will not change so easily."
Xia De stared wide-eyed, looking out through the gap in the closet, afraid of missing any details. Although this was somewhat unethical, this conversation was much more interesting than the banquet itself.
He understood Miss Sylvia's idea. The witch wanted to find a true heir. He also understood Princess Margaret's idea. Although she became a student of Sexess through royal connections, and even became a student of a vice-dean, in history, no member of the royal family had ever become a high-level sorcerer. This might be a coincidence, or it might be a tacit understanding.
Therefore, if Margaret Anjou wants to go further on the path of a ring wizard, Miss Sylvia is the best choice.
"teacher... ... "
The princess lowered her head in silence and stood up to leave. But suddenly she asked:
"Do you have a suitable candidate for apprentice now?"
"You know I seldom lie, let alone to you. Yes, I do."
Margaret Anjou looked up at her teacher in shock. She had just asked casually:
"Why?"
"His...her core spiritual rune is...space. She has mastered space magic that even I can't analyze. Moreover, she was able to talk to me about functions and space geometry problems without any preparation. She has a deep understanding of advanced mathematics and even has her own views on the problem of imaginary numbers. The viewpoints on groups and sets she proposed pointed out the direction of my future research."
Miss Sylvia looked at her student with regret:
“I can’t think of a better choice.”
Princess Margaret could no longer control her expression:
"Teacher, do people like you are talking about really exist?"
“It really exists.”
The witch suppressed the urge to look at the closet.
"She is an old scholar who has been immersed in academics for many years? Which school in the United Kingdom is she from?"
"She's very young, younger than you. She doesn't belong to any school, in fact, from what I understand..."
Miss Sylvia looked at her student. Her Royal Highness knew her teacher well and knew that what she was about to tell was a cruel truth:
"According to what I have learned, she is self-taught and has not even attended primary school."
She didn't say that according to the information provided by Miss Carina, Shad was most likely illiterate before this summer, and all this knowledge and talent was acquired through his adventures and hard work over the past six months.
But even with Miss Sylvia's "pity", the princess still closed her eyes in pain:
"Teacher, are you saying that geniuses really exist in this world?"
"Yes."
The Great Witch expressed her opinion very carefully:
"Sometimes, talent is really important. But you don't have to be too sad, she rejected me."
"What?"
The princess wearing the silver crown opened her eyes again:
"She doesn't want to be your apprentice?"
"Because there are many people who want to teach her."
Miss Sylvia pursed her lips, which meant that she was thinking of something bad.
"So, teacher, can I see her?"
Princess Margaret asked again, and the witch immediately shook her head:
"She's not in this city, and she won't reveal her identity to you."
"Where is she?"
"Tobesk."
The princess nodded:
"I understand, teacher. Since she rejected you, please remember that I will never reject you... ...I was here first."
This young lady, who seemed to be intelligent and generous, with a royal demeanor, showed a pitiful expression, but this did not impress the witch sitting on the sofa. Miss Sylvia smiled and said:
"Margaret, you have used this trick many times. If I accept you as my apprentice out of sympathy, it will be a tragedy for both of us... Enjoy this banquet. There will be a lot of things to do after we go to Tobesk."
"Okay, teacher. See you later then... I was here first."
Princess Margaret left the room, looking in a good mood. After the door was closed, Shade waited for more than ten seconds before opening the closet door and took off the red lady's bonnet that had fallen on his head when he rushed into the closet.
"Miss Sylvia, I won't see her in Tobesk."
"Don't worry, I won't let you see her either."
The witch said, sighed, and looked at the moon outside the window:
"But I have a feeling that this visit to Tobesk will definitely not be simple. Now that we have suddenly obtained new fragments of poems, there is reason to believe that the fourth chosen one will probably soon step onto the stage of unpredictable fate... But where will the stage be this time?"
Shad did not stay in Miss Sylvia's lounge for long. Shortly after Princess Margaret left, he returned to the banquet venue on the first floor of the manor and met Mr. Bernhardt.
When we found this gentleman, he was sitting in the sofa lounge in the corner of the hall, surrounded by a circle of guests, playing Rhodes with the "drug dealer" Baron York who was wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
Seeing that they were so focused on the game, Xia De stood behind the crowd and did not interrupt them. However, from the discussions of the people around them, he knew that the two gentlemen were betting on their respective collections of precious wines, which was considered by the Rhodes players in Huntington as a high-class bet second only to the "special rules" Rhodes.
Rhodes is indeed the most popular game of this era. In the banquet of Carsenrick, people also use the nobles' Rhodes game as a symbol of status. Those Carsenricks are discussing the progress of the game and predicting who will win. Seeing that the game has just begun and will last for a long time, Shade turned around to look for Princess Margaret.
He still remembered that Miss Sylvia gave him the invitation so that he would pay attention to any unusual events around the princess during the banquet.
At this time, the ball was about to begin, and the servants of the manor were removing the long table. Her Royal Highness was also sitting in the sofa lounge nearby, discussing something with the local noble ladies, noble youths and noble girls. The other nobles accompanying the delegation were also chatting with the local nobles of Huntington in twos and threes, and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
When Xia De saw the princess, the princess also saw him. She was slightly startled, and then she asked the maid to call Xia De over:
"This is Mr. Sherlock Holmes. He runs a winery in the New World and is a friend of Viscount Bernhardt."
She introduced him to the others, and then told them the purpose of calling Shade over:
"Mr. Holmes, you are from Delarion, so you probably don't know about Carsenrick's banquets. We have prepared some interesting games for our large banquets here. Are you interested in participating? We happen to be lacking an interesting player."
Xia De blinked his eyes. Although he was curious about why the other party called him to play games, he still nodded:
"Of course, it's my pleasure."
There's nothing to do anyway.
"But what shall we play? I'm pretty confident in the Rhodes cards."
Xia De said modestly, and Princess Margaret smiled:
"The gentlemen here are very good at Rhodes, so try another game."
As she spoke, she ordered the servant to bring three empty tall glasses, put them together in a triangle shape, and placed them on the tea table. Then she asked someone to bring an opaque black cloth, and the princess asked her personal maid for three coins.
That was not an ordinary Carsenrick crown, but a pure gold "Carsenrick Kingdom Commemorative Gold Coin". This commemorative coin was also regarded as a large-denomination currency. Foreigners who had a deep understanding of the world's monetary system knew that one gold coin could be exchanged for 10 to 12 crowns.
"Cover your eyes with a cloth, stand at a distance and throw gold coins into the cups. If anyone can throw three gold coins into three cups respectively, the three gold coins and my earrings will belong to him."
Princess Margaret announced, actually speaking to Shad, because the young gentlemen around seemed to know about it.
Xia De nodded doubtfully to show that he understood, but he still didn't know why the other party had specially called him here. It was definitely not to show off the friendship between the two countries.
In short, this unexpected cocktail party game began like this. There were seven people in total who signed up for the game, and each of them looked extremely confident.
Princess Margaret asked people to clear the space in front of the tea table and stretched a strip of cloth on the ground to serve as the starting line for coin tossing. The banquet games hosted by the princess herself and the "precious" game prizes also attracted more people to come and watch.
After all, the party hasn't started yet, and it's the most lively here now.
－－－－－－－Off-topic－－－－－－－