Chapter 1228: Randall Valley Stonemason Society

The elf girl Emilia did not intend to stay in Randall Valley tonight:

"It's my turn to organize the feed for the chocobos tonight. If I sneak out and don't go back as soon as possible, I'm afraid I won't be able to return to the dormitory even if I'm busy until dawn, and then the six-ring Aunt Susan in the dormitory will scold me tomorrow morning..."

A worried expression appeared on her beautiful face. After copying the ancient elf language poem, Xia De watched her ride the unicorn away again with Luvia. The cold wind of the winter night traveled through the tree branches, and the soft white figure gradually disappeared. Luvia's whisper sounded:

"I have already contacted the local correspondence group and learned from them that this elf lady has appeared since three years ago, appearing once a month on average. I checked the local records, nothing big happened here three years ago, she should have discovered a passage that has existed since a very long time ago."

"Giving yourself a holiday once a month?"

Xia De muttered, thinking about the impact that obtaining a "passage" to St. Byron at any time could bring to him, and unconsciously, he actually missed those ladies in the Fifth Era who were still missing him.

Starting from this Tuesday, the next few days were slightly leisurely. Miss Bernice's followers went to investigate the whereabouts of the three auction items, Luvia, who obtained clues to the sublimation language, was busy planning her spirit rune acquisition plan, and Miss Lathers was busy retracing her father's path, so much so that Xia De often couldn't find her at the Wilde Opera House.

Of course, Xia De was not completely idle during this period. He received an invitation from Wang Hou Diana in Tobesk and attended a wedding ceremony for a duke's daughter on Wednesday night. Because Miss Galina and Xia De had almost made their relationship clear, the Wang Hou hoped to strengthen the relationship with the increasingly independent Duchess Galina by winning over Xia De.

There was a small episode at the banquet on Wednesday night. At that time, Xia De was holding a wine glass, discussing his detective stories with Wang Hou Diana, three princesses including Princess Lei Qianya, and two noble ladies he didn't know.

Wang Hou Diana put down the wine glass containing orange juice and suddenly smiled and said to several people:

"Come to think of it, there is a good thing I can tell you privately, I bet you definitely wouldn't guess... Among us, someone is nurturing a new life."

"Hmm?"

Xia De subconsciously wanted to look at Princess Lei Qianya, while Princess Lei Qianya was recalling in a panic whether it was hers or Dorothy's. Of course, no matter whose it was, she would be responsible for Xia De.

But then Wang Hou Diana pointed to herself again and said with a smile: "The next generation of the royal family is going to have new offspring again."

"That's really great."

Ajelina and their younger sister Alice Cavendish said together, and others also offered their respective blessings. Xia De secretly praised in his heart that His Majesty the King's body was really good. The Cavendish royal family, which was already huge in population, was actually going to have one more descendant. "Fire-Leaper" Larus III was definitely the king who had given birth to the largest number of descendants recorded in this era.

【Two, they are twins, two boys.】

"Hmm? You can even see this?"

On Thursday, Xia De finally had time to visit the local Stonemason Society in Randall Valley. Although it was no longer necessary to determine who the stone statue in the church was, he still wanted to investigate the rumors of "moving sculptures" in the Stonemason Society.

Because this matter was not urgent, he dawdled at home for a while after breakfast, looking forward to the potential client coming to the door. It was already 11:00 in the morning when he went to the distant city alone and arrived at the Stonemason Society.

The full name of the society was "Randall Valley Stonemason Industry Society," and its location was not in the urban area of Randall Valley City, but in the slightly remote northeast of the city. Two blocks away from the society, there were train tracks connected to the quarries in the mountains, making it convenient for stonemasons to go to the quarries at any time or transport suitable stone materials over.

The northeast of the city was the old town of Randall Valley City. The buildings here were quite old, and the alleys and streets were quite narrow. If the western urban area of Randall Valley was more like a booming steam-era

city, then the time in the old town still remained in the budding stage of the steam era.

And this style of the old town existed in Coldwater Port, Midhillburg, and even Tobesk City; this was the memory of the city.

Getting off the carriage at the entrance of the narrow street, looking at the tall and old stone buildings on both sides. Because the old town was closer to the factories and mining areas outside the city that emitted exhaust gas, the fog was particularly thick. Coupled with the narrow streets and the buildings on both sides blocking the sunlight, walking on the street felt like entering a dark world of fog during the day.

The street where the Stonemason Society was located was called "Stonemason Street," one of the oldest streets in Randall Valley. Most of the merchants on the whole street were engaged in businesses related to sculptures and stone trading. Stone carvings could be seen everywhere on both sides of the street, and the stone carvings looked a bit terrifying in the thick fog with unclear vision.

But it was not deserted at all here. Merchants from all over the Old Continent gathered here to purchase works carved by local stonemasons. The name "City of Stonemasons" was derived from this street. In the old era of the Sixth Era before the start of the steam era, this street was the center of Randall Valley.

And at this moment, everything was heading towards decline.

Because of the "Prince Attack Case" that happened last week, when Xia De arrived at the Stonemason Society, he saw several local police officers, led by a detective with a star on his shoulder, recording something at the front desk of the Stonemason Society.

Of course, this did not affect the normal operation of the Stonemason Society, and the inside of the society was still bustling with people.

To be precise, the Randall Valley Stonemason Society itself was just an industry society composed of local stonemasons, and the stonemasons jointly gave it power. The main functions of the society included but were not limited to coordinating industry conflicts, acting as brokers to introduce business for merchants from other places, unifying the prices of stone materials in the whole city, and representing the stonemasons of the entire Randall Valley to attend certain important occasions. Of course, when a large business needed a large number of craftsmen, the Stonemason Society also needed to coordinate, such as the business of the Anjou royal family decades ago.

Xia De came today still using the pseudonym John Watson, nominally to select a batch of stone statues as gifts for friends in Willendale City. The quantity Xia De proposed was not large, so the society did not send a special receptionist or manager to receive him. Xia De could walk around inside the society, view the works of different stonemasons collected here, and then choose the craftsman he liked to place an order directly.

The weather today was really bad. When Xia De entered the society, the fog outside was just heavy, and by the time he confirmed the viewing area, it was already completely dark outside, even though it was still morning. The overcast sky began to snow at this time. Considering that it was already the Month of Star Fall, this was highly likely to be the last heavy snow of this winter.

The Stonemason Society was divided into four floors, and the entire left half of the first-floor hall was displaying stone carvings, even looking a bit like a stone statue museum. When Xia De walked in, he saw that it was completely dark outside the window in the middle of the red velvet curtains, and goose-feather-sized snowflakes were falling one after another. And there were quite a few people coming here to look at the goods, including ordinary people like Xia De who were just looking around, and butlers of wealthy merchants or nobles dressed quite impressively under the guidance of receptionists to pick goods.

Xia De didn't have a definite goal originally, so after entering the hall, he wandered around casually, even thinking that if he saw a statue he liked, he could buy it and give it to Princess Ajelina as a birthday gift on the weekend.

The hall was densely packed with various stone statues, some were busts with bases, and some were life-size full-body statues. He even saw young people setting up easels in front of the statues to sketch, and later heard that this was a project allowed after payment.

Merchants were rubbing shoulders, Xia De wandered around simply and didn't find obvious traces of elements here, so he had the time to observe the stone carvings in detail. But soon, his attention was attracted by the row of oil paintings hanging on the wall. The oil paintings hanging in the stone carving hall, except for the few at the entrance which were portraits of the founders of the Stonemason Society, were all heavy-colored oil paintings depicting stone statues, and most of them were character statues.

These oil paintings were quite large, basically the height of an adult, and what surprised Xia De the most was that most of the character statues in these oil paintings did not contain clothing. In other words, most of the oil paintings belonged to the category of nude art.

"Long time no see, Mr. Watson. I've heard about that card game between you and Mr. Osenfort. I knew when I was at the Diviner Society that someone who could defeat me must be extraordinary."

Xia De was looking up at the oil paintings when he suddenly heard a voice behind him. Turning his head, he saw that the playwright Mr. Antonio had walked to his side. This gentleman was someone Xia De met when playing cards at the local Diviner Society, and he lost a 【Forest Story·Silvery Snow Wolf】 of Sun 1 to Xia De at that time.

"Oh, it's Mr. Antonio, are you also here to purchase stone statues?"

"No, no, just looking for inspiration for a new opera script."

The writer, dressed in a brown leather jacket and quite stylishly, said, and Xia De also introduced his intention. Afterwards, the two looked up together at the oil painting on the wall of a stone statue of a woman with her arms spread out, as if to embrace the person outside the painting.

"Are you curious why only the oil paintings have this kind of statue, while the statues on display are all well-dressed?"

Mr. Antonio asked with a smile, explaining to the outsider "John Watson":

"On one hand, it's because the City Hall said this kind of display is indecent... It was a rule that only existed after the Stonemason Society and the royal family had a conflict. Oh, the conflict between local stonemasons and the royal family is..."

"I know, I've heard about this."

"Then it's easy to explain. On the other hand, it's also because the society found that statues without clothes are easier to be stolen and are also easier to be damaged during the display. Although what is displayed here are all cheap items for sale, frequent replacement is also very annoying. Later, they simply displayed most of the nude statues in the form of oil paintings."

As he spoke, he lowered his voice and added:

"Mr. Watson, you are an outsider, it's hard to find the way. If you are interested in this kind of vulgar—I mean this unique style of stone carving, I know a craftsman who specializes in making this kind of stone carving."

--Continue to view ===== CHAPTER 1229 =====