Chapter 215: Interviews, Cards, and Beiya

Standing there letting others take pictures was actually quite boring, and while maintaining a smile, Xia De's eyes were also scanning the crowd.

And so, he saw Miss Beiya again in the brightly lit banquet hall. This time it was definitely not an illusion. The brown-haired female Shushi was wearing an evening gown. Seeing Xia De looking at her, she immediately made a shushing gesture, and then turned and plunged into the crowd, looking like she didn't want Xia De to know what she was doing.

"At least she didn't dress up as a maid this time."

Xia De whispered in his heart.

For a long time afterward, Xia De didn't see Miss Beiya again. After the complete knight investiture process ended, Xia De stood with several Dukes under the arrangement of the attendant officer, waiting for the King to award medals to others who had received honorary medals.

He carried the antique knight's longsword in his hand, his fingers constantly rubbing the ruby on the scabbard. This was just an ordinary item. Even if well-maintained, the erosion of time still made this sword have no practical value.

During the boring waiting process, Xia De thought about hanging this sword in the living room of Room 1 on the third floor, so that every guest who came to entrust him could see it.

Only two people received honorary medals, and they were awarded separately. Afterward, more than a dozen people who were specially commended didn't have the honor of being awarded by the King. They went on stage together and were jointly awarded the "Tobesk Special Contribution Medal".

As for Captain Lei Jiede and others who didn't have medals, only their names were read, thanking them for their contributions to the King. But this was enough for the Captain. Such honor was enough to wash away his "Eight-Gun Captain" name. After tonight, Captain Lei Jiede could pack his luggage and wait for notification.

After this whole set of processes, the time had gone from 7:00 to 8:30.

The busy King wouldn't stay here for long, but returned directly to the city. As for the other Dukes, they had their own plans.

Probably because Miss Jia Lin Na specifically chatted with Xia De for a few words, the other Dukes also said a few words to him, which could be considered as getting to know each other. Because of the curse carried by the witch, Miss Jia Lin Na rarely appeared in public. This attitude undoubtedly indicated that Xia De was someone she favored.

After the award ceremony ended and the King left, the banquet was considered to have officially started.

The Dukes returned to the third floor together, and immediately a group of people surrounded them wanting to talk to Xia De. Reporters also followed with notebooks. The business cards Xia De received in just ten minutes were actually more than what he had sent out today.

Priest Ao Gu Si had exhorted that public interviews were very necessary, so Xia De had to answer everyone's questions in turn.

Even when someone asked about his thoughts when he blocked that bullet, Xia De, who had been asked until his head was dizzy, blurted out:

"All things have an end, and people will all face death......"

His head cleared immediately, and he threw away the idea of searching for the mountain that was heavier in this world:

"Perhaps a person's value is limited, but when he makes a contribution that exceeds his own value, his personality and soul will be sublimated at this moment."

Xia De didn't know what he was talking about either, but looking at the people around him nodding constantly, he knew he at least hadn't said the wrong thing. Of course, he didn't forget to praise the importance of the royal family to Deraerion, praise the true god 【Mr. Dawn】, and help the church promote the Saint Prayer Festival at the same time.

In short, Xia De was really not used to this kind of social occasion.

It took a full forty minutes to get rid of the reporters, and when he could finally get away, before the men who wanted to chat with "Miss Jia Lin Na's close minister" could surround him, Xia De was surrounded by a group of young girls again.

Xia De exchanged a few polite words with the girls, and someone wanted to "talk alone in the garden" with him, or wanted to hear some "detective stories" in private occasions.

Xia De wasn't stupid, of course he knew what this meant, but he was very unaccustomed to the girls' enthusiasm and could only push it off by saying he had other things to do. But even so, some handkerchiefs were stuffed into his hands, and addresses were written on the handkerchiefs with lipstick or powder.

"You have to adapt to these, Mr. Hamilton, no, Your Excellency Hamilton of Lei Jiede."

Baron Luo Saier, who came to find him to play cards, greeted him with a smile.

"Are girls nowadays all this enthusiastic?"

He held those handkerchiefs, not knowing how to handle them.

"They aren't enthusiastic about you, but about your status, and your relationship with Miss Jia Lin Na. Now the Duchess of Saradir almost showed her attitude that you are her person. Oh, what a lucky guy, did Miss Jia Lin Na take a fancy to you?"

He laughed ambiguously, joking while patting Xia De on the shoulder, and then took Xia De, who was carrying the sword, to his friends.

From the first floor of the banquet hall to the second floor, Miss Beiya, who was seen half an hour ago, couldn't be seen again. Although Xia De was worried, nothing happened when he met her last weekend, and now Miss Jia Lin Na was on the third floor, so there was no need to worry about any sudden events, so he was invited to participate in Baron Luo Saier and his friends' Luo De Pai game.

These gentlemen occupied the sofas and coffee tables at the best position by the floor-to-ceiling windows on the second floor of the banquet hall. Looking out from here, one could see the night view of Tobesk and the starry sky of the summer night.

But people cared more about Luo De Pai. After Xia De and Baron Luo Saier walked through the crowd at the banquet and came over, they still congratulated Xia De one after another. Although most of the people present had titles and their status was higher than Xia De, who only had a "knight" title, the favor of the Duchess made his status far from just a knight.

After the pleasantries, they urged Xia De to take out the new special cards for display.

Under the gas lamp, every gentleman was very excited. Xia De took out the cards in his pocket, didn't touch the 【Ancient Fairy Tale · Match Girl】 that Baron Luo Saier was familiar with, and took out the other three special cards:

"You see."

He took out 【Northern City · Cold Water Port City】, 【Eastern Old Continent Scenery · Tis Lake】, and 【Primitive Steam Engine · Mark 9】. People passed them around and told the history of these three cards that they knew.

Among them, some people originally knew that Xia De possessed 【Founder · Silver Moon】 because they attended the Luo De Pai competition of Duke Lu Kasi last Sunday night. Now that Xia De took out these three cards, another part of the people who had heard of that card deck but didn't know who it was associated the owner of the founder series cards with the young detective.

Baron Lu Kasi belonged to the kind of person who saw the three cards and associated them with this matter. Baron Luo Saier didn't know, but excitedly told people that he had seen that 【Northern City · Cold Water Port City】 at an auction house ten years ago.

When hearing that Xia De got the cards from an old professor, he guessed that the buyer at that time resold the cards because of financial conditions, and sighed that Xia De's luck was very good. Although these cards with special rules were not particularly expensive, they were not necessarily buyable even if you wanted to.

Tonight Xia De was the protagonist, so people naturally let him choose an opponent for the card game. After inquiring, Xia De didn't choose acquaintances, but chose to compete with Baron Ke Bo Er, who was relatively young among the group.

Baron Ke Bo Er's age was probably only thirty. Just now, listening to Baron Luo Saier's introduction, he inherited the title from his father's generation. This Baron belonged to the kind of relatively wealthy nobles, loved antique collection and Luo De Pai, and had a full five special cards in his hand, which was why Xia De wanted to see it.

So the two sides sat down, and others also sat on the sofa or stood behind the card players, arms crossed, ready to watch the card game.

This corner on the second floor of the banquet hall suddenly became lively, and people would walk over to join the ranks of onlookers from time to time. According to the "common sense" that Baron Luo Saier popularized to Xia De, slightly decent banquets would have people playing Luo De Pai in the corner, which could be considered a part of the culture of this era. The Luo De Pai issued by the Seer Association to make money had already become an important part of the civilization of the Sixth Era.

For the Outsider, the alien world without entertainment activities was undoubtedly very boring. Although mystical books and the improvement of Ringed Shushi power were interesting, occasionally he had to find other entertainment activities. Xia De's attitude toward Luo De Pai also changed subtly because of this. At least tonight, he was still enjoying playing cards while looking at the night view by the floor-to-ceiling window.

A deck of 54 cards, Xia De naturally wouldn't put 【Founder · Silver Moon】 in, so the card deck had four special cards, while Baron Ke Bo Er's card deck had five special cards. Although the two didn't bet and just purely enjoyed the fun of cards, the people watching them made bets with each other on who would draw the first special card.

The answer was Xia De. 【Ancient Fairy Tale · Match Girl】 appeared first. Although it couldn't trigger the special rule, the points themselves helped him win that round. And the Baron's special card Moon 13 【Pirate King · Skeleton Captain Victor】 appeared in the fifth round.

The special rule of this card was very simple: throw a 20-sided die. If the points were less than or equal to 10, the number of this card was adjusted to 22; if the points were greater than 10, the points could be adjusted between 13 and 1.

It couldn't be said that this card was useless, it could only be said that there were very few occasions where it could be used.

The Baron had been in contact with Luo De Pai since he was a teenager and was a true Luo De Pai master, while Xia De relied purely on luck. Thus, although Xia De won more, the overall result of the two sides' match could barely be called evenly matched.

Baron Ke Bo Er was hooked by this tense card game and even proposed that both sides bet with their respective special cards, but was politely refused by Xia De:

"I rarely gamble."

As he spoke, he looked up and actually saw Miss Beiya at the entrance of the stairs leading to the first floor again. She seemed to be forcibly grabbed by someone, dragged and forced to walk toward the first floor.

"Hmm?"

He widened his eyes and stood up, tidying up the cards in his hand:

"Everyone, sorry, I still have something to do, I'll be back in a while."

As he said this, he pointed upstairs. Others understood and nodded, thinking he was going upstairs to see big shots. Thus, Baron Luo Saier, who had been waiting, took Xia De's place.

That expensive antique knight's longsword that couldn't be used was temporarily left here, and Xia De walked toward the stairs. He looked back and saw people by the floor-to-ceiling window nervously paying attention to the game, no one looking this way, so he walked down the stairs quickly.

No matter what happened to Miss Beiya, he couldn't pretend he didn't see it. ===== CHAPTER 216 =====