Chapter 3611: Resonant Fate and the Banquet of the Solitary

"Because her affinity with the Ice Fate is too high."

Miss Ai Si Bo Ge looked at Stella and said:

"Although I do not understand the Ring of Fate, I understand Ice. Whether it is integrated into oneself or activated with dice, the essence is to let the power of Fate be controlled by oneself. But Stella is already suited to this Fate, so even if she does nothing, she can directly obtain the enhancement of Fate."

"In that case, if points are used to activate the Ring of Fate, Stella should become even stronger, right?"

Claire said with a smile, very happy about her apprentice's progress.

And at this moment, Stella spoke again:

"New information has appeared on the snake shed skin."

"Is it also an interpretation of the 【Ring of Fate】?"

Xia De asked, but the white-haired girl shook her head:

"Not just an interpretation, the snake shed skin also says—【Already holding a Ring of Fate resonating with oneself, one may enter the Temple to conduct the Finale of the Battle of Fate.】"

The Finale is the scene after the seven-act story ends, where the candidates finally duel to select the truly chosen one.

Claire understood:

"So after completing the seven-act story, one still needs to hold a Ring of Fate that meets the requirements to compete for the qualification of the Chosen One? Such important information is not even directly revealed... It's all because Mr. Snake occupies the Temple."

"For ordinary Ring Mages, obtaining a Ring of Fate is not easy, but for the candidates, they should all have a chance."

Xia De speculated this way, so that ice-blue Ring of Fate was temporarily stored in Stella's own snake shed skin. Xia De believed the ritual for the Chosen One of Fate should not produce any more requirements, after all, the Ring of Fate is already the most complete Fate.

Next, everyone returned to the small town, and when Xia De boarded the Radiant Messenger, he found that Luvia was also here.

She had arrived here not long ago. Having heard that Stella had obtained the instrument to participate in the "Grand Concerto of Fate," Luvia was not too surprised. After all, if Xia De had not insisted on letting Stella use that harp, other channels could also obtain a suitable instrument.

"A new Ring of Fate? The Ring of Ice, the Ring of the Demon's Resurrection, the Ring of War that Xia De is temporarily keeping... There are really more and more rings."

She had already heard about Friday's events from Xiyi who stayed on the ship, and upon seeing Xia De, she asked:

"The Fate of Ice temporarily belongs to Stella, so how do you plan to handle that 'Ring of War'? I do not suggest you hold it for a long time, otherwise your Fate will also be affected."

While the two were speaking, the other girls were not around. They stood in the Captain's Room, and even Miss Elise was not there.

Some words, Xia De could only say at such times:

"I want to verify a hypothesis. Tonight, I want to let someone touch that Ring of War. If she can resonate with this Fate like Stella, I want to keep it to forge it into a weapon."

"Agerina?"

Luvia asked. Xia De was somewhat surprised; although Luvia had heard him speak of Agerina's Chaos Talent, she should not know about Agerina's performance in past lives.

"Why do you think so?"

He asked directly. Luvia herself shook her head; "It's just a feeling that you are talking about Agerina. Besides, aren't you attending the diplomatic banquet at Yoder Palace tonight? The only girls there who would make you worry so much are the Cavendishes."

Of course, Friday's harvest also included the snake shed skin, snake fang, snake pupil, snake blood, and snake heart. The snake fang had already been used by Xia De in the Fifth Era. Among the remaining four items, the snake blood was given by him to Luvia:

"Didn't you say that the preparation of ink might need this kind of snake blood?"

Luvia did not refuse, and the appearance of the brand-new snake shed skin gave her a new idea:

"Is the Ring of Fate still stored in your book now?"

"Yes, those two curved arcs are too."

"Can Stella's snake shed skin also carry Fate?"

"Yes."

"Then can a blank snake shed skin carry Fate?"

Xia De still had two blank snake shed skins in his hand, so he took one out to try. Sure enough, whether it was a ring or a curved arc, it could be stored in the snake shed skin, but once a ring was stored, nothing else could be stored.

Luvia suspected this was because the snake shed skin had no user, so its "carrying capacity" was limited, so she found Stella again to conduct an experiment.

But the candidate's snake shed skin could also only carry at most one ring:

"I have a feeling that one snake shed skin can only store one ring or three curved arcs. The Fate of mortals ultimately has limits."

She said this, while the 【Fate Handbook】 seemed to have no limits.

Thus, the "Ring of War" and the two curved arcs were temporarily transferred by Xia De into two blank snake shed skins. Luvia actually very much wanted to say that "Breeding" could temporarily stay in Xia De's book, but even Luvia felt too embarrassed to say such a thing—

"Hint to Dorothy at some point; by then, Princess Lei Lei Qianya will make a request."

This was the little thought of the purple-eyed girl.

Next, only the snake pupil and snake heart remained. Xia De had found a snake pupil on Thursday, which he had given to Bella for research. So Luvia let Xia De keep this snake pupil himself:

"You might encounter the opportunity to enter the Temple again; at that time, you can see new clues from the murals."

As for the snake heart, Xia De had received a hint in the Temple—【After consuming the snake heart, one can feel the trajectory of Fate in an instant】.

To Luvia, this was a very straightforward meaning; this is a prop that allows prophets to touch the web of Fate in an instant. Although she was not clear on whether "consuming" meant cooking it into a dish and eating it, she took the snake heart, planning to research it herself.

"In this way, the seven-act story only has the final three acts left. The Grand Concerto of Fate can take place a bit later next week. The act related to cards, you said, will happen at the very end, and you also have to play cards with some Snow Mountain Guardian."

"So what we have to face now is only Love and the Ice Flower."

Luvia summarized, and Xia De nodded slightly; in his view, the end was not far away now.

(Xiao Miya is running...)

Sunday night, 7:30 PM, Delarion Kingdom, Tobesque City, Yoder Palace.

Gray haze filled the night, and the political center of the entire kingdom was brightly lit as usual. Actually, this high-spec diplomatic banquet was not held inside Yoder Palace, but at St. James Palace, where the King celebrated his birthday last time.

It's just that St. James Palace is usually considered part of Yoder Palace, so the two are often confused in name.

Wearing a black formal uniform, Xia De, who was invited by Miss Jia Lin Na to attend this event, was now standing by the window with his body turned sideways, holding a wine glass, looking at the reflection of his face on the window glass with a rather melancholy expression.

Behind him was the golden and magnificent banquet hall, where gentlemen and ladies speaking various languages stood in twos and threes, holding wine glasses and chatting, while those truly important figures had already quietly disappeared from here.

Miss Jia Lin Na belonged to the important figures; she had many people to meet at this wine party, which is why Xia De was alone here.

However, his melancholy expression was not because he had been "abandoned" by his female companion, but because he was thinking whether bringing the "Ring of War" to such an occasion was too rash.

"Knight Hamilton."

Someone called out Xia De's name. Xia De originally thought it was one of Princess Lei Lei Qianya's brothers or his superior, Director Director Anluosi, appearing again, but he turned to look and saw a lady with a Southern appearance walking towards him.

Xia De felt the woman looked somewhat familiar, then recalled having met her last summer:

"Ms. Belindel, good evening."

This was of course not Bera, but Bera's elder sister—not a blood sister, but a relative belonging to the Belindel family. The woman was a Second Ring sorcerer, a Witch's Follower, and one of the few within the Belindel family who knew of the relationship between Xia De and Bera, and who also knew Xia De's true identity.

After last summer's Moon Bay incident concluded, the Belindel family had thoroughly taken control of that "City of Wealth," and so many important positions in the Moon Bay region were filled with people from the Belindel family. And since Moon Bay was not a duchy, it could not dispatch envoys to Draguirea.

But the trade representative Moon Bay stationed in the Tobesk region was equally important; this Ms. Hydra Belindel was the person dispatched by Bera last summer to take up this post.

Her talent as a Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi was not particularly high, so it was quite normal for her to be assigned to temporarily leave the Witch's side to handle matters concerning her own faction.

"Good evening, Knight. We met once at a banquet last time; I didn't expect you to remember me."

The somewhat plump noblewoman said with a smile—the second half was to prevent anyone from investigating why the two knew each other. But in Tobesk, no one dared investigate Xia De; Xia De was "one of us," whether to the royal family or to Military Intelligence Section Six.

The two exchanged a few polite pleasantries, and after confirming it was safe, the lady said:

"Please deliver this letter to the Earl; it concerns this evening's reception. I saw Larius III twenty minutes ago. He knows I am a member of the Belindel family, and through me conveyed certain conditions to the Earl."

Xia De nodded in understanding, and the lady quickly took her leave, saying nothing further to Xia De.

Xia De did not open that letter—such matters he did not wish to meddle in, nor would he offer Bera any advice. He merely continued standing idly by the window with his wineglass, feeling in his heart a pang of regret that no one at this reception was playing Luo De Pai.

After all, this was a high-level diplomatic reception; nearly everyone had their own affairs to attend to.

He stood there like that until half past seven in the evening; during that time quite a few ladies who appeared to be unaccompanied came over to chat him up, but Xia De fobbed them all off.

Until a familiar maid found Xia De by the window:

"Mr. Hamilton, Her Highness has brought the promised handwritten copy of *Summer Night Collection* and now wishes to invite you to view it together."