Chapter 642 Dance Music
Under the setting sun in the evening, Hugh Dilcha, wearing a cloak, stood in an alley near the Tussock River in the Backlund Bridge area, looking towards the alley entrance from time to time.
She was so busy with various tasks recently that she felt dizzy and almost wanted to take a vacation and hide in her warm home to have a good rest.
But even Fors had recently begun actively preparing to publish her novel. How could he, who was constantly urging her not to slack off, have the nerve to rest? Quinn felt a little ashamed of his thoughts.
Moreover, she had recently obtained the Beyonder trait of "Interrogator" from Fors. All she needed was the potion formula and the supporting materials to advance to Sequence 7. This made her desire to accumulate merit even stronger.
Snap, snap.
Low footsteps were heard from the alley entrance. Quinn looked up and saw a tall man wearing a black windbreaker and a golden mask on his face walking slowly towards him.
"Routine report."
Before the other party could speak, Xio spoke in advance, pulling out a file bag from under his cloak and handing it over.
The man in the golden mask took it, opened the bag skillfully, quickly looked through the documents inside, nodded, and said:
"The investigation into the East District incident can be concluded. The church has determined that Mr. A and 'Desperate Nightingale' have already escaped Backlund. You should stop distributing their wanted posters, or you might face retaliation from the Aurora Society."
"Are you worried about me?"
Xio looked at the MI9 liaison officer, who was much taller than him, with equal awe.
"I'm worried that one day the body of a relatively hardworking peripheral member will turn up in the Tussock River, or even drift to Pritz Harbor," the Golden Mask scoffed. He then leaned slightly closer to Hugh and said, "Are you interested in joining MI9 directly as a full member? You can maintain your current position, overseeing the East District you're familiar with, and do the same things you do now, but with additional benefits and merits."
Not expecting him to ask this, Xio was stunned and opened his mouth, not knowing how to answer.
"Never mind, I'm just asking casually. You don't have to make a decision right away."
The Golden Mask seemed to be asking casually, and before she could answer, he changed the subject:
"New mission. Once you complete it, you should be able to obtain the formula for 'Interrogator'."
Seeing the undisguised excitement in the green eyes beneath Xio's cloak, the Golden Mask laughed again and continued:
"Keep an eye on anyone Viscount Stratford, the Head of the Palace Guards, comes into contact with. Don't let any of them go unnoticed. Write a report and send it to me. The more detailed the better."
Stratford!
There was a loud bang in Xio's head, and all kinds of thoughts buried in his memory came flooding out.
He was the former captain of the palace guards and his father's deputy!
Trying his best to control his expression and tone, Xio pretended to be puzzled and asked back:
"Did he commit some crime, or did he mess with someone he shouldn't have messed with?"
"Do you think someone like me would know? I'm just a task assigner. After I compile the report you gave me, I have to hand it over to my superior, and my superior will hand it over to his superior..."
The masked man muttered a few words, and seeing that Xio was a little dazed, he added considerately:
"You're not the only one involved in this. Just monitor it for a while when you have free time. You'll earn merit by writing a report every week. This is a great job, and I've reserved it for you.
"Also, please consider carefully your proposal to join us. If you become a full-time employee, you can directly obtain the potion formula based on your previous contributions."
After saying that, he walked out of the alley with low steps, just like when he came, and soon disappeared from Xio's sight.
But Xio no longer cared about him. Her mind was full of Viscount Stratford, her father, and...
The night seven years ago that destroyed her family.
————
At night, at 160 Böklund Street, North District, Dwayne Dantes's house.
One after another, carriages drove past the gate, stopped briefly, and after dropping off the guests, were led by servants to the parking spaces on the side of the garden. The guests, dressed in their best, walked along the garden path towards the main entrance of the main house with smiles on their faces, admiring the well-kept garden.
The flowers and plants weren't considered expensive, but they were carefully tended and maintained by dedicated personnel. This kind of detail was extremely rare for a foreign businessman who had only been in Backlund for a month.
"Good evening, Your Excellency. Who is this?"
Accompanied by his personal valet, Klein stood at the door, greeting visitors, both familiar and unfamiliar. Seeing Bishop Elektra, dressed in clerical robes and accompanied by a female companion, approach from the garden, he quickly stepped forward to greet her, then cast his gaze upon the girl behind him who appeared to have just reached adulthood.
I remember the guest list listed the bishop and his wife. Could it be a mistake, was it the daughter?
Seeing the deep confusion on Klein's face, and recalling her experience when she visited the patient that day, Elektra coughed lightly with some embarrassment and introduced:
"My wife loves the hustle and bustle. She'll attend every dance she can."
It turned out to be his wife, who looked even younger than Angel... Klein kept marveling inwardly, but a perfect smile appeared on his face. He exchanged a few pleasantries with the bishop and his wife, then escorted them into the hall.
Madam Mary, Senator Macht and his family, Major Stewart, Professor Mormont... Klein received each guest, communicating with them using the polite words he had memorized, but his eyes kept glancing towards the main entrance of the garden, as if waiting for someone.
Until a four-wheeled carriage stopped steadily at the door, the noble lady slowly got out of the carriage with the help of her personal maid.
She was tall, with soft black hair draped over her shoulders, her eyes sparkling like purple gems under the light, her low-cut dress just revealed the curve of her collarbone, and the deep red gem necklace was right at the intersection of her collarbones, embellishing her fair skin and the lines of her neck.
Taking a deep breath, Klein took the initiative to step forward, bowed in a gentlemanly manner, and said with a smile:
"Good evening, Miss Theresa. I hope that tonight's dance will allow you to feel Backlund's passion, which is no less than Trier's."
"I'm looking forward to it."
Angel raised an eyebrow, making her somewhat pale eyebrows more vivid.
Other guests arrived later, but Klein personally accompanied Angel into the first-floor lobby before returning to the door to continue receiving others. This peculiar move made the guests who had already arrived look at Angel subtly, including Bishop Elektra, who was whispering with his wife.
With a smile on his face, he raised his red wine glass to Angel as a blessing.
…
After a brief speech, tonight's dance officially began. Klein came to the dance floor on the first floor and walked towards Angel as the band played cheerful Intis-style dance music.
In formal dance occasions, there are not many choices of dance partners for the opening dance, especially for the host who leads the dance. Married people choose their spouses, and unmarried people can dance with relatives of the opposite sex, or choose the person they like.
Of course, Dwayne Dantès had come to Backlund alone and had not yet expressed his interest in any particular woman. His butler had originally planned to invite a beautiful socialite to ease his master's embarrassment and prevent the potential hostess from misunderstanding that Dantès already had someone in his heart.
But Klein rejected this proposal because he already had... Wait?
Seeing that there was a young man in military uniform standing next to Angel, with so many medals on his chest that he could hardly hang them all, Klein's smile froze.
He quickened his pace and quickly came to the two of them. He glanced at the major who was said to have made many military achievements in the southern continent. He bent down slightly, stretched out his right hand, palm facing up, and made an invitation gesture to Angel.
"Ms. Theresa, may I have the honor of inviting you to dance with me?"
Stuart, who arrived early but was a step behind, opened his mouth slightly and quietly lowered his raised right hand.
Taking advantage of his acquaintance with Angel, he approached her at the beginning of the dance and exchanged a few pleasantries. He was just about to invite this young lady, whom he had fallen in love with at first sight, to dance with him, but he did not expect that Dwayne Dantes would cut him off. He felt a little dissatisfied, but he rationally did not show it.
After all, this was a dance party hosted by the other party... He breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the delicious food at his mouth with some reluctance, smiled and accepted the other party's invitation, and came to the center of the dance floor together, dancing to the music. He could only turn around regretfully and walk towards another lady who was standing alone and had no one invited.
"Ms. Hazel, I..."
"Sorry, I can't dance."
Before he could finish his words, the cold young lady with long dark green hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a slightly conservative dress but with a sparkling necklace hanging on her chest rejected him and even took a glass of champagne from the waiter's tray next to her, completely putting an end to Stuart's idea.
Leaving the Major standing there in a daze, Hazel sipped her champagne while walking to the other side of the hall. She stood next to a pregnant woman who was hesitantly picking up her ice cream and taking small sips of it, her eyes fixed on Dantes and Theresa in the middle of the dance floor.
She had noticed these two people the last time she held a dance party at her house. They had just arrived in Backlund and seemed to be working hard to expand their social circle. They also had many secrets and very interesting experiences.
At least it's much more interesting than those wealthy businessmen who only rely on money to adorn themselves and those aristocrats who inherited their power from the previous generation... She stroked the precious necklace on her chest that she wore specially today, and her eyes gradually stopped on the lady in the middle of the dance floor. She always felt that she was more eye-catching than last time with her unfamiliar dance steps, as if she exuded infinite charm.
"That lady behind you is watching you again... Did you say something to irritate her last time? She dressed up specially this time, but she refused to accept other people's invitations."
Klein put one arm around Angel's waist and squeezed her slender hand with the other, whispering with a faint smile on his face.
Although the ballroom dancing of Loen's upper class originated from Intis, it incorporated its own unique subtlety. Besides the necessary hand contact, the distance between the two dancers was determined by their familiarity with each other and their impression of each other. It could be as far as half an arm's length away or as close as close together. Of course, the latter generally did not occur in public places such as dances.
At this moment, his body almost overlapped with Angel's, retaining only the minimum distance required by social etiquette.
"Perhaps she wanted to invite you, a mature man with rich adventure experience in the southern continent who could pique the curiosity of a young lady, but she was troubled by the fact that you already had someone in your heart."
Angel teased, and took advantage of the dance to change direction with Klein and look at Hazel at the edge of the dance floor. The latter was holding a champagne glass and staring at them blankly, her deep brown eyes a little dazed.
She's not really looking at me, is she? Angel felt something was wrong, and he and Klein tacitly turned around and pretended not to see it.
“The behavior of others is not determined by the will of the observer.”
Klein suddenly thought of a sentence he had read in philosophy class a few days ago. He modified it slightly and used it to make fun of Angel's ostrich behavior in a good-natured way.
"Emperor Roselle?"
"No, Lurmi."
Coincidentally, before the teacher pointed out my mistake, I also thought it was Emperor Roselle who said this. For over a hundred years, everyone has been accustomed to attributing unknown words and unclear philosophical ideas to this emperor, and a time traveler like me is more likely to make similar mistakes... Klein smiled secretly and hugged Angel closer.
Perhaps it was because the smile on Klein's face was too obvious. At the moment when the rhythm of the dance music changed, Angel used all his strength to step on his instep.
“…”
Klein opened his mouth, but ultimately managed to hold back the howl that was about to burst out. His expression changed again and again, finally settling on a wry smile.
As a gentleman, he couldn't express his dissatisfaction. Furthermore, a lady's minor dance mistakes could be forgiven... Klein muttered to himself, looking at the eyes that occasionally glanced around the dance floor, as if waiting for the dance to end. Suddenly, an idea for "punishment" came to his mind.
As the host of the ball, he couldn't miss the first three dances, and he wasn't going to let Angel leave before the third dance was over.
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