The night rain outside the window continued to fall, and besides the sound of rain, the waltz music from downstairs was also intermittent. Xia De was in the wardrobe, trying his best to imagine the situation outside the wardrobe, but based on the sound of the conversation alone, it was difficult for him to fully grasp every scene.
"The Aurora Family certainly doesn't have such a tradition. I just saw a spider, please allow me to apologize for my rudeness."
The Great Witch said, her answer very perfunctory.
"I've heard rumors about you, you like..."
Xia De, inside the wardrobe, could almost imagine Leia saying this with a beautiful frown.
"There's nothing that can't be said, I like pretty girls."
Xia De could also imagine that Great Witch smiling as she said this:
"In fact, I even... with a certain member of the Cavendish Royal Family... her waist is very beautiful."
For some reason, Miss Jialinna's image suddenly jumped into Xia De's mind.
"I know, my elder sister."
Xia De guessed wrong, and the princess Leia mentioned in a helpless tone was the thirty-three-year-old, already married Catherine Cavendish. This eldest princess of Delarion married twelve years ago, to the eldest son of Hermons Hutton, who was then the Royal Army Marshal.
The contemporary Cavendish Royal Family is flourishing, King Larus III's fertility and desire are very strong, which is a very rare thing in the entire history of the sixth epoch. Xia De couldn't even say how many elder brothers, elder sisters, younger brothers, and younger sisters Leia had; of course, this was also related to his not caring about such matters.
"I heard that their marital relationship is not harmonious, and that young Hutton has some strange quirks."
Leia sighed, not knowing if it was because she felt it was unfair to her sister, or if she was distressed by the marriages of royal family members:
"If it weren't for the pressure from father and Duke Hutton, they would have divorced long ago. The only elder who clearly supports her in doing so is Jialinna..."
Xia De believed that Xi Wei Aurora should be the same as himself, both making strange expressions because they unexpectedly heard a familiar name but couldn't show it.
This Great Witch of the Twelfth Ring probably had nothing to do, as she didn't leave immediately afterwards, but instead chatted idly with Leia. Leia, of course, knew there was someone still locked in the wardrobe in the corner, but couldn't directly drive Miss Aurora away, so she could only absentmindedly respond to her questions, hoping the other party would understand that she wasn't very keen on chatting.
The Great Witch should have been able to sense Leia's perfunctoriness, but she just wouldn't leave.
With Xia De's physical fitness, standing still for several hours was certainly not a problem. But if he was standing in a confined space in a strange posture, after half an hour, he couldn't stand it anymore.
Especially because of the scent inside the wardrobe, the urge to sneeze accumulated bit by bit. He tried to breathe deeply, tried to pinch his nose and breathe through his mouth, but it was all useless.
Even if Xia De could face the gods directly, he still had no way to deal with the primal urge to sneeze.
What was even worse was that as Xia De stood in the darkness, a strange itching sensation suddenly appeared on his neck. He didn't want to make any big movements, so he thought he would just endure it and it would stop itching.
But when that itching sensation moved along his neck, making him get goosebumps all over, Xia De suddenly realized that it wasn't itching, but a spider crawling along his neck.
"Oh~"
He groaned in pain in his heart, and because of his rich imagination, the feeling of his whole body bristling made him wish he could immediately reach out and crush the crawling insect.
He was very worried that the spider would crawl into his ear, but the little thing just moved up along his neck, then across the side of his face, slowly approaching Xia De's front face.
It clearly aimed to crawl across his cheek, and when Xia De reached out to crush it, the insect actually sped up and climbed under Xia De's nostril.
The itching sensation combined with the fear of the spider crawling into his nose made Xia De subconsciously want to snort through his nose, wanting to blow the spider away. But this action only further accelerated the long-suppressed urge to sneeze.
So, in a contradictory mood and a state of panic, Xia De finally couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Achoo~"
Letting out the sneeze he had held in for so long felt really good at that moment. Xia De even politely remembered to pull his collar with his left hand to cover his mouth, preventing contamination of the clothes in the wardrobe.
Although the rain outside was loud, as long as one's ears weren't problematic, everyone in the room should have heard the sound from the wardrobe.
Xia De didn't immediately lean into the crack of the door to look out, so he couldn't see Leia covering her forehead with a helpless expression, nor could he see the Great Witch's triumphant smile at that moment:
"I knew there was someone in the wardrobe."
The Great Witch with curly brown hair smiled very happily:
"She hid very well, but you overlooked a very important problem: my nose is very sensitive, very sensitive to the smell of the sea. And the person in the wardrobe should have come from outside the manor, and been close to the seaside..."
She was right, the old lighthouse was by the sea.
"I can smell it, but people from outside shouldn't come in. Your Highness, it seems you've known Ring術士 for a long time, and you also have a good Sorceress by your side. Please let her come out, I want to see what this very capable girl looks like."
Leia smiled helplessly:
"Alright, since you've discovered it, there's no need to hide anymore. Really, Miss Aurora, if you had discovered it earlier, you wouldn't have wasted so much time chatting with me."
"Isn't it very interesting?"
The Great Witch asked, then saw the maid move away from the wardrobe door, and the wardrobe was opened.
Lightning flashed outside the window, bathing the area near the window in white light. The large shadow of the wardrobe door obscured the figure emerging from the wardrobe. And when the lightning passed, he had already moved into the gaslight.
"However, you guessed one fact wrong."
Leia also smiled, turning to look at the helpless Xia De:
"He's not a girl, he's a twenty-one-year-old gentleman."
Xia De nodded, tossing the dress strap that had somehow gotten tangled on his arm back into the wardrobe behind him.
Looking up at Miss Xi Wei Aurora, the Great Witch's astonished expression was completely as expected. Seeing Xia De up close, she couldn't possibly fail to notice this fact.
"Good evening, Ladies."
Xia De greeted, standing by the side of the sofa, and began to explain his identity:
"I am His Highness Leia's lover, Miss Aurora. We were having a tryst before you came in, which is why I'm here."
He could expose his identity as a Ring術士, but Leia could not.
The Great Witch retracted the astonishment from her face, moving with a very unladylike speed, as if she stepped in front of Xia De in one stride. Then, just as Xia De expected, she grabbed Xia De's wrist.
"Why are all Great Witches like this?"
Complaining in his heart, Xia De sniffed again, and with his free left hand, pulled out the badge from his collar, then explained:
"Oh, alright, since you've seen through my Ring術士 identity, I can only tell the truth."
He winked at Leia, who was suppressing a laugh:
"Madam Aurora, I am actually Miss Jialinna's person. Look at this, this is the badge Miss Jialinna gave me. I think you should be able to recognize that it's not a counterfeit. Miss Jialinna knows that Her Highness dislikes her very much, so she sent me to monitor Her Highness. I am actually a deceiver arranged by Miss Jialinna to be by Her Highness's side, to deceive her feelings."
Leia's effort to suppress her laughter now was probably similar to Xia De's earlier struggle to hold back his sneeze.
He continued speaking to himself:
"Yes, I am that kind of deceiver from court novels who is very good at winning the favor of Ladies. All of this is Miss Jialinna's scheme, and my direct superior is Miss Tifa Servett."
The badge was very clear in the light, Leia's smile was also very obvious, and the Great Witch's expression, wanting to laugh, wanting to be angry but strongly holding back, was also very clear.
Although she was very surprised, even horrified, by Xia De's presence, with Miss Jialinna involved, she certainly wouldn't harm Xia De.
"Xia De · Su Lun · Han Mi Er Dun."
The Great Witch forced a very fake smile, gritting her teeth, and pronounced Xia De's name very accurately and clearly in the delarion common language:
"Do you think the Aurora Family's business is so big that I wouldn't pay attention to the news from Tobesk?"
Her golden eyes, identical to Miss Jialinna's, looked at Xia De's face. This heroic and strong-eyed lady seemed to want to completely imprint Xia De's appearance into her eyes.
She said softly:
"Now I understand, it turns out that yesterday Jialinna suddenly tested me because she wanted to protect you."
