Chapter 21
Chapter 21: High party.
Although most nobles are unwilling to disobey His Majesty’s decision, there are still some people who don’t mind what the king or high priest thinks.
Duchess Felix is such a one. She owns a large amount of land in the West, and the territory is positive and broad, and she is a very powerful nobleman. It is unclear whether she is for political purposes or just to relieve boredom. In short, every time the social season begins, she will come to live in the capital for the first half of the year. During the period, there will be a large number of parties, inviting all kinds of social celebrities, as well as the most fashionable people at the moment to participate.
The duke is not a devout believer, but for the temple and the king, at least she believes in the **** of light on the surface, which is enough. With an identity like her, no one will demand anything. The duchess is noble, generous and generous, and she was a rare beauty when she was young. With these advantages, no one will make irresponsible remarks even if they are somewhat different from others in terms of beliefs. The banquets she hosted are crowded with celebrities, and many attractive people are always invited. Many noble ladies squeeze their heads and want to participate.
This time she heard that the king had such interesting characters, and she was also intrigued like a king. But she didn’t care as much as the king about whether the high priest would have any opinions about it. She wanted to let someone come to her party, and she would never care about anyone’s face.
So, through the mercenary guild, she initiated a request to Alice to join the party.
Upon receiving this commission, Alice was so surprised.
The duke was generous, but for participating in such a non-hazardous event, Alice could actually get five gold coins, paying two first and three at the end. Alice knows a little bit about the commissions of the Mercenary Guild, knowing that the Duchess will have to pay at least twenty or thirty gold coins for the commission. You know, usually Alice and her master take on private tasks together, and the two have tossed together for more than half a year, only for the reward of dozens of gold coins. Excluding the expenses on the mission, only three or five were saved in the end. It can be seen from the offer of the Duchess that she will never give anyone a chance to refuse. Even if Alice didn’t really want to go, she had to bow down to the magic of money.
Alice is terribly short of money recently.
After she became a special mercenary, she realized that ‘super mercenary” is not just a title that allows herself to make more money. Before making money, she had to invest first. The equipment she originally used is now somewhat inadequate. To complete the task of a special mercenary alone in a safer way, all her equipment must be replaced with new ones.
Alice had no wealth at first, but fortunately, the Mercenary Guild had recently transferred the ransom from the Gall Knight to her, giving her a small fortune. Ordinarily, she should have been able to get thirty gold coins, but when the money was transferred from the Mercenary Guild, some handling fees were deducted, so that she was holding it in her hand, and only twenty-eight were left. If the money is used to buy general mercenary equipment, it is enough. But if it is to buy what the special mercenary needs, it is not enough.
Fortunately, she already had the sword won from Dewitt and the horse that slid the last time. No owner came to ask for it, so she left it by herself. This horse is not a famous horse, but it appears when Alice needs it most, and is very close to her. Alice likes it very much.
Swords and horses are almost the most important, besides armor and the like. Ordinary leather armor is easy to buy, but it is very difficult to find a real good thing. Most of the excellent products made by famous craftsmen are kept in the arsenals of noble families, and ordinary people can’t touch them. As for the high-quality ones on the market, most of them are extremely expensive, and sometimes they are still out of the market. Alice went to the market in the royal capital to see the weapons shop owners are very shrewd. When Alice looked like this, she guessed that she was a new special mercenary who had just become famous before, and they showed her the top products in the shop. Among them, there are really a few high-quality goods, but the price is terribly high, at least fifty or sixty gold coins. Alice went to several blacksmith shops and weapon shops for a long time, but finally returned with nothing.
In fact, Alice can also choose to advance some money in the mercenary guild, before buying equipment. However, the interest on borrowing from the Mercenary Guild is very high. If possible, Alice still doesn’t want to borrow money from the Mercenary Guild. Master Roma also said that she could lend her money, but in the previous promotion ceremony, Master used herself as a bargaining chip to keep her position as a super mercenary. She was so kind to her that she really didn’t want to cause more trouble to Master. NS.
In this case, the commission of the Duchess can be regarded as a gift in snow. Although her current money plus these few gold coins is still not enough, this is also a rare income and cannot be easily let go.
Alice had never attended a noble dinner. When she was living in Potzta, the only nobles she knew were the lord and his knights. Those are people who have nothing to do with her, but occasionally I can see them speeding through the street in a carriage. Later, she became a mercenary, but she had some noble clients. But those clients generally don’t show up in person. For Alice, the life of the nobles is still very far away.
Alice said she didn’t care, and she was a little nervous, so she asked what kind of nobles her master had seen and whether they were getting along well. Her master has served as a mercenary soldier for decades, and has met some of them more or less.
“This task cannot be said to be completely dangerous. The ladies of the upper class are sometimes more scary than the lions on the prairie.” Roma, who has had some dealings with the nobles, said solemnly, “But you are a girl, they Maybe it will converge a little bit and won’t swallow you alive.”
After listening to Roma, the situation seemed to be even more stressful. However, when Alice asked her master how terrible the ladies of the upper class were, her master refused to say a word, claiming that the following content was not suitable for children.
She, the master, is always like this, and she starts to prevaricate in the middle of her words. But Alice is not fourteen years old anymore. For the past three years, she has been mingling with mercenaries and has long been familiar with their crude jokes. At this time, she vaguely realized what her master was talking about and frowned unhappy. .
However, Roma became serious again:
“I’m not just joking with you. Those high-class nobles only care about themselves and never think about others. People like you and me are nothing more than toys in their eyes. At that banquet you have to be careful, don’t agree to follow Men go to other places to play, and don’t drink what other guests give you.”
Alice knew what the master was talking about. When she was in a tavern, she had also seen a man trying to pour medicine into a girl’s cup. But the place where she used to work was just a dirty tavern…the place she was going to was a gathering of nobles!
“The nobles will only be more unscrupulous,” said Roma, “don’t look at them all glamorous, tear off the skin, the morality in their hearts is not even as good as mercenaries.”
Although Roma described the high society banquet as dangerous, in order to make money, Alice made up her mind to attend. After all, she is a mercenary, so she can’t be afraid of danger. What’s more, she has already experienced the most dangerous situations, so how could she be afraid of a small party.
She accepted the commission, and on the day of the banquet, the carriage of the duchess’ house arrived.
The duke was very thoughtful. She gave Alice a dress and even sent a maid to help her dress and comb her hair. The last time Alice was dressed up as a girl, she was in the tavern, and it has been three years since now. Recently, she disclosed the identity of women to the public, but did not purchase any women’s clothing, and still wears the original clothes. This time she watched the maid from the Duchess’s house come with the Chinese dress to be worn at the banquet, and she was completely stiff.
Ah, when I really came to my head, I realized that putting on a dress to attend a banquet seemed to be more troublesome than I thought.
The maid of the Duchess’s house was stern and unsmiling. Alice had heard people say that the servants of this kind of noble house were specially trained and would never show their emotions on their faces. At the time, she thought this was too exaggerated, but now she saw the appearance of the maid of the duchess’ house, and she knew that this statement was actually true.
Alice let her fiddle, remembering that she had been fiddled with when she was going to the temple when she was just twelve years old. At that time, the person who fiddled with her was Grizzy from the landlord’s wife. In the past few years, Alice almost forgot about this person. Only when she encountered a similar scene now did she think of Grizzly’s mean face.
Compared with the expressionless maid in front of me, even Grizzie seemed very kind. She kind of hoped that this maid could talk like Grizzy, even if she said something unpleasant, but it was a pity that the maid in front of her would not say a word except what was necessary.
The maid in front of her was like a window, through her, Alice could see a world that was very different from what she had known before. If it was Alice before, she might be a little scared, but Alice now is completely different from before. She is just a little curious.
The maid changed her clothes and combed a beautiful hairstyle. Alice was unaccustomed to wearing women’s clothing. Over the years, in order to pretend to be a man, she always used cloth belts to tighten her chest. Although the straps have been released these days, they are still wearing their original clothes. The clothes they prepared for her had a big open collar on the chest, which made her feel a little bit chilly.
They even prepared shoes for her. I don’t know where they got their size. Alice was actually wearing the right size. In order to make her figure look longer, the heels of these shoes are slightly higher, which makes people unaccustomed to wearing them. Alice relied on her agility as a mercenary for many years to control these shoes, and she felt a little proud.
There is no big full-length mirror in Roma’s farm, and Alice can’t see the whole picture of herself, and she doesn’t know what she will be dressed like this way. But now she couldn’t allow her to think about it. The time was almost up, and the maid urged her to get into the carriage.
Sitting on the carriage, Alice gradually adjusted her mentality.
No matter what she wears, her identity is always a mercenary. The only etiquette she knew was that she learned from Grizzly at the house of the landlord’s wife on Dark River Street. You don’t have to think about it, that little common sense of etiquette can’t be used in such aristocratic gatherings, if she implements it in this way, it will only be ridiculous. Alice is determined not to consider the issue of etiquette, but to treat what she sees in front of her with a mercenary attitude. Even if she is rude, no one will be surprised.
After all, she was originally a mercenary now.
The carriage drew her from the outskirts to the duchess’ villa, stopped at the gate, and the maid helped her out of the car.
Alice made up her mind not to show her timidity, she resisted looking down, did not reach for the skirt, and walked into the duchess’ villa with her head high.
The time for Alice to appear was planned by the Duchess a long time ago. According to the custom of the time, it was considered polite to be a little bit later than the agreed time in the party. The Duchess arranged for her to appear on stage when most of the people had arrived, so that everyone could see her on stage. Alice’s temperament is completely different from that of the ladies and noble ladies present, and attracts everyone’s attention as soon as she appears.
The servant standing at the door announced her identity and name:
“Special mercenary, Miss Alice has arrived.”