(Thanks to the Hidden Knife commuter pass!)

The opening statement is concise and dull, with no evaluation of the past year and no outlook for the year ahead. Rebecca, who hosted the Praise Festival dinner, announced the start of the Praise Festival dinner in a few words.

The nobles who were originally holding their glasses and waiting for an impassioned speech embarrassedly drank all the wine in their glasses, and even the nobles who did not understand the world felt the delicate atmosphere of this dinner, and the people in the banquet hall lowered their voices and whispered. Charlotte felt that she was attending not a celebration dinner, but a gloomy funeral.

Charlotte was not in the mood to gag and liven up the atmosphere.

He had planned to finish the dinner in a low-key manner, and after toasting Rebecca, he walked to the corner of the banquet where Claire was. However, as soon as he got off the stage, he noticed that a wave of nobles actually left Evan and Vivien Leigh and walked straight towards him.

"Happy Praise Day, Earl!"

One of the old men raised his glass to Charlotte, introducing himself as the Earl of Blue Bay, who was given permission by Lawrence to accompany his son to the army because of his old age, while the Earl of Blue Bay could stay behind.

"Happy Celebration Day!"

Charlotte raised her glass and took a sip, and was just about to leave under the pretext of the excuse when the old earl continued.

"Will you continue to stay in Erosa after the festival? Icewind Castle is good, but Erosa is your homeland after all!"

When the old earl said this, Charlotte realized that something was wrong. He looked up and saw that the group of nobles standing behind the old earl were all full of anticipation. After a little thought, I understood that the old earl had something to say.

He was courting Charlotte, and seemed to have a vague intention of taking sides. This may have something to do with the recent rumors circulating in the Empire that Charlotte would succeed Icewind Castle and Erosa, unifying the two principalities as the true King of the North.

This rumor intensified after Aven's ineffective rescue of Lotsunte, and from the old earl's attitude, it is enough to see that the dissatisfaction with Evan in Erosa is gradually fermenting. Otherwise, the old earl would never have dared to take such a big risk to oversee Aven and make overtures to Charlotte at the Praise Festival dinner.

Charlotte thought a lot for a moment, and he realized that he couldn't let this public opinion continue to ferment, and if he had an ambiguous attitude here, it was very likely to make Erosa's hearts fluctuate. At that time, he and Evan will involuntarily be involved in this vortex, and the rift between them will become even greater.

So he said word by word with a straight face, "Old Earl, I am no longer a member of the Clayderman family. ”

"How can you say that? You are the son of the Grand Duke and Madame, and you have the noble blood of the Clayderman family in your veins. After the old earl finished speaking, he asked the nobleman behind him, "We all recognize your identity and status, right?"

The nobles nodded their heads.

"No, you're wrong. I'm the Earl of Wintercastle, the rightful heir to Icewind Castle, and I shouldn't be in Erosar after the holidays. Thank you for your kindness to me, but with all due respect, you shouldn't have said these things to me. I'm not going to hear it today, and I don't want to hear the same thing from you next time. ”

Charlotte said, raised her glass and turned to leave, leaving a group of nobles looking at each other.

Evan noticed the situation, and he looked at the stunned nobles, smiling coldly at the crowd while drinking.

Charlotte got rid of several waves of people before she came to Claire. He and Neham stood together, the two of them drinking alone in the corner like lonely silhouettes. Seeing Charlotte coming, Neham pushed his glasses, pulled his lips and smiled, "The busy man is here." ”

Charlotte glared at him angrily.

"I guess they want to support you as the King of the North, right? Understandably, if I had changed, I would have chosen to support you instead of the villain. ”

"Neham!"

As soon as Neam looked at Charlotte and Claire glaring at him, he raised his hand and pleaded to mercy, "All right! But don't say I'm sowing discord, I suggest you have a snack, you treat others as brothers, but others don't necessarily treat you as brothers. ”

Charlotte looked at Nyam for a few seconds before softly saying thank you. Neam waved his hand, and Claire followed suit, "Is it going well?"

Charlotte shook her head, but added, "It's still in control, though." ”

Claire opened her mouth to ask if she needed help, but Neam suddenly pulled the hem of his shirt covertly, so he said, "Your fiancée is here." ”

Charlotte turned to see Cecilia get rid of the group of noble ladies and come over with a red face amid their snickering.

"Hey, Happy Celebration Day!" Cecilia looked at Claire again, "Claire still has Nei, Nei ......"

"Neham. ”

"Ah, I'm sorry, and Mr. Neham too, happy Celebration Day! Charlotte...... Are you feeling better?"

Cecilia seemed to notice that Charlotte was in a bad mood and asked worriedly.

"Much better, thanks. ”

Charlotte responded, and at this point, Edie, Cynthia, and Vivien Leigh, who had also escaped from the nobility, gathered. Several people said happy holidays to each other, and the once intimate playmates of childhood actually had a dull and awkward conversation racking their brains in order not to be cold.

In the end, Evan confessed and walked over as well. So the atmosphere of occasionally chatting awkwardly for a couple of sentences instantly became an embarrassing silence.

"Happy Praise Day!" Evan noticed the change in mood as he smiled self-deprecatingly, "Looks like I've interrupted your chat." ”

"You can join in whenever you want. Charlotte looked at him and said meaningfully.

"Forget it, forcing you to join will only disturb your interest, will I? I don't have Charlotte's talent for you. Evan said.

Vivien Leigh looked at Charlotte and then at Aven, no matter how dull she was, she could feel the subtlety of the atmosphere between the two. The anger that had been hiding from Evan and Charlotte was gone, replaced by an unprecedented sense of panic.

She hurriedly pulled Charlotte and Aven's hands, half-forcedly toasted them, and then raised the cup in her own hand and congratulated her companions.

"What's wrong with you? Today is a great day, what's not to bother? Only when we're all together, it's a complete festival of praise, isn't it? Let's celebrate the festival together!"

After she finished speaking, she found that except for Cecilia and Edie, no one responded to her call to raise a glass. Even Charlotte and Aven's hands hung in the air, unable to meet for a long time.

"Brother Aven!?Charlotte!?" Fei Wenli asked them with anger and panic.

Whew-

Charlotte sighed, "Why don't you have a drink?" Happy Praise Day!"

As Charlotte raised her glass, Claire raised her glass first, followed by Neuham and Cynthia.

Evan looked at the glasses that were raised towards him, and had a new impression of the shiny glasses and the thick red wine. In his eyes, the cups sparkled like well-polished swords, and the wine in them shook like thick blood, making him dizzy one by one.

"Brother Aven?"

Vivien Leigh's voice seemed to come from afar, and Aven turned his head to see that Vivien Leigh's beautiful face became more dignified and delicate after her blonde hair was coiled. So the lively dinner party seemed to be leaving him, and it seemed that only the face like the moon was left in his whole world.

The world that was far away from him is back.

He raised his glass, this time with a new impression of his former companions, no longer blood-drinkers with swords in hand, but banqueters with masks and stiff smiles at masquerade.

"Happy Celebration Day!"

It's the dreary festival ever held in Fort Savoie!