Northern-central Falaro, Fuluozi.
In the afternoon, in the outskirts of Fuluozi, the banquet at the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty continued. This gathering, originating from the New Year's audience banquet during the Bourbon Grand Attire King's era, had already entered its second day, and it was about to welcome its most important and grand moment.
At this moment, countless upper-class dignitaries from all over Fuluozi gathered in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty. They spread out in groups of a few, conversing and socializing in the gardens, squares, and halls of the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty. Their numbers were much greater than yesterday, and the open space specifically for parking carriages in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty was becoming increasingly full.
The small gathering on the first day was merely the prelude and warm-up to the audience banquet. The real main event was in the twilight and evening of the second day. The gathering of more people made the entire Palace of the Goddess of Beauty exceptionally noisy. At this time, gentlemen, ladies, and noblewomen could be seen gathered in almost every corner of the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty, except for one place.
Standing in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty's Rainbow Dome Hall, Adele, dressed in a luxurious gown, looked up at the huge, closed doors of the performance hall ahead, a strange glint in her eyes. At this moment, she was conversing with Dorothy in the distance through an information channel in her mind.
"I haven't seen it for a while, and it's actually sealed off now. The most important part of the banquet is about to begin, so why would they seal off the main hall at this time?" Adele asked Dorothy in her mind with a curious tone, and the other party quickly replied.
"According to the servants in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty, they are performing the final decorations on the performance hall to welcome the evening's show. It is said that this is the most important part of the audience banquet tradition, and it has barely changed since the Char era."
"An important tradition... If that's the case, they should have finished decorating earlier. It's already very close to dusk. Can they finish decorating in time?" Listening to Dorothy's words, Adele responded, and Dorothy also spoke with interest.
"Who knows... Perhaps on-site decoration is also a tradition of the audience banquet, or perhaps if they decorated too early, some things might have been exposed prematurely."
"Oh... from what you're saying, it seems you already know something."
Listening to Dorothy's words, Adele said curiously. Just as Dorothy was about to respond, the tightly closed large doors suddenly made a sound, and then slowly opened with a rumble.
"Yo... it seems they've finished decorating. In that case, let's quickly go in and see the results." From Adele's perspective, seeing the large doors slowly opening, driven by mechanisms, Dorothy said this. Listening to Dorothy's words, Adele first curiously glanced inside the opening doors, then, after the doors were fully open, she followed the other partygoers inside.
Stepping back into the performance hall, Adele curiously looked around, seeming to see many additional festive decorations like streamers, banners, and tapestries. Many dining tables were also set up by the stage and in the stands, all laden with abundant food and precious wines.
"These decorations all look quite normal, nothing seems wrong." Walking in the performance hall, Adele surveyed her surroundings, remarking as she admired them, and Dorothy quickly responded in her mind.
"Perhaps you can try looking at the stands."
"The stands..." Listening to Dorothy's words, Adele murmured and walked away from the scene, ascending a staircase at the edge of the performance hall to the first-tier stands. From here, she could see more things from an overhead perspective, and with this look, she immediately discovered the problem.
"This stage... this is... Seven-Step Blooming Lotus!"
Looking at the circular stage in the center of the performance hall below, Adele said in her mind with a surprised expression. At this moment, the originally chaotic patterns on the stage had disappeared, replaced by a clear and complete design.
On the circular stage of the performance hall, the patterns between the neatly arranged floor tiles interconnected, ultimately forming a whole. A massive lotus pattern with seven petals was displayed on the stage, which was precisely the Seven-Step Blooming Lotus that Adele was familiar with, an important symbol of the Path of Lustful Sins.
"Those floor tiles... the stage floor tiles have been reassembled and put together, and then this Seven-Step Blooming Lotus was formed... So, this is one of the three hidden lotuses?"
Looking at the newly revealed pattern on the circular stage below, Adele said in surprise inwardly, and Dorothy quickly responded.
"Yes... this first hidden lotus is essentially a puzzle. Don't you think the patterns on the stage floor earlier were very messy, disjointed? This stage was supervised and built by King Char, known as an artist. This is where he performed. Would he allow such an unesthetic stage to exist?
"So, the answer is that the stage's appearance before was not its original state; it had been modified. And looking at the disjointed feel of the floor tiles, one can roughly guess that the modification method was to break up the original integral stage pattern into a puzzle."
Dorothy said this to Adele. Listening to her words, Adele couldn't help but frown slightly with a solemn expression, then continued.
"After the performance hall's puzzle was restored, it formed the Seven-Step Blooming Lotus pattern, which means the first hidden stage is here... But now that this pattern has been restored, it indicates that it was already found by someone else before. Could it be... that group of masterminds!"
"It can only be them. Clearly, they had already conducted several rounds of exploration in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty and successfully found at least one stage. Now, specifically putting it together clearly means they are preparing to use it when dusk arrives..."
Dorothy said this. As Adele listened to Dorothy's words, she scanned the other areas of the performance hall. What she saw then was countless security personnel already guarding the fully assembled stage, preventing others from stepping onto it. Seeing this, Adele said in her mind, puzzled.
"What exactly do these guys want to do? They assembled the stage at this time; do they want to perform on it?"
"As for their purpose... I actually have a rough idea now." Dorothy responded to Adele, and listening to her words, Adele's expression showed a hint of surprise.
"You've already guessed their purpose?"
"Hmm, well, you can go to the entrance of the Honor Guard Plaza now, and you'll know after seeing the situation there."
"The entrance..."
Dorothy continued to respond to Adele. After listening to Dorothy's words, a hint of confusion flashed across Adele's face. Then she suddenly noticed that the surrounding environment had somehow become even noisier. The guests who had gathered in the performance hall, perhaps having heard some news, all surged outwards.
Seeing this scene, Adele walked down from the stands, exited the performance hall and the Rainbow Dome Hall, and arrived at the Honor Guard Plaza, hurrying towards the entrance.
At the entrance of the plaza, Adele saw a lively scene. Countless guests from the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty had gathered there at some unknown time. The gilded gates were now open, and the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty's guards were lined up in two rows behind the gates, standing tall and straight.
Two rows of standing guards created a passage, keeping other guests out. Almost more than half of all guests in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty were gathered here, nearly filling the Honor Guard Plaza. Many of them looked up at the distant golden gates, seemingly anticipating something.
"What are everyone waiting for? Is someone coming?" Seeing this scene, Adele curiously asked a nearby guest, who immediately replied.
"Miss, don't you know? The carriage of His Excellency Governor Legoff Sanson is about to arrive. He is the supreme host of this year's audience banquet." A gentleman-like guest said this to Adele. After hearing his words, a hint of surprise appeared on Adele's face.
"Governor Sanson... Hasn't this esteemed gentleman always opposed the Bourbon remnants? Why would he appear in a place like this?" Adele said this. The audience banquet was a tradition inherited from the Bourbon Dynasty. How could Sanson, who had always been at odds with the Bourbon remnants, appear in such a place?
"You don't know this. According to tradition, a governor presides over the annual audience banquet, with the four assistant governors taking turns. This year, it just happened to be His Excellency Sanson's turn. This is his first audience banquet since taking office. Because of his previous remarks, many people thought he would refuse to participate this year, but now it seems he has come. To some extent, he probably can't be completely unyielding."
The gentleman guest continued to respond to Adele. After listening to his words, Adele couldn't help but frown slightly and looked towards the distant open gilded gate. At this moment, a black carriage had steadily stopped in front of the gate. After the carriage door was opened by an attendant, a figure stepped out from behind the door.
It was a middle-aged man wearing a plain, neat black suit, with a well-groomed beard and short yellow hair, a serious expression, and a scar on his face. After he stepped out of the carriage, several more prominent guests went to greet him. After he chatted with some of them for a few moments, they all walked onto the path opened by the guards, crossed the Honor Guard Plaza, and together walked towards the open doors of the Rainbow Dome Hall. Several bodyguards also followed closely by his side.
"Is that... Governor Sanson?"
Looking at the man walking into the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty amidst the crowd, Adele murmured thoughtfully. Just then, her desire perception ability suddenly detected a hint of abnormality.
A trace of murderous desire, an extremely faint killing intent, was felt at close range by her desire radar, and the target of this killing intent was Sanson, in plain sight.
Upon detecting this trace of desire, Adele quickly turned her head towards the source of the desire, and there she saw a familiar figure: it was Martin, who had come with her!
"Hmph... Sanson... What governor, what a load of rubbish, destroying Falaro's traditions..."
Standing in the crowd, the old man Martin, a Bourbon remnant, stared at Sanson walking on the path, muttering in a voice only he could hear. His eyes revealed a clear sense of disgust.
Seeing the disgust and extremely slight killing intent in Martin's eyes within the crowd, Adele froze slightly, then, as if she had thought of something, immediately spoke to Dorothy in her mind through the information channel.
"Little detective... the Bourbon remnants who came with me seem to be showing clear disgust, and even a hint of killing intent, towards Sanson... Could it be that the mastermind's purpose in having us come here to search for treasure isn't targeting us, but targeting Sanson!"
"Hmm... yes, given the current situation, this is very likely..." Dorothy, who was in the distance, was observing Sanson's entrance from a different perspective at this time. She directly stated her guess to Adele.
"Legoff Sanson is very likely to encounter an assassination in this Palace of the Goddess of Beauty, an assassination driven by the power of Grand Attire King Char's legacy. And you, who are now remaining in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty, will be the scapegoats for this assassination, the apparent masterminds... After all... he is that hardline governor who has always been dedicated to 'Bourbon remnants'... and you, as Bourbon remnants, are natural enemies..."
...Just as Sanson was entering the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty amidst a welcome, in a forest on a hill far from the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty, several figures were gathered, overlooking the situation in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty.
"That fellow Sanson... has already gone in. It seems it's time for me to move. Are you ready, my dear Governor?" Standing in the woods, a woman with a sickly beautiful face, holding a cane, turned and said. In front of her was a pitch-black carriage, and a male voice from inside the carriage responded to her.
"I have already begun to slowly suppress Sanson's power as governor. When the operation begins, you don't need to overly concern yourself with Sanson himself; just perform the prepared script well..."
"Of course, this is my duty, and I have long looked forward to performing to my heart's content in the temple left by the Lord of Flowers... especially in front of that big star, Adele... I truly look forward to the moment I face her..." The woman spoke with a hint of danger in her words. At this moment, another voice from inside the carriage responded.
"Is Adele Briouz still inside the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty?"
"She is still there. Although she has some suspicions, she has not yet realized the full scope of the matter, so she is still in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty." An attendant standing by the carriage responded to the voice inside the carriage, and the person inside the carriage seemed very satisfied with this reply.
"Good... it's good that she's still there... In that case, the other side can also be accounted for..." The words from inside the carriage came out like this. After hearing them, the woman with the sickly face couldn't help but show a mocking expression.
"The other side, huh... I never thought that we, cultists who worship so-called evil gods, would have the opportunity to indirectly cooperate with those self-important radiant ones... How ironic.
"How does it feel, Your Excellency Governor, for you two major official powers to collude with a cult like ours? Does it feel particularly blasphemous? Do you feel guilty about your so-called justice and conscience?" Looking at the black carriage in front of her, the woman spoke with an exaggerated smile on her face, and immediately after, she received a stern retort from the voice inside the carriage.
"Watch your attitude, Sandrina! Clearly recognize your current position, you Blood Cup demoness, you are just a mercenary!"
Listening to the stern voice from inside the carriage, the woman called Sandrina paused slightly, then, with an unchanging smile on her face, bowed slightly to the carriage and spoke.
"Alright... then I apologize, Your Excellency Chevalier..."