Three days later, Lux, who had once again resumed her noble demeanor, finally arrived in Silvermere amidst much anticipation.
To welcome "their Little Lux," the local Crownguard family held a grand welcoming ceremony and banquet at the highest point of Silvermere Castle.
Lux, smiling, refused the pre-prepared speech from the organizers and delivered a brilliant "impromptu" speech, earning a round of enthusiastic applause.
During the banquet, drinks flowed freely, and although Lux was only twelve years old, and her height only reached most guests' shoulders or chests, her elegance made her the center of the entire venue.
No one knew that behind Lux's graceful and confident smile lay an insoluble sorrow—she couldn't enjoy everything at the banquet with a clear conscience; many things made her feel uncomfortable.
Fortunately, through Klein's training, she had gradually grown accustomed to this feeling of pretense.
Lux disliked pretense and lying.
But now, she had discovered many things worse than lying—so, she was visibly and rapidly developing in Klein's direction.
Not lying, but selectively speaking the truth, and occasionally speaking nonsense.
And between these selective truths and nonsense, Lux and Klein gathered a large amount of information.
From dress and appearance to speech and demeanor, as long as Lux was willing to observe, she could always find some information she wanted—normally, to maintain etiquette, no one would stare directly at someone at a banquet or stand foolishly pondering, but with Klein's help, Lux could analyze a large amount of usable information through an extremely ordinary banquet!
Even using noble methods, Lux still had an overwhelming advantage!
When the banquet ended and Lux returned to her lodging, she and Klein had already analyzed a large amount of intelligence.
In terms of attire, many nobles had mismatched items—some of their conspicuous accessories like brooches and necklaces were expensive, but in details that ordinary people wouldn't notice (such as boot laces or ceremonial armor chains), they were not extravagant.
Dyed silk laces or gilded armor chains were not impolite, but there was still a clear disparity in quality compared to their other accessories.
However, the items used in these detailed places were actually not expensive and often could be passed down and never go out of style, so these nobles were probably individuals who had suddenly come into a sum of money.
This kind of nouveau riche was common at any banquet, but today there were an exceptionally large number of them.
Clearly, many people had made a fortune recently.
Considering that noble jewelry and accessories often required the engraving of family crests, their production cycle was also very long.
Therefore, the time of their enrichment must be pushed back a year or two...
Very good, this point also matched up.
Furthermore, although Lux had been frequently interacting with various people, normally, after a few words with Lux, everyone should have used the occasion to chat with others.
A banquet was inherently a social occasion for nobles.
However, among the nobles bustling like butterflies through flowers, two individuals were silently watching Lux.
One was an elderly man; although he was also exchanging pleasantries with people, much of the time it seemed he was unilaterally receiving greetings, and his main attention was on Lux, seemingly speculating about her every move.
The other was a handsome middle-aged man; while politely and distantly engaging with the noblewomen who approached him, he kept his eyes on Lux, not even looking away when Lux left, as if trying to figure out where Lux was staying.
This was very interesting.
As a small test, Klein told Lux about the situations of the two men separately and asked Lux to determine their identities—which one was the true decision-maker, and whose attitude was still unclear.
After a brief thought, Lux quickly reached the correct conclusion.
That old man was the decision-maker; the middle-aged man was staring at her for some unknown reason.
"Looking at them, you might be busy tonight too," Klein chuckled, "Look at how impatient they are; they'll probably come to visit tonight."
"That's fine too," Lux smiled slightly, "It just so happens that I've rested well these past few days, so chatting with the elderly for a while tonight isn't a big problem."
......
Just as Klein had guessed, as soon as Lux finished tidying up, a knock sounded at the door.
"Little Lux, are you resting?" The person asked in a gentle yet serious tone, "I am Kodora, do you remember me?"
"Oh, Uncle Kodora!" Lux quickly matched him with the old man who had been staring at her, "Not yet…"
"Do you have time to talk with Uncle Kodora about disaster relief?" The other party's tone was quite serious, as if entirely devoted to public service, "You've finally arrived, the frost here in Silvermere is truly too severe; merely relying on tax exemptions is not enough to reassure the residents of the territory!"
"Ah, of course, I have time!" Lux, as per Klein's instructions, put on a flustered expression, "Coming, coming."
Opening the door, Lux saw a serious-faced Kodora, the old man still holding a rolled-up map.
Then, amidst Lux's "helplessness," Kodora kept the door open and strode into Lux's room, spreading the map on the table.
"Those little rascals still have the nerve to host a banquet… sigh, Lux, you don't know, the frost here is getting worse year by year!"
"Uncle Kodora—"
"Call me Kodora, you represent the main family, in Silvermere you are the Matriarch!" Kodora waved his hand, "Alright, Lux, let's not talk about those things; I'll tell you in detail about the frost problem these past few years…"
Next, Kodora lectured Lux for almost an hour, pointing at the map; in his words, Silvermere had been plagued by bad luck in recent years, with everything going wrong, and agricultural production, in particular, suffered extremely severe blows.
The survival rate of winter wheat overwintering was even less than thirty percent!
Clearly, this old man had observed and understood Lux very carefully; he judged from Lux's adherence to etiquette that Lux must be extremely concerned with etiquette, so from the very beginning, he proactively seized control of the conversation's rhythm, maintaining an image of someone who seemed not to strictly follow noble etiquette but was extremely enthusiastic.
This preemptive tactic worked well for noble young ladies who strictly adhered to etiquette; disrupting their accustomed negotiation rules allowed them to proceed entirely at his pace.
And with Klein's guidance, Lux perfectly displayed a kind of flustered helplessness caused by the other party not following the rules.
Under her superb acting, Kodora believed he had completely fooled this young lady from The Capital.
In the specific content of the conversation, Kodora also interspersed a large amount of agricultural knowledge and terminology, and consciously increased his speaking speed, intending to overwhelm Lux with information and make her lose her judgment on the matter.
And Lux's subsequent performance perfectly met his expectations; that kind of uneasy trepidation, as if everything was outside of her plan, and her repeated inquiries of "why," made Kodora secretly overjoyed!
Hahaha, that's it—what would a young lady who has never been to a farm know about frost?
Soon, Kodora revealed his true intentions; under Lux's "helpless inquiries," he began to proactively plan locations for her field inspection.
"This place is the best to go," Kodora casually took out a pen and drew a circle on the map, "The disaster here is very representative…"
"Is that so—" Lux blinked, putting on a look as if she still wanted to insist, "But I'm not ready yet!"
"What is there to prepare? Just change into a hunting outfit and go to the fields to see—whether wheat has suffered from frost, you can tell by digging up the roots and touching them with your hand!" The old man looked very anxious, "Once the situation is confirmed, we can quickly begin disaster relief!"
"Oh, oh, yes!" Lux seemed to be completely led by the other party, "Disaster relief is the priority!"
Kodora, having received a satisfactory answer, finally nodded. He left the map, again gave Lux a few instructions, and then strode away briskly, even closing the door behind him.
And confirming that the other party had left, Lux finally couldn't help but flop onto the bed, then completely covered herself with the quilt, laughing aloud.
Although she had been in a bad mood recently, after watching a clown show, she felt much lighter.
"Klein, Klein, look at him!"
"How public-spirited, how warm-hearted!"
"But, I'm really unlucky to have to call such a scoundrel Uncle Kodora!"
"But seriously, if I hadn't gone to see that place beforehand, I really might have been fooled by him!"
"Hmph hmph hmph, he must not know that the first area I went to was precisely that one; I personally confirmed it, there was no frost there!"
"He really treated me like a noble young lady, teaching me a method that isn't even for judging frost—digging roots, how could he even think of that!"
"When the time comes, I'll expose this in front of everyone, let's see what he does!"
"…"
"…"
Lux seemed to want to vent all her recent negative emotions at once, rolling around on the bed with her sword.
And it wasn't until she had laughed enough that Klein slowly began to speak.
"Do you really think he's stupid? Or rather, do you really think he didn't make more preparations?"
"What do you mean?" Klein's tone made Lux a little uncertain; she blinked, somewhat puzzled, "Isn't he stupid? He initiative came to me, chose a place that hadn't suffered from frost, hoping to deceive me with a false judgment method—"
"He chose that place because it's closest to the main road and most convenient to get to, that's all." Klein chuckled, "And, even if you saw no disaster there before, it doesn't necessarily mean there's no disaster now!"
"There hasn't been a drastic drop in temperature these past few days?" Lux blinked, "If there was no frost before, there naturally isn't now."
"The weather hasn't dropped in temperature, but what about people?" Klein's voice was bone-chillingly cold, "Now, blow out the candle."
Lux obeyed and blew out the candle.
"Without a candle in the room, there's naturally no light." Klein's voice was utterly calm, like a bottomless, dark spring, "But… is that really true?"
Lux instinctively wanted to say that it was naturally so.
But the next moment, she thought of herself, and her entire being instantly felt as if it had fallen into an ice cellar.