The literary salon that had left Angel utterly embarrassed finally ended amid the guests' reluctant farewells. As the nobles departed, Angel followed Sevillea out of the luxurious villa and returned to the carriage waiting outside.
"After a busy afternoon, how were your 'social results'?"
Sevillea withdrew her gaze from the darkening sky beyond the window, drew the curtains, and looked at Angel.
Angel glanced at the maid in the carriage. Seeing that neither mistress nor servant intended to avoid the subject, and considering that Sevillea's question likely had nothing to do with the Demoness Sect, she carefully replied:
"Unfortunately, Miss Audrey Hall did not attend the salon, so I had no chance to meet her."
"I know that, of course. But you spoke with that dwarf for so long. Didn't you gain anything?"
Dwarf...
Angel recalled Xio Derecha's height. Compared to herself, Xio was probably only a little over 1.5 meters tall. Even among adult women, she was rather short, but wasn't it somewhat rude to call her a "dwarf" so directly?
She looked again at the maid beside her and found that the latter had already turned her gaze toward the window, pretending not to hear her mistress's words. But the curtains were drawn...
"Miss Xio should be quite familiar with Miss Audrey, and may even know her whereabouts, so I tried approaching her first." After some thought, Angel decided to answer truthfully. "Do you have any impression of her? Her clothing seemed rather... out of place."
Sevillea frowned in thought, but quickly gave up and shook her head.
"I only saw her once at last month's salon and never spoke with her. She never joined anyone's conversations either, merely drank fruit wine in silence. She wore trousers instead of a dress then as well. Compared with a guest,