Shade, holding an umbrella, made a few inquiries and learned that Mr. Kant had actually lent out his own manor for a Charity Auction tonight. The funds raised would be used to purchase food for donation to the poor during winter.
Charity was also one source of Director Kant's reputation, and this was not his first Charity Auction. The people of Vesta City were therefore quite accustomed to it.
The people in the manor were now preparing for tonight's auction. Since Prince William Anjou, who was temporarily staying in the area, was said to be attending and bidding tonight, Mr. Kant attached great importance to it. Even the auctioneer and appraisal experts had been specially invited from Cassandra Auction House in Wilundell.
With so many people coming and going from the manor, sneaking inside would not have been difficult. However, Shade and Miss Danist did not do so. Instead, they made inquiries around this Old Town about the fire that had once occurred at Hoy Manor.
Although the incident had happened three hundred years ago, to the elderly residents who had remained in the Old Town, it was a story they had heard since childhood.
The old owner of the grocery store, the proprietor of the Old Bookstore, the elderly florist—everyone had something to say about it.
It was through them that Shade learned the Hoy Family had once been one of the most prestigious noble families in Creekwood Town three hundred years ago. Yet after a great fire, the entire Hoy Family had nearly been wiped out. The only surviving blood relatives were distant kin, and after inheriting the family estate, they had all left the region. Thus, the surname "Hoy" could no longer be found in the Vesta Woodland of the present day.
When it came to that