After waking up in his own bedroom on Saturday morning, Shade opened his eyes to the familiar ceiling and felt that being home like this was actually quite nice. No matter how wonderful other places might be, this was ultimately his own house, and Little Mia clearly felt the same way.
In a good mood, he tended to the fireplace and, unusually, made breakfast himself that morning: warm milk and goat milk, fried eggs, and bacon. When he went out to collect the newspaper, he ran into Smith Old Gentleman next door, who was also fetching his paper. He had not seen Shade in a long time and assumed that the young detective next door had spent the entire autumn busy with cases.
The men stood at their doorsteps chatting for a few moments with newspapers in hand. Then Mister Smith turned and instructed his servant to send Shade a jar of honey produced in Kelageli, Archipelago Kingdom.
It was a small token between neighbors, a little gift to maintain good relations. So Shade did not refuse, thinking that whenever the maids baked bread at home, he could send some to Mister Smith and Madam Smith as well.
The news in the paper was nothing new, and Shade merely glanced over the reports about the border conflict. Delivered along with the newspaper was a letter from Doctor Schneider, saying that he had something to do that afternoon and would postpone Saturday's meeting until Sunday afternoon.
Was the Doctor stepping up his efforts to decipher that book taken from Professor Yuke Wood's office?
After breakfast, Shade took Little Mia to Old John's pawnshop and the Black Raven Library to look for bargains. Then he went to Cat Tail Alley to visit Professor Manning, whom he had not seen for a long