Winning his match against Mr. Bellson meant that Shade had entered the final round of the Lake View Manor Rhodes Card tournament.
The final round would be held at the round table beneath the Grape Arbor. Shade's match with Mr. Bellson had ended the fastest, so when he arrived beneath the arbor with Tifa and the spectators, the other three opponents had yet to arrive.
It was already ten thirty that night. Shade rubbed his face and felt that he was still in very good spirits. With both hands clasped together on the table, and seeing that the card game would not begin for a while, he turned to Tifa and suggested:
"Once we're done playing, how about taking a walk with me in the garden? There won't be many pleasant nights like this before the First Snow of winter."
"Alright."
The maid agreed. As for the cat in her arms, it looked lazily at Shade, resembling a child on a Sunday morning unwilling to crawl out of bed.
Before long, the other three finalists arrived one after another. Since space for spectators was limited, some people even offered money to trade places with those in the front.
The referee for the final match was Mr. Justin of the Seer Association. Shade's three opponents were Baron Lavend, Shade's friend, who had been quite lucky today; Viscount Glenn, a relative of the Leimer Family from the other side of Schluch Lake, who was not from Tobesk and had only been invited to the banquet because he was recently visiting the city; and finally, that lady mentioned earlier. She called herself Miss Mary Witte, daughter of the local Viscount Witte.
She had almost white-blond hair, wore a long dress that was black above the waist and red below it, and a wide-brimmed