In the final days of December, Year 1002 of the Saint Laurent Calendar, Annan received the official who had returned from Frankx City.
"Madeleine Jenkins refused your invitation. She also said..."
"What else did she say?"
"She said..."
The official could not bring himself to say it. Annan leaned back on the sofa and asked Olmedo, "Orr, since when does Free City let stutterers serve as officials?"
Olmedo asked calmly, "Did she say something nasty?"
"She said Lord Annan was ignorant, and that she didn't have time to play house with us..."
Olmedo frowned.
"We don't have a grudge against that woman, do we...?" Annan was just as baffled.
Had Magic Films hurt her business?
But had she been asleep for months? Did she not know he was the Holy Son of the Wealth Church?
If she dared speak to him like that, was she not afraid she would never make money again?
"What else did Madeleine Jenkins say?" Olmedo asked.
"Nothing. After that, she had her people show me out. But I'm from Free City. How could I let her humiliate you?"
Annan's eyes lit up. "You slapped her?"
"I walked out on my own!"
Annan laughed in exasperation.
He had wanted to try once more and give Madeleine Jenkins another chance. But then news came that Madeleine Jenkins was joining the "Opera Singers Competition."
It had not come from inquiries made on Commercial Street. The Art Gazette had published it.
The news lent the "Opera Singers Competition" even more weight and made "Champion Singer" look isolated and outmatched—though it still had the most entrants.
One distinguished opera singer after another, none of whose names he recognized, announced they would join the "Opera Singers Competition." Saint Clara City stole the spotlight, while all he could do was watch someone