Backlund, in the northwestern outskirts of the Queen's District, a place that takes over an hour to reach by carriage, Meige Manor stands along the Tussock River. Its surroundings are beautiful, and inside, the trees grow lush.
Strangely enough, the city of Backlund is often cloudy and rainy with little sunlight, yet its outskirts always have thin clouds and bright sunshine. Though they aren't far apart, the weather is completely different. This is most obvious in the northwestern suburbs, which are even one of the Northern Continent's well-known grape-growing regions. From this area, traveling about fifty kilometers further northwest along the Tussock River, the weather again becomes similar to that of Backlund's city center.
Meteorologists have always been puzzled by this situation, unable to find a suitable theory to explain it. Klein had a vague guess:
In the Fourth Epoch, this area was the capital of the Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire, where the Blood Emperor Alista completely abandoned his humanity and became a mad god. So it's only natural that the weather and terrain were permanently altered on a small scale—Leonard Mitchell had mentioned some of this information during free exchange at the Tarot Club.
Moreover, as a historically significant region where humans first settled, this "Land of Hope" buried countless ancient ruins, which could all have some intangible influence on the weather.
The carriage drove into Meige Manor, passed the fountain and the small garden surrounded by the main building, and stopped by the front door.
As soon as Klein stepped out of the carriage with his butler Walter, he saw the manor's steward, Richardson, leading two rows of valets and maids standing by the door, awaiting their employer.
Compared to 160 Berklund Street, the number of servants here was greater, but all were second-class or lower.
Taking a look at Richardson, who was neatly dressed and refreshed, Klein smiled and nodded.
"Good job."
Without waiting for a reply, he took off his hat and handed it together with his cane to his valet, Enyuni, and directly asked:
"Is the living room for the ladies to chat and play cards ready?"
"It's prepared. I've placed poker, tarot, and some board games, and also moved in common musical instruments like the piano and violin," Richardson answered smoothly.
Klein passed through the door and nodded lightly.
"The smoking room for the gentlemen?"
"Same as the ladies', on the second floor of the main building, five rooms apart." Richardson gave the answer without needing any prompts from the manor's servants, not even pausing to think.
—To ensure the employer's first hunting party went off without a hitch, he had looked into every small detail. Though his body was tired, his spirits were extremely high.
Klein then asked about the dinner and guest rooms to confirm everything was ready.
Before long, the first guests arrived for Meige Manor's new era under the Dantès name:
the Macht family.
"This place is even larger than my Elk Manor," Macht took off his coat with a smile, handing it to a servant, and praised, "I've always heard that Meige's homemade wine is excellent, but I never had a chance to taste it. Today, I can finally satisfy my curiosity."
"I hope it won't disappoint you," Klein replied with a humble smile.
As one of the Northern Continent's famous grape-growing regions, this area in the northwestern suburbs of Backlund produces top-quality champagne, red wines, and white wines. However, most of the manors here belong to nobles, and their homemade wines are rarely sold to the public, so hardly anyone on the market knows about them. Only those in high society or close to that circle are aware of the situation.
Meige is one of the most representative manors in this area. Its homemade wines have received widespread praise within its circle, and in special years, its red wine has even been offered by collectors for over a hundred pounds a bottle.
But of course, Klein was able to buy such a manor for twenty thousand pounds only because he agreed to certain conditions—that all the wines from special years would be taken away by Duke Nigen's people.
Macht, being well aware of this, had not expected to taste a collector-grade wine. He smiled and said, "You can open several bottles and pour me a small glass of each, so I can judge which vintage is the best."
As a member of high society, he had indeed never tasted Meige Manor's wine, for a simple reason: he was a New Party member, while the upper Duke Nigen was a major patron of the Conservative Party.
"No problem," Klein agreed immediately, his gaze casually brushing over Hazel Macht's face.
Compared to July and August, this girl was clearly much more cheerful. She no longer shrank from strangers or even refused to attend dinners and balls—behaviors that made those familiar with her think she was sick.
And this was all due to "Justice" Audrey. When she met Dwayne Dantès during the Loen Charitable Study Aid Fund, she mentioned twice that she had recently met Miss Hazel Macht.
At first glance, this conversation seemed harmless, since Hazel was someone both Audrey and Dantès knew, a point of intersection between their circles. It's only natural to look for topics about mutual acquaintances during small talk. But Klein understood Miss Justice's hint: she was telling him that she had met Hazel at balls and banquets twice and given her two follow-up treatments.
After arranging the Macht family's rooms, Klein welcomed the second group of guests for the weekend hunting party:
Major General Jonas Colgr and a friend he said he'd bring.
This friend was someone Klein knew but who didn't know Dwayne Dantès. He was a steam-powered vehicle tycoon, Frami Cage, the main investor in the bicycle project who had used a lawyer suspected to be a "Lawyer" to buy an extra 10% of the shares from Sherlock Moriarty at a low price.
Since this involved a "Lawyer," it made sense that he was friends with the "Depraved Count"... Klein smiled as he stepped forward to hug Major General Colgr and Frami Cage.
"Welcome."
He then stepped back and said to Frami, who had a quarter Feysac blood, a tall and fat build, and light blue eyes:
"I've heard your steam-powered vehicles are famous. Why didn't you drive one here?"
Before Frami could answer, the tough-looking Major General Colgr smiled and said:
"No, you don't know him. He'd never miss any chance to show off his steam vehicle.
"But that car was too heavy. On the way here, it got stuck in the mud and couldn't be pulled out. Lucky for me, I never trust his nonsense, so I followed behind in my carriage. Otherwise, he would have had to walk the rest of the way on his own legs."