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[color=9AF781]Time: Morning
Location: Danrose Palace Entrance Hall
Interactions: Dutchess Smithwood
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[color=CBCBCB]Leo had spoken his piece, offered up all the information he could, adding on to his description of Kazu when prompted by Edin and then staying quiet for the remainder of the conversation as instructed by his mother. Not that he had much more to add anyways. Despite the warning from his mother, Leo was confident he was right to cast some suspicion towards Kazu, the man was a shady character based on his actions at the ball alone, and then to have been already headed towards the warehouse only added to that. Based on the others here it was clear that Kazu was the odd man out of the bunch, everyone else in that carriage had been a proper noble with a recognizable title and family. Kazu was either very lucky to have made a connection that landed him an invite or he already knew about this strange party. That alone should be reason enough to question him. 

Far too many of his peers seemed more concerned with the life of a stable boy over what was beginning to sound more and more like a plot to undermine the relationship between two royal families. Admittedly the death penalty seemed extreme but he was a Danrose servant and this was their kingdom, how they chose to discipline their people was not his concern. What was his concern was where his own damn servant was with the shoes he requested. Truthfully, Leo was probably lucky this whole thing was so overly dramatic because no one had commented on his lack of shoes. [color=9AF781][i]Excellent, don’t even think anyone noticed.[/i][/color] He thought, grateful for his turn of luck as they were all quickly dismissed to go about their days. 

Then just as everyone was beginning to make their way out of the entrance hall, his servant finally returned with a pair of shoes. [color=F7782F]“Lord Smithwood, new shoes as requested.”[/color] The servant announced in a voice Leo found to be unnecessarily loud. A whisper would have done fine, or, if the servant possessed even half a brain he would’ve waited another couple of minutes until Leo was away from royals and foreign dignitaries to hand over the shoes but, alas, one could never expect that amount of sense from a servant. 

This was a fine example of why the noble class was burdened with things like leadership and never-ending lists of duties that must be carefully overseen, those beneath them, those of lower breeding, did not have the capacity to do much else beyond following orders. Leo knew he should’ve been clearer about how to deliver the shoes to him, even the best-trained hounds needed firm guidance to keep them in line, the same was true of servants. To discipline the servant for this would only draw further attention to him and possibly reveal a failure to properly instruct the man as well. So Leo let it go, snatched up the shoes, and dismissed the man. 

[color=9AF781]“There was an issue with my shoes this morning, it has been resolved. Have a good day, mother.”[/color] Leo addressed his mother in a neutral tone, no warmth in his voice but remaining civil and polite as he was expected to. He assumed she wonder what he was doing walking around the palace without shoes on and didn’t want further questioning. He only put on the replacement shoes and went to leave not wanting to end up trapped in further conversation with her and potentially miss breakfast. 

Now there was the classic Pancakes in the Park event as a breakfast option but an indulgent stack of pancakes with messy and overly sweet toppings hardly sounded like a fitting breakfast. Bertha’s Breakfast Bar was an option as well but a name like that hardly conveyed the proper sense of class for a young nobleman to be seen there. The Gossamer, on the other hand, was said to be hosting a ‘Taste of Alidasht’ event that sounded like a far classier and more adventurous option for breakfast. So this was what Leo settled on for his next destination. [/color]