Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 1209

"In a situation , is it really necessary to send a team to scout ahead?"

As people hauled tents and other supplies from the carriages to set up camp, Jenkins questioned Captain Usia, who was standing nearby. Besides transporting the squad from Ruen, the train was also carrying essential provisions to the front lines. So even stranded in the ice and snow, the two hundred-plus people onboard wouldn't have to worry about food or survival.

"Whatever happens, we have to keep moving forward," the captain stated. "We are Ruen's elite forces. If we don't resolve this ourselves, the battle at the front will be compromised long before reinforcements from the south can arrive."

The man’s words made Jenkins understand, but his understanding was tinged with deep concern. He gazed down the tracks, where a chaotic, mottled spiritual aura shimmered in the air—like an artist had flung the entire contents of a paint palette onto a canvas.

He couldn't identify the source of the aura, but he knew it was nothing good. Jenkins had every intention of joining the scouting party, but he knew he wouldn't be chosen for such a task.

All he could do was watch as the Enchanters from the Church of All Things and Nature directed their elemental constructs to pitch the tents, his mind consumed with how to deal with the Snowman Legion in the north.

Honestly, if he had even a single drop of divinity on him, it wouldn't matter how vast that army was. As long as they were still vulnerable to fire, he could use that divinity to sublimate a blessed flame and call down a rain of fire from the sky to wipe them out.

But out here in the desolate wilderness, there wasn't a traveler in sight, let alone a source of divinity. Jenkins was genuinely worried about the war in the north. Thıs text ıs hosted at novel-fire.net

The scouting party that had followed the tracks returned to camp around noon, just as the others were starting to prepare lunch. All twelve members of the team had come back safely, but they brought no useful information with them.

Well, not entirely empty-handed. They had at least brought back a snow rabbit they'd found, which had apparently killed itself by running headlong into a tree stump.

There were no visible injuries on the rabbit, but it was quite dead. The extreme cold had kept the carcass from showing any signs of decay, so the party had simply picked it up on their way back.

"One rabbit certainly isn't enough for this many people."

So Jenkins thought. But when lunchtime arrived, he found that very rabbit—roasted to a perfect golden-brown, seasoned with expensive spices, and wrapped in a lotus leaf—presented directly to him.

Both he and his cat swallowed hard.

"We all know you saved the train, and you put in a great deal of effort treating the wounded earlier. We're not lacking for food, and missing a bite of rabbit won't kill us. Please, take it."

The speaker was a diviner from the Church of Destiny and Order, dressed in white ceremonial robes, who offered a gentle smile. Though he appeared quite young, he was already a seventh-level Enchanter—the same rank as Miss Audrey back in Nolan—and one of the most powerful individuals in the entire company.

Since the man insisted, Jenkins had no choice but to accept it. He settled back down by the campfire, holding the leaf-wrapped meal. He was just about to ask for a clean knife to share the meat when he felt a paw tugging at his leg.

"Alright, alright, you'll get your share," he murmured. "This morning... were you trying to warn me about the danger ahead? I had no idea you were so perceptive. Good kitty. Hmm, where did they even find lotus leaves out here?"

He freed a hand to stroke his cat's head. The little creature tilted its head and let out a soft meow.

Jenkins hadn't been fully awake that morning. He'd assumed Chocolate had only given him a few seconds' warning, oblivious to the fact that his cat had sensed something was wrong at least fifteen minutes before the crash.

A nearby Scribe handed him a small knife. Jenkins took it, expertly gripping it in his left hand, and sliced off a small piece of meat. Steam rose from the fresh cut, and the rich aroma of roasted rabbit and spices mingled in the air, drawing the eyes of everyone nearby.

He set the knife down on the lotus leaf and, balancing the package in one hand, leaned down to offer the slice of meat to his cat from the palm of his other hand.

Chocolate looked up at Jenkins, then reached out a paw and nudged his hand away.

It was a completely unexpected reaction. For a fleeting moment, Jenkins wondered if this was even his cat.

He picked up the morsel between his fingers and offered it to Chocolate again. Just as the meat was about to touch the cat's lips, it swatted his hand away once more, this time letting out a low, menacing hiss.

"The rabbit is poisoned!"

Jenkins cried out, and without a second thought, flung the lotus leaf and its contents away from him. It was pure instinct, and even as he registered what he'd done, a part of him was silently congratulating himself on his quick reflexes.

His cry wasn't particularly loud, but in the relative quiet of the camp, enough people heard him and saw his abrupt movement to take notice.

Though skeptical, they couldn't ignore his claim. The meat had to be tested. There were plenty of priests from the Church of the Spirit of All Things and the Church of Mother Earth present, all of them skilled in identifying toxins, yet none of their tests revealed anything wrong with the rabbit.

Of course, that wasn't unusual. Many methods could circumvent standard detection techniques and abilities. The most reliable test was always to use a living creature.

There was a river nearby. The middle-aged captain from the Church of Death and End, who had remained silent until now, punched through the thick ice. Using an ability that seemed to attract skeletons, he pulled two large fish from the water below. After they were fed a small amount of the rabbit meat, it took only a few moments for the fish to begin freezing from their organs outward, until they were solid blocks of ice.

Jenkins announced, holding his obedient cat.

"My cat is never a picky eater! There had to be something wrong with that meat!"

Whether the rabbit itself was malicious or if a person was responsible was impossible to tell. As a precaution, the entire returning scouting party, along with anyone else who had handled the carcass, was placed under temporary observation.

But these Enchanters were all seasoned members of a combat unit; they had faced far more complex situations and no one questioned the decision. Their caution was validated when it was later discovered that the ice encasing the fish possessed the exact same supernatural properties as the ice on the railroad tracks. This confirmed that the "curse" or "toxin" in the rabbit meat originated from whatever had caused the train to stop in the first place.