Chapter 1250: Chapter 1250

Seeing Jenkins still lost in thought, Miss Stevel took a sip of her tea. A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she added a warning: ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novelFɪre.net

"If you're thinking of investigating the Witch's Lake in the Cursed Forest of the Third Republic of Sanweil, I'd strongly advise against it. The forest is now a completely restricted zone, and it has nothing to do with the 'treasure' Papa Oliver and Old Jack discovered. Thirty-five years ago, a battle erupted on the lake's shore between cultists from the Club of Light Chasers and the Spring of Purification. Someone must have used some kind of Mysterious Object, because ever since then, a terrifying phantom has haunted the area. Apart from Papa Oliver, no one on any of the investigation teams has ever made it out alive."

"So, when Papa Oliver went there thirty-five years ago, was his purpose to investigate the cave again, or was he looking into that phantom?"

"He initially believed the phantom was a product of the cave, but a subsequent Church investigation concluded it was an aftereffect of the cultists' battle. Papa Oliver, however, never quite accepted that explanation. It seems he was still investigating the matter on his own..."

This reminded Jenkins of last autumn. Even knowing he would be turned into a golden statue, Papa Oliver had still chosen to ask about the phantom's origin...

"Wait, that doesn't make sense," Jenkins realized. "In that Mysterious Realm last year, Papa Oliver should have asked about the origin of the cave, or even the key! Why would he choose a less important question instead?"

Realizing this, Jenkins recounted the events of the Mysterious Realm from six months prior to Miss Stevel.

Sure enough, she was just as surprised by Papa Oliver's choice and was equally unable to guess his reasoning. While Miss Stevel knew more about him than Jenkins did, it was still very little.

In any case, Jenkins remained in Nolan late into Monday night before finally returning to Ruen. Before he left, he asked Miss Stevel if she wanted to visit Papa Oliver. After all, there was no animosity between them; only a curse kept them apart.

"Speaking of which, even if you couldn't meet, why have you so rarely written back to Papa Oliver over the years?"

Jenkins asked as he rose to take his leave, recalling the Reading Festival gift he had discovered in her old notebook.

"Not long after I was transferred to Turin, I was assigned to a secret mission. It's been ongoing for more than thirty years now, and during this time, I've been forbidden from communicating with past friends and family."

"What kind of mission?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Jenkins felt a pang of regret. It was clearly not something she could speak about freely.

To his surprise, Miss Stevel hesitated for only a moment before deciding to answer. She was certainly unaware of his status as a Saint Son; she must have been doing this out of solidarity, as they were both Papa Oliver's apprentices—and perhaps because Jenkins didn't strike her as a gossip.

"You must swear in the Sage's name that you will not repeat a word of what you hear to anyone!"

she declared with utmost seriousness.

Jenkins immediately raised his hand to his chest, tracing the sacred emblem, and swore the oath as she had demanded. Satisfied, she leaned in and said in a hushed voice:

"I'm working undercover."

Jenkins's eyes widened in understanding. Of course. A mission like that would absolutely require severing all ties with one's past. It made perfect sense.

"I'm embedded within the Church of the God of Music. I've already achieved the rank of High Priestess."

She bowed her head slightly after the confession, as if praying for the Sage's forgiveness for having just revealed a secret of the Church.

Jenkins nodded again, his mind not fully processing what he had just heard, simply filing it away. His attention was focused on the contact address for Turin that Miss Stevel had just given him, a means for them to communicate in the future.

It was only after he finished reading the address that the full weight of her words registered. He recalled the conclusion he'd drawn from his own divine knowledge and instinctively let out a sound of confusion:

He was completely baffled.

The vision he'd received through his divine connection—of one god being an avatar of another—could not have been mistaken. What he didn't know, however, was whether anyone inside the Church of the Sage was aware of the complex relationship between these two deities.

While the Church of the Sage was exceptionally friendly toward the followers of the God of Music (as noted back in Chapter 808), the two faiths had absolutely no official relationship. Their differing beliefs prevented anything more than a cordial friendship from developing. So, for the Church to send Miss Stevel to infiltrate a pseudo-god's cult—and for that cult to be the followers of the God of Music, of all things—left Jenkins wondering. Was it a sheer coincidence, or was there some deeper purpose he couldn't yet fathom?

All he knew for certain was that the situation was absurd—even more absurd than him arranging for his own believers to join the Church of the Sage.

It was rather agonizing to know something so fascinating and have no one to share it with. This was Miss Stevel's secret mission, after all, and telling anyone would be a betrayal.

So, upon returning to his Ruen estate, Jenkins confided only in Chocolate. The cat was uncooperative at first, still sulking about its bath the day before. It wasn't until Jenkins procured some late-night snacks from the kitchen that Chocolate deigned to lie obediently on the table, accepting morsels while listening to Jenkins's disjointed monologue.

The night had grown late, but the residents of the estate were still awake. Alexia was reading in the study, and it sounded as though Dolores was taking a bath, so Jenkins didn't dare pry any further.

He glanced at the time, intending to head to bed. His schedule for the next day was packed: return to Nolan in the morning to follow up on the invitation he'd accepted at Mr. Hood's gathering, come back to Ruen in the afternoon to search for the location provided by the Book Fairy with Alexia, and then attend Mr. Hood's gathering in the evening.

It was going to be a very busy day.

But as soon as he stepped into his bedroom, he saw that his cat had already darted ahead. It was crouched before the miniature ice palace, its eyes wide as it stared intently, though for what reason, Jenkins couldn't guess.

"I'm warning you," he told his cat, "that is not for you to eat. Besides, eating ice will give you a stomachache."

He said this to his cat while making a mental note to find a suitable location near Ruen where he could restore the ice palace to its original size.

Since the palace couldn't be used outside the northern kingdoms anyway, it made sense to find it a permanent home nearby. That would be useful for the future, and it would stop Chocolate from getting any ideas.

"I need to find a piece of land the Church won't discover, one that's close to the city and large enough... and preferably free. Does a place like that even exist?"

Of course, it did. He found it the very next day.