Chapter 1451: Chapter 1451

"Alright, then. But how do I get back? The last two times I traveled through time, I only returned automatically after the incident was resolved."

Jenkins considered this for a few seconds, acknowledging the strange humanoid creature's point.

"It's quite simple. The method you use to travel through time relies on a wondrous item created with my Lord's power. You only need to touch a part of it to return."

With that, it plunged its hand into the void and pulled several yellowed, thread-bound pages out of thin air.

"I will temporarily seal the 'maiden' in the lake. When the time comes for it to appear, I will release it. After it has fulfilled its purpose, I will seal it once more. Once you return to your own time, you may do with it as you please."

It then stepped forward and respectfully handed the pages from the *Black Town Secret Records* to Jenkins.

"These pages... what is their origin?"

"Since my Lord chose you to receive them, it means my Lord believes you must repeatedly enter the past to maintain the closure of time. I cannot presume to understand the thoughts of one as noble as yourself, but I imagine there is a reason for it."

It placed its right hand on its left shoulder and bowed slightly to Jenkins in a gesture of respect. A moment later, Jenkins jolted awake in his bed.

He gasped for breath, glancing down at the new pages in his hand before placing them with the ones from the two previous stories.

"Another Lord is involved? But what does it want from me? Why does it always seek me out?"

Jenkins muttered to himself and got out of bed once more. Seeing that his cat still had no intention of following him, he went into the hallway alone and knocked on the door to Father Flett's room.

"Oh, good evening, Saint Williamette. What can I do for you?"

The priest, seeing Jenkins at his door, asked immediately. The source of this content ɪs NoveI-Fire.ɴet

"I just took a short nap and had a strange dream. My dreams are often prophetic, so I wanted to tell you about it. I dreamt that beneath the lake where we've moored the airship, there's a sealed Cursed Item. Its true form is a skeleton, and it possesses powerful abilities of charm and illusion."

"I understand. Since its true form is a skeleton, I believe the church's Gravediggers might be able to assist."

Father Flett believed Jenkins's information completely, not even questioning how detailed his dream was. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, he changed his clothes and prepared to deal with the matter. Jenkins didn't follow him, but went to the kitchen for some hot tea. He then returned to his room, ready to begin the fourth story.

If a Lord was involved, the matter had to be significant. Although he didn't understand this 'Lord of the Closed Circle,' the information he had suggested it was a being who presided over the domain of time. Such an entity would not act without purpose.

"Chocolate, are you not feeling well?"

He reached out to stroke his cat, but Chocolate remained curled in a tight ball, its head hidden. It shifted slightly at his touch, revealing the ring that sealed the Calamity Blackstone from beneath its body.

"Chocolate, I'm taking this, alright?"

He said this deliberately as he plucked the ring from under the cat's paw and slipped it into his pajama pocket. But the cat remained still, merely showing its face to glance at him for a moment before curling back into a ball, seemingly asleep.

"Is Chocolate sleepy? No, it's not its usual bedtime."

Jenkins was quite worried, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. He placed a hand on his cat, using his Life Spirit to sense its physical condition, but he couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary.

"You have to tell me if you're not feeling well."

He told Chocolate, and this time the cat finally responded with a soft, gentle meow.

The fourth story was titled "The Devil Between the Fingers." It was another tale from Black Town, set in some unknown, distant past. But unlike the first three stories, which had clear narrative direction, this one never revealed what was truly responsible for the events it described.

Drowsiness washed over him, and when he woke again, he was standing in his pajamas on a street in the southern part of town. The sky was dim and the wind howled, suggesting it was late autumn or early winter. The streets were nearly deserted, and from the style of the buildings, he suspected this was not an event from his own epoch at all.

Seeing no one around, he donned his black robe and altered his appearance before stepping out onto the street and walking forward without any particular destination. In "The Ghoul in the Graveyard," "The Tragedy of the Pinecone," and "The Maiden in the Lake," there had been clear characters and narrative threads. But "The Devil Between the Fingers" read more like a piece of folklore, merely documenting a phenomenon without recounting a specific tale.

"At midnight, place any two fingers together before your eyes. Align the gap between them with the entrance of an alley or street, and you will summon a devil that can grant any wish. But everything comes at a price."

He repeated the gist of the story. He understood it as a warning against making wishes carelessly and succumbing to greed, but if this were happening in reality, it would be far more troublesome. The tale sounded like a description of a phenomenon-type Cursed Item, and those were generally quite difficult to handle.

This was the distant past, and the town's layout was vastly different from the Black Town he knew at the end of the eighteenth epoch. But the town was still relatively small, so it didn't take Jenkins long to find the church at its center.

He didn't know what epoch this was, but the church before him clearly belonged to the Church of the Unlit Moon. Its location was roughly the same as the Church of Death's sanctuary at the end of the eighteenth epoch, but this gray-black stone edifice was definitely not the one he and his colleagues from the Church of Knowledge and Books had stayed in.

His posture, standing before the church and gazing up at it, soon drew the attention of the Nightwatchmen. Before long, someone invited Jenkins inside to speak, and he followed them in.

"How should I address you?"

In a rather spartan meeting room, the middle-aged man who had brought Jenkins a cup of tea posed the question. If Jenkins wasn't mistaken, this level-four Enchanter was likely the most powerful individual in the region during this era.

"I apologize, but for certain reasons, it is not convenient for me to reveal my name."

Jenkins shook his head.

"Then what brings you to Black Town?"

the man asked again. He certainly had a duty to investigate any suspicious individuals entering his diocese. As for why he was being so courteous, Jenkins figured he either had a unique way of identifying Enchanters, or the general attitude toward them in this era was different from that of the eighteenth epoch.