Chapter 1453: Chapter 1453

"Conspiracies and betrayals... a classic fairy tale, isn't it?"

Jenkins sniffed and turned away from the cold, gloomy crossroads. Though it was the dead of night, he barged into the church without a second thought, waking everyone inside. He didn't stop until he was face to face with the captain of the Nightwatchmen, standing before the holy emblem of the Unlit Moon in the main hall.

"That Fingertip Demon..."

Jenkins demanded, his voice cutting through the tension as everyone watched. "What is your connection to it?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about..."

...the man who had so attentively supplied Jenkins with intelligence earlier said.

"We are standing beneath the emblem of a god."

Jenkins said, his voice perfectly calm. "If you're willing to swear an oath to that god that you have nothing to do with that thing, I will turn and walk out of this town right now."

The candlelit main hall fell into a dreadful silence. The others present understood the gravity of the accusation, and a low murmur of whispers, like the buzzing of flies, began to spread through the crowd.

The Nightwatch captain, his head bowed, spoke suddenly. Then he turned and slammed his head into a nearby stone pillar. The force of the blow was immense, and the sickening crack echoed in everyone's ears.

As the captain crumpled to the floor, Jenkins lunged forward, pressing his palm against the man's shattered forehead.

"I won't let you die. Do you really think you can?"

The Nightwatch captain didn't die instantly, which gave Jenkins the opportunity to save him. But after being revived, the man spoke no more. He was confined to a bed, staring blankly at the ceiling with lifeless eyes, refusing to answer any of Jenkins's questions.

Jenkins had no choice but to question the church's current bishop about what he'd just heard—the talk of a "place of original sin" that was "doomed to destruction."

The bishop was familiar with the tales. It was one of the town's many legends, a story passed down through generations. It told of a time long ago, before Black Town was even Black Town, when a dangerous and powerful entity was born here—an entity that nearly destroyed the world.

"But that is only a legend. Even if it were true, I do not believe it has any connection to current events,"

the bishop reminded him. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novel⟡fire.net

A traitor among the Nightwatchmen—and their captain, no less—was a major scandal for the diocese. That very night, the captain's house was searched from top to bottom. In his study, the church found an ancient tome. It looked like a common occult book written by an amateur to fool the masses, but upon inspection, it was found to contain actual rituals for summoning malevolent spirits.

The rituals claimed that an ancient city lay dormant beneath Black Town, and that by using the methods described, one could summon powerful entities from within it. The book also contained a corresponding banishment ritual. Although the captain's original motive for summoning the spirit remained a mystery, it didn't stop them from finding the necessary counter-ritual.

Just as the sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn, all the clergy and Nightwatchmen of the diocese gathered in the main hall. Together, beneath the holy emblem of the Unlit Moon, they began the ritual.

As the resonant hum of their prayers drifted out from the church and into the town, the townspeople opened their doors, their eyes drawn to the sight of the sanctuary, now illuminated by hundreds of candles.

Standing at the church entrance, Jenkins looked up at the dawning sky. He saw the black spiritual aura that had been hovering over the town coalesce, only to be scattered by the brilliant divine light emanating from the ritual within.

At the last moment, the "demon" from the previous night appeared in the morning light. Its spectral form merged with the clouds, and it looked down upon the town, its laughter echoing from the heavens. Even as its figure slowly faded in the rays of the rising sun, its expression showed no trace of resentment or fear.

"This place is fated to meet its original destiny. It was preordained long ago."

That was the only meaning Jenkins could glean from its laughter, though he had no idea what it truly meant.

When it was all over, the bishop gave Jenkins his promised reward—several pages from an ancient book. And with that, Jenkins woke up once more in his bed.

"This story started strong but had a rather anticlimactic ending. On the bright side, the plot is finally touching on the town's local secrets. This is very likely connected to why that entity involved me in the first place. What exactly happened on this land in ancient times?"

Jenkins pondered, placing the new pages with the three stories he'd already read.

The original Black Town Secret Records contained thirteen short stories. After only four, he had already glimpsed a corner of the truth. Calculating the time, he figured he could finish the entire book before dawn. Jenkins had no intention of sleeping tonight.

Instead of immediately starting the fifth story, Jenkins got out of bed again and knocked on the door of the old bishop of the Church of Death and End. It was nearly eleven, but the old man was still awake. According to the doctrines of the Church of Death and End, the ideal time to sleep was at the precise moment between the end of one day and the birth of the next—midnight.

"The church of the great Unlit Moon? Yes. Because Black Town is so remote, once a church is established here, it's rarely relocated. Before the 15th Epoch, this was the territory of the Church of the Unlit Moon. That only changed during the religious wars. It's all clearly documented."

The old bishop was intimately familiar with the region's history.

"Then are you familiar with any ancient local legends concerning a great disaster?"

This time, however, the old bishop couldn't provide an answer. Myths and legends can fade with time, and information passed by word of mouth is even more fragile. The ancient tales from the fourth story no longer existed in the present age.

Back in his bedroom, Chocolate was still curled into a ball by his pillow. The cat looked as if it were both sleeping and sulking.

Jenkins couldn't figure out what was wrong with his normally lively cat. He suspected the cat was sulking because he'd been so absorbed in his book that he'd neglected it.

But that theory didn't quite hold up. Upon hearing Jenkins enter, Chocolate let out a lazy meow and stood to greet him. It was only after Jenkins slipped under the covers that the cat curled back into a tight ball.

"I wonder if there's a doctor in Black Town... or maybe a psychiatrist."

He worried, but there was nothing he could do. After fussing for a while longer, he finally opened Black Town Secret Records again. The fifth story was titled, "The Man in the Closet."