Chapter 1469: Chapter 1469
So far, Jenkins had read nine different short stories. According to the , the book contained a total of thirteen tales. It was nearly two in the morning; finishing the remaining four would likely take him right up to sunrise.
"But if the catastrophe is set to occur at the end of the Eighteenth Epoch, what's the point of sending me repeatedly into the past?" he wondered. "Could it be connected to the legendary source of all of Black Town's tragedies—that terrifying entity born from this very land? But if it's that powerful, I'd be no match for it. Not now, at least. If I had my divinity, perhaps I could stand a chance, but as things are..."
No one could answer his questions. The cat, though it knew the answers, had no intention of sharing them. It lay curled into a ball beside his pillow, quietly observing Jenkins's perplexed expression.
Jenkins was never short on questions, but tonight, at least, he would have the chance to resolve one of the more significant ones.
The tenth story, "The Treasure Hunt Adventure," was a long one—at least three times the length of the previous tale, "The Wishing Flower." It was an adventure story, a genre that had fallen out of fashion in the present day. Centuries ago, however, during an era when the material world's main continent was swept up in a frenzy of overseas exploration, such tales were all the rage. Novels ending with the discovery of vast troves of gold or treasure were immensely popular, much like the current middle-class fascination with stories of chivalrous knights.
Soon, Jenkins found himself in the gloomy Black Town. The village looked a bit more dilapidated than before, with no trace of the steam industry. He couldn't tell which era this was.
According to the book, three young men living in the town discovered a strange cave in the forest and found a great treasure inside. The story chronicled their journey into the cave, the bizarre illusions they faced, and the internal strife that erupted as they schemed over how to divide their newfound riches. The ending, of course, was a happy one. All three received their share of the wealth and went on to live prosperous lives.
"I've never heard of a cave that large near the Black Town of the Eighteenth Epoch," Jenkins mused. "Could geological shifts have erased all traces of it?" ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoveI-Fire.ɴet
Mulling over this question, Jenkins walked into the town. This time, he located the Orthodox Church's chapel immediately. But since this particular matter didn't require the church's assistance, he merely gave it a glance from afar before turning to leave.
"Strange," he thought. "What are they doing in the forest so late? Have they already found a trace of the treasure?"
Jenkins climbed down from his perch in a tree and began to follow the trio from a safe distance.
The three protagonists of the story came from poor families, ordinary country youths just as Jenkins had imagined. They seemed well-prepared for their nocturnal excursion; besides their torches, each carried a weapon. Though they were only woodcutting axes, they were still quite deadly.
"This is the place," the tall young man at the lead declared, turning to his companions. "Are you ready?"
After walking deep into the woods, the now-silent trio came to a halt. The tallest of them, their leader, had posed the question, and the other two nodded in affirmation. Following behind them, Jenkins stared at the white gate of light shimmering in the forest, momentarily at a loss for words.
Ordinary people couldn't see a Mysterious Realm. Even an ordinary person with the latent gifts of an Enchanter wouldn't be able to perceive its entrance—just as he hadn't been able to when he first arrived in this world.
For the three to have stopped at this exact spot, despite none of them being Enchanters, could only mean one thing: someone had deliberately told them the location of the Mysterious Realm. Jenkins didn't know their benefactor's purpose, but he was certain it was nothing good.
He wanted to call out, to stop the young men from entering the Mysterious Realm, but before the words could leave his lips, they had already vanished into the portal. After a moment's hesitation, Jenkins decided to follow, but before he could take a step, they reappeared. The instant they stepped out, the gate of light behind them shattered, signaling the disappearance of the Mysterious Realm.
The three men were dressed exactly as they had been moments before, and each wore an expression of pure elation. The tallest youth, their leader, was now pushing a miner's wheelbarrow, its contents concealed by a canvas tarp.
They didn't linger in the forest. Having exited the Mysterious Realm, they immediately started back toward Black Town along the same path they'd taken.
So far, everything that had transpired—with the sole exception of the Mysterious Realm's appearance—matched the account in the 'Black Town Secret Records.' If not for his unique eyes, Jenkins would have been completely fooled.
Three mortals had entered the Mysterious Realm, but what emerged were three Mysterious Objects radiating a dense, black spiritual aura. Though they wore the exact faces of the young men from before, it was certain the trio hadn't made it through. Instead, something from within the realm had taken on their appearances and crossed over into the material world.
Considering the three had come here in the middle of the night for no apparent reason, the implications of what was truly happening were enough to make his skin crawl.
Jenkins wasn't sure if he was a match for the three Mysterious Objects, and he also wanted to discover who had orchestrated this entire affair. For those reasons, he held back in the forest, choosing instead to follow the three entities back into the town.
They behaved exactly like the original owners of the faces they wore. After carefully hiding the wheelbarrow, they each returned to their respective "homes."
Jenkins lay in wait on a rooftop for a long time. Once he was certain they wouldn't return, he slipped down and retrieved the wheelbarrow from behind a pile of lumber. He lifted the canvas and, by the light of the blue moon, saw that it was packed to the brim with ancient gold coins, gold artifacts, and silverware.
"I thought it would be filled with chunks of flesh or something even stranger..."
The valuable antiques bore no spiritual aura, nor were they the cursed items Jenkins had suspected them to be. They appeared to be nothing more than genuine treasure. Jenkins couldn't make heads or tails of the situation, so after putting everything back as he had found it, he made his way to the town's church under the cover of moonlight.
The last time he had seen the church, it had been the shabby building from the vampire story. The church of this era, at least, looked like a proper place of worship. When he knocked, the door was answered by a nun, not a lone priest with no assistants, which brought a sigh of relief from the weary Jenkins.
This time, he once again used the so-called title of 'monster hunter,' claiming he was merely passing through the town and had witnessed the three men's actions on its outskirts. The priests of this era were all part-time Enchanters, and this one was equivalent in power to a level-four Enchanter from the Eighteenth Epoch. As such, he immediately grasped the significance of the scene Jenkins described.