Chapter 1774: Chapter 1774

"Burn down the whole world? No, no, of course it's not that serious."

Miss Bevanna shook her head, then carefully sealed the file folder.

"But the current estimate is that the fire in the southern forests will burn for three months, at least three months. By the end of autumn, the cold air currents from the northern part of the continent will suppress the flames. That's using the power of nature. By then, with the help of a large-scale ritual involving a thousand people, we should be able to extinguish it."

"But in the meantime, how many Children of the Mist will this fire prematurely spawn? And will something even more terrifying than the Children of the Mist be born from the flames?"

"That's hard to say, but I suppose this is what the end of an era is like. The apocalypse doesn't just happen all at once; it's a gradual process."

Miss Bevanna shook her head.

Jenkins's understanding of the apocalypse was mostly drawn from the stories of his former world, where sudden catastrophes usually wiped out civilization. But a true apocalypse never arrived without warning. It was a process of gradual escalation, and only after people had repeatedly accepted disasters popping up everywhere would they realize that the days of peace and stability were gone for good.

Several small towns near the southern forests were already planning mass relocations, and cities further away had prepared to evacuate their citizens. But because of the chaotic political situation in the southern kingdom and the renewal of war, the Cheslan government wasn't taking the fire seriously, nor were they making a real effort to protect their own people.

Right now, Cheslan had thrown nearly all its resources into the western front. They seemed completely unconcerned about the fire. At least, until the dust of war settled, that blaze was not a priority for the nation.

Jenkins had already invited the young ladies and Sigrid to visit Maidenhaven Road tonight. The matter was unaffected by Tackwen's death. But while Jenkins hadn't postponed the visit because of his own business, Mary had taken the initiative to delay the important occasion.

It wasn't that she was unprepared to receive guests, but rather that something had happened to the family of Jenkins's older brother, Newman Williams's, fiancée.

According to the news Jenkins received, the family had recently borrowed a large sum of money from an illicit source. A dispute over the interest payments led to a violent confrontation, and on Wednesday afternoon, people broke into their home and beat them severely.

Newman's fiancée's father and mother were both injured and hospitalized. With something happening, the Williams family had to go to the hospital to visit them, so the planned get-together had to be postponed for now.

Although both matters concerned her sons' marriages, Newman's situation involved life and death—he'd heard the injuries were quite serious. Thus, Mary and Robert had no choice but to push back Jenkins's plans.

As for why the family had borrowed the money, Jenkins found it a bit absurd. They had intended to purchase a large quantity of tulips. Mary didn't elaborate, concerned for her eldest son's pride and unwilling to mention more of the scandal in front of Jenkins.

But Jenkins mostly understood, so he tactfully refrained from asking further questions. Family pride had to be respected.

Even though his original plans were canceled, Jenkins didn't find himself idle. The Twelve Churches Joint Conference was definitely happening this weekend. To that end, Bishop Parrold had prepared a considerable number of documents for him, and the Holy See had sent someone with reference materials, as well as the preliminary plans and rough negotiation points that the cardinals had hammered out over several recent meetings.

Jenkins needed to read all of it carefully. This was no simple task, nor was it something he could just memorize. He had to master and understand the material, which would require a significant amount of his time. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ NovelHub(.)net

Due to the confidential nature of some documents, not even Jenkins could take them home to read. So, he spent this Wednesday evening at the church. During that time, he saw Fini again and told her that he had already instructed people to handle the matter of the flower sellers.

At around eight in the evening, Jenkins was in Miss Bevanna's office, reading through the files. Miss Bevanna had business in the Evergreen Forest tonight, so Jenkins was free to use her office.

He sat on the sofa, vexed that he kept confusing the names of the demigod from the Church of Destiny and Equilibrium and the patriarch from the Church of Ocean and Exploration. But their names only differed by three letters; it was genuinely hard to distinguish them.

He gazed out the window at the thick fog, then looked down and began cutting an apple into small pieces for Chocolate. Suddenly, he heard a knock at the door, followed by the voice of Mr. James Hutt from the special items management office.

"Mr. Williamette, Director Bellini needs to see you. An old woman just entered the church, and there's something not quite right about her. Mr. Gilbert and Miss Corshenna have already gone over. Director Bellini said you should probably take a look as well... We can't afford any trouble at the church right now."

Miss Bevanna wasn't at the church tonight, but the two demigods on duty were more than capable of ensuring its safety. As for Jenkins, he was only here because of the incident with the tulips, so he didn't think this was some conspiracy targeting him.

He stood, picked up his cat, and followed Mr. Hutt out.

"Where are they now?"

"In the main hall... Nothing dangerous has happened, really. It's just... the whole thing is very strange."

The Sage's Church was, in theory, open twenty-four hours a day. But much like Jenkins was, in theory, a villain who murdered, committed arson, and plotted conspiracies, sometimes theory and reality didn't quite align.

Of course, the church was still open at eight in the evening, especially since the Sage's Church held night classes around this time. So when the hobbling old woman shakily climbed the steps and entered the main hall, the guards at the entrance saw nothing amiss.

Jenkins emerged from a corridor behind the main hall and immediately spotted her, sitting in the second row from the pulpit. She wore a dark red headscarf, its frayed edges crookedly framing her head. Beside her rested a very ordinary basket, and she was dressed in drab, grayish-black linen clothes.

Jenkins suspected the color was because the clothes hadn't been washed in a very long time. It was the typical appearance of an elderly person from the countryside. Even if he had been on guard duty, without using his Eye of Reality, he wouldn't have stopped someone like her from entering the church.