Chapter 1847: Chapter 1847

The girls in the alley were already waiting for Fini. When they saw someone with her, they flinched in fear, but many of them recognized Jenkins. After they explained his identity to their companions and Fini made a brief introduction, their worries dissipated.

There were about a dozen girls gathered there, more than half of whom Jenkins had met before. Among them was the young Melinda Priest.

Fini took the paper bag from Jenkins and began distributing bread to everyone. She also asked the girls how their flower-selling business was going and whether the extra daily supply of tulips had been helpful. For origınal chapters go to noᴠelfire.net

Unbeknownst to Jenkins, she had already accomplished a great deal. It wasn't just about her friends; Fini was using her network of flower sellers to try and unite all the girls in the city. They were working together to establish "industry standards"—setting daily retail prices for their flowers and even dividing up their sales territories.

She had learned all of this at the church. At the same time, little Louise, who had become an angel and inexplicably gained access to some of Jenkins's knowledge, was also helping her. Although Fini had only managed to create a rudimentary version of a "Flower Seller's Union"—or perhaps a "Flower Seller's Guild"—the project was already on a proper footing.

With the various resources Jenkins provided, Fini offered every convenience imaginable to any flower seller willing to "befriend" her. Furthermore, since this was Jenkins's initiative, Miss Windsor would also help clear away some of the obstacles on the ground. As a result, Fini's efforts progressed smoothly, and the flower girls were happy to join the group she was forming.

Although some of the girls were wary of her motives, Fini's position as a member of the Orthodox Church choir gave her a clean and respectable standing. She had once been just like them, and her old friends were willing to vouch for her honesty and reliability, which was more than enough to earn the other flower sellers' trust.

Thinking about it, Fini had managed to accomplish a "major feat" for him without him even knowing. Jenkins suddenly realized that all the women around him seemed to be more capable than he was. This sent him into a spiral of contemplation about his own worth, making him wonder if he was only marginally more useful than the lazy, gluttonous cat on his shoulder. This line of thought persisted until after dinner.

It was only after dinner that he had time to inquire about the tobacco discovered the previous night. Before that, however, Jenkins had to spend at least an hour and a half with Bishop Parrold. The two of them discussed the ongoing joint conference. Although Jenkins could skip future sessions, some decisions required his signature to be finalized. In fact, compared to the signatures of the Holy See's cardinals, that of the Saint Son was far more crucial.

He learned about the tobacco from Mr. Gilbert. Since Jenkins had been the one to make the discovery the night before, Mr. Gilbert didn't withhold any information when he inquired about the subsequent developments.

Last night, after Jenkins and Captain Bincy's team had departed, three more stashes of tobacco were discovered in nearby warehouses. The Church's squads even ran into mysterious, unidentified individuals who had come to collect the shipment.

A confrontation between the two parties led to the explosion last night. Although the Church failed to capture anyone alive, they did recover some letters and account books. From these documents, they discovered that the tobacco supplier was an organization called the "Huntington Medical Equipment Company." On the surface, it appeared to be a legitimate business, but according to Church records, it was a sect dedicated to the heretical god, the "Lord of Pain." The cult preached achieving spiritual sublimation through physical suffering. While that might sound like it skirts the line of legality, in practice, everything they did was illegal.

The primary reason they were wanted by the Church was for cultivating and producing illicit drugs. Compared to the deceptively innocuous "Perfume Appreciation Committee," the "Huntington Medical Equipment Company" was a thoroughly illegal organization, long since identified as such. The bounty for leads on them was even higher than the one previously offered for the man in the black robe.

The party receiving the shipment was, unsurprisingly, a small private company with no prior record in the Church's files. After a raid on the company's headquarters this morning, evidence confirmed that the "Tree House" was behind the operation.

"So now we can confirm that after losing the Perfume Appreciation Committee, the Tree House found a new partner and is secretly distributing that tobacco through channels outside the Church's control.

The Church of Death and the Church of Life believe the tobacco's effects are far greater than what we currently understand, possibly linked to the 'Reverser of Fate' ritual mentioned by the Believers of Lies. Consequently, they've dispatched a special team to conduct a more in-depth investigation.

The followers of the Traveler, on the other hand, think the entire affair revolves around the vast, unclaimed spiritual energy of the dream world. That's the real key. They've joined forces with the Church of Destiny, who excel in dream-related abilities, hoping to find a breakthrough in the world of dreams. But I don't think it will be easy. My opinion is similar to Bevanna's and Miss Strass's: finding those people from the Tree House as soon as possible is the most direct approach."

Mr. Gilbert concluded.

"Speaking of which, it's been about a week since we've heard anything from the Tree House or the Gear Artisans' Association, right?"

"Ever since you encountered that peculiar monster in the first spatially anomalous zone, we haven't found a single trace of those cultists."

Jenkins knew that the Difference Engine must have changed its tactics after being rejected twice in a row. The cultists' disappearance was actually a terrible sign, because no one had any idea what they had been doing while out of sight.

His "separation" from the cultists didn't last long, however. The very next day, Saturday, Jenkins ran into them again.

For both the world and Jenkins, Saturday was just another ordinary day. Disasters continued to strike, the state of the world grew steadily worse, and the weather was rather unpleasant.

When he woke up that morning, he could hear the pitter-patter of rain outside. By the time he finished breakfast, the downpour was so heavy it sounded like pebbles striking the ground. It was early July, which by Nolan's calendar was mid-to-late summer. Though it could still be considered the height of the season, this rain would likely bring a hint of chill to the air.

With the rain coming down so hard, the ladies of the house had no intention of leaving, but Jenkins had to go out. Today's schedule from Bishop Parrold included a mandatory meeting.

The morning was unremarkable. Due to the rain, Jenkins felt that even the indoors were damp and humid. Of course, that might have been because the meeting was held at the church of the Church of the Storm Lord, located near the docks.

It was in this very church, on a rainy night last autumn, that Jenkins had awoken before his string of encounters: first the giant octopus, then breaking into the art student's attic, and finally, after shooting the student, running into cultists and sacrificing his own godhood.

Recalling that event from a year ago, Jenkins felt as though a lifetime had passed. He did a quick calculation and realized that in just over ten days, it would mark a full year since he had arrived in this world. He planned to celebrate the occasion—not only by visiting Mr. Barnard's grave but also by commemorating this new life for himself.

He spent the morning in a meeting at the Church of the Storm Lord, and in the afternoon, Miss Bevanna summoned him to the Evergreen Forest. His task was to assist with the final containment confirmation of a highly dangerous Cursed Item, A-03-2-3229, "The Dead Man's Footprints."

The containment procedure went without a hitch, but while he was there, a message arrived from the city. According to the report, suspected members of the Gear Artisans' Association had been spotted at a stronghold of the Church of Sun and Justice within the urban district.

The lead wasn't new. The knights of the Church of Sun and Justice had recently been investigating a string of bizarre disappearances. Most of the missing were well-educated men between the ages of twenty and forty, and all of them were last seen in the same neighborhood.

After investigating the area, the Enchanters from the Church of Sun and Justice zeroed in on an unremarkable apartment building. They subsequently noticed several strange individuals frequenting the building and quickly concluded that all the missing men had entered it. These suspicious figures were most likely cultists from the Gear Artisans' Association.

Thus, Jenkins headed into the city with a Scribe squad, accompanied by Enchanters from the Church of Creation and Machinery. Given that the Saint Son was present, the Church of Creation and Machinery didn't dispatch a demigod, opting instead to let Jenkins take charge of the operation.

As for the other teams dispatched into the city, each was led by a Church demigod, and they approached the suspects' location from different directions.

Fearing they would tip off their quarry, the members of the Church of Sun and Justice held their positions until reinforcements arrived. They had only observed three men, the suspected cultists, enter the street-facing apartment; after that, there had been no further activity.

This wasn't a residential district, just an ordinary street. The apartment's ground-floor entrance was wedged between the two adjacent buildings. Combined with the fact that the building itself stood three stories tall with an attic, it had an exceedingly tall, narrow, and unremarkable appearance, swallowed up by the urban sprawl.

The rain continued to fall. Jenkins stood at the corner at the end of the street, holding an umbrella as he watched the building. The curtains of the street-facing windows were all tightly drawn. Though the rain made the day dim, no lights were on inside.

His eyes, however, perceived a chaotic mix of strange spiritual auras covering the building's exterior and interior. The intensity of the emanations didn't reach the level of a Numbered Item, but it looked as if a large-scale ritual was underway.

There were three Enchanters inside the building, which matched the intelligence reports. What remained uncertain was whether there were any ordinary people inside, and if those people were involved in this affair.