Chapter 185: Chapter 185

For the first time, Jenkins faced an Enchanter weaker than himself. Without another moment of hesitation, he stopped backing away and threw a punch.

The man threw up an arm to block the blow and staggered back two steps as a layer of white frost instantly coated his limb.

Drawing a dagger from his waist, the man let out a pained grunt and sliced off his other ear. Startled, Jenkins lunged forward, trying to grab the bloody ear, but his aim was off and the man dodged.

With bloodshot eyes, the man looked up at Jenkins and muttered something under his breath. He tossed the severed ear to the ground, where it immediately began to proliferate. In moments, it had transformed into a grotesque wall of pale, blood-streaked flesh, blocking the way between them.

A figure wreathed in black smoke materialized at Jenkins's back, then shot toward the wall in a blur. An even more deafening explosion followed, and the fleshy barricade collapsed into a pool of blood. The man was long gone.

"What in the world was that all about?"

Jenkins turned to leave, spotting someone running toward them from the other end of the street. He noticed something on the ground and scooped it up as he went. It was a newspaper.

With no time to examine it closely, Jenkins and Chocolate quickly fled the bizarre scene.

"Why are so many people wandering around in the middle of the night?"

He grumbled under his breath as he sat at his desk, turning the knob on his lamp to let its steady flame illuminate the surface.

The newspaper was titled The Iron Scepter Advocate. Despite its stately name, it was nothing more than a gossip rag, mostly filled with the romantic scandals of minor nobles and fabricated, sensational tall tales.

Jenkins had never subscribed to such a paper, but he spotted today's date at the very top.

He flipped through the pages, finding them filled with bizarre reports. Some of the content was quite risqué and implicated several well-known gentlemen from City Hall.

At the bottom of the page marked "3," a line of text was scrawled in slanted, blue ink:

Go now! We've been discovered!

Jenkins was certain the man had dropped the newspaper. He remembered that before they met, he had been picking up leaves and had confirmed the ground nearby was free of any litter. The fact that it had been dropped so carelessly also proved it wasn't being kept securely, but had probably just been stuffed in a pocket or clutched in his hand.

Jenkins reconstructed the likely scenario: the one-eared—no, now earless—man had gotten the newspaper during the night, discovered the warning, fled in a panic, and then run right into him at the corner.

He thought to himself as he held the paper up to the light. He gently flexed it between his fingers to check for any hidden layers, then picked up a pencil.

Chocolate, lounging on the bed, watched curiously as Jenkins held the pencil sideways and carefully began to shade the blank margin at the top of the paper. A few minutes later, several scattered words appeared in the graphite:

13 Greenland Avenue, Eldron

Clearly, someone had used the newspaper as a backing while addressing an envelope, leaving an impression of the writing behind.

Jenkins didn't know how much Fate enjoyed a good joke, but he knew for a fact that he'd seen this address just that day. It was one of the possible addresses for a follower of the "Prince of Lies," provided by Mr. Topaz during the Gem Assembly.

But this was far too much of a coincidence. To go from not even knowing of Eldron's existence to having a specific address, all in a single day. Cautious to a fault, Jenkins couldn't help but suspect some kind of plot was afoot.

He decided against reporting the address to the Church for now—at least, not until he could determine if it was legitimate. Besides, he couldn't explain where he'd gotten it. After all, he'd been in disguise earlier. It wouldn't do to have someone divine the location of "the man in the black robe."

"Should I test this address?"

The thought popped into his head.

"But I can't just leave the country right now."

"Then I'll use another disguise. I'll write a letter and see what kind of response I get." The most update n0vels are published on NovelHub(.)net

It was a good idea; at the very least, his safety wouldn't be compromised. To avoid tipping his hand, the letter couldn't contain any sensitive information. It needed a plausible reason for being sent, and ideally, one that might elicit a reply.

To prevent anyone from using divination to trace the letter back to his home, Jenkins would "draw" the paper himself. That way, even if the paper's origin was discovered to be unusual, it couldn't be linked to him.

He filled his fountain pen with ink, posted the cap on the end, and after a moment of consideration, began to write on the first line:

Dear Kind Stranger, Greetings. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a sociology student at St. Pascatini Academy in Nolan City, the Fidektri Kingdom. My research team and I are conducting a very important social survey as part of our graduation project.

We have sent out fifty letters in total to the city of Eldron. If you have received this one, then it must be the guidance of fate.

Our graduation thesis requires us to research the lifestyles of people from different social classes in the Cheslan Kingdom; we hope you understand our use of the term "class." As this is such a vast topic, we have chosen the beautiful city of Eldron as our focus. I swear by the Hermit, this is merely an ordinary survey of lifestyles in different countries, and we will absolutely not disclose your personal information.

Following this letter, we have enclosed a questionnaire and a banknote as a token of our gratitude for your help and to cover the cost of return postage.

Of course, once our project is complete, we will offer a more substantial reward to all who have assisted us.

Satisfied with his draft, Jenkins tapped his temple.

"I should use different handwriting. In fact, a woman's script would be better."

Thinking this, he opened a drawer and took out a letter from a Miss Mary, imitating her handwriting and projecting the text onto the paper in a more feminine tone.

To avoid causing any trouble for his pen pal, he subtly altered some details of the handwriting, retaining only its feminine characteristics. In any case, it was all written using Psychography, so it didn't take much time.

The questionnaire for the social survey was even easier. Jenkins had worked on these sorts of things before his transmigration. Though he never quite understood why an engineering student had to do social research, he figured there was probably a reason for it.