Chapter 2112: Chapter 2112

"Of course I could feel it. That second one was even more disgusting. All because she saw a girl her age who was prettier than her at a ball... Honestly, these stories are so cliché." Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novelFɪre.net

Jenkins reached for the third bowl, but the elf was quicker.

"I'm your companion. How can I let you do everything?"

"Because I'm stronger than you are."

Jenkins took the bowl from Miss Silf's grasp.

"We still have a long journey ahead. I'd rather not have you collapse here so easily."

He drank the third bowl in one go, then closed his eyes, his entire weight slumping against the elf. She braced herself to support him and turned to the pig-headed head chef.

"We've met your conditions. So, you can die now, can't you?"

"Of course. Then come and kill me!"

The fattest pig cackled and backed into the horde, and then all the pig-men charged toward the pair at the doorway.

They laughed and snorted with abandon. Without the man who carried the scent of wood, the elf alone was nothing to fear... A flash of white light. Jenkins, sword in one hand, bisected every pig in the room right at the neck. The rhythmic thud of severed heads hitting the floor was almost musical, but the chaotic spray of black blood was anything but pretty.

"The third one was even more repulsive," Jenkins remarked. "To do something like that just because you're jealous of someone's wealth."

He helped Miss Silf to stand, his gaze sweeping over the kitchen full of corpses. With a flick of his wrist, he sent a gout of flame arcing through the air, igniting all the filth.

the elf asked cautiously. Jenkins looked perfectly fine.

"I'm fine. My emotions are just a little... frayed. Give me a moment to breathe. That pig was so simple-minded. If that level of emotional contamination could affect me, what kind of Savior would I be?"

He took stock of his own condition.

"This Mysterious Realm might be unusual. I'm fine for now, but if the other monsters can also manipulate emotions, we could be in serious trouble. You have to be careful. Don't let the emotions in these shadows touch you."

Excluding mezzanines, basements, towers, and other such areas, the castle itself was only five stories high, not nearly as towering as it appeared from the outside. The four monsters they needed to eliminate were located on the first through fourth floors. The gem was in the right tower, the painting was on a mezzanine between the first and second floors, and the sword that could harm the butler was on the fifth floor.

This meant Jenkins and the elf would have to cover the entire castle. But that wasn't the worst of it. The real trouble began when they left the first-floor dining room and returned to the second floor to find the path to the mezzanine, only to discover that the map wasn't entirely accurate.

It wasn't a trap set by the old butler. Rather, the castle was simply old and in disrepair, and parts of its layout had changed over time. The butler clearly hadn't updated his map, otherwise Jenkins and Miss Silf wouldn't have been forced to take refuge in a decrepit washroom, hiding from hundreds of malevolent spirits that poured from a hole in the wall to patrol the corridor.

"This is a disaster."

They both spoke in muffled tones. The stench in the washroom could only be described as catastrophic.

"Is there another way? I don't think risking a confrontation with those spirits is a good idea."

The elf leaned closer to look at the map with him. Jenkins agreed. There was no point in a life-or-death battle with a swarm of spirits. They were clearly no ordinary phantoms; even in the material world, Jenkins would have chosen to go around them.

"There is one other path."

he said, pointing to the map.

"But it means we'll have to take this secret passage to the fourth floor first, deal with the monster there, then circle back to the third floor to handle that monster before we can get to the mezzanine."

A path from the mezzanine connected to the second-floor monster's location, so they didn't have to worry about that one for now.

"That works. Let's go now. Where's the secret passage?"

The elf looked as if she could barely breathe.

After shattering the mirror over the washroom sink, they stooped down and entered the secret passage behind it. Luckily, both Jenkins and the elf were slender, or they might have gotten stuck.

The passage was overrun by a swarm of hairy, brightly colored spiders that might as well have had "Highly Venomous" tattooed on their bodies. They suddenly emerged from behind after the pair had passed beneath their nest. Since Jenkins was leading, it was Miss Silf who spotted them first.

The elf remained calm. She took a pinch of powder from her small pouch and flicked it into the air. Jenkins then watched as tiny spiders began to rain down from the cracks in the stone above.

He praised her, covering his hair with his sleeve.

"You seem to have a knack for dealing with these little critters."

"When you're hunting in the forest, if you can't drive away poisonous pests, you'll be forced to go home with your tail between your legs after the first night."

the elf explained, her tone filled with pride.

The secret passage was long. It took them at least half an hour to reach the end, where they found a ladder fixed to an exhaust duct leading up. Besides the ladder, a few other pipes of unknown purpose ran through the duct. Thankfully, there were no steam pipes, or the climb would have been far more unpleasant.

After the long trek, they finally reached their destination on the fourth floor: a soundproof music room, designed so that no instrument played within could disturb the rest of the castle.

Naturally, they couldn't hear a thing from the outside. Jenkins tried the door, but it wouldn't budge. With the soundproofing, knocking was out of the question.

"There's a rope here."

It was Miss Silf who finally spotted a rope, almost completely camouflaged by the dust on the wall. It led inside. A full five minutes after they pulled it, someone finally opened the door from within.

The door was opened by a man—at least, he appeared to be human. He wore a heavy, old-fashioned red evening coat, white gloves, boots, and white silk stockings. Two medals were pinned to his left breast, but no matter how well-versed Jenkins was in heraldry, he couldn't possibly recognize them.

the man asked, tilting his head back slightly. He was taller than Jenkins and looked down on them both.

"We're here to kill you," Jenkins replied. "Are you going to stand there and let me have a swing, or do you have some kind of test for us?"

Jenkins's tone was surprisingly polite.

He threw his head back even further.

"The likes of you... want to kill me?"

His tone was just begging for a punch to the face.