Chapter 445: Chapter 445

"However, we have a significant problem."

The factory warehouse was frigid, and Jenkins, eager to conclude their business and return to the warmth of the indoors, pressed on. "As I'm sure you're aware, the exchange rate between the gold pound and the krone has been fluctuating since the start of winter. If we're to proceed with a transaction, which currency's purchasing power should we use as a benchmark? I imagine neither of us wishes to come out on the losing end, and I certainly have no desire to compromise your interests."

"If you're truly set on purchasing, I'll leave the decision to you."

"Wonderful. Thank you for your generosity. I believe we can..."

He never got to finish. An invisible ripple of power erupted from the tip of Miss Miller's right index finger. One by one, the ordinary members of the swindlers' crew crumpled to the floor, along with their lower-level Enchanter. Jenkins sprang toward the remaining Enchanter, felling him with a single, swift punch. As the man hit the ground, a layer of frost instantly coated his shoulder and the entire left side of his body.

"What is the meaning of this!"

Mr. Oswiki cried out in alarm, backing away instead of retaliating. He was the same level as Jenkins, but possessed only five abilities.

Julia understood immediately. She took Miss Stuart's hand and pulled her aside. Miss Miller raised her right hand as if it were a pistol and, with a subtle flick of her wrist, left only five people standing.

A bitter wind howled through the warehouse doors. Oswiki stood with his back pressed against the wall, resembling a helpless old stray. He clearly wasn't an Enchanter who had come up through normal means; otherwise, he would have counterattacked by now.

Jenkins saw the princess and her maid approaching out of the corner of his eye and gestured for Miss Miller to continue.

"How amusing. You were so confident the four of us wouldn't see through your little charade. I can only assume that either you've lost your mind, or someone fed you every detail about Miss Kingsley."

Miss Stuart understood everything. The expression on her face revealed she had likely already guessed who the true mastermind was.

Jenkins and Miss Miller had no need to deal with the aftermath; the crew of imaginative swindlers would undoubtedly receive the punishment they deserved. After this incident, Jenkins mused, the third princess would surely value her friendship with Miss Miller all the more. After all, Miss Miller had proven herself trustworthy.

"Could this whole thing have been part of Miss Miller's plan?"

The thought struck him suddenly. As he watched the petite woman's figure walking ahead, however, he decided she wasn't that sort of person.

He opened his eyes in his train compartment to the last vestiges of sunset filtering through the window. Skipping meals for an entire day would certainly raise suspicion among his fellow passengers, so he'd had to forgo the lavish dinner with Miss Miller and return to the humble confines of the train.

Chocolate had been in high spirits ever since their subterranean adventure. Jenkins had observed that its daily sleep time had decreased by exactly thirty-two minutes and twenty-seven seconds—a change unprecedented in all the time he'd had the cat.

"Could Chocolate be in heat? But it's the middle of winter..."

The cat shot him a dangerous look and began sharpening its claws on his pillow.

Over dinner, Jenkins chatted with his fellow passengers about the recent weather. Just as they spoke, a light snow began to fall. By the time the meal concluded, the snowfall had intensified considerably.

Chocolate had never been fond of snow, but Jenkins coaxed it into joining him at the window to watch the scenery for a while. They were still a long way from Nolan, and he wondered if it was snowing there as well.

He gripped the window frame with his right hand and extended his left out into the night, palm upturned. But with the train moving so fast, not a single snowflake managed to land on it...

He planned to finish the reading Papa Oliver had assigned him tomorrow; only thirty-seven pages remained. With that thought, Jenkins quickly drifted off to sleep. But it felt as though he'd only just closed his eyes when the train screeched to a sudden halt.

The immense inertia sent a leather suitcase on one side of the compartment slamming into the desk on the other with a loud thud. A woman in the next compartment screamed, the sound muffled by the wooden partition. Chocolate dug its claws into Jenkins's blanket to keep from being thrown off, letting out an indignant meow.

Its eyes glowed brightly in the dark. Seeing that Jenkins was awake, it settled back down beside the pillow.

"Damn it, what happened?"

He grabbed the pocket watch from beside his pillow and flipped open the cover. The hazy moonlight filtering through the window revealed it was eleven o'clock at night.

Instead of leaving his compartment at once, he cautiously activated his Eye of Reality to scan his surroundings. Seeing nothing amiss, he climbed out of bed, struck a match to light the paraffin lamp behind the door, and gave his wrist a shake. Then, still in his pajamas and with Chocolate in tow, he opened the door.

The paraffin lamps in the corridor had all been lit. Their brass bodies and the soft, gentle glow they cast gave one an unconscious sense of security.

The passengers from the VIP compartments, however, were anything but calm. The corridor was a chaotic scene of loud complaints. At the center of the commotion, an old gentleman in his pajamas and a middle-aged man with his sweater on backward had cornered a train attendant. The young man in uniform clutched his forehead as he tried to placate the irate crowd.

He had been dozing in his chair when the train stopped, causing his head to smack against the hard seatback. In the contest of durability that followed, both head and seatback had paid a price.

He quietly asked a middle-aged gentleman emerging from a nearby compartment. The man's name was Adams Nelly, and he, too, was headed for Nolan. As it happened, he was the owner of the Silver Jasmine Opera Troupe and was on his way to personally handle some affairs following the previous director's unexpected death.

Mr. Nelly recognized Jenkins, of course; the two had chatted warmly for quite some time after dinner. Jenkins had concluded that while the man knew nothing about opera, he was certainly an excellent businessman.

"I have no idea. By the Traveler, I'd only just fallen asleep. I've had so many troubles lately... my doctor thinks I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Being kept awake this late is practically murder!"

The middle-aged man did indeed look unwell, and the servant trailing him wore a perpetually worried expression. He wasn't a top-tier merchant like Suares Rodriguez; most of his assets were tied up in the opera troupe. If the Silver Jasmine Opera Troupe were to fail because of its director's death, Mr. Nelly would surely face ruin.