Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 565

A one-shilling note bought them a piece of information from Mrs. Baxter:

“Miss Hersha mentioned during our little chat that she was going to the Mattel Horse Farm to clear her head. I can’t imagine what comfort she’d find there. The farm is closed for the season, and it’s only full of coarse folk watching some traveling circus.”

Nolan City’s mild climate, favorable terrain, and booming economy meant that even in the modern Steam Age, the noble gentlemen were still keen on owning private horse farms.

But not everyone could afford the steep maintenance costs, so some owners would lease out their idle grounds during the winter. A traveling circus had temporarily rented a small section of the Mattel Horse Farm for its performances. It was close enough to the city, and the rent was reasonable.

Just as Mrs. Baxter had described, the circus had drawn a crowd of loud, ill-mannered people to the farm.

The cacophony of voices was already grating on the ears long before the top of the circus tent came into view.

Even in the afternoon, when the crowds were thinner, the place was bustling. Food vendors hawked their wares at the top of their lungs, and a clown clutching balloons let out deliberately shrill laughs. Jenkins couldn't begin to imagine the chaos that would erupt during the Year's End Festival; whoever was in charge of keeping order would surely see it as a catastrophe.

Fortunately, Hathaway was here to clear her head, and she didn't seem the type to elbow her way through a crowd for a circus show. Acting on Mrs. Baxter's information, Jenkins consulted the farm's old watchman about the layout—which cost him another two pence—before he and Miss Mikhail skirted the throng and headed toward the eastern part of the grounds.

There, a low-lying hill rose from the landscape, the only area nearby that was open to the public.

The path through the farm was rough, and it was clear that the noble-born Miss Mikhail was not accustomed to such terrain. Jenkins hadn't noticed at first, his attention focused elsewhere, but a chance glance at her furrowed brow finally brought it to his attention.

“Perhaps we should head back,” he suggested. “It’s a large place, and finding Miss Hersha will be difficult. She might have already taken her carriage home by now. There’s no need for us to waste our time here.”

He urged, seeing no sign of Hathaway's aura nearby. It made him question whether leaving Mrs. Baxter's dress shop had been the right decision.

“No, it’s fine.” Dıscover more novels at Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

Miss Mikhail replied stubbornly.

But to prevent a repeat of the sprained-ankle-and-shoe-removal incident, or a fatigue-induced-piggyback-ride situation, Jenkins firmly insisted that Miss Mikhail return to the carriage for the time being.

He worried Hathaway might have been attacked again, but the only auras he could detect belonged to the circus folk. That meant, at the very least, that staying here was pointless.

He noticed something odd. In the direction of the tents, the aura of the young magician was clearly visible. He hadn't seen him in days, and now the magician had finally filled all his Level 3 ability slots—one of them with a new blue ability.

He actually escaped from the mirror? I never would have guessed.

Until he could find a suitable pretext, Jenkins had no reason to report an illegal Enchanter to the Church. And while he was surprised by the magician's successful escape, reporting him wouldn't reveal what methods the man had used to do it.

Jenkins and Miss Mikhail were preparing to leave the farm and return to the city. As they passed the entrance again and saw the old watchman, a thought suddenly struck Jenkins.

“Miss Mikhail, it occurs to me that if Miss Hersha also arrived by carriage, the watchman here might remember her.”

His hunch was correct. Hathaway had arrived in a private carriage bearing her family crest, and with another shilling from Jenkins to jog his memory, the old watchman's recollection of the red-haired young woman became remarkably sharp.

He provided a crucial piece of information: the driver hadn't followed Hathaway into the farm but had stayed by the entrance, chatting with the watchman. He'd overheard the driver mention that they were heading across town to the south side next; Miss Hersha needed to pick up some things from a shop.

With a new key clue in hand, there was no reason to give up the search. It was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. As they climbed back into the carriage, they both felt certain that Hathaway Hersha was not in any trouble.

Aside from that rather unpleasant seance, this was one of the few times Jenkins had been alone with Miss Mikhail. To ward off any awkwardness during the long ride, he tried to broach a few interesting topics. His clumsy attempts made the blonde girl across from him wonder if she'd been mad these past two days to suspect the man of doing something shameless.

Though his opening was clumsy, Jenkins was at least skilled in the art of conversation. He didn't consider himself exceptionally erudite, but compared to most ordinary people of this era, he could certainly be called ‘well-traveled and open-minded.’

The young women who had spoken with him at length, including Miss Miller and Miss Audrey, had all come to hold a certain fondness for the man, and Miss Mikhail was certainly no exception.

On the way back after the seance, she had seriously considered the degree of attraction Jenkins Williams might hold for Hathaway Hersha. Her conclusion then had been that it was ‘very large.’ After spending just a few short hours with him, that ‘very’ had expanded by an order of magnitude.

Though she was loath to admit it, Miss Mikhail already understood, deep down, that if her lover truly did fall for the writer before her, she wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

Girls prone to overthinking often let their minds race like runaway horses, galloping down surprising new paths. Outwardly, she was still chatting with Jenkins about publication rumors for the ninth volume of the Detective Knight Biography, but inwardly, a thought that made her tremble had taken root:

“Even if we love each other, unless we give up everything, abandon everything, my relationship with Hathaway has no future... There will surely come a day when Earl Hersha forces her to choose a suitable husband. So, what is the best possible outcome I can imagine?”