Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 638

Jenkins didn't know what might happen if he lingered in the house for too long, so he started from the last diary entry and worked his way backward. The final entry was dated last Tuesday, its content a mere two lines:

[Our luck couldn't last forever. Fate is fair.

I always knew this day would come, I just never thought it would be so soon.]

Jenkins froze, a sudden understanding dawning on him. He finally grasped what was happening.

"Fini, just how lucky was the Stress family?"

She tugged on Jenkins's sleeve, her voice full of conviction as she replied.

In that case, this was most likely a catastrophe born of greed. No one could remain lucky forever—a lesson Jenkins understood all too well—and using supernatural power to maintain such fortune was bound to have dire consequences.

He spent about ten minutes skimming through the diary, getting a rough sense of its contents. Most of it consisted of Mr. Stress chronicling his daily "luck." If the entries were to be believed, the family's annual income should have been even higher than Jenkins's, which made it all the more baffling why they still lived in a place .

He asked Fini to recall if anything noteworthy had happened with the Stress family back then, but she couldn't think of anything. She was completely unaware of the events described in the diary. Clearly, Mr. and Mrs. Stress had kept their secret from everyone outside the family.

The diary only hinted at what might have transpired here. The truly unsettling development was that his companion was gradually beginning to show the same signs of blurred consciousness and listlessness.

At first, Jenkins had assumed it was because the young girl had woken up too early that morning. But then he remembered that back when she was the Young Flower Seller, she would have risen even earlier than this.

Drowsiness was only the initial symptom of this condition, and Jenkins knew he had to do something before things took a turn for the worse.

The house was only so big; finding anything else would be difficult. After his quick look through the diary, he took Fini's hand and returned to the living room, approaching the members of the Stress family.

"Mrs. Stress? Can you hear me?"

The woman didn't react. She stared blankly ahead, her eyes utterly devoid of light, like a corpse that had lost its soul.

He conjured some ice and pressed it against the woman's skin. She just shuddered violently and looked at Jenkins, but made no attempt to speak.

"Fini, you give it a try."

The girl spoke sluggishly, but thankfully she could still clearly understand Jenkins's intent.

"Auntie, it's me, Fini. What happened here?"

Although she reacted slightly to the name "Fini," she still didn't open her mouth.

Fini's cousins were in the same state. Mr. Stress didn't react to their words either, but when Jenkins placed the diary in front of him, the man suddenly sprang up from the floor.

"We're all going to die! Retribution is here! I knew it, you can never trust the words of a demon!"

He bellowed, flailing his arms hysterically as if to attack Jenkins and Fini. Left with no other choice, Jenkins had to knock him unconscious.

He was puzzled. What was happening here seemed to have no connection to that kind of creature; after all, he couldn't smell the slightest hint of sulfur. And according to continental custom, the word "demon" could also refer to a wicked person or a cunning merchant. Mr. Stress probably wasn't talking about an actual otherworldly being.

"So what in the world is it?"

He glanced again at the only unexplored room, the master bedroom. The thing that looked like a statue was still standing there quietly. It was roughly the same height as the girl whose hand he held, but its silhouette was as round as a water vat.

"There's no other way..."

He hesitated at the bedroom door for a long time before finally making up his mind. He reached out, grasped the doorknob, and pushed the door open to step inside.

As the door swung open, a blast of cold, gloomy wind rushed out, making both of them shiver violently. Jenkins's assessment had been completely wrong. The thing inside the bedroom wasn't a statue at all, but a monster with blue skin.

It looked like a fiend from ancient myths, or a monster from a fairy tale passed down through generations. It was short and stout, with ears and eyes that were frighteningly large. On its twelve thick fingers, it wore gemstone rings of different colors. It hadn't moved a muscle until it saw living people enter, which was one reason Jenkins had mistaken it for a statue.

"Well, well~ Look what we have here~"

A malicious grin spread across its face as it looked cunningly at the man and girl who had just entered. Fini immediately ducked behind Jenkins, and the cat let out a defiant meow.

"New traders? This is just wonderful, caw-caw-caw~"

Its laughter sounded like a crow with a ruined throat. This was undoubtedly a Cursed Item. However, its perception was clearly not as sharp as that of the candy-giving Extraordinary item; it hadn't realized that the man standing before it was no ordinary mortal. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novèlfire.net

"I'm not here to make a deal. Please let us leave."

It was a probe; Jenkins didn't expect it to be that simple.

"I can't do that. This place belongs to me now. Since you've walked in, I can't actively harm you, but I certainly won't be letting you leave. Come, make a deal. It's the only way for you to survive."

"I noticed you used the singular 'you,' not the plural."

Even if it didn't consider his cat, Chocolate, a party to the deal, it still shouldn't have used a singular pronoun when addressing both Jenkins and the girl.

"She is already a party to the deal."

"No, sir, I don't know anything," Fini argued in confusion, her mental state deteriorating rapidly.

"I never deal with individuals. I only make deals with an entire family. The woman in the living room doesn't have many relatives, so she..."

The monster pointed a stubby finger at Fini. "Even if she knows nothing, she is considered one of the parties to the deal by default."

"What is it you're trading, exactly?" Jenkins asked.

"Good question! I trade luck. I give the entire family more luck."

It rubbed its fingers together in front of Jenkins, deliberately making the metal rings on them clash with a discordant clatter.

"And the price?" Jenkins pressed.

"There is no price..."

Jenkins just snorted in response. No one would believe such a thing.