Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 686

Jenkins answered the strange question, brushing aside the tail that kept nudging his wrist. The cat let out a sound of protest.

This wasn't the answer Briny wanted. She shot another sideways glance at Hathaway, who pretended she hadn't understood a thing. Copying Briny's earlier gesture, Hathaway took a book titled "Introduction to the Stage: The Singer" from the shelf and casually flipped through its pages, feigning interest.

"So, what about you? If you had two cakes in front of you."

"What's with all these strange questions?"

Jenkins would have to be a complete fool not to realize there was a hidden meaning to the question. But he was missing some key information and couldn't fathom what she was truly asking.

"Me? I'd do the same as Chocolate—take them both. Why would I give one away when they're both right in front of me? What about you, Hathaway?" Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel⚑fire.net

Hathaway hadn't expected to be pulled into the conversation, but with Briny's eyes on her, she knew she had to say something:

"That's an interesting question. I believe it's really about weighing your own happiness against someone else's. If you can have both, you should certainly take them. But if you can't..."

The blonde girl nodded silently, asking no more questions. She hid her face behind her book, her heart hammering so hard she could hear it pounding in her ears. Lowering her head so the others couldn't see her expression, her thoughts drifted back to the rose-tinted dream she'd had the night before.

She was startled by her own thought. Having grown up in a noble family, she was no stranger to tangled romantic affairs, but if it were to happen to her, she...

She forced herself to stop the train of thought, terrified of where it might lead.

The three of them finally blew out the candles at half-past ten. Briny and Hathaway shared the large, curtained bed, while Jenkins took the sofa near the door.

Chocolate was settled on a soft cushion beside the sofa, and Jenkins had even found a small blanket for it. But in the middle of the night, the cat woke, unused to its new sleeping spot. It padded over to the back of the sofa and curled up just above Jenkins's head, its tail dangling down over the edge, the very tip hovering just above the side of Jenkins's nose.

Jenkins was a light sleeper. He must have subconsciously sensed movement above him, because he shifted on the sofa, inching forward and turning slightly onto his side. Now, the tip of the cat's tail was aimed directly at his mouth, but both human and feline were too deep in slumber to notice.

His mouth was slightly parted in sleep, his breathing even. Each warm exhale drifted upward, slowly warming the kitten's tail.

The sensation was apparently uncomfortable, for the kitten stood up, stretched its fluffy head over the edge, and peered down. Its large, amber eyes fixed on the side of Jenkins's face.

Chocolate's whiskers twitched, and a conflicted look crossed its face as it debated whether to exact revenge on the culprit who had disturbed its slumber.

As it hesitated, its small ears flicked, and it glanced toward the distance with a puzzled expression. Then it lay back down in the same spot, only this time deliberately closer to the very edge of the sofa's backrest.

The kitten began to slide, inch by inch, down the slope of the backrest. When it reached the tipping point, it tumbled off, landing squarely on Jenkins's blissfully sleeping face.

"Who's trying to murder me!?"

The twin shrieks of man and cat shattered the silence.

Startled awake, Briny and Hathaway poked their heads out from behind the bed curtains. Hathaway relit the kerosene lamp, revealing Jenkins and Chocolate sprawled in a comical heap on the rug. Even though the kitten was light, the fall had still delivered a solid blow to Jenkins's face.

"Did you fall off? See, I knew sleeping on the sofa was a bad idea."

Briny hadn't seen what actually happened. Before she could offer any further advice, she saw Hathaway raise a finger to her lips, signaling for silence.

Hathaway's gaze darted eastward, toward a solid wall, her expression alert.

"Jenkins, do you hear that strange noise?"

Jenkins paused, closing his eyes to concentrate. He couldn't hear anything from the distance, but he did pick up a faint rattling from his clothes hanging on the wall. He quickly realized what it was—the chain of his pocket watch was vibrating.

"Oh no, it's an avalanche!"

With her diamond earring in, Hathaway had instantly recognized the terrifying sound. Without even stopping to grab a thick coat, she seized Briny's hand and started pulling her out of bed.

"An avalanche? But we're at such a high altitude... unless the main peak of the Hurai Mountains to the east has collapsed. Okay, don't panic. We need to stay calm."

Though confused, he trusted Hathaway completely. Still in their nightclothes, the three of them rushed into the hallway, shouting at the top of their lungs as they ran for the exit.

The group, now fully awake, scrambled out of the lodge. By then, they could see the advancing wall of snow in the distance and hear its terrifying rumble. They managed to reach the high ground to the side—the same cliff half-destroyed by the Twin Demons—just before the avalanche swallowed the lodge. In the darkness, they watched as the snow crashed toward them like a tidal wave.

Most of them were still groggy, some even believing they were trapped in a nightmare. After a long moment, a young maid began to weep softly, but no one had the words to comfort her.

The avalanche had been so sudden and swift that not everyone had made it out. The six members of the travel party were all safe, and the butler had been fortunate enough to escape as well. But of the lodge's staff, only seven had managed to reach safety with them. The workers who tended the steam boilers lived in a small house behind the main building and had almost certainly all perished.

Snow began to fall again in the frigid night. Grief washed over the survivors as they stood numbly at the cliff's edge, staring at what was left of their shelter. The lodge hadn't been swept away, but it was almost entirely buried. The third floor and part of the second might still be accessible through the shattered windows, but the servants who'd been on the first floor, along with the locked-away corpses, were likely lost for good.

In their haste to escape, most were still in slippers and nightclothes. The adrenaline had kept the cold at bay while they were running for their lives, but now that they had stopped, panic and worry flooded back in, and their bodies began to shake uncontrollably.