Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 916

Despite the still air indoors, the flames in the fireplace danced gently. Ruen was still locked in winter, seemingly a whole season behind Nolan.

"I spoke with Bishop Parrold this afternoon. He believes war is coming again."

"The war never ended."

"Regardless of whether Duke Antak's actions were connected to the Cheslan royal family, Fidektri won't let such a perfect opportunity slip by. Besides, Duke Antak went too far this time. The Skull Sword is an enemy to all humanity... The Church will tacitly permit the Fidektri Kingdom to use this as a pretext to formally declare war on Cheslan. That's almost a certainty."

"So, will the Hamparvo Kingdom get involved?"

Jenkins knew that Miss Stuart's intelligence network could easily uncover such matters.

"Duke Antak's crimes were only exposed yesterday. I doubt the news from Nolan has even reached the city yet. But I can already guess what the Stuart royal family will decide. Dolores's father is hardly a peace-loving king."

"I just never imagined something so minor would reignite a war."

The petite woman shook her head and laughed. "You think what happened in Nolan yesterday was minor?"

Jenkins was momentarily at a loss for words. While yesterday's incident had caused a huge commotion and numerous casualties, no gods had ever appeared on the stage. By the end of it all, not even a single terrifying, sealed entity from some alternate dimension had shown up.

He had managed to resolve the entire situation without even tapping into his divinity. The process had its twists and turns, certainly, but compared to his past experiences, Jenkins truly considered it a minor affair.

"Enough about that. How did your trip to the Ice-sealed Tower go? Did you find the information you were looking for?"

"Oh, Jenkins, it seems I underestimated that place."

She said this with a note of regret, though her expression remained characteristically relaxed.

"The access permit Miss Stuart managed to secure only allowed me to browse the library on the lowest level. The books there were interesting enough, but what I was looking for clearly wasn't among them. Besides, I only had twelve hours. I barely had time to see anything. I was so disappointed. To think I missed a perfect banquet just to go to that tower..."

Jenkins's lip twitched. He knew, of course, that Alexia had also hoped to attend the banquet on the 28th. But fate had a cruel sense of humor. If Julia hadn't agreed to help at the last minute, Jenkins's only hope would have been to rely on Chocolate's last strand of golden fur.

"Then again, if that strand of golden fur had been used on the 28th, Chocolate wouldn't have been able to carry the sword back to the Evergreen Forest in time yesterday. So, in hindsight, perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing..."

The cat let out a disgruntled meow. It would have been perfectly happy to help Jenkins on the 28th—that way, no human woman would have encroached upon its territory. But alas, fate had toyed with the cat...

After that, they spoke for a while about Miss Stuart's younger brother, the unfortunate Howard Stuart. He had been kept under lock and key by Miss Stuart ever since that night.

Making a prince 'reasonably' disappear in the royal capital was impossible. Consequently, Miss Stuart had been taking him out in public every few days, which made the interrogation considerably more difficult, as they had to ensure the young prince's face and ability to move remained unharmed.

But all in all, the thirteen-year-old boy was not a person of strong will, and as luck would have it, neither were any of his subordinates. While half a week of interrogation wasn't enough to extract every piece of information, they had at least gotten to the bottom of things concerning the Tree House.

"The Tree House is backing either Dolores's older brother or her eldest sister. Howard doesn't even know which of them is using him as a pawn. He doesn't know why the Tree House has shown up, only that they're formidable. The group is extremely cautious. Even after we killed one of their level 7 Enchanters that night, there's been no retaliation."

"This is Ruen, after all. The number of demigods from the Orthodox Churches here is no less than in the Nolan diocese."

Jenkins nodded and then asked,

"So why is the Tree House backing a candidate for the throne? Are they trying to expand their influence by meddling in politics? Or are they after the unknown Savior's Emblem?"

"I don't know. Howard Stuart isn't even a frontline pawn. At best, he's just a nuisance they're using to annoy us. He knows very little, but one piece of information he shared might be valuable to you."

He gestured for Alexia to continue.

"The Tree House isn't just meddling in the affairs of the Hamparvo Kingdom. They also have schemes in place in Bel Diran, within the Fidektri Kingdom, which is facing its own succession crisis. Even in the Cheslan Kingdom, where the throne is quite stable, the Tree House has made appearances among the high nobility. The one who was with Duke Antak was clearly not their only agent."

"This is starting to get more interesting."

Jenkins murmured, gazing out the window at the silent night.

He stayed with Alexia until late, sharing dinner and then taking a walk in the snow to enjoy the night scenery. Ostensibly, this was to 'walk the cat,' but Chocolate remained tucked away inside Jenkins's coat, only occasionally poking its head through a gap between the buttons to peer curiously at the foreign night.

By the time he kissed Alexia goodbye and returned to Nolan, it was late into the night. His muscles ached from having remained in a reclining position for so long, protesting as he tried to get up.

The cat, however, seemed perfectly fine. This was probably because its usual state was lounging on a cushion with nothing better to do.

Chocolate seemed a little restless, so Jenkins prepared a late-night snack for it before closing his eyes once more to visit Rakul in the Astral Plane. The cat began to pace before the fireplace, sneaking glances at Jenkins from the corner of its eye, testing to see if his consciousness had truly departed.

When even a sweep of its tail across his face elicited no response, Chocolate gave a happy meow. Then, with a jaunty gait, it trotted out of the house through the small cat flap at the bottom of the door.

The kitten darted through the city at incredible speed, soon reaching the thick fog that enveloped the outskirts. But it merely gave an impatient meow, flicked its tail, and pressed on. Soon, it could see the giant tree standing tall in the Evergreen Forest from a distance.