Magic Miss was waiting at the mouth of the alley, her form swallowed by shadows as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. It was a perfect vantage point, offering an unobstructed view of the main street. With the streetlamp positioned right at the entrance, anyone whose eyes had adjusted to the bright light would find it nearly impossible to imdiately discern what lurked within the darkness.
"Good evening, Magic Miss," Jenkins greeted her.
The woman glanced at the white cat on his shoulder and replied, "Good evening, Mr. Candle. To be honest, I'm surprised you sought out. Is this about those tattoos? I'm afraid I've run into so problems with my research. I can now track the other parts using the fragnt you provided, but the number of remaining tattoos seems to be approaching triple digits. I must have made a mistake sowhere."
Jenkins's mouth twitched. He had almost forgotten about that.
"There's been an unexpected developnt with the Exotic Tide," he said. "You've done well, Magic Miss. It wasn't your mistake; the intelligence I provided was flawed."
He relayed what he had learned from the old elf—that there was more than one set of tattoos. As they spoke, they moved deeper into the alley, as the rest of their conversation was not ant for public ears.
"They've prepared more than one ritual?" Magic Miss exclaid in astonishnt. "What are those lunatics planning?"
But Jenkins didn't know the answer either. He only knew, in broad strokes, that the cultists planned to use the Exotic Tide, the God's Child Umbilical Cord, and a live sacrificial ritual for so nefarious purpose.
He couldn't openly ntion the God's Child Umbilical Cord, so he kept his conjectures vague. Unfortunately, Magic Miss couldn't draw any firm conclusions from the information either, only speculating that they intended to summon sothing terrible.
"An angel of a heretical god?" Jenkins mused. "That aligns with Alexia's information. It's highly likely." He then vaguely brought up the matter of an angel.
Magic Miss eyed the man before her suspiciously.
"You don't happen to know everything already and just called out here to ss with , do you?"
"Of course not," Jenkins denied. "If I knew the cultists' entire plot, why would I be standing here so calmly?"
He flatly denied it but still shared more of his thoughts, hoping to get her perspective. Unfortunately, she knew nothing about the summoning of divine angels either.
"That involves the power of the great ones, after all. You shouldn't be asking about rituals to summon angels; you should be asking the Enchanters of the Orthodox Churches."
She reminded him, but Jenkins knew for a fact that even a level-four Enchanter and Saint with extrely high clearance was ignorant of the finer details of an angelic summoning.
With so many Exotic Tide tattoos, resolving this matter was now far beyond Jenkins's capabilities alone. He tactfully told Magic Miss that he wished to cancel his commission to research the tattoo fragnt. Instead, he wanted to hire her, for a few gold pounds, to leak the tracking thod to the Orthodox Churches.
"And how much are you planning to pay for my services?" the woman asked.
"Twenty pounds."
Jenkins stated the figure cautiously. He wasn't sure how difficult this task would be for Magic Miss, so he conservatively nad a rather high price.
"If I hired a black market broker connected to the Orthodox Churches to do this, not only would it cost nothing, I could even turn a profit," Magic Miss thought, her expression impassive. Then she decisively accepted Jenkins's new commission.
Since the previous commission was terminated, Pomphey's ability orb, which Jenkins had entrusted to Magic Miss, was now due to be returned. It was a special item he had acquired thanks to Mr. Hood's miraculous label, but unfortunately, the label hadn't specified what ability the orb contained.
"An ability related to death. That's all I was able to figure out. To be honest, Mr. Candle, the formation of that orb isn't replicable. My research was a complete failure."
Magic Miss sounded dejected as she spoke of it. As far as Jenkins could recall, this was the first ti she had ever declared any of her research a complete failure.
The orb wasn't on her person, so she invited Jenkins to her temporary laboratory to retrieve it. Jenkins, after a curious glance at her expression, agreed. This was likely a gesture of trust, extended to a mber of Mr. Hood's circle.
Magic Miss's laboratory was located outside the city, so the two had to leave town together. As neither was wearing conspicuous attire, such as a cloak, they could walk the streets without drawing unwanted attention.
Along the way, their conversation returned to the topic of angels. Magic Miss expressed imnse curiosity about the ritual to summon an angel to the mortal plane.
"Speaking of which, in the letter you wrote , I believe you said you'd found a clue about the pirate king."
Halfway there, their conversation sohow drifted to Femishue, which prompted Magic Miss to recall the true purpose of their eting.
"Oh, right, right. The Exotic Tide wasn't the main reason for tonight's eting."
Jenkins slapped his forehead. The cat, seeing this from his shoulder, looked puzzled before twisting its body to flick its tail against his cheek.
"Don't ss around."
He grabbed Chocolate's tail, and the cat imdiately let out a threatening ow, squirming on his shoulder until it nearly fell off.
"I did find a clue about a pirate king," he said. "Rember when we raided that pirate hideout? There was a mysterious Enchanter who wasn't in the room at the ti. I only found out today that he was none other than the pirate king, Diwo the Thief!"
"But the information I have says the Thief is in the Shattered Isles, fighting a battle with the Imperial Navy."
Magic Miss said with a frown, but upon seeing the flickering light of a lamp at the intersection ahead, she quickly changed her tone:
"...a battle. That's what the papers said. I do hope our brave naval soldiers can crush those pirates for good."
"Yes, yes. The navy will certainly be victorious."
Jenkins agreed as they brushed past a pair of patroln rounding the corner. The officers were walking together, each carrying a new model of portable gas lamp, with an external canister attached to the lampshade to supply fuel.
This technology had only erged in the past two years, and precautions had to be taken to prevent the gas canisters from exploding and killing their users.
"So it's uncertain how many pirate kings are actually out at sea. Perhaps Femishue and Diwo aren't the only ones who have snuck into Nolan."
Only after confirming the patroln were out of earshot did Magic Miss continue:
"Diwo must be after the Heart of the Ocean. All the pirate kings need it. Yes, that's why he would slip into Nolan while the naval battle is raging. This is the perfect opportunity!"
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