"I only learned about the matter between you and Princess Stuart after arriving in Ruen. That's why you really must go to Bel Diran and explain things to Her Majesty. She's very open-minded; I'm certain she'll understand. In fact, the Queen's steward, Count Douglas Gerrod, is my uncle. I believe you've t him? He's ntioned that Her Majesty holds you in very high regard."
Growing more confident with every word, the Count added:
"This is sothing I'm telling only you—I'm sure you can imagine the stir this news would cause. Truthfully, it's a miracle Her Majesty has lived as long as she has. At her age, she could answer death's call at any mont. So, you see..."
"I understand. I'll make my way to Bel Diran as soon as I can."
He mulled it over and made the promise, concluding it was best to deal with this sooner rather than later. The last thing he wanted was to be dragged into the ssy affair of the Fidektri succession—a situation far more complicated than even the Stuarts' own power struggle.
Still, a nagging feeling told him sothing was off about the whole situation. As he took his leave, he shot a suspicious glance at the Count, whose face was flushed red, as if he'd gotten drunk on fruit juice.
"Hic!"
The cat on his shoulder suddenly let out a small, satisfied burp. When Jenkins turned to look, Chocolate made a very human-like, bashful gesture before scrambling down his clothes and disappearing inside his unbuttoned overcoat.
Jenkins's attention imdiately shifted from the Count to his cat. He worried that Chocolate had drunk too much juice and would give itself a stomachache.
He returned to Dolores's estate in an indescribable mood. Both Alexia and Dolores were in the living room, in the middle of Dolores's arithtic lesson. Now that Dolores was living with her tutor, their lessons had beco much more convenient.
While the two were occupied, Jenkins went to his room to change his clothes. Only after he returned did he recount his conversation with Count Bidden.
"Well, that's certainly unexpected,"
the petite woman murmured. Dolores sensed there was a hidden aning in her words.
"So, what are your thoughts?"
she asked Jenkins.
"What is there to think? Before I head back to Nolan, the Church will probably have debrief in Bel Diran first. If it's on the way, I'll stop by the palace to see her and clear things up."
"That puts my mind at ease."
Alexia said, satisfied, a faint smile gracing her lips.
Early Sunday morning, the Nolan diocese finally launched its operation against the Doomsday Illusion. Following Silver Flute Miss's directions, Jenkins climbed onto the roof of a country villa. Magic Miss was already there, standing at the highest point and gazing toward the distant city. Jenkins followed her lead and stared out as well, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"What are you doing?"
he asked.
"I'm using a special divine art to observe the city. A massive ritual is taking shape. To my eyes, there are no physical objects out there—only several golden threads connecting and forming a pattern. This must be the ritual to sever space."
"How long will it take for the ritual to be complete?"
"At this rate, the entire frawork should be in place by dusk. But a ritual of this scale requires final checks and verifications. The Church will most likely perform the actual ceremony at night, when the darkness can conceal any unusual phenona."
As she said this, an unnatural flush crept across her cheeks:
"I'm so excited. This is the first ti I'll get to observe such a massive ritual up close, and I'm the one who provided it!"
"You didn't agree to get involved just for that reason, did you?"
Jenkins asked suspiciously.
"How could you possibly think that? You're being childish."
Magic Miss imdiately denied his claim.
Performing a dangerous, large-scale spatial ritual in a densely populated city ant that a single misstep could lead to disaster. So even without any prior experience, Jenkins could guess that by nightfall, every demigod stationed in the city would be monitoring the proceedings from the shadows.
He, too, conserved his strength and prepared himself, waiting for dusk to return to Nolan and witness what was sure to be an extraordinary night.
After lunch, he sat with Alexia in the living room, discussing the news about a successfully improved new model of steam engine. She believed that this particular model only raised the maximum output ceiling by sacrificing energy efficiency. While useful for certain specialized applications, the drawback was too significant for it to be considered the history-making new model the papers were touting.
Jenkins hadn't studied steam engines in depth; he was more interested in their chanical aesthetics. He felt that the people of this world, while heavily investing in the steam power branch of their technology tree, had also developed a remarkably high level of chanical artistry.
As they were speaking, the old butler knocked on the door to announce that the priest from the Inherited Sage Church had returned. Jenkins changed his clothes and followed Father Fernando by carriage to the church, where he was able to see Old Daddy through the Basin of Delusion.
"Old Daddy, it's been a while."
he greeted warmly.
"It has been a while. Are you getting on all right in Ruen? I'll cut to the chase: Nolan is holding a large, dangerous ritual tonight, and the Church would like your assistance."
Old Daddy looked exhausted.
"But I'm in Ruen right now..."
"Yes, we wouldn't be contacting you if the situation weren't so unusual. The full story is too complicated to explain now; I'll fill you in after everything is over. In a mont, the Nolan diocese will transmit an encrypted ritual incantation to the Ruen diocese through the Church's special communication channels. I need you to take so ti and morize it all, down to the very last syllable. We'll contact you again at seven this evening through the Basin of Delusion. You'll assist with the ritual remotely."
"So it can be done that way... No problem. That shouldn't be too difficult."
Jenkins's confidence evaporated the mont he saw the incantation. It was a foot-long scroll of parchnt, covered from top to bottom in tongue-twisting syllables written in minuscule, sesa-seed-sized script.
"Is this so kind of joke? I don't rember anything like this in Magic Miss's ritual."
To figure out what it was, he even made a special trip back to the estate via projection to have Alexia take a look. The petite woman studied it for a mont before reaching a conclusion. She told Jenkins the incantation was ant to stabilize space. Apparently, the Church didn't fully trust the ritual provided by Miss Audrey, so they had prepared a contingency.
Reviews
All reviews (0)