For the first ti, Jenkins faced an Enchanter weaker than himself. Without another mont of hesitation, he stopped backing away and threw a punch.
The man threw up an arm to block the blow and staggered back two steps as a layer of white frost instantly coated his limb.
Drawing a dagger from his waist, the man let out a pained grunt and sliced off his other ear. Startled, Jenkins lunged forward, trying to grab the bloody ear, but his aim was off and the man dodged.
With bloodshot eyes, the man looked up at Jenkins and muttered sothing under his breath. He tossed the severed ear to the ground, where it imdiately began to proliferate. In monts, it had transford into a grotesque wall of pale, blood-streaked flesh, blocking the way between them.
"Twin Demons!"
A figure wreathed in black smoke materialized at Jenkins's back, then shot toward the wall in a blur. An even more deafening explosion followed, and the fleshy barricade collapsed into a pool of blood. The man was long gone.
"What in the world was that all about?"
Jenkins turned to leave, spotting soone running toward them from the other end of the street. He noticed sothing on the ground and scooped it up as he went. It was a newspaper.
With no ti to examine it closely, Jenkins and Chocolate quickly fled the bizarre scene.
The rest of the walk ho was, thankfully, free of strange encounters. Once inside, newspaper in hand, Jenkins cleaned Chocolate's four paws before letting the cat onto the bed. Only then did he finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Why are so many people wandering around in the middle of the night?"
He grumbled under his breath as he sat at his desk, turning the knob on his lamp to let its steady fla illuminate the surface.
The newspaper was titled The Iron Scepter Advocate. Despite its stately na, it was nothing more than a gossip rag, mostly filled with the romantic scandals of minor nobles and fabricated, sensational tall tales.
Jenkins had never subscribed to such a paper, but he spotted today's date at the very top.
He flipped through the pages, finding them filled with bizarre reports. So of the content was quite risqué and implicated several well-known gentlen from City Hall.
At the bottom of the page marked "3," a line of text was scrawled in slanted, blue ink:
Go now! We've been discovered!
Jenkins was certain the man had dropped the newspaper. He rembered that before they t, he had been picking up leaves and had confird the ground nearby was free of any litter. The fact that it had been dropped so carelessly also proved it wasn't being kept securely, but had probably just been stuffed in a pocket or clutched in his hand.
Jenkins reconstructed the likely scenario: the one-eared—no, now earless—man had gotten the newspaper during the night, discovered the warning, fled in a panic, and then run right into him at the corner.
"Interesting."
He thought to himself as he held the paper up to the light. He gently flexed it between his fingers to check for any hidden layers, then picked up a pencil.
Chocolate, lounging on the bed, watched curiously as Jenkins held the pencil sideways and carefully began to shade the blank margin at the top of the paper. A few minutes later, several scattered words appeared in the graphite:
To: Mr. M. Greenland
13 Greenland Avenue, Eldron
Clearly, soone had used the newspaper as a backing while addressing an envelope, leaving an impression of the writing behind.
Jenkins didn't know how much Fate enjoyed a good joke, but he knew for a fact that he'd seen this address just that day. It was one of the possible addresses for a follower of the "Prince of Lies," provided by Mr. Topaz during the Gem Assembly.
But this was far too much of a coincidence. To go from not even knowing of Eldron's existence to having a specific address, all in a single day. Cautious to a fault, Jenkins couldn't help but suspect so kind of plot was afoot.
He decided against reporting the address to the Church for now—at least, not until he could determine if it was legitimate. Besides, he couldn't explain where he'd gotten it. After all, he'd been in disguise earlier. It wouldn't do to have soone divine the location of "the man in the black robe."
"Should I test this address?"
The thought popped into his head.
"But I can't just leave the country right now."
That was a fact.
"Then I'll use another disguise. I'll write a letter and see what kind of response I get."
It was a good idea; at the very least, his safety wouldn't be compromised. To avoid tipping his hand, the letter couldn't contain any sensitive information. It needed a plausible reason for being sent, and ideally, one that might elicit a reply.
To prevent anyone from using divination to trace the letter back to his ho, Jenkins would "draw" the paper himself. That way, even if the paper's origin was discovered to be unusual, it couldn't be linked to him.
He filled his fountain pen with ink, posted the cap on the end, and after a mont of consideration, began to write on the first line:
Dear Kind Stranger, Greetings. Please allow to introduce myself. I am a sociology student at St. Pascatini Academy in Nolan City, the Fidektri Kingdom. My research team and I are conducting a very important social survey as part of our graduation project.
We have sent out fifty letters in total to the city of Eldron. If you have received this one, then it must be the guidance of fate.
Our graduation thesis requires us to research the lifestyles of people from different social classes in the Cheslan Kingdom; we hope you understand our use of the term "class." As this is such a vast topic, we have chosen the beautiful city of Eldron as our focus. I swear by the Hermit, this is rely an ordinary survey of lifestyles in different countries, and we will absolutely not disclose your personal information.
Following this letter, we have enclosed a questionnaire and a banknote as a token of our gratitude for your help and to cover the cost of return postage.
Of course, once our project is complete, we will offer a more substantial reward to all who have assisted us.
Satisfied with his draft, Jenkins tapped his temple.
"I should use different handwriting. In fact, a woman's script would be better."
Thinking this, he opened a drawer and took out a letter from a Miss Mary, imitating her handwriting and projecting the text onto the paper in a more feminine tone.
To avoid causing any trouble for his pen pal, he subtly altered so details of the handwriting, retaining only its feminine characteristics. In any case, it was all written using Psychography, so it didn't take much ti.
The questionnaire for the social survey was even easier. Jenkins had worked on these sorts of things before his transmigration. Though he never quite understood why an engineering student had to do social research, he figured there was probably a reason for it.
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