After pouring out her story to Jenkins, the woman’s haggard face relaxed with an expression of relief.
“I rarely speak of my life to others.”
“Don’t you have friends at the factory?”
“Everyone is very busy. Besides, sir, do you find pitiful?”
There were far more pitiful people than her. At the very least, she could still scrape by, a luxury many could only dream of.
“Every family has its story, and mine isn’t particularly unusual, which is why I seldom tell it. I don’t want people’s pity, and besides, I don’t think I need it.”
They finally reached the crest of the gentle slope, where the road ahead straightened out. The light of the setting sun, breaking through after the rain, was exceptionally brilliant—an orange-yellow glow that carried an almost fierce warmth.
With the rain gone, the streets had grown more crowded. Every scene here was a tableau of this magnificent, turbulent era. Jenkins even thought that if soone could docunt everything that happened on this single street, those records alone could paint a complete picture of Nolan in the sumr of 1865.
“Do you find life exhausting?”
He finally asked the question. The woman didn’t look at him, her gaze fixed on the children running along the street.
“How could it not be? But since this is the life I chose, I have to accept it.”
Two children chasing each other darted past them, and they paused, waiting for the pair to scramble to the side of the road.
“Sotis I think how blissful it would be to fall asleep and never wake up. But whenever that happens, I force myself to get up and go to work. I have no choice. After all, I still have them.”
She was a plain-looking woman, her appearance worn down by physical labor and the pressures of life. But Jenkins found himself drawn to her face at that mont, a face that represented the vast majority of people in this world.
“So people work to make money; others work simply to survive. I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t feel tired. Everyone knows how tedious and grueling factory work is. But so what? We don’t have a choice. Or rather, the choices we made when we were young led to this life.”
“So, do you resent your life, or do you resent the man who abandoned you and your children?”
Jenkins asked again.
“I resent them both. That man and this life... they both make miserable. But I resent myself, too... But what does it matter?”
The woman posed the question once more.
“Life has to go on. Work, live, and watch the children grow day by day. Maybe their lives will be worse than mine, or maybe they’ll be better than I can imagine. But none of that matters anymore. I never dare to look ahead. I just keep my head down and walk, walking as fast as I can. That way, I can forget my troubles for a little while. I suppose you could say I’m a very hardworking woman.”
She said the words herself, without any prompting from Jenkins.
“If my family had been happy, I would have been a good housewife. But since this is how things turned out, all I can do is work harder. Otherwise, my children will truly have no future.”
At an intersection, they turned into a side alley, leaving the main road and entering the tangled labyrinth of the slums. The population density here was imnse, and on this warm sumr evening, the narrow lane was teeming with people.
Children laughed and played while housewives sat on their doorsteps washing vegetables. n gathered in small groups, chatting about everything and nothing, or perhaps discussing their recent earnings.
The woman’s ho was nearby; she was just like everyone else here. People greeted her, and she returned their greetings.
“Look at the people here. Is any one of them different from ? I believe that even in cities I’ve never been to, most people are just like . Life is a constant hustle. We work hard. I suppose that’s just what life is.”
Walking side by side, they finally arrived at the woman’s door. The younger girl, watched over by the older boy, sat on the ground, blissfully playing with sand. The eldest girl erged with a spatula in hand to welco her mother.
The family of four went inside, but Jenkins didn’t follow. Instead, he reached out and caught the heart-shaped diamond that floated toward him.
Patting the well-behaved cat on his shoulder, Jenkins turned to face the chanical man that had been following him the entire ti.
“How strange,” he said. “I didn’t even do anything.”
Jenkins hadn’t wanted to use a painted future to trick the woman into working hard. His plan had been to inspire her to love life and cherish the present. He’d intended to have the conversation in her ho, where it would have been easier.
But he hadn’t done a thing, and the diamond had appeared. He had rely been a listener, exchanging a few words with the woman, but exerting no influence whatsoever.
“The seven objectives vary in difficulty. Perhaps this one was simply the easiest of them all,” the chanical man said, joining Jenkins in looking at the diamond in his hand.
The rain had stopped, the clouds had scattered, and in the magnificent light of the setting sun, the facets of the diamond still refracted a dazzling brilliance. It wasn’t large, nor was it particularly warm, but it was undeniably real.
“Do you pity this woman?” the chanical man asked.
“Yes. I didn’t feel it on the way here, but looking at this diamond, I truly pity her. At the sa ti, I also want to smash your head in.”
“But her life has nothing to do with . I did nothing. I rely brought you here to see all this.”
It was right. The woman’s current life was indeed unrelated to it, but that didn’t stop the disgust for the Difference Engine from growing in Jenkins’s heart.
It wasn’t because it had brought him to witness this scene; Jenkins wasn’t so petty. He detested the Difference Engine's deliberate attempt to toy with his emotions. This Mysterious Realm was clearly designed to target his state of mind.
The ninth Mysterious Realm was the last. Perhaps the Difference Engine wanted to make Jenkins hesitate before the final battle, to make him falter. But all it did was strengthen his resolve to destroy it.
“Even if I hadn’t brought you here, this person would still exist; you simply wouldn’t have seen her. Or is your anger rely because I brought you to see sothing you didn’t want to see, to think about sothing you didn’t want to think about?”
“I’m not that shallow,” Jenkins replied. He tossed the diamond to the chanical man and turned toward the woman’s door. Pushing it open, he found himself back in Pops Antique Shop.
“You see, Savior Williams, not seeing sothing doesn’t an it doesn’t exist. I brought you to see—”
The chanical man followed Jenkins back into the shop, then fell silent. Together, they saw that Papa Oliver’s chair was now empty.
“See? I knew sothing unexpected would happen. Things always do. That’s been my experience over the years.”
The chanical man scurried back behind the counter.
“When creating any model, one must account for variables. The complexity of reality presents a countless number of them, and only an existence like myself can possibly calculate every eventuality. I predicted that soone would enter the final Mysterious Realm ahead of schedule, but not in this manner. It seems I underestimated the Orthodox Church. But they are the churches of the Righteous Gods, after all. It’s only natural they’d possess so abilities beyond my calculations.”
“Papa Oliver was really here?” Jenkins mused for a mont before asking, “Aren’t you going to stop him?”
“Why would I? The owner of this antique shop has undoubtedly gone to the final clock tower. We are headed there as well, so there’s no need to intercept him.”
“Aren’t you worried that I’ll stall for ti here, giving Papa Oliver more ti to prepare in the clock tower?” Jenkins asked.
“Of course not. Why do you think I’ve spent so much ti talking with you in the ninth Mysterious Realm?” the chanical man countered. Jenkins answered without hesitation.
“To buy ti, so your core can fuse as much as possible.”
“You figured it out?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then why were you willing to waste words with here? You couldn’t have just thought of this, could you?”
Jenkins smiled, leaning against the counter as he set his cat down and stroked it with one hand.
“Actually, I’d be quite happy to see you beco a Calamity Beast.”
“Why?”
“If I stop you, I’ll have prevented the apocalypse, but it would an the Eighteenth Epoch is missing a Calamity Beast. So, while we’re busy dealing with the aftermath and waiting for the divine decree to announce the start of the Nineteenth Epoch, another Calamity Beast is bound to appear—one that nobody knows anything about.
Therefore, rather than face an unknown enemy, it’s better to let you beco the Calamity Beast, and then let defeat you. Wouldn’t that be much more convenient?” Jenkins declared.
“You’re that confident? Confident that even after I beco a Calamity Beast, you can still handle ?”
“If you don’t believe , why don’t we skip the clock tower and have our final battle right here? Of course, that’s assuming your core dares to show itself to right now.”
The chanical man had yet to react to Jenkins’s taunt, but Chocolate, under his hand, perked up. It had been lounging on the counter, letting Jenkins scratch its head. Now, forgetting its owner’s affection, it shot to its feet, eyes wide with excitent, eagerly scanning its surroundings as if hoping the battle would begin at any mont.
Chocolate believed its mont to shine had finally arrived.
“We must all follow the rules. Since it was decided that you would et at the end of the ninth level, you must complete the adventure of this Mysterious Realm before you can see .”
“You still want more ti to fuse the primordial steam engine and the chanical Heart, don’t you? See, you’re still afraid,” Jenkins pressed.
“Think whatever you like.”
Because it wasn’t a direct answer, Jenkins’s divine domain couldn’t determine if it was a lie.
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