"If you left this tower, besides everything you just ntioned, what else would you want to see?"
Jenkins probed. The tower keeper didn't answer right away, taking a mont to think before replying:
"I want to travel abroad, to see what other countries are like. The snow-capped mountains of the Hamparvo Kingdom, the natural landscapes of the Cheslan Kingdom... you can't see any of that in Nolan. I'll be too old to travel soon, so I have to go out and see the world while I still can. The world is so vast; I shouldn't be confined to this one place."
It was true; sights like that were nowhere to be found in Nolan. And trying to convince the man to just see them in a book was a line of reasoning that not even Jenkins could accept.
"So, you're essentially talking about traveling abroad."
Jenkins confird.
"Yes."
"So, are you planning to settle down abroad?"
"I haven't considered it. Besides, I don't know any foreign languages, nor do I have any family abroad."
"Alright, so what you're really looking for is just a trip. In that case, why quit your job? Isn't the whole point of traveling to see what's beyond your ho, and then return when you're satisfied? Since you don't plan on settling abroad, this would just be a long journey, lasting a few months at most. You'd be back eventually. So, there's no need to resign. All you have to do is file a request for leave, find soone to fill in for you, and when you get back, this familiar place will still be waiting for you."
Jenkins's logic was sound; the tower keeper couldn't find a single flaw in his argunt. But what he had originally envisioned was completely leaving his current life behind to wander the world. The way Jenkins put it, however, reduced it to a simple vacation. While both paths would fulfill his desire to travel, the difference between them felt vast...
"So, what do you think? Now that I've put it that way, don't you agree there's no need to quit? Most of what you long for can be found in Nolan, and for the things that can't, you don't have to leave permanently to find them."
"Well..."
The tower keeper murmured, his voice trailing off. Jenkins's argunt was undeniably sound.
"Besides, you've lived here for thirty years. Can you truly bear to leave it all behind? You said it yourself—this clock tower has been slowly transford into what it is today over these last three decades. In a way, you've witnessed the growth of Nolan's clock tower. Can you really bear to hand that over to soone else?"
If his earlier argunts had rely made the tower keeper waver, this last question completely changed his mind.
"You say you stand here in this tower, watching the tis change through this little window, but don't you realize? This clock tower is itself a product of these tis. Don't just watch—feel it. The tide of the new age is rolling in, and there's no escaping it. How could you possibly think you're outside of it all?"
Jenkins continued, gesturing once more toward the window, though this ti he didn't point to anything specific:
"Look at it all. Look at Nolan. Look at the countless lights twinkling on in the hos below. You've stood here watching this very scene for thirty years, and you have the audacity to say you're outside the tis? Have you ever stopped to think how few people are as fortunate as you?"
"Fortunate?"
The tower keeper didn't understand what he ant.
"Everything is always changing. The familiar becos strange, and the strange becos stranger still. But so few people ever stop to watch it happen, to witness the process firsthand. People move too quickly, too caught up to notice the changes happening right beside them. Then, when they finally look up, the world has beco a place none of us recognize anymore."
As the tower keeper listened, he joined Jenkins in looking out at the city. The sky had grown completely dark. There were no streetlights, but the houses below, large and small, were beginning to glow with light.
The tower keeper's eyes weren't as sharp as Jenkins's. He could no longer make out the individual buildings, only clusters of light that seed to float in the darkness, tracing the silhouette of the city.
"For all of us, just being here, just seeing this... that in itself is the experience."
Those pinpricks of light were civilization. They were humanity. They were one small corner of this era, and at the sa ti, they were the whole of it.
"Life is far too short. We should feel fortunate just to be in this world. We should look closely at what's right in front of us, truly live our own lives. Even if that life lasts only a single year, we should be happy to have been here at all."
"Sir, are you talking about ?"
The tower keeper asked. Jenkins, cradling his cat, just smiled and shook his head.
"My view on life is probably different from yours. To you, an experience only counts if you live a different kind of life firsthand. But for , I'm content just to stand here and watch. You see, I'm young, and my ti in this world has been brief, but I've almost never considered leaving this city. I'm satisfied here. I love this part of my life. Everything about it brings joy.
Wandering through streets and alleys, stopping before apartnt buildings covered in steam pipes, or resting by the Westminster River as steamboats pass by; taking a short nap in the churches of the Righteous Gods, watching the faithful pray, or standing at the factory gates as workers drag their weary bodies ho; breathing the choking air, or accompanying noble young ladies on trips to the countryside... I love this life. I love everything about this place. My ti here has been short, but I'm satisfied. Even though it changed my original life, even though this place was completely foreign to , I love it here.
I suppose I'm the type of person who takes things as they co... I hope that makes sense to you."
"I don't entirely understand, but I'm certain you weren't saying that for my benefit."
"That's fine. I was saying it for myself."
Jenkins gazed at the lights outside the window, let out a soft sigh, and then asked the tower keeper:
"So, do you still want to leave?"
The tower keeper lowered his gaze, his right hand resting on the windowsill. He didn't reach for the bottle again:
"There must be a catch in what you're saying, but you're right. The exciting life I dread of... was just that, a dream in my own head. Talking with you has made realize that reality and fantasy are two very different things. I suppose it's impossible for to leave this place for good now."
But the diamond hadn't yet appeared, which ant the tower keeper still had lingering doubts. So Jenkins pressed on:
"After all this talk, is there still anything about your life here that you're unhappy with?"
"I'm not an ungrateful man, but after thirty years of watching over this tower, I can't help but feel like my life has been wasted. There's no color, no variety. Even if I stay, as you've convinced to, that's one of the few grievances I'll still have."
"But isn't that true for everyone? So people spend their entire lives paying off debts. Others spend their lives working just to survive. How many people truly get to live a colorful life?"
"Those nobles, those factory owners."
The tower keeper stated, his tone pragmatic.
"Yes, their lives are certainly 'rich and colorful'," Jenkins conceded, "but you are not one of them."
"So I should just accept my fate?"
"Accept your fate? No. What is fate, anyway? Neither you nor I know, and no one else does either. So just focus on what you have to do, and look to the road ahead. Read more when you have the ti. Understand your place, understand the aning of your life, and understand what it is you must do..."
"Again, I feel like you're not talking to ."
The tower keeper remarked, then let out a carefree laugh:
"It doesn't really matter, I suppose. At least I know you've made so good points. To be honest, I was never fully decided on leaving anyway. I've been with this tower for so many years, after all... So, I'll stay. If I take so of the ti I spend drinking myself into a stupor and use it to see Nolan instead, wouldn't that be stepping into the new age, too?"
"Yes. Step into the new age. See the countless hos, and witness all their joys and sorrows."
The tower keeper shook his head, then picked up his glass and the bottle from the windowsill, preparing to head back down to rest. As a new diamond materialized, Jenkins smoothly caught it and called out to the man as he turned to leave:
"In a year or so, I'll find a way to have this clock tower rebuilt. My apologies, but you'll have to wait a few extra months in the cetery."
"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right. What did you just say?"
The tower keeper asked, looking confused, but this ti it was Jenkins who remained silent, rely shaking his head. The keeper didn't press the matter, but instead dragged his heavy feet into the darkness of the tower and descended the ladder, leaving Jenkins alone.
The moonlight stread through the small window, illuminating Jenkins's face and the small diamond in his hand, which glinted softly. It was the seventh and final one. Of all the heart-shaped diamonds, this was the smallest, a sign that the tower keeper possessed very little genuine peace or detachnt.
In a normal Mysterious Realm, the size of these diamonds would have determined the value of the reward Jenkins received upon leaving. But for him, that no longer mattered.
"Sotis, I perform aningless calculations, purely to test the limits of my own computational abilities. For example, I wonder: if Jenkins Redemptor Williams had not beco a Benefactor, but had remained an ordinary man, how would this world have changed."
The chanical figure spoke from the shadows.
"That's sothing even I don't know."
Jenkins looked toward the chanical figure standing in the shadows at the edge of the moonlight. Because the clock tower's window was exceptionally small, only a tiny area by the window was lit.
"I rather thought you'd say sothing like, 'Without Jenkins, there would have been another'."
"No. While history may be filled with inevitabilities, in an idealistic world such as this, the one standing in this position could only ever have been ."
He toyed with the diamond in one hand, letting it catch the twin colors of the moonlight. Its reflected glow was exceptionally dazzling.
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