"My inspiration gave a hint..."
Jenkins lied, bathed in the moonlight. In reality, it was the black spiritual aura emanating from the corpses themselves—a rather obvious clue. Combined with a bit of luck, it was easy enough to figure out. And once he knew that, the rest of the puzzle fell into place.
"Since all five of them died from gunshot wounds, they must have been killed by living people. The Mysterious Object that turned them into this is gone. For now, I'll assu it belonged to the deceased in the basent, not the murderer. That ans the killer has to be an Enchanter... Soone killed the residents for that object, or... the deceased, Sharon, had friends who ca to avenge him!"
Audrey smiled and took out her own pocket watch.
"It's half an hour to midnight, and I need a definitive answer. You have your theories, but there's more than one. Tell , which do you choose?"
It ca down to a fifty-fifty choice, as Jenkins had only proposed two possibilities. If his initial deductions were correct, picking either one gave him an even chance of being right.
He wasn't good at making choices, so he glanced down at Chocolate.
"Robbery on the left, revenge on the right."
He watched as Chocolate's tail swayed slightly more to the left.
"My conclusion is this: the Enchanter, Sharon, was transporting a dangerous Mysterious Object and lodged with this family for the night, but was accidentally killed by the owner of the house. The coffin he was carrying was opened, and the object inside began to affect the Francis family. Soon after, another Enchanter who coveted the item appeared, murdered all five of them, and took it. After their deaths, the Francises, under the object's influence, beca what they are now... Is that right?"
"I want an answer, not a guess," the diviner emphasized.
"Very well," Jenkins replied firmly. "That is my conclusion."
"Congratulations."
The woman nodded. Jenkins had been expecting a twist, sothing along the lines of, "But you guessed wrong," but none ca.
"You've truly surprised , Jenkins. Your talent far exceeds my expectations."
"But... well, ma'am, I don't believe I used any actual divination techniques."
The writer felt a pang of sha, as if he'd been praised after cheating on an exam.
"Jenkins, the thod you used doesn't matter. What matters is that you found the truth."
"I don't understand what you an."
Jenkins shook his head and tapped his cane on the ground, scaring away a corpse that was shuffling toward them. Audrey gazed at his face, her hair swaying in the night wind.
She seed different from when he had first t her. And having glimpsed the shallow currents of fate himself, Jenkins understood what it ant: his astronomy teacher was drawing ever closer to destiny itself.
"Do you really think the Church hasn't noticed the strangeness here? Of course they have. These corpses don't hide; a single sighting is all the evidence they need. But the Orthodox Church discovered sothing else peculiar—a strange power shielding this place from divination and spirit channeling. Anyone who tries to investigate ets with misfortune soon after. It's the influence of a Mysterious Object. The one that was taken is far more terrifying than we imagined."
"But you were completely unaffected, and you uncovered the truth in less than six hours. It took six whole years to learn everything that happened here."
"So... the truth is..."
"Your guess was correct. That's more or less what happened. The full na of the deceased in the basent was Sanders Sharon. Ten years ago, he was transporting a coffin when he passed through here and t with an accident. Last spring, I t Dr. Watson from White Oak Walk in Nolan City, the one ntioned in the final letter. By then, he was terminally ill. He told that his friend had been transporting A-12-02-1110, the Living Corpse Jade, to Nolan by sea. After receiving that last letter, the doctor never saw his friend again."
"The Living Corpse Jade?"
Jenkins had heard of this Mysterious Object. It was one of the few dangerous items Alexia had ntioned that could create undead creatures in large numbers. Supposedly, the jade was a trophy obtained by followers of the Spirit of All Things during the 15th Epoch, after they had slain a group of ghouls in a wilderness graveyard. Its origins before that were unknown.
It was an item that didn't need to be triggered; its influence was constant and passive. Any ordinary person within a twenty-foot radius would be affected, mutating after death. The proximity and duration of exposure determined the strength and intelligence of the resulting undead creature.
Furthermore, prolonged exposure to A-12-02-1110 had a severe impact on a person's health. A shortened lifespan and frequent illness were rely the most superficial symptoms.
Only a few thods could seal the contamination from A-12-02-1110, including divine rituals and encasent in pure silver. The coffin that Sanders Sharon had been using was clearly one such thod of containnt.
"So why was Sanders Sharon bringing that jade to Nolan?"
"To sell it."
"To whom?"
"A secondhand shop."
Seeing Jenkins raise his eyebrows, Audrey added, "Yes, the very sa secondhand shop you're thinking of."
That concluded the night's lesson. Jenkins couldn't see the point in having wasted an entire evening, but Audrey considered it a very successful divination class.
She instructed him to reflect on the entire experience, hoping he would gain so insight from it. It wasn't mandatory, but she still believed that learning divination this way might be more useful than simply staring at a box and trying to guess its contents.
More than the divination, Jenkins was fascinated by the tragedy that had occurred here ten years ago and was desperate to know the whereabouts of A-12-02-1110. But unfortunately, there were no leads. Even if he suspected that recent events in the city were connected to this Mysterious Object, even if he suspected that Provence Lucal now possessed it, he had no proof.
After they dealt with the five corpses, Jenkins and Audrey left the property. She said she would inform the local Church and told him not to get involved any further.
That confird it for Jenkins: Papa Oliver must have warned her. Otherwise, Audrey probably wouldn't have minded investigating the truth with him.
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