With the matter of the secret box settled, the conversation shifted to Ruen's new financial policies and banking reforms. On the strength of the novel ideas Miss Stuart had proposed, she was to participate in the new departnt's operations as a princess of the kingdom.
This ant Her Highness, the Third Princess, was officially stepping into the kingdom's echelons of power. What might happen next was anyone's guess.
Miss Stuart wanted to invite Jenkins to help, but he was already busy enough in Nolan, and his expertise in the field was admittedly limited. He could give a speech and bluff his way through, but to truly get involved was out of the question.
He agreed to offer so suggestions, but insisted Miss Stuart should primarily rely on her think tank and Alexia. After hearing Jenkins's complete perspective, the latter had already used her exceptional intellect and sensitivity to numbers to grasp the future trends of finance and banking. Jenkins felt humbled by her ability.
Miss Stuart was a remarkable young woman. After the difficult question from earlier, she quickly composed herself and even suggested Jenkins call her "Dolores" from now on, explaining that she disliked the formal address of "Miss Stuart."
She could converse with Jenkins without the slightest change in expression, as if the preceding incident had never happened. She was truly a woman of great character and courage, a stark contrast to Jenkins's own endless hesitation when it ca to matters of the heart.
By the ti the gathering ended, it was nearly eleven. Jenkins had sothing to discuss with Alexia, so he didn't leave right away. The petite young woman was the Third Princess's closest tutor, so she had a temporary room in the palace. Jenkins planned to return to Nolan first, and co back to Ruen when the ti was right.
The room wasn't very large. It had a private washroom but no walk-in closet. Aside from the bed, the largest pieces of furniture were a bookshelf and a dressing table. Seeing the dressing table made Jenkins realize that Alexia seed to only ever wear light makeup.
"I know what you're thinking, and it's very impolite."
she chided, then beckoned for Jenkins to sit down.
The cat hopped down from his shoulder, landing first on the chair in front of the desk before springing onto the tabletop. From there, it scrambled into a hanging basket on the side of the bookshelf, then leaped gracefully onto the windowsill.
The window was a common outward-opening casent. Unfortunately, just as Chocolate landed, a dark cloud drifted over the twin moons, much to the cat's disappointnt.
"You always know what I'm thinking."
The small room certainly had no space for a sofa, so Jenkins could only pull over the chair that Chocolate had just stepped on and sit down. Alexia sat on the edge of her bed, her beautiful eyes fixed on him.
"Is there sothing you want to ask?"
the woman asked bluntly.
Jenkins certainly had questions, but the words caught in his throat. After the way Alexia had guided the conversation earlier, he was sure that soone of her intelligence had already guessed most of it.
Even if she didn't know he was a god, she must have realized he possessed so asure of divine power.
"I... I don't want to ask anything."
he finally said. The young woman before him was trustworthy, and Jenkins was willing to trust her. Sotis, not every detail needed to be spelled out—a lesson he had only recently co to understand.
Once he understood this, his whole body relaxed, and he leaned back instinctively against the chair. From his posture, Alexia understood his state of mind.
"You don't want to ask?"
She tilted her head, looking at Jenkins. "Really? Nothing at all? Perhaps I already know your secret."
"Really. Nothing at all."
Jenkins nodded again. "Besides, Dolores's situation is probably more serious, isn't it? Her siblings..."
"Let's not talk about other people right now. We haven't finished talking about you."
Alexia stood up and drew the curtains. Chocolate seized the opportunity to jump onto the bed, but no one scolded it.
"I'm glad you trust so much."
"Because you trust , too. It's mutual."
Jenkins replied.
"I used to think I was a dull conversationalist, but you're even more so. Do you rember what I said when we first t? That everything can be asured in numbers..."
After closing the curtains, she didn't sit back down. Instead, she stood directly in front of Jenkins. Bending slightly at the waist, she brought her face close to his.
"No. I know I was wrong."
the girl said, her smile beautiful, truly beautiful.
"I should have understood sooner... Jenkins, do you like ?"
"I do."
Jenkins didn't know where he found such courage.
The woman smiled softly and kissed him.
Although a tiny corner of Jenkins's mind held so anticipation for what might happen next, in reality, nothing did. Young won were always so reserved.
Before they parted, however, Alexia told him of a major event that had occurred in the east two weeks prior—an event that explained why Nolan had not received adequate support against the threat of the Skull Sword.
In the heart of the continent's largest desert, the Sefalu Grand Desert, a sandstorm had unearthed an ancient, naless temple. A rchant caravan traveling through the sands discovered it, but in the end, only a half-mad stable hand made it back to an oasis with the news.
The temple did not belong to any contemporary god. The most crucial detail was the obsidian seal half-protruding from the sand beneath it.
Not even Alexia knew what it was, but one thing was certain: more than half of the demigods on the continent had been urgently dispatched to the Sefalu Desert because of that seal. Even Ruen had one of its demigods reassigned. Now, only a place as perilous as Nolan was allowed to maintain its full defensive force.
A "naless church" had once appeared on the outskirts of Nolan as well. Jenkins had discovered it last year while searching for his younger brother, but it vanished after the six gods descended upon the city.
According to the hints from the gods at the ti, Nolan's naless church belonged to a great sovereign. If the church in the Sefalu Desert was of the sa nature, then the obsidian seal beneath the sands must contain an unimaginably terrifying and evil creature.
Compared to an evil being suppressed by a sovereign's church, the Skull Sword truly sounded insignificant. It was understandable, then, why the Church hadn't sent a demigod to support Nolan, even when the city faced such a dire crisis.
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