"Hathaway and Briny praised me?"
Jenkins leaned on the counter, curious about what his two friends had said about him. But asking Papa Oliver directly would seem rather forward.
"Of course. They spoke very highly of you. So, I went ahead and asked if there were any suitable salons or balls coming up. Briny told me there's a ball on Sunday afternoon that goes late into the night. Make sure you dress sharply. You don't want to embarrass your partner."
"Right... wait, what?"
Jenkins had nodded along subconsciously, but he quickly realized what Papa Oliver had just said.
"You accepted an invitation to a ball for me?"
He was so shocked he almost jumped high enough to hit the ceiling.
"That's right. Is there a problem?"
Papa Oliver shrugged. "Didn't you say you were willing to give it a try if you got an invitation?"
He stammered, at a loss for words. After a long moment, he finally managed to voice the most crucial question:
"So who's my partner? Hathaway or Briny?"
"How should I know? You'll probably have to ask them yourself."
Papa Oliver gave him a look of mock regret, and before Jenkins could object, sent him to the back to tidy up the warehouse. January was drawing to a close, and things were about to get busy at the antique shop.
(Chocolate, observing the mouse...)
The five bodies discovered in apartment number four on the second floor of 34 De Gaulle Alley were now being held at the church, awaiting autopsy and identification. Meanwhile, the soul of the little girl Jenkins had brought out of the Mysterious Realm was to be purified by the Church of Knowledge and Books.
On Thursday evening, Jenkins made a special trip to the church to witness the event. He had expected them to try and uncover secrets about the Mysterious Realm from her, but the Church did no such thing.
Purifying the soul was no simple task. After all, besides exhibiting the traits of a malevolent spirit, she was also tainted by the characteristics of the Mysterious Realm. Even with Miss Bevanna personally presiding over the ritual, success wasn't guaranteed, so they had invited the Gravediggers from the Church of Death and End to assist.
Amidst a descending cascade of white light, the black particles clinging to the girl's form slowly faded away. She seemed to regain her sanity, becoming aware of what had happened to her. She gave a slight bow to Jenkins, who was standing to one side, then dissolved into white motes of light and vanished completely.
That was what an ordinary person would have seen. But to Jenkins, a gust of wind had risen from the ground and carried the girl's soul away. And within that wind, there was a figure dressed in a tattered black robe.
"Hmm... I feel like I've seen that attire somewhere before."
But it was a fortunate ending nonetheless. Whatever the girl had been through, she could now move on, just like any mortal soul.
There was more good news that night: the Cursed Item A-06-1-4408, the Curse of the Shipwrecked's Remains, which had escaped a few days ago, had finally been tracked down. Someone in the small village of Little Morton, in the Nolan countryside, had reported seeing a mobile skeleton. The Church of Death and End had initially thought it was just another case of undead reanimation, but the Gravediggers sent to investigate discovered some unusual tracks.
When Jenkins ran into Captain Bincy that Thursday night, the captain swore to him that A-06-1-4408 would be captured before the week was out.
Jenkins offered no opinion on the matter. As long as it didn't involve him, he didn't care.
Today was the last day of the month, traditionally marking the end of the deepest part of winter. Although the weather was still cold and the harbor remained frozen, the arrival of the "Month of Sun and Revival" meant that spring was truly just around the corner.
After finishing his business at the church and bumping into Professor Burns for a chat about the discovery of pre-epoch ruins in a small countryside town, Jenkins went home to prepare for midnight.
He sat on the rug before the fireplace, leaning against the sofa, and read for a while. Then he played with Chocolate, who was, as usual, full of energy at night. Seeing it was already half past eleven, Jenkins washed up, changed into his pajamas, and lay down flat on his back, closing his eyes to await the coming whispers.
The whispers and murmurs arrived right on schedule, and his consciousness seemed to be pulled to an impossibly high plane. Far beyond a thick layer of white clouds, a figure radiating endless golden light stood beside a form that seemed both absent and omnipresent.
The former was clearly the Righteous God, the "Eternal Blazing Sun," while the latter was one he had seen a month ago: the Righteous God, the "Spirit of Nature," one of the most ancient deities. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on noveⅼfire.net
Two sacred hymns of completely different styles reached his ears, their grand and holy voices gradually merging. In a trance, he saw a vast, primordial world, then suddenly looked up to see a sun radiating infinite light and heat. A vague sense of enlightenment filled his heart, yet he couldn't grasp what he was truly feeling. He could only commit to memory everything his senses could perceive and wait for this strange process to end.
His consciousness gradually descended, returning to the material world. At the same time, his physical senses returned: the familiar scent of his home, the soft light from the fireplace, the feel of his pajamas against his skin, and the faint rustling of Chocolate in the distance, sneaking a snack of some sort. Jenkins perceived it all with perfect clarity.
He stared at the familiar ceiling for a long moment before pushing himself up from the floor.
He let out a weary sound, then picked up a nearby towel to wipe the blood from his nose before casually tossing it into a basin of water.
Hearing the noise, Chocolate immediately came trotting back, rubbing its body against the cuff of Jenkins's pajama pants.
Jenkins picked up the cat and wiped the crumbs from its face.
"Did you eat the blackberries left over from dinner?"
His divine authority indicated it was the truth, which meant the cat had freely admitted to its crime.
Chocolate, as always, loved all kinds of fruit—or, to be more precise, it loved the fruit that came from "Mr. Hunt's Fruit Platter." It would always try every piece of fruit taken from the platter, as if expecting to taste something different each time.
There was no time to scold Chocolate. Jenkins set it down on the sofa, pulled the wooden coffee table closer, and sat down as well, preparing to record his recent gains.
He remembered how, at the turn of the new year last month, he had been so preoccupied with the mysterious stone slate hanging high in the sky that he had missed out on a great deal of knowledge. This time, however, he had been careful to ignore everything else. The moment the ritual ended and he returned to himself, all the details he had seen and heard transformed into things a mortal could comprehend.
This time, he had fully obtained two different abilities. Judging by their nature, they had clearly come from two different gods.