Lord of The Mysterious Realms - Chapter 16: A Lucky Family

“Here’s a gift, congratulations on getting your first job in life. I don’t have the kind of talent that you have, but I know that you are going to become one of the the most solid and reliable backbone of the church.”

Looking at the smiling old man, Jenkins felt the urge to cry for a moment; it had been a long time since he had experienced such care and concern from anyone.

He made up his mind to visit the old man at the church more often whenever he could, and then placed the brooch on his chest.

The old man himself came to send Jenkins at the door of the church, on the way he was greeted by acquaintances of the original owner along the way and the Bishop informed everyone while passing, that Jenkins had finally found a decent job thanks to his persuasion. The Williams family have a very close relation with the church and were one of those most devout believers, so many of the church members were aware of Jenkins’ situation.

It was already very late when Jenkins bid farewell to the old man and started walking down the street. The clouds, red as fire, were looking very glorious in the sky, and the working class . A few scuffling little children ran barefoot past Jenkins, and were chided again by the postman who had nearly been knocked over on the other side. The rattles of the carriage to alert pedestrians rang from far and near, and the gentleman in the carriage, with his bowler hat, covered his nose and looked with some disgust at the drunken man who disappeared deeper into the alley. It was a clear day, so one could look out at the thick chimney in the distance, there was black smoke still puffing out of it.

“Welcome to the world, Jenkin.”

(TN : His real name lol)

He stopped in his tracks and said to himself in his mind.

The church of [ Knowledge and Books] was located in the centre of Nolan, from the location point of view, it was pretty far from Jenkins’ home.

Jenkins stared at the sunset alone for a while, reflecting on everything that had happened to him and resolving to live a different life from now on.

This body is 20 years old, which is old enough to be a father in this day and age, but Jenkins still behaves like a child.

It not only refers to him living with parents, but in all aspects of his image and behaviour.

He thought for a while and decided to go back by carriage. The original owner didn’t come this way often so he only has a vague memory of the way back, and he also has money now so taking a carriage is the better option.

He walked along the main road for a while and found an empty carriage at the next intersection. The coachman with the dark hat eyed Jenkins suspiciously for a while until he saw the silver brooch on his chest.

” It seems to be despised.”

Jenkins thought in his mind.

The city of Nolan was one of the most developed of the coastal cities in the Kingdom of Fidectelli, and it was not only the estuary of many rivers , but also an extremely good deep water port. Although it is impossible to keep it from freezing all year round, the city is always bustling with activity even in the coldest winter months.

(TN: Estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body with one or more rivers flowing into it, and with a free connection to open sea. Examples are Hudson river in NYC , Thames in England etc. )

The city has grown in size in recent years because of the many tasks it carries. The constant influx of bankrupt peasants and speculators has made the slums of the lower city bigger and bigger; and the capitalists and nobles have made enough profit to expect more shops and places of entertainment to appear in the city for their enjoyment.

“This is both the best and the worst time.”

Jenkins said to himself in his mind.

The coachman here did not have the nagging habits of the taxi drivers like his previous life, and after half an hour of silence, the coach pulled up peacefully at the junction of Maidenhaven Road. During the journey Jenkins tested and found out that the green ability did activate the emblem, its emblem was a small sapling.

As the carriage came to a halt, he poked his head out of the compartment; it was good to see that there were no familiar neighbours.

He gave the coach man a gold-listed green banknote, the coachman looked at it carefully, then rummaged through his pockets for a moment and gave back two blue ten shillings with the Queen’s head on them, and a silver one shilling coin. It was, of course, impure silver.

Twelve pence = one shilling, 24 shillings = one gold pound, and it was not just grammar that restricted the poor from climbing to the higher classes; the mathematical conversion was enough to build up the barriers of the middle classes.

7 Maidenhaven Lane is the home of Jenkins, a small three-storey building with its own small garden.

“Don’t be nervous, just act according to the memory.”

Jenkins Williams, the second son of the Williams family had an older brother and a younger brother. The Williams family is a real middle class family. The head of the family, Robert Williams used to run a general store in front of the docks in earlier years and had sent Jenkins’ older brother to college by earning money from those sailors.

Two years ago, Mr. Williams became envious of the “lucky” people who had become rich overnight through precise investments. So, ignoring the objections of his family, he followed the trend of these crazy times and invested most of the money he had saved over the years in a “possible” marine mine that ‘may’ exist in the shallow waters outside Nolan.

The ‘luck’ of the rich is merely fortuitous, and Robert naturally ended up with no money at all.

But Mr. Williams’ luck was that he was not the only “player” in the marine mineral investment. Mr Smith, a wealthy man who had come from the royal capital of Bel Diran to invest, had somehow taken a liking to Williams’ talent and decided to hire him to work for his company.

After a year, the small shopkeeper actually made it to the management of the Nolan branch of the Smiths United Mining Company. It seemed odd to Jenkins now, but he couldn’t tell what the family was after.

Although his father is only a small sales team leader, people know very well that the sales department of the mining company had a lot of money in it.

A year later, the Williams family, who had made a fortune as a result of this series of “coincidences”, not only moved from their original home in the Ediran (TN: previously translated Aediran) district to the Sabine district, but also succeeded in sending their youngest son to the [ Third Private preparatory college] in Nolan,which is exclusive to the nobility.

While the Ediran area is a little better than a slum in Nolan, the Sabine area was the region where the real middle class gentlemen. One of the things that Mrs. Williams appreciated most was the fact that the houses in Sabine were all well connected to steam pipes.

Compared to the eldest and youngest son ,the second son, Jenkins Williams, was more of a headache to the elder Williams, as he was a poor student and did not want to follow in the footsteps of his elder brother, always hanging out with his friends.

After many failed attempts to persuade him, Mr. Williams let Jenkins roam the streets all day long, with the intention of sending him to learn a trade some day, so that he could make a living in the future and, if he was lucky, marry a fair-looking commoner girl.

(TN : Did some changes after uploading, sorry to the peeps who already read)