Lord of The Mysterious Realms - Chapter 6: Legitimate gathering
A cold draught pressed up from the back, but Jenkins paid more attention to his churning stomach. Before Jenkins spewed out his dinner, he finally managed to get onto solid ground.
It was a dirty alley that he didn’t recognize, trash littered the ground, and the odor caused the slightly calmed stomach to churn again. A feral cat gave Jenkins a clatter of teeth and claw, and left with a piece of an indiscernible object against the shadow of the wall.
Jenkins staggered to the wall, kicked away the garbage with his shoes, laid the newspaper and sat down. This was not the original place from where they had entered the [Mysterious Realm], it seems that Barnard forgot to say some important things.
“I hope this is still Nolan City.”
He looked up at the sky, the red and blue twin moons were hanging quietly among a sky full of stars. But he knew that there were actually three moons in the sky, and the last one was Barnard’s faith , the righteous god who represents the month of May – [Moon of No Light].
He looked down at his hands, his right hand was clutching a partially burned candle. This is normal,but why are his sleeves black ?
He finally reacted to the fact that what he was actually wearing was the black robe of the strange man from the mysterious realm.
“When ……”
Before he had time to think, the sound of light footsteps came from the other end of the alley. The footsteps were deliberately suppressed, if not for the extremely quiet alley he would have missed them.
There was nowhere to hide and both sides of the alleyways seemed to be lined with the back walls of the houses, which explained the source of all the garbage . It was all thrown down from the windows. The bare walls were painted with messy symbols, and the dark yellow marks in the corners looked more like excrement than rusty steam pipes. Now the best option is to hide himself in the trash but Jenkins said this concubine still has her ‘dignity’.
(TN : Basically saying that he can’t do this .The author is trying to be funny :p)
In that moment of hesitation, the owner of the footsteps had already appeared.
He was also wearing a black robe, taking small and quick steps against the shadow of the wall, he then suddenly bumped into Jenkins all at once.
The black robed man obviously did not notice that there was someone else in the shadows, he almost fell while holding on to the wall, while Jenkins was scared out in a cold sweat.
“Going so fast?”
The two stood in a stalemate and did not speak. Jenkins tried to distinguish the black-robed man’s appearance, but found that the hood of his robe was the kind with a deliberately extended front.
“Are you here for the gathering, too?”
Finally it was the black-robed man who spoke, but the raspy voice was clearly a falsetto.
A gathering? What is he saying?
Hesitantly, Jenkins nodded, “Yes.”
He was immediately surprised to find that he sounded equally strange, like a little boy talking at the top of his voice. Also at the same time, he noticed that the shadow on the ground was also a bit off , reflected behind him was a fat man with a pointed hat and mask?
“There’s something strange about this black robe!”
He immediately realized, at that moment the strange man spoke again.
“You came too early, it is dangerous!”
After saying that, he also sat on the wall like Jenkins, and stopped talking without moving.
“What the hell have I gotten myself into? This can’t be a place where gangsters make deals, right?”
Jenkins thought wildly in his mind while trying to find an excuse to slip away, but things got worse and worse as several more strangely dressed people appeared one after another from the left and right of the alley in the next five minutes. There were no mirrors here, so Jenkins didn’t know what his current image looked like, but everyone who came would look at him for a moment.
With the hurried arrival of the last masked figure, the crowd of people sitting or crouching stood up and gathered in one place. Jenkins had to walk with them and silently counted seven people including him.
“Who is he?”
The man who came last asked pointing towards Jenkins, his voice was very calm and placid, not like a human voice.
“It was Mr.Hood who invited him.”
It was an extremely shrill woman’s voice, but its volume was suppressed.
“It was not me!” The man who had just bumped into Jenkins said in a panic: “He was here when I came, I thought you ……”
Before he could finish, the few people standing together immediately scattered. One of them threw himself into the shadows on the far side of the alley without looking back, but the other five all just watched nervously.
“Gentlemen.”
Jenkins knew what he should say ,these men looked even more scared than he was. It also aroused his interest, the man who had just fled really did seem to melt into the shadows. A supernatural ability group?
“I was just passing by the city and happened to hear about this gathering by chance, before I showed up here.”
He translated the common language of the Kingdom of Fidectelli into Chinese first, and then translated it straight back, making his words not only strange in accent and grammar.(TN : For people wondering how this works just try translating something two times using google translate. I pray for your sanity.)
“Heard by chance ?”
The man who came last asked.
“Yes, just a small ability of mine.” He shrugged and said vaguely, and the vigilant people did not questioned. It really seemed to be a secret gathering of supernatural groups.
But according to the reaction of the shadows on the ground, the obese body didn’t move at all.
“Can we trust him?”
“No, it’s possible that he is an enforcer of the Orthodox Church in Nolan City.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, why would those enforcers be looking for trouble with us, we just didn’t register because we didn’t want to expose our abilities, it’s not against the law.”
“He could also be a cultist who hunts enablers, I heard ……”
“If you’re that afraid of danger then why didn’t you leave?”
“Hmph, the one who just left obviously had a ghost in his heart. For the next gathering we should change the way, the one who left is problematic.”
……
The five people lowered their voices and talked quickly, but in the end simply came to the conclusion that “we have not committed a crime and private gatherings are not illegal”.
Finally the man who had bumped into Jenkins came forward, he was called “Mr. Hood” just now.
“Sir, we welcome new members to the gathering, but you must prove yourself to be an innocent enchanter.”
An enchanter?
That’s probably what this world calls users of supernatural abilities.
Jenkins responded with strange grammar, “How do I prove it?”
Hearing this reply, the man across the table seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as he gestured to the four behind him that there was no need to panic.
“Release your spiritual emblem.”
He said.
Jenkins fell silent, another term he hadn’t heard before came up.
Probably misunderstanding Jenkins’ silence for hesitation, Mr. Hood explained, “We have no intention of prying into your true identity, but it is important to make sure you are not a criminal roaming in from another city. While we gather in secret because of our distaste for [the Registration Act] and our disbelief in the Church of the Righteous God, this is definitely not a criminal organisation.”