"Jenkins, there's an extra orange tree in the church courtyard, do you know what's going on?"
This was a conversation that happened early in the morning on Thursday. When Jenkins was still thinking about studying the old storybook by Ryan Sam, the old man asked very abruptly.
Jenkins froze for a moment, then smiled embarrassedly.
"I knew it was you. Although your intention of helping the church with greening is good, if you really want to plant trees, it is best not to choose orange trees. I have never heard of anyone using orange trees as ornamental tree."
Dad was muttering while peeling the eggs, he was still angry about Jenkins "raising" [Lost Butterfly] in the store, so he was a little rude when he spoke.
"I still don't understand why old Jack gave you such a dangerous thing. Maybe I should ask him when I write next time. He probably still has the idea of letting you become his apprentice."
"Give me that beautiful butterfly because I helped him catch more."
Jenkins replied, and now the glass bottle containing the stray butterfly is still on Jenkins' bedside in the church residence, and Chocolate observes it every day. Of course, Jenkins can be sure that this cat is definitely not observing butterflies with the attitude of scientific research... magical research.
"I think you'd better dispose of it as soon as possible, whether it's used as a consumable for a ceremony or traded on the black market, or even fed to chocolate. It's too dangerous to keep this kind of thing around."
The old man neatly stacked the broken egg shells on the corner of the dinner plate, and the cat nodded quickly. Jenkins thought it understood the old man's proposal.
"I'll get rid of it as soon as possible, but that butterfly really helped me."
Jenkins thinks that Dad's reaction to "Lost Butterfly" is a bit big, but his idea is also reasonable. So that poor little butterfly probably won't stay in Jenkins' hands for too long.
After lunch, Miss Bevanna sent someone to inform Jenkins that the Holy Son of the [Church of Creation and Mechanics] would meet him this afternoon.
The place to meet is not the Church of the Sage. It is a big event for the Holy Son of Ability God to visit the church, and adequate preparations must be made. But now the church is so busy that there is no time to prepare those ceremonies, so the afternoon meeting was arranged in a cafe near the church, and a whole team of scribes was responsible for Jenkins' security.
Taking advantage of the time in the morning, Jenkins chatted with Fenny about tomorrow's funeral for a while, and then returned to his bedroom to continue studying Ryan Sam Carmel's fairy tale book.
Dad's ban on him will end until tomorrow, and he will have to visit Hathaway and Britney by then, so he will be very busy, so it's best to end the matter about the [Stranger] as soon as possible.
He was "recovering" in the church these days, and he had read that book more than once. A slightly thrilling collection of realistic fairy tales, the literary talent is not comparable to Jenkins' Stranger Stories. The book has a very faint aura, but its only specificity is that it cannot be destroyed.
The Church of the Sages is the most thorough in the study of books, and there are also a large number of methods and secrets about finding out the secrets hidden in the books. But those ordinary methods are useless to this book at all. The old man Leon Sam has held this book for thirty years and has not discovered the secrets in it. It is definitely not because he is unlucky or too stupid.
"Maybe I should try to drip my own blood on it, but this is a bit risky, what if there is a curse on the book?"
The cat squinted one eye, gnawed hard on the ring that sealed the Calamity Stone, and had no time to pay attention to Jenkins' whims.
"Maybe I should try."
He quickly found the silver knife used to make the ritual matrix, and after a simple disinfection, he used the sharp blade to make a small cut on his finger, but after the blood dripped on the page, nothing but making the book look It didn't play any role other than being tattered.
"It really isn't that simple..."
Jenkins sucked this finger and continued to meditate. He looked at the pattern on the cover of the old book. The lonely traveler turned his back to the outside of the book, walking towards the empty plain with heavy snow. He always thought that this painting was the key point.
"Meow~"
Chocolat gave up the ring for the time being, and instead hopped on the bed and stared at the butterfly in the bottle. The butterfly landed on the bottom of the bottle motionless as if frightened, and the cat's eyes were full of malice.
"The stranger... Could it be that the stranger is on the cover? Do I want to enter the cover and talk to him? But it can't be done, it won't be that simple."
Jenkins slowly poured his spirit into the book, but there was still no response. He then called out his own monocle, and with the Eye of Reality turned on, he almost put his face on the book cover to observe.
This had some effect, and a faint aura actually appeared at the bottom of the book cover where the author's name should have been written:
[The night gives the traveler a gift, the knight cuts down the birds with a sword, that is the story of autumn.]
"The knight holds the sword, which symbolizes mercury in alchemy that I haven't systematically touched. Speaking of it, I don't seem to have seen an alchemist; chopping down birds, in the production of potions, this is quite famous [Three evaporations and condensations] , and then evenly coated] meaning; the story of autumn... Autumn is most closely related to the righteous god [Traveler without a trace]. There are quite famous religious stories corresponding to it; the night gives the boon, and the time is the night."
He paused, then concluded:
"In the dark night, apply the mercury that has been evaporated and condensed three times on the surface of this book, and then recite what you see in front of the fire alone... Damn, who else can see this kind of book besides me? Prompt? Is this too difficult? Not right, maybe some magic eyes or rituals can also allow the bestowers to temporarily see the spiritual light."
He was soon convinced of his deduction, because judging from the last story of the book, the previous owner of [The Stranger] was the most devout believer of the righteous god [The Untraceable Traveler], and Proficient in alchemy and potions, this is right with those code words.
This means that Jenkins only needs to wait for midnight to fall, and the handling of mercury is actually not troublesome.
This is considered a big event, and although Jenkins thinks that midnight may encounter more troublesome things after reading, but that is not something that should be considered now.
In the afternoon, he met Mr. Matthew Gref, the Holy Son of Ability God, in the cafe near the church on time.