Legal gatherings

A cold draft came up from his back, but Jenkins was more worried about his churning stomach. Before Jenkins had to throw up his dinner, he was finally on solid ground.

It was an unfamiliar, dirty alley with trash strewn everywhere, and the strange smell made his slightly settled stomach clench again. 

Jenkins staggered to the wall, kicked the trash away with his shoes, spread out the newspaper and sat down. This isn't the original place to enter the [Mysterious Land]. It seems that Barnard has overlooked something important.

"I hope this is still Nolan City."

He looked up at the sky, and the red and blue moon as well as the stars hung calmly above his head. But he knew that there were actually three different moons in the sky. The last one was Barnard's belief, representing the god of May - [Lightless Moon].

He looked down at his hand. It was normal to hold a partially burned candle in his right hand, but why were the sleeves black?

He finally realized that he was wearing the black robe of the mysterious man in the mysterious place.

"When..."

Before he had time to think, a faint sound of footsteps sounded from the other end of the alley. It was a deliberately suppressed sound of footsteps. If it wasn't so quiet here, Jenkins would never have heard them.

There was nowhere to hide. The two sides of the alley seemed to be the back walls of houses, which also explained the source of the trash - thrown out the window. The bare walls were covered with messy symbols. In the corners of the walls, the dark yellow stains next to the rusty steam pipes looked more like excrement. The best thing to do now would be to hide in the dump, but Jenkins didn't think that would work.

It only took a moment for the owner of the footsteps to appear.

He also wore a black robe and moved quickly with small steps along the shadows of the wall until he bumped into Jenkins. The man dressed in black had obviously not noticed that there was someone else in the shadows and he almost fell, while Jenkins broke out in a cold sweat.

"You're arriveing that fast?"

The two stood motionless, not saying a word. Jenkins tried to make out the appearance of the man dressed in black, but he noticed that the hood of his robe was pulled particularly far forward.

"Are you here for the get-together too?"

Finally, the man dressed in black spoke, but the hoarse voice was obviously a fake one.

Get-together? What was he talking about?

Jenkins nodded and said, "Yes."

He was immediately surprised that his voice also sounded strange, like that of a little boy speaking in a shrill voice. At the same time, he noticed that the shadow on the floor was also slightly wrong. Behind him was a fat man with a pointy hat and a mask?

"The black robe me wears seems to be able to change his body shape and voice!"

He realized this immediately and the mysterious man spoke again.

"You've come too soon, this place is very dangerous!"

After that, he sat against the wall like Jenkins, motionless and no longer speaking.

"Where on earth have I ended up here? Is this a place where gangsters do their business?"

He thought randomly in his head, trying to come up with an excuse to escape, but it kept getting worse. Over the next five minutes, several strangely dressed people appeared to the left and right of the alley. Since there was no mirror here, Jenkins didn't know what his current image was, but everyone who came in looked at him for a moment.

With the hurried appearance of the last masked figure, the people who were sitting or squatting stood up and gathered around. Jenkins had to go with them and counted quietly. There were seven people, including him.

"Who is he?"

The last person to arrive pointed at Jenkins and asked. His voice was very calm, so calm that it didn't sound like a human voice. "Mr. Hood invited here."

It was an extremely shrill female voice, she managed to keep the volume down.

"It wasn't me!" The man who had just bumped into Jenkins said in a panic, "He was there when I came, not you..."

Before he had finished speaking, the assembled people immediately dispersed. One of them disappeared into the shadows at the other end of the alley without turning around, but the other five just watched him nervously.

"Gentlemen."

Jenkins knew what to say. These people seemed even more panicked than he was. That, too, aroused a certain interest in him. The man who had escaped earlier seemed to have actually merged with the shadows. A supernatural group?

"I happened to pass by this town and heard about this gathering, so I appeared here."

He translated the language of the Kingdom of Fidictli first into English and then right back again, so that his words not only had a strange accent, but also a strange grammar.

"Heard about it?"

Asked the last person to arrive.

"Yeah, a little skill of mine." He shrugged his shoulders and said vaguely. The few attentive people did not question it. Apparently, it really was a secret gathering of a supernatural group.

But judging by the reaction of the shadow on the ground, the fat body was not moving at all.

"Can he be trusted?"

"No, it could be a law enforcer from the True God Church of Norlan City."

"Do not make a fool of yourself. Why would those lawmen bother us? We did not register just because we did not want to reveal our abilities. That's not against the law."

"He could also be a cultist hunting Superpowers. I have heard that..."

"If you are afraid of the danger, why don't you go?"

"Hm, the one who just left obviously has a problem. We should meet differently next time."

...

The five people talked quickly and quietly, but in the end they only came to the conclusion: "We have not committed a crime, and private meetings are not forbidden." Finally, the man who had bumped into Jenkins stood up. He was only called "Mr. Hood"

"Sir, we welcome new Superpowers, but you have to prove yourself first."

Superpowers?

That's probably what they call users of supernatural powers in this world.

Jenkins replied with strange grammar: "How can you prove that?"

Hearing this answer, the person on the other side seemed relieved, and he signaled to the four people behind him not to panic.

"Release your spiritual emblem."

He said.

Jenkins was silent. That was another term he'd never heard of.

Mr. Hood, perhaps misunderstanding Jenkins' silence, explained, "We have no intention of finding out your true identity, but we need to be sure you are not a criminal from other cities. Although we meet in secret because we hate the [Registration Act] and do not believe in the True God Church, we are definitely not a criminal organization"