"ow~"
The cat's ow was surprisingly gentle. Jenkins had never encountered another cat with such a pleasant voice.
"Perhaps this is one of Chocolate's special abilities," he mused.
He stroked Chocolate's back, and the cat let out another contented purr.
His early morning trip to the church was just to help Papa Oliver move a few things—dozens of snuff boxes packed in cardboard cartons. If they had been ordinary items, Jenkins could have handled it alone. But these snuff boxes weighed at least ten tis more than they looked.
This peculiar weight was their only strange property, nothing too serious, so the church allowed Papa Oliver to take them back for study.
He took a church carriage back to the shop with the cartons of snuff boxes. It took four separate trips to haul them from the carriage to the back courtyard. By the ti he was done, Jenkins was so exhausted he couldn't move. He collapsed into the chair behind the counter, too tired to even acknowledge Chocolate, who was perched on the countertop, watching him.
"You're still not getting enough exercise."
Papa Oliver remarked from the front of the shelves, where he was organizing stock.
"That's because you made move them all by myself."
Jenkins couldn't help but reply, feeling the little strength he'd managed to recover drain away with his words.
But youth was on his side. After ten minutes of rest, he was back on his feet, re-energized and ready to start the day's work.
The city-wide manhunt was still underway. The pirate king, Diwo, and the cultists of the Dead Man's Whip had vanished without a trace. While the authorities had recently captured a number of unidentified exotic beings, not a single one bore the telltale tattoo.
The Church was on constant alert, fearing the appearance of the evil god's angel above the city. As a result, most of their available personnel had been dispatched across the urban districts, leaving only clerical staff like Papa Oliver and Jenkins behind.
Lost in thought, Jenkins swept the broom back and forth across the already clean floor, his distraction so obvious that even the cat seed to notice. Just then, Papa Oliver pulled a box out from under the counter—the very one he had sent Jenkins to York Town to collect two days ago.
Seeing the box, Jenkins's mind flashed back to the nearly identical rings he'd seen from Magic Miss and the old elf's friend, Mr. Halama Rynsarm. He ambled over to the counter, broom in hand, and Papa Oliver didn't seem to mind him being in the way.
"What is this?"
"A ring."
Papa Oliver answered honestly, then added,
"A very ancient ring."
The matter had started with Jenkins, and its twists and turns were too complex to explain in a single sentence. It all began the previous week, when Jenkins had purchased a ring from old Mr. Rynsarm.
While Jenkins and the girls were out for a picnic in the countryside, Papa Oliver, still shaken from the recent explosion at the docks, had been running the shop as usual. It was then that he noticed an entry in the ledger for the single sale Jenkins had made while watching the store one evening.
The ring was indeed an antique, and the price Jenkins paid was quite reasonable; Papa Oliver could easily have resold it for three tis the amount. However, while examining it with a magnifying glass, he discovered so unusual markings.
"Here, take a look!"
He handed Jenkins the magnifying glass, directing him to a small band of engravings on the ring's inner surface. The inside was covered with fine, crosshatched lines, intentionally carved to provide a better grip, but Papa Oliver had spotted one small section that was different.
"This is..."
The magnifying glasses of this era were a far cry from the high-precision optical microscopes Jenkins rembered from the laboratories of his past life, but Papa Oliver's was powerful enough to reveal the peculiarity clearly.
"Is that... Carmyle script?"
"Yes, exactly. Carmyle script."
The Carmyle Empire was the most significant human empire of the 16th Epoch. From its rise in the mid-16th Epoch until the era's end, it controlled most of the known human world. Although the 16th Epoch has long since faded into a fragnted and unreliable history, the empire's importance was such that modern scholars, through the excavation of ancient ruins, have managed to piece together the script used by its people.
In the present day, the surna 'Carmyle' is exceedingly common. This is because, during the 16th Epoch, many people willingly changed their family na to 'Carmyle.' The royal family encouraged this practice, viewing it as a symbol of the people's love and devotion.
"Carmyle forever... nobility and grace..."
That was the aning of the script, which Jenkins managed to translate with so effort.
"The Carmyle Empire was nad directly after its royal family, the Carmyles. Therefore, this ring most likely belonged to the ancient Carmyle family. The problem, however, is that historical records are very clear: the fall of the Carmyle Empire had nothing to do with the end of the 16th Epoch. Three hundred years before the epoch concluded, the Carmyle family angered the gods and was divinely punished. The entire bloodline, their hos, their possessions—everything—vanished completely. We should not be able to find a ring with this inscription. The origin of this ring is highly suspect."
This was Papa Oliver's explanation. Jenkins imdiately grasped the gravity of the situation and asked,
"Since it's praising the Carmyles, could it just be praising the Carmyle Empire in general, or perhaps one of the other families who adopted the na? Maybe it's not from the divinely punished royal family, which would explain why the rings survived."
"No. This ring definitely belonged to the royal Carmyle family. We are one hundred percent certain of that."
Papa Oliver stated with conviction.
"Oh? Why is that?"
"Because a mber of the Carmyle royal family confird it personally."
"Weren't they divinely punished? I thought they were all wiped out."
"No, one of them survived. She and her husband were subjected to a divine punishnt far worse than death, a curse that has persisted to this day. Think carefully, Jenkins. Think back. Have you ever t another Carmyle?"
Papa Oliver prompted, guiding Jenkins's mory.
"Carmyle's Junk Shop? The owner who sells all those peculiar items?"
Jenkins guessed uncertainly.
"No. While his surna is Carmyle, he has no connection to the 16th-Epoch royalty. Think again. The na is common, but I'm sure you've encountered it sowhere else..."
"Oh, I rember now!"
It ca to him in a flash, the answer finally surfacing from his mory.
"It was back in January, the first Tuesday of the month! Chulun Carl ca to the shop to pick up a painting. Her husband, Spade Ford, was imprisoned inside it. The two of them were under a divine curse, trapped in an endless cycle. The Church still hasn't decided whether to help them. That woman, Chulun Carl, she's living in the church's catacombs!"
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