Braving the wind and rain, Jenkins shoved open the antique shop's door, completely soaked. Chocolate poked its head out from his pocket, and Jenkins noticed that even the small tuft of fur on the cat's head was damp.
Visibly annoyed, the cat shook the wet fur on its head before leaping onto the counter and settling onto a cushion. It clearly had no intention of venturing out again on such a tempestuous day.
Just like the day before, Papa Oliver didn't stay long in the shop before grabbing an umbrella and leaving. The Church was short-staffed, so for the ti being, he had to investigate the matter of the rings himself. Jenkins offered his help, ntioning that he was quite free, but was imdiately shot down with Papa Oliver's reply: "I'm not ready to die today."
His eting with the old elf was scheduled for the afternoon, leaving Jenkins with nothing to do on Monday morning. He had finished transcribing the photograph of the stone tablet early, and now he sat idly, doodling ideas for his new book while waiting in vain for any custors to appear.
But judging by the apocalyptic weather outside, he had a better chance of seeing Chocolate suddenly develop a work ethic than he did of seeing a custor.
The roar of the downpour drowned out most of the city's other sounds. Tucked away inside, Jenkins felt grateful to be in the dry, warm antique shop, though he was also troubled by what the afternoon's visit to the old elf might bring.
At half-past nine, a carriage pulled up to the shop. The mont it stopped, Professor Burns darted out, one hand shielding his head as he made a dash for the shelter of the shop's eaves. But no matter how fast he was, he couldn't outrun the sheets of rain. By the ti he pushed the door open and stepped inside, his shoulders were thoroughly soaked.
Jenkins hurried over with a towel. Professor Burns offered his thanks while using a corner of his own shirt to wipe his spectacles. Though he'd tried to protect his head, his hair was still damp, and getting a chill in this season was a surefire way to catch a cold.
The professor had co looking for Papa Oliver. Upon learning from Jenkins that he was at the church, he retrieved a large manila envelope he had tucked inside his coat to protect it from the rain and handed it to the young apprentice, asking him to pass it along.
"Oliver asked to translate so text from the Carmyle period. As luck would have it, a friend of mine from Frank County, an expert in the field, ca to visit recently, so I entrusted the translation to him. He said the script is from the late Carmyle Empire, but it's been specially encrypted. It took us a whole day to decipher a single line."
The professor placed the manila envelope on the counter and gave Jenkins a conspiratorial wink.
"Now, I don't know if Papa Oliver would permit you to see the translated results, but I can tell you in all seriousness that this envelope isn't sealed. It can be opened and closed again quite easily."
He tipped his hat to Jenkins in farewell, then plunged back into the curtain of rain. The carriage was still waiting by the curb, so the professor didn't have to risk getting soaked to the bone running to the next street to find a ride.
"Ancient Carmyle script? So Papa Oliver did find another clue and didn't tell !"
Jenkins watched the professor depart before turning his attention to the manila envelope. Tucked safely inside the professor's coat, it had remained perfectly dry. It now lay silently on the counter, one corner hanging slightly off the edge as if tempting him to peek inside.
"It's extrely rude to look through soone else's things without their permission!"
Jenkins disliked being impolite. So, for the next half an hour, he dutifully went about his work at the counter, only occasionally stealing a glance at the envelope.
An important docunt like this should, of course, be put away for safekeeping. However, Jenkins worried that if he picked it up, he might accidentally damage it and cause it to open. It was for this reason, he told himself, that he kept it constantly within his line of sight.
"Why am I so curious? It's just a bit of translated text. It might not even be related to our investigation. And even if it is, Papa Oliver can handle it. There's absolutely no need for to get involved."
He tried to convince himself to let go of this unnecessary curiosity. But the more he tried, the more it felt like Chocolate was scratching away inside him, making the urge to open the envelope all the more desperate.
"ow~"
Chocolate, who had been toying with the sealed Blackstone Ring of Calamity with narrowed eyes, let out a soft cry. Jenkins's incessant indecisiveness was starting to annoy him, too.
The cat stood, padded over to Jenkins's hand, and rubbed the side of its face against his knuckles before following his gaze to the envelope on the counter.
"Chocolate, do you think I should open it?"
Jenkins murmured, not truly expecting an answer from his cat.
"ow~"
The cat responded instantly. Before Jenkins could react, it hopped onto the envelope. With a single flick of its little paw, the thin string securing the paper clasp snapped.
"ow~"
It looked up at Jenkins smugly.
"Chocolate, I wasn't asking you to open it for ... Right, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about."
He reached for the paper bag as he spoke. Now, it was Chocolate who had opened it, not him. Jenkins was rely checking to see if the cat had damaged the docunts inside.
"I am utterly shaless,"
he thought to himself.
"ow~"
Chocolate seed to agree.
Although Papa Oliver had only asked the professor to translate a short passage, the professor, with his rigorous scholarly diligence, had docunted the entire process of translation and decryption.
So, despite the small amount of text, what Jenkins found inside the manila envelope was a thick stack of papers. He flipped through them until he reached the final page, where he saw the Carmyle script alongside its modern translation:
[I awoke from a dream to find everything had vanished. Divine punishnt is here, and fate has abandoned .]
The source was a black and white photograph of soone holding another, older photo. The edges of the picture within the picture were torn and had clearly been glued back together. It showed an ancient tree, its bark rudely carved with the text by so vandal.
"Who woke up? Divine punishnt? Don't tell soone from the Carmyle family survived, besides that pair of lovers?"
Jenkins was stunned, but he also understood. It was highly probable that whoever had carved that ssage into the tree was responsible for the reappearance of the rings—rings that shouldn't even exist. Otherwise, why would Papa Oliver be investigating this specific line of text?
While there were many long-lived races in the world, few could easily surpass a thousand years. If soone had truly survived from the end of the 16th Epoch, when the Carmyle fell, to the present day... racking his brain, Jenkins could only think of elves, dragons, or elental spirits. And those were all among the most powerful races in existence. If a being of that caliber was tangled up in matters of divine punishnt, it spelled a world of trouble ahead.
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