Seeing Professor Burns coming over to say hello, waving his hands, Jenkins hesitated, turned around and let his friends go first, and promised to catch up soon.
"The road here is not difficult to walk, and I have a compass with me."
He said this to the crowd, and Britney seemed to think that he should wait for Jenkins, but Jenkins refused. So the young people set off first, and they probably walked very slowly, waiting for Jenkins to catch up.
"Oh, Jenkins, how lucky to have you here."
The professor had already crossed the dirt slope ahead. There is no road here, and the group of them seems to have walked all the way along the old river.
"Good afternoon, Professor, why are you here?"
asked Jenkins, taking off his hat. He too was glad to meet Professor Burns here.
"I participated in the excavation of the ruins organized by the school. Oh, it's not this one, it's the one on the west side."
He pointed behind him casually, and then continued:
"The work was completed ahead of schedule. We heard from the locals that there is still a ruin here, so we came here to take a look. Look, it's worse than I thought. It's obviously worthless."
The two chatted excitedly, and the professor also asked about Jenkins' desire to explore the secrets of Death. But Jenkins hasn't dealt with this matter recently. He plans to find a good excuse next week to ask the church to borrow the [Death God's Cloak Fragment] from the [Death and the End] church. It will be rewarding.
After a few words with the professor, they left. The team hadn't gone far, obviously everyone was deliberately slowing down.
The rest of the afternoon was spent by a group of people in the flower fields behind the manor. Hathaway and Britney wore sun hats against the sun and bent over to look at the flower fields. So when returning to the city, Jenkins took advantage of the Britney fell asleep, and quietly handed Hathaway the color photo she had drawn with reading and writing.
"This is a commemoration!"
Mr. Writer opened his mouth but did not make any sound. Hathaway could read lips, so she naturally understood what he said.
The red-haired girl showed a smile that was brighter than the sun during the day, and the carriage bumped a bit, but Britney didn't wake up. Hathaway narrowed her eyes, looked out the window again, and then quietly moved her head closer to Jenkins.
A horrified expression appeared on the man's face, and he pointed at the blonde girl, but Hathaway was unmoved and hugged his face.
"Meow!"
Chocolate made a silent protest. It was just taking a nap on Jenkins' lap, but now it was woken up by the hateful human woman.
A Saturday daytime hike is fun enough, but it's also quite a tiring activity. After returning to Nolan, Jenkins sent Hathaway and Britney home one by one, and promised the two to ask them out to play next week.
Then I thought about going to Papa's Antique Store to say hello, and by the way, find out how the Givers who were caught by the church in the dock area last night are doing now.
The carriage stopped at the door of Papa's Antique Store, and Jenkins jumped out of the carriage and handed over the banknotes. When he reached out to open the door of the antique shop, the door was pushed open from the inside, and then he saw Dad and Captain Bincy.
"please wait a while!"
The old man said to the driver who wanted to drive away, and then he and Captain Bincy held Jenkins's arm on one side, and lifted him into the car abruptly.
"Go to the Church of the Sages!"
Captain Bincy said to the coachman as he jumped into the carriage, and the old man who followed him into the carriage added:
"With the fastest speed, we can add money."
On the way to the church, Jenkins found out what happened. He was not in the city all day, and nothing major happened in the city. In the evening, that is, half an hour ago, a group of unconscious patients were brought from outside the city by a horse-drawn carriage, and the carriage went straight to the Church of the Sages instead of the hospital.
It was Professor Burns who hired the carriage, and he was at the end of his strength when he arrived at the church. The guards who only came to tell the church door hurriedly checked the situation that they had been attacked, and they passed out like the people in the carriage.
"Professor Burns?"
Jenkins repeated with wide-eyed eyes.
"Don't interrupt!"
Pop pats Jenkins on the arm. He's been in the antique shop all day, so he doesn't know what's going on. Just now, Captain Bincy came to look for Jenkins, and his father planned to go directly to his house with Captain Bincy to wait for him.
"Yes, it's the professor. Including him, a total of five people who were unconscious came back. But they couldn't be woken up. Both the Keeper and Miss Bevanna checked the situation, but they couldn't solve it, so I wanted to let You try it."
Captain Bincy wiped the sweat from his brow as he spoke. The church's carriage had other uses today and he hadn't returned yet, and because it was approaching evening, he didn't find a carriage on the way he came, so he ran all the way here.
"I… "
"Don't interrupt, Bincy, what did Burns say before he passed out?"
Dad asked again, not giving Jenkins a chance to interject.
"He said that their group encountered a terrible thing in the ruins. The moment the thing was unearthed, more than half of the people around died. Those who survived were brought back by him, but everyone was in a coma. He said Let us come to Jenkins, I am afraid that we also know that our injuries cannot be treated by ordinary methods."
Captain Bincy let out a long breath, and Jenkins noticed that the collar of his brown hunting jacket was darker than the rest of it, probably from sweat.
"Bishop Parode has already sent people to the school to inquire about the whereabouts of the professor and his party today. I think there will be feedback within an hour or two."
"Going to school is useless..."
Jenkins spoke for a short while, then paused and waited for Pop to interrupt him. But the old man didn't mean to interrupt, but motioned him to continue:
"I think the reason why the professor asked you to come to me before he passed out is because I met him today..."
"Um?"
This is the voice of the old man. He knows the destination of Jenkins and his party today, which is a pasture far away from the city of Nolan. To be able to meet the professor so far away, I don't know if Jenkins was lucky or the professor was lucky.
"Yes, in the afternoon, um... about two o'clock, yes, this is the time. I met the professor at the river site in the south of the pasture manor. There were dozens of people who saw them. I even talked to the professor. Talked for a while. I can confirm that it is indeed him."
He nodded and said.
"In other words, Burns was in danger after he met you."
The old man's original intention was to confirm the time when the professor and his party were in distress, but Jenkins always felt that he was implying that the professor's distress had something to do with meeting him.