"Hello, guest, how can I help you?"
Seeing a guest coming, Jenkins took the initiative to greet him, Chocolate also temporarily gave up the fight with Jenkins, planning to wait for him to be free before continuing.
"Hello, I want to ask you to help me find something."
Her voice was unexpectedly clean, without the dullness and cohesion typical of the elderly, which seemed a bit inconsistent with her outward appearance.
Leaning on crutches, he walked to the counter, fumbled in the purse for a while, and took out a small red box and put it on the counter. When it opened with a snap, lying on the fleece lining was a shield-shaped silver object.
It's not a badge, it's just a scaled-down shield. But it is indeed an antique, because the family crest on the surface of the shield belongs to the famous duke family of the ancient Shikali Empire. If it is identified as genuine, the value may exceed 100 pounds.
"I bought this from a small shop six months ago and the owner said it was originally a pair and offered to help me find another one, but went to the shop last month and it was closed."
She explained why she came and hoped that Papa's Antiques would help find the other pair.
Although this kind of entrustment is rare, it is also within the business scope of the antique shop, so Dad will naturally agree:
"Okay ma'am, then what is the name of that store, maybe I can inquire about his purchase channel among my peers."
"Oh, sure. The name of the store is the name of the owner—Carmel Thrift Store!"
Jenkins and Dad were taken aback at the same time, isn't this just...
He blinked and looked at the small shield lying on the flannel, and he saw a rich red aura.
How many special items were sold at the Carmel thrift store, and to whom, the church could not give a definite figure because the church did not find the account books. But there must be a lot of people living in the hands of ordinary people, so my father received a notice a few days ago to be more cautious when dealing with items of unknown origin... Unexpectedly, he came across one.
"Thrift store? Sorry ma'am, then I'll have to authenticate this item first to see if it's really what we think it is."
After obtaining the consent of the guests, Dad took out his monocle. After putting on the gloves and watching for a few minutes, Jenkins was sure, by the look on his face, that he had figured out what it was.
"Well, yes, obvious traces, indeed."
The old man nodded cautiously, put the small shield back into the box, and said respectfully:
"Ma'am, this is indeed an item handed down from the Dramur family in the late period of the Ancient Shikali Kingdom. Your luck is really good!"
"Then can you accept the commission?"
asked the elderly lady.
"certainly!"
He recloses the box and pushes it back to the guest:
"You can take this back, and you can come here again in a week. I think a week is enough time for me to determine whether I can find traces of another item."
"That would be wonderful."
She reached into her bag, took out two five-pound notes as a deposit, nodded to her father and Jenkins, and turned to leave.
"Aren't you recycling now?"
Seeing the carriage across the street slowly leaving, Jenkins couldn't wait to exit and ask.
"No, it's too eye-catching to recycle now. You can't do such a thing in this special period."
He took out a piece of document paper from the counter, and after checking that there were only shallow cat paw prints on the front and back, he handed it to Jenkins:
"Draw it down."
"Huh? Oh."
Jenkins nodded, concentrated, and bet the front of the silver shield he observed just now on the paper in the way of [reading and writing].
"Let the church send someone to recycle it, and hope to find some new clues."
That said, neither Pop nor Jenkins had much hope for being able to track thrift stores with these.
The meeting time for the supernatural event mutual aid group is at eight o'clock on Friday night, in a new theater under maintenance in the west of the city.
It was very odd, since Jenkins couldn't think of a reason why a bunch of bloody people would be gathering in such a remote place at such a late hour.
But thinking of Mr. Nellie's instructions that participants must wear masks to prevent their privacy from being leaked, Jenkins guessed that the time and place of concealment was also to protect those who suffered misfortune.
After dinner he was still undecided as to whether he should go or not. But thinking of the shield incident this afternoon, I guessed in my heart that the mirror held by the mutual aid group might have come from that thrift store, so my idea was to find out.
"Chocolate, do you think I should go?"
He sat on the edge of the bed and asked the kitten bathed in the moonlight.
"Meow~"
Chocolate lazily responded.
"Well, there's nothing to do tonight anyway."
"Meow~"
The cat doesn't actually express any opinion.
After making up his mind, he still escaped the church guards through the roof of the library. And in order not to miss the time, he chose to fly directly over on the unicorn.
Flying objects shrouded in black smoke in the night sky are difficult to be found on the ground. As long as you choose a remote place when landing, there will be no safety problems.
In Nolan City, tonight's destination La Scala Opera House is second only to the Royal Opera House on the outskirts of the city. Jenkins hadn't heard of the reason for the decoration here, but it shouldn't be a big problem.
He descended from the night sky and stepped out behind the thick logs that had piled up behind the theater. After tidying up his collar, he laboriously put on the prepared mask.
Feeling a little stuffy, I realized that this mask only exposed the eyes.
"Um… "
After thinking about it, he took off the mask again, put on the black robe first, and then burned the whole mask with flaming fingers until it could only cover the upper half of his face. Having never done anything like this, Jenkins' workmanship was poor, with the lower edge of the mask jagged and charred.
But if you look at it as a whole, the black mask and the traces on the lower edge complement each other, but it has a grotesque beauty.
"That's all."
He put the mask back on, took out the small mirror he was carrying, looked at it, and then walked towards the shadowed building.
Since the agreed place is here, of course the host has opened the small door at the back, and Jenkins guessed that the owner of the theater may have a relationship with someone in the mutual aid group.
Some candles and matches were placed behind the iron gate with a gap, which were also prepared by the organizers for the participants. Jenkins bent down and picked up the one with the longest wick, lit it and walked into the dark passage Inside.