Chapter 15 - First Tale XV

This small tour took a little while, I was kinda getting suspicious of the time we spent walking around. How long would our ride take to arrive, that thought went through my mind for a couple of times. Maybe I am being a little grumpy by stressing about it? Can't really tell by myself.

Regardless of my thoughts, Miss Jeanne continued to have fun. Makes me wonder who the guest that was invited for a vacation is, well.. better than having her angry at me I guess. Hopefully this will keep her happy for a while, not sure what I will have to do later but she may get into troubles by it... or she may be the one that gets me into trouble. Either way, this should count as an advanced apology. Not sure about now, but when I met her I felt like there was something amiss about her. Can't tell whether her polite speech or calm behavior, she seemed slightly out of character, I myself could not give a proper judgement at that time since I hardly knew her, and... while I can not say I know her. I feel that the earlier her was rather unnatural. Well, I will consider this outing rather fruitful since I learned something useful here.

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Sometime later we finally heard about our ride so we finally ended the tour. Well, the Miss was disappointed with that, I wonder if she remembers that she is technically at work hours... I think she got too relaxed. Not like I mind if she is dristracted, less eyes on me.

I should come back at a later date on my own, that man liked to speak a lot so maybe I will get something useful... along with a bunch of nonsense I believe.

The ride back uneventful (thankfully) so it was a peaceful time, and since no one spoke I could completely enjoy the view. Even though we only took from an hour and so to get to the stables by foot, I was wondering why they took so long to arrive by car. The answer was rather simple and somewhat interesting at the same time.

Apparently there is a straight road that can take you quick from one place to another, but it is currently under repairment. The details that the kind driver provided we're rather lacking, an incident occurred a few weeks back due an earthquake and the road became unavaible. That is almost no information, but I don't recall anything of that level on the news so it probably was something of lower scale like a tremor. As for the road I am not sure since we took a detour long before we could actually see it. Earthquakes huh, sis does not like them at all... which remains me that I have not heard anything about her. In a sense it is a good thing, at least things are not getting worse that she needed to tell me.

Looking at the time, it seems lunch should be ready shortly, not sure if I will get there on time. I will take this situation as a good sign, and avoiding lunch is a good thing. I did eat a good number of cookies so I am not that hungry, but now my stock of snacks is empty... they were really tasty so I should look for a chance to restock some more as soon as I can, they were helpful to have earlier.

What a boring rid-

My thought was cut short by the my phone which was vibrating. Now then, not many people now about my number so this is probably related to my 'work'.

Take a look at the person sitting at the other side of the car, I stealthily check my phone. Why stealthily? I did ask her for her phone earlier since mine had 'no battery' and since I have not had time to charge it... well, I don't think it will be good idea.

A new message... huh, no calls so far. Now, let's see what this is about.

The sender is unknown.... as for the content, it is just a link.

What to do? Just give it a go, no matter what, nothing will change unless I check what this is... I decided to follow the link to where it would take me, and there I found this.

<------------------------------------------------------------------->

*** NEWS ***

DATE-///-///-/////

-Last night there was an awful fire in a church in the outside of //////////////, several people were confirmed to be there at the time of the fire, but the actual number still remains a mystery. So far, there has only been one survivor, a child of /////////// old. He is still unconscious, his indentity remains unknown at the moment.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but it is suspected that this was no accident due conclusive found that indicates that the doors to the church were blocked from the outside.

Currently there are no suspects, but it is expected that once the whole scene of the fire is completely investigated, some sort of lead will be found. Words of the firefighters expresss that this was an sloppy job from someone with no experience, and the doors were blocked as a mean of buying time. This tells us that the perpetrator truly planned to kill the people or at least some of the people in there.

<------------------------------------------------------------------->

The link took me to an image that had such a thing written in there. It looks like a picture taken from a new from an old newspaper. A few parts were actually taken out, or more like cut out. I am not sure the reason why they did that, but I can at least conclude that someone let me know just what they wanted me to know about it. As for this fire... it should be quite old, no memories come to me so this is the first time I heard about a church being burned. Now days such a thing would make the media go crazy and they would make a fuss about some sort of conspiracy due religion or whatever the reason. The last few years things have been peaceful, too peaceful for some people it seems, and the media is losing popularity... in particular the newspaper industry. So they tend to go overboard as soon as a new scope is in sight. That said, it probably happened quite some time ago.

Now then, there is something uncanny here... today we also visited a religious building, not a church but a chapel, not the same but close... then this message. Although I did not recieve the message as soon as I arrived at the church but much later went we are rather far from the stables, I think this means that there are people keeping taps on my location. My biggest concern is why are they doing it, but I won't be finding out anytime soon. There are a couple of possibilities but I would like to be certain of the reason before making a reckless assumption. Anyways, I should keep my guard up.

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After a great number of turns in the road, we finally arrived to the manor. I should just go to my room for now, there are probably a number of people around since it's still lunch time, I don't feel like entertaining someone right now.

Miss Jeanne has been awfully quite since we left the stables. What's up with her... at one moment she is all hyped and then she just stays silent. I am not sure what to make up of it, but since she is acting meek right now, then I have not reason to change that... her hyped self is rather tiresome and hard to keep up with.

While I was thinking that, she stood up in front of me and said.

"I would be taking my leave for a moment, I need to inform my superior about the reason of my long absence"

Not sure if that is needed but I don't really mind.

"Do what you have to do, I will go to the kitchen for now. You can take your time if you need to"

I almost forgot about my new stock of snacks, I may as well go and take a look... also I should ask for my lunch while I am at it.

"I will do so, if you find yourself in need of something, ask any of my co-workers in the meantime"

With that said, she bowed a little and just left for somewhere. Not sure if she knows where her superior is but that is up to her where to go I guess.

Having been left alone since the people who gave us the ride left as soon as we got off the vehicle, I just sighed a little and started to walk to kitchen, one of the few paths I could easily learn. On the way I passed by the scene of the small fire, which brought back the earlier memory of that message, or rather the link of the news of that church being burned. Can't say I do not suspect both being related to one another, but the nature of both fires seems to be different. The church one brought a number of human casualties... but this one only had casualties in the form of books. The only thing that links them is, taking the words from that news, the 'sloppy' job they did. Here, the fire was found rather quickly and the books were mostly half-burned. In the church case they sealed the exits as they could so the people inside could not escape. Just looking it like that they seem similar, but here did not wish to burn the whole place down nor harm anyone, or at least that id how it looks. I should not trust 100% on that but the feeling of the targets being the books is pretty high.

Well, right now that does not matter I guess. I should just go and look for what I came to an go to my room. I really don't want to be 'summoned' again.

Now that I think about... will there be any cookie at all? They were quite tasty so they are surely popular. The more popular they are the more likely they will make more, but that means more people would want them and that would lead to them running out faster, but if they ate not liked that much then... they won't be making that many. Damn, both options are good and bad.

With those thoughts my steps were slightly hurried.

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Everything went better than expected, there plenty of cookies. Good, I planned to fill a complain but it looks like that won't be necessary for now.

Well, I became slightly agitated by it, but tasty things are tasty things. Can't do anything about it. This time spoils with small brownies too, they were ready as soon as I arrived so I had to give it a try.

Hmmm, I thought I was not affected by it but... I guess I am more nervous about the situation I got myself into than I thought. Not that I can change a thing about it, but I am at least concious of it now.

With those thoughts in my head I dragged my body up the stairs until I got the floor my bedroom for this stay is. Maybe I should take a short nap while they bring my lunch... nah, it won't be long before they bring it. They only need to re-heat the food after all. So I will just lay in bed meanwhile.

Walking inside the room once more, I found myself remembering last night. This place is not a really safe place so I need to find a way to make it that way. Besides the chair I used last time, I should add some furniture to block the door. As for the access to from the french windown, I could tie the handles of the doors somehow, not like that will make this place impregnable. But at least will buy me time to wake up. Anyways, I should prepare the thing I can prepare for it now, getting ready should be useful later. The only problem should be getting ready for anything that the people in this house might do. That old man has something planned for later, but sadly he did not say what that may be. Hopefully, it will not be anything that extreme. Peace is the best after all, althought that may be naive of me.

After I left the stuff I found to secure the french windown on the desk in the room, I lay down on the bed for a while. I am trying to take what I have learned so far and piece it together. But the last bit of information does not make sense. Considering the people who could know my phone number, I am thinking who would send that message to me. The problem is that I don't know what they hoped to acomplish doing that so I don't know who would benefit from doing it. I doubt it would just a prank, since they took the bother of hiding the number. Although now days hiding your number is much easier than before. I wonder, since we visited the chapel sometime later I recieved the message, Is it ok to assume that both are related somehow? That being the case, my only lead would be that person doing the cleaning there... who ran away. That could make talking to him a bit difficult, but since it's the only clue related to that I need to look for an opportunity. At least, once I see his face then it will be possible to find him.

"How troublesome..."

For more than I think, I can't help getting frustrated due my current lack of information. For all I know this could just be a try to focus on a dead end. Really troublesome, for now I have nothing better to do so I may as well follow this clue. Besides, even if the whole church fire is not what I thought, that chapel is indeed suspicious. I found that symbol carved on the chapel stand, the same I found in that statue located in the garden. For now, it all comes to that.

Putting that whole mess aside, they are quite late with my lunch. All that thinking it's making me hungry, and while I wouldn't mind eating my stock of snacks. It would not fill me up as good as my lunch.

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A few rolls in bed later I finally heard a knock on the door. As I open the door I find myself in front of a blonde haired maid. For some reason I just close the door... Not sure why I did it, but I can tell that it was a bad idea. As soon as my brain tells me that I open the door once again.

I try to be nice.

"Hi, long time no see"

I said 'try', my pathetic idea of changing the flow of the conversation obviously did not work since even an amateur can see that Miss Jeanne is angry.

"YES, HI... LONG TIME NO SEE"

Blame this hand of mine who acted on its own, not the whole me.

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Well, after that I seriously apologized due my rude behavior, she calmed down in a great deal. One thing, she asked why I did it but since I myself could not understand why then I failed to answer her that. Putting that aside, I could eat my lunch. The reason for the delay is that they were waiting for Miss Jeanne to bring it to me, but she was busy at that time. During the wait it got cold again, so they had to re-heat it again. This time, Miss Jeanne appeared and took care of bringing it to me. I feel slight bad, I mean, I cause quite a bit of trouble for the maids of the manor just because of my selfishness. I should try to apologize later. Of course, I apologize to Miss Jeanne too, since I also caused her troubles. I guess that's why she was quite angry when I closed that door on her.

One thing I found uncomfortable was to have her watch over me while I ate. I felt bad having her just standing up there staring me eating that tasty food. I don't think she had time to eat so the guilt made part of the food tasteless. Only part of it since it was really good. I got to say, good job to whoever made this lunch.

Finished eating, I asked Miss Jeanne to eat as soon as she got to the kitchen. I was not that sleepy but I told her that I was going to take a nap and since I was going to do that, she could take the chance of eating right away. I wonder why, I don't feel like she likes working as my maid that much, but she also does not like to take a rest. It took a bit of coaxing until she finally agreed to take some time to eat.

With that said, she just went out as soon as she finished taking all the stuff she brought for my lunch saying that she will come back as soon as she is done eating. That kinda beats my idea of giving her some time but... It is up to her how to take, I guess.

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Sadly, I really could not fall asleep. Well, sleeping as soon as I eat is not good so maybe not 'sadly', I was getting sleepy while I waited for my lunch but after eating the sleepiness went away. It usually is the other way, but there is nothing I can do about it.

I decided to walk a little, but only in this floor. I still don't want to meet anyone.

It is funny how thing works, thinking about it there was one particular someone whom I met in this same floor just a few minutes after getting of my room. I did say I did not want to meet anyone, but this one seems to want to meet me. I wish she was a pretty lady but although she is cute... She is just a little girl. I actually forgot about her, she appears and disappears as she pleases. I was giving a warning from Miss Kingwood about her. Still, I am not sure what does she have to do with this family mess.

In the same place we first met, the little girl Noir stood. She did a small courtesy bow to greet me. Reason why I thought that she was waiting for me.

She did not say a word and just pointed to the sofa. I guess that she wants me to sit there.

Now days even kids can 'summon' me huh. I feel like people take that I would do as they want every single time. Thinking about it I feel slightly angry. But it is no use getting angry now. I doubt this girl meant anything bad, and she has no fault in what has happened to me. Perhaps she just wants to play.

I took a seat as she told me to, and waited until she finally spoke.

"I... need your help"

Kids now days don't beat the brush huh. I thought she wanted to play but just from her tone alone I don't think it's like that all.