24 Chapter 24 - First Tale XXIV

What should I do? If I start reading I most likely won't be paying attention to my surroundings again.

I guess I have to use my phone this time. I didn't want to use it if I really had no other choice since I suspect someone put some kind of program inside without my knowledge. But, I don't have such a good memory to remember the content after a quick reading... no, to begin with, I don't read that fast nor I have the time for it.

Taking out my phone, I carefully open this small book and start taking photos page by page. I made sure of taking a picture of every page without missing one. It might be risky taking my time doing this but... on the first page I found a draw that picked my interest. That draw was the same symbol I once saw carved in that statue located at that garden and in that stand at the chapel. So, there is no way I am going to miss the content, right?.

I am glad to have my new phone, the quality of the images is higher than the one I had before so reading this later won't be a problem. Although I have mixed feelings about what was done to it, worst case I won't be able to use it again. At times like this I wish I had her here, she is good at this stuff so she could either fixed it or at least tell me what is going on with my phone. Well, if she were here then she would be in the same situation as me so I guess it is not that bad that I am here alone.

A couple of pages more and I will be finishing taking photos. It took a while since I had to be careful.

As I was done with my previous task, I put the small book where I found it.

Looking at the time reflected in my phone I saw how long I have been here. I would love to spend a some more time looking around the office, but I need to find map. Unlocking the other locked drawer kept crossing my mind, but I have taken a while here and I am not sure I will find what I want there.

Although reclutant I decided to leave the office for now... maybe I will another chance at another time. Although I don't think the opportunity will present itself soon.

Well, leaving is good and all but I am still not sure where to go after this. Should I randomly open doors and enter the rooms until I find what I am looking for? That's too reckless. Let's see, if consider the place I am, being their HQ and all, there has to be maps of the property somewhere. Where could they be? Think. I believe there will be some at the place where all the guards were called have to be some, but the problem is that I won't be able to take any with all that people there. Urgh, think. I recall, that place where I arrived first at the HQ is called reception, and they help guards to settle their needs such a contacting other people or calling for getting files for who ask for them. I could try my luck there first, I might have to focus in other places if this fail though.

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I had the luck of finding one among a good number of them. Of course, I checked that it was a map of this property. While I was at it I took one of the basic distribution of the manor. I could not find a detailed one about it, not sure if they usually have one and I had bad luck to not find one or they don't have those at all. Although that does not matter at this point, with my task done I hurried to the rooms they left me before they had to go to that meeting. Not being called there hopefully means I won't get involved in that business too. Still, lately my ability to attract bad luck and troubles has been really outstanding so I can't look down on the opportunity of something bad happening again. At least know I got this map so I won't be getting lost in this uselessly big property, with it I erased that possibility so one less thing to worry about.

Although I can not exactly look at it right now, I don't think I would be fast enough hiding the map if someone where to suddenly come in. I would surely get caught, I am confident on that. Well, that is some useless confidence I must say. But nonsensical thoughts aside, I should really check the map in my room later. I will be alone so I won't have to explain nothing, well, I must not forget locking the door though.

Talking about doors... I am not that sure about the security that lock can provide. The thief entered rather easy I believe so I doubt it would stop other people of similar level of skills. I should give a try to the door lock on my own... depending how easy it is for me, I would be able to gauge the level of the 'thief'. Getting to learn something from that guy, no matter what it is, will help me to catch him if the situation presents itself. Looking for him blindly will be uselessly hard considering the number of people working here, in case he is one of the employees, not to mention if he is an outsider who sneaks in and out. So I don't think he will be easy to catch. I feel bad for the guards here who are really serious about it but after a look at the map when I found it, I finally caught a glimpse of the real level of difficultly of catching said person with the rather apparent lack of interest and most likely interference from 'them'.

Hmmm, not like it matters to me for now so I won't mind it.

They are taking their time with that meeting, I hurried in the office because I was afraid of them coming soon but they still seem to be gathered there. I wonder how they are preparing to look for that missing guy. I have done this kind of work before, but I doubt they would act the same as me. They are a private security so their methods should be quite different from an individual such as myself. Not to mention, I mainly work in cities so I hardly have experience in large patch of land like the property we are. I would like to learn their methods but I don't think I will have the chance.

Now that I think about it.

Hmmm, it is just a fleeting thought but I hope I am overthinking that going missing at this point is because something is going behind scenes. The timing is a few hours before the 'plan' from that old man. Is it related somehow? If that is how it is then that means the old man did this? Not so sure about that. Making someone disappear isn't easy, but it is not that hard if you are prepared. Still, without a solid reason I can't just assume that old man did it. Besides, he could be completely unrelated. The possibility that someone else did it should be higher if you just consider how they are family, well, that is from an outsider point of view I guess. So, far the only thing I know is that I know nothing. I better stop letting my mind going rampant with ideas and possibilities without proof.

I could finally hear people coming from the hallway, that means they are done with the meeting then? This time is not just a couple of people but a large number of them so I guess that's how it is.

Now then, I am not sure how to proceed from here. I could as I was told by Miss Highlander before coming here to have someone else with me while I ask around... but if things will get more lively judging by the situation with the missing person, I might even waste a lot of time due that. At this point I think it would be better to take a rest.

And when you talk about resting... you also mean snacks! Well, I only got brownies on me right now. I may as well restock my pocket with other stuff. Hopefully they will have more tasty stuff in the kitchen. One thing I have not lacked since coming here have been snacks so not everything is that bad. Still, they might be good but they are not worth the trouble. The maids will need to improve their baking skills a lot before it's worth all I have been so far.

Putting that aside, I think I will use that time to rest to the best of my ability. The clock keeps going forward and the afternoon will end soon. Well, there is also the fact that lately the sky is darkening a lot faster so adding to the little time the afternoon have left means that it's getting dark outside. Makes me think about how I did not pay that much attention to the time I spend asking around. Not to mention, I was left waiting in this place for quite sometime. Time sure flies when you are busy. Although I would've liked I had more time to prepare myself... the night is getting close. Whatever that old man is preparing is going to happen soon. 'Secret plans + night' are never a good combination. Guess I will deal with it as the situation presents itself.

For now... I should wait.

They wouldn't forget about me right? There has to be a reason why no one has come to look for me... hopefully.

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Right now I am riding a car heading to the manor. Inside the vehicle there are a couple of guards riding the front seat while Miss Highlander is seating on the back seats with me. She is looking rather troubled. I think it has mostly to do with her job but a part of it should be that she feels a little guilty.

Well, I can't say she is blameless, but it is not a big deal either.

The thing is... she actually forgot to the other people about me, while also forgetting me herself. As expected, I was left alone for some time. Although I spent a good amount of time waiting for someone to come looking for me, I don't think she should feel troubled nor guilty about it. The guards situation is rather complicated at the moment, and considering her rank she also has a lot of responsibilities. Besides, forgetting things is rather normal. In her case, she takes her job seriously so she may feel troubled because of that. I mean, I can't say I was not upset about being forgotten for over an hour but once I think things through, I can't really complain. If I wanted it, I would not even need to be there waiting in the first place. I could've stayed at the manor but I decided to go around asking about the theft cases. Plus, this was pretty much an abnormal situation where someone when missing. Not exactly her fault either.

Long story short, she feels troubled but nothing I said helped. Hence, we are riding the vehicle in silence. Thankfully, we are getting close to the manor already.

Thinking about it, I doubt she came here to escort me back. Then, she probably has some business in the manor as well.

Sadly (?), I don't know anything about what was said at the meeting. It seems I won't be getting involved with the missing guy problem.

That means I am on my own from now on... Hmm? On my own? on my own?. I feel like I am forgetting something but I can't recall at all. Well, it surely is nothing to worry about.

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I parted ways with the guard group after arriving at the manor. Without wasting any time I went to... the kitchen. I wanted more snacks. One thing I noticed was that there were few people walking around, after asking around I heard that it was because they were called to inform them about something but the details were not something the person I asked knew. Not sure if the maid really knew or did not want to tell me, but that is all I could get from her.

I will ask more about it later, I only came to kitchen because I can eat snacks to kept my hunger in check. That way I won't need to have dinner with other people. Although having that guy missing will make it hard for me to meet too many people.

In the kitchen there were few maids as well, I decided to ask for the snack and luckily there some cookies left. Apparently they kept making because the snacks became very popular today, someone kept taking a lot of them... I am really sorry, I guess that is me. I kinda feel bad because I have taken a good number of them with me. Now that I was here I took the change of asking for a bottle of juice or water to bring with me too. I have hardly drank any water today. That's a pretty bad thing to do. Maybe the maid was feeling generous or annoyed with my presence since they had few people and they had to take care of dinner by themselves so she gave me both bottle of juice and water with the rest of the cookies. For the sake of my heart, I will like to believe that she was feeling generous. Yes, that's surely the reason she did it.

I decided to leave as soon as recieved the stuff I asked. Without walking too fast to not stand out I headed to my room.

Finally I will be able to read the content of that small book with minding my surroundings.

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Entering my room I notice that people seemed to come here while I was away. I wouldn't find it strange if one or two people did it since they could've been this place employees. But it looks like there were more people looking around. Some places even look messier so I doubt they came to clean or tidy my room.

They even left things as they were after looking so they must've lacked the time to clean up after their mess. Whatever they came to do here is unknown, but I didn't leave anything here so I can't even imagine what they were after. I wonder if this is a extension of the search for the missing Kingwood? That sounds rather hard to believe. He is a rather big guy, I wouldn't be able to hide it easily in my room. Other than that... No, I can't tell what they were doing here at all.

For now, let's lock the door and focus on the new info I found. I will consider the matter of their entry after that.

Still, I find it hard to focus. Should I look around just in case? Although I doubt I will find someone hiding here. There is no way that is going to happen.

Or so I thought until I looked under the bed, there... a pair of green eyes were looking right at me. I decided to stand up.

Hmmm, how strange... I think I saw something that should not be there. What is that girl doing there?.

"Hey, what are you doing there?"

I said, to the little girl hiding under my bed.

I really have a good number of questions but that one is a good start.

"... I am hiding"

No kidding, huh. I feel like she playing around somehow.

"That much I can tell, but why... Never mind, Why don't you get out of there for now?"

I don't think that staying there is that comfortable.

"...ok"

With that said, she started to crawl out from under the bed slowly, not before looking around the room.

Now, having left that place. She is standing in from of me.

What to do with this girl.

"What happened? Why are you here?"

I asked.

"I was hiding... from them"

I thought she was still playing around when I heard the first half but the later half picked my interest.

"What do you mean?"

"I am not sure... But they keep looking for me. After I finally I avoided that guy, they appeared. In all happened after we separated last time"

This doesn't seem to be something I can ignore, can't I?.

Grrr, I feel like reading the contents of the small book keeps dragging but this time I have no choice. This girl has helped me enough so the least I could is to lend a hand here, or an ear in this case since I will be hearing her out.

My mental complains came to a stop as I heard a small sound coming from Noir. To protect her pride I will just say that she is hungry. It has nothing to do with her glaring at me with tears on her eyes. Yes, I am doing it because I am a sensitive person.

"If you don't really mind, I have a good number of snacks with me. Why don't you tell me in more detail what exactly happened for you to ended up under my bed?"

She wasted no time as soon as I got the snacks out and started eating. There they go, my precious snacks. So much effort to have them being eaten by someone else in front of me.

"Hey, calm down. I won't take them away, here drink some juice"

It feels quite pityful that she is this hungry.

Hopefully, she will be able to tell me all that happened.