Chapter 8 - First Tale VIII

How long has it been since I have felt that people can be so unfair?. I have to say... for such a prim apperance, she sure can exert the aura of a thug... her arms strength was quite high too. I completely lost in comparison.

It took me a while to appease the miss after my rather stupid slip of tongue. Well, I was not technically wrong. But it seems like someone took my words badly. Although her cold facade can instill certain amount of fear on people... it is nothing in comparison to when she started to ask for details about my encounter with Noir.

After finally calming down, she coughed a little to hide the embarrassment of her previous actions while trying to return to her previous look.

That is not going to make forget what I saw. In my mind you are already labeled as a strange lady.

The conversation will not continue unless we get to the real reason of my summoning. I was a little apprehensive to proactively lead the conversation due my earlier talk with that old man... but now such a thing is gone. Really, Where is your cold aura from before? I feel cheated. I knew you were hiding your true self, but... Didn't you show yourself too fast?. Whatever... you must never judge a book by its cover.

"Have you calmed down already?"

"I apologize, I lost sight of myself for a moment there"

That 'moment' took full 20 minutes. Please, don't try to explain yourself anymore, it will not help you.

"There is no need to apologize. I can easily tell that you seem found of Noir, so I can understand that you would overreact from any comment that would make her look bad"

She did not say anything about my comment about her being found of that little girl... I guess there is a complicated relationship between them. Not my problem though. I will foreign ignorance and just focus on my business. If I start getting involved I have a feeling that it will be extremely time consuming to solve... not to mention that further involving myself with them while I am using someone's identity, there is no need to be a genius to get that it is a bad idea.

"But, let us put that behind us. I am actually rather curious for the reason you would call me here. I do apologize, but I don't recall having meet you before"

Deciding to finally start talking in earnest about it. She started talking.

Well, more like asking more questions.

"Are you aware of the reason of your invitation?"

"I am afraid no. It looks like a friendly invitation to me"

Yeah, right.

"Well, I can not deny that is indeed a 'friendly invitation', but... Don't you find it strange?"

Is she trying to find out how much I know through these questions? To gauge my knowledge on the matter... or just my thoughts.

"Strange is it? Why would it be strange?"

"To answer a question with another question... It's rude"

"It was not my intention to be rude, but I just don't understand what you mean"

"Oh? Really? If you say so... then"

"Then?"

"I will give you a word of advise, do not get involved with them. I can not be certain if you are lying about knowing or not... but it does not matter. Not getting involved is for your own good. Above all... if you try anything against her. Well, I will leave it to your imagination about what could happen"

With that declaration laced with threats, she gave me a look that could pierce even walls, I guess she wants to be able to read me with my answer.

So... not getting involved with 'them', and not harming 'her'. I do not know the extent of who are included in 'them', but I can probably link it at the the rest of her family or at least a good number of them since she used that term. As for who is that 'her', well... there is no surprise, she meant Noir most likely. That poor girl sure have it rough if this lady here has to retort to threats to keep her safe.

I have the feeling that even as reluctant as I am to it. I would probably get involved with this Missy here and Noir. I have not doubts that whatever the old man has in mind will not be normal.

Anyways, it would be against my principles to harm a kid so I doubt I would earn this Missy rage. At least in regards to Noir.

"I do not know what you are talking about. But I can at least tell you that without doubt I would not bring harm to kid"

The piercing gaze lowered in intensity after my declaration.

"I will put my trust on your words then"

"You don't have be that exaggerated, my words are just common sense"

She stood up and walked close to the window, she opened it and placed her hand on its frame while looking outside.

"Common sense huh... then... they surely lack it"

Although it was almost a whisper I could hear what she said. Surely those were not words meant to be heard by me. I could not look at her face from my position but I can imagine from those words what kind of face she has.

Argh... I could probably be falling into a trap so I won't go shouting words like 'I will help you', she could be leading me to do so... but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I am not in any position to offer a hand, she did not explicitly ask me for that either. For now there is nothing I could do so I can only remain silent and feign ignorance.

She stopped looking outside and turned to face me once again.

"I will recommend you once more to follow my earlier advise, that is the reason why I had you to come here... also... since she did not avoid meeting you again, it means you are a trusty individual. So I don't want you to betray her trust"

I don't recall being trustworthy at all though?. I wonder if she actually heard when I mentioned that I scared her a couple of times. If anything I expected her to ask me to keep my distance from her.

Perhaps my doubts were so obvious that they were reflected on my face that she continued with more information.

"She has a good intuition with people. If she found you even one bit dubious, she would not have guided you and of course, she would not have met you again doing her best to avoid you. As you said, she is good at 'sneaking' right?"

I think she has a point there, although I was acting suspicious enough when we met. I noticed a bit of a grudge when she said 'sneaking', probably I imagined it... hopefully.

"I said at I wanted to say, you may leave"

I had a couple of questions to ask but it looks like she really planed to end our conversation. No choice then.

"Very well, I will take my leave then"

"Before I forget, I had someone to take your portion of breakfast to your room"

I would be really thankful if she was not the reason herself that I could not eat it until now. But she took the bother to do it even when she could've have ignored.

"Thank you for that"

"Enough, just leave"

Well, I will just do that.

As I went through the door I could see a small silhouette peeking here at the end of the hallway opposite from I was planning to go, but when I turned to face it ... it ran away. Well, although I could not take a good look, but judging from the size I can think who might've been peeking. Not like I could give chase so I just went to my room as I planned earlier.

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After I arrived at my room I found that my clothing was there too along with the breakfast for today. Great.

The first thing I did was to change into my own clothing, which were black pants and light grey long sleeve shirt with a dark grey hooded trench coat over it, that along my mountain boots... does not anything at all like the real Mr. Grayworth, but I had not much choice since I departed here rather quickly since he requested it as such. I should not forget to put what remains of my 'equipment' in my pockets, the cigarettes are pretty much save since the package is new it did not get wet. As for the other things, the flashlight is waterproof so it's ok, so it's the lighter... but the notepad got wet earlier so... the pages are all twisted now that it's dry. I have no choice but to use like this though, I have nothing better at hand... maybe I could ask for a new one? Nah, What if they start asking why I want one? It would be more troublesome, and this one can still be used.

Now then, Is that all?.

I feel like... I really forgot about something, I started feeling that when I was recalling how I came here without even choosing a more fitting choice for my character. Wait... how I came here... damn, I forgot about my car.

In that forest there were probably some wild animals, or at least I saw traces of such... hopefully they don't mess up my ride. It is not my own car but a rented one, but I would still have to take responsibility in case something happened to it. Well, 'Sid Grayworth' would have to do so. But I would rather that things do no get to such extent.

Anyways, I will deal with it later. For now I will eat, otherwise for one reason or another something will happen that will prevent me from eating... again.

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Thankfully I could eat without problems. The meal tasted pretty good. As expected of a meal made by maid, it was well made.

Now, that I have finished that, and got my clothes back. I need to focus on the main reason I came to this place. So far I have met a good number of the Kingwood, but I have only talked to two of them. That young lady did threat me, but I doubt she is the reason my client would 'fear for his life'. Since she said that all I have to do to get on her good side is to not get involved with the others. Maybe if she asked me to 'join her side's or something, I would be more suspicious of her. Although it never hurts to keep my guard up. Now, as for the old man, he did ask me to work together, and it did surprise that he knew the real 'Sid'... he said he would keep the secret, but we would have to work together. At the moment he has quite the card against me so I can only work with him. I am not sure if he would actually harm 'Sid' since he mentioned to be friends. I don't believe much in that part though. I have only talked with two and that tired me a lot.

Next on my list is someone I can not avoid meeting, Mr. Kingwood. My chat with him will surely tell me the purpose of my invitation, although it is mostly clear with my earlier encounters. Different from the eccentric old man and Missy, I think he would put a heavy emphasis in his ambitions so he will surely without doubt ask me for some sort of cooperation. None that I could provide, so I expect that it will earn his displeasure. Since it will be like that I must be careful of my speech when that happens, and as much as possibly ask any questions I have before the situation escalates to that point.

One person I want to avoid meeting is the lady known as 'vixen' by a certain old man. She seems to be sly, so I don't even want to imagine the number of headaches I would get if she were to request a meeting with me to talk in private like the other two did. But as it has gone so far, she will call for me sooner or later, although I would prefer later like when I am on my way home. From what I know of her, she married Mr. Kingwood at some point and is now a widow... she also seems interested in having her son, Eric as the head of the house. Currently I am a little confused about that position, Mr. Kingwood has it right now, and the public has that idea, but here in the manor it does not as simple as that. That is one thing I should keep my open for, such struggles always affect third parties so it could be the reason why my client could be in danger.

As for the son of the 'vixen', well... I already met him but we did not talk. He suck at driving as far as I can tell, personality wise I noticed that he actually was blaming someone else for an accident that he caused, so I get an idea what kind of individual he is. That is all I can tell about him.

Last but not least, thin guy named Edward. He has interesting origins, quite different from the other two, but he still carries Kingwood on his name. So I should still be careful around him. I heard from the old man that he is a good kid, but that could be his opinion taking into account that they get along well. As for his danger level regarding my task, I can not tell since I lack information. I will decide such a thing after I gather more info about him, but he is not my priority for now.

Well, that is all I have for now, I guess I should get going. Although I have a slight doubt... I think that the other guests might already on someone's side, but I don't know how to distinguish that in a short time. More stuff I have to be carefully about then.

I feel like I forgot about someone... ah. She is an individual that I need to treat with care, unless I want to earn certain lady rage. That would be bad. Really bad. She can be quite intense. Let's just take it easy in this case. I doubt I will meet her anytime soon.

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I seriously need to stop doing that. I mean, everything was going fine, but just mentioning those words brought this.

Why is this girl waiting for me here?. I recall meeting her for the first time in this place. But this time is slightly different, she is using a sofa as a hiding spot while she peeks at me from there.

I mean, that is good and all. I can not control where you go. But due my earlier comment, it feels like I summoned you somehow. Not to mention, What exactly are you doing? Are you trying to hide? Then why are continuously peeking over here? Hiding complete when I look where you are located is not helping you, I already know where you are. You weren't this shy before, or maybe this is some kind of game. What to do... well, I will just act like I don't know where she is and continue walking, if this go on for a longer time I will try talking to her. That is the best I can do right now.

With those thoughts in mind I continued walking, while occasionally peeking behind me to check on the little girl. I meant it as a joke when I said it before but... she is actually quite good at following me, I can not hear her steps at all. She got talent for this... I wonder if that is a good thing though.

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With the motivation of being able to talk to several maids, I started a few conversations hoping to get any useful information... but I had a terrible luck of only coming in contact with new employees. Well, I at least understood one thing. There is a rather large number of new maid's that were fired not too long ago, although I am not clear about the reason. That will make it hard to gather useful information.

I will continue for a while longer, if I can't find anything useful... I will try my hand with the guards. Although doing so will make me stand out more. If that does not work well, I will not have many choices left. Other than talking employees like gardeners, I can only depend on my fellow 'guests' for some info. But it will my last choice, i would rather not to talk with them without any idea about the in and outs of this manor.

I wonder if I am being too cautious though.

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I continued for while but nothing useful came up. As I was thinking how to approach the guards next, a maid came to inform me that Miss Highlander required my presence. That feels uncanny, as I was thinking about how to approach the guards they come looking for me. Well, this works too. I also should take the change to inform them about last night... or today theft. If by any chance they used those to do something stupid and they link it to me later I will only be able to cry since I had not mentioned the theft to anyone.

I decided to just go right now, not like I had to prioritize which guard should I talk first. Well, in her case... I believe that she finds me plainly suspicious so I doubt that she will talk easily.

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I was taken to the kitchen for some reason. But before I could start thinking of the reasons Miss Highlander spoke.

"Good morning, Sir. I called you because there is something I wish to inform you. Yesterday we did not have the chance due the unique situation surrounding your arrival, not to mention the late hour. But, as soon as we could have it prepared we got it right"

"Good morning, Miss Highlander. I am curious about what you are talking about"

I still am wondering why did she choose the kitchen, there are a good number of people currently working. I can see the maid from last night instructing a lone maid about something, the maid in question stands out due her bright hair color, but what picket my interest was that she was only being instructed but did nothing. While I could see further in the kitchen that no one else had the leisure of stopping.

"About that, you see... Mr. Kingwood had us assign a personal maid to take care of you during you stay. The idea is simple that we can't have the guest stoping any of our employees everytime they want something since those employees could already be tasked with another job. So with someone assigned to only you, said person could just focus on completing your request"

Sounds logical enough I guess... wait. Wait, wait, wait. Something... something like this. D-do-does this means I will get a personal m-m-maid? One just for me?.

Hahahahaha. Wonderful, this is surely a blessing. I already suffered a lot this time in this job. So now I can enjoy being taking care by a gentle maid. Hahahaha. There is absolutely no way that it will be this easy, I have the feeling that this will bring me the biggest headache I ever had.

As I was starting to lose my mind, I moved my eye sight to the maid being instructed and connected the dots. Ah, I see. That is why I had to come to kitchen.