Chapter 13 - First Tale XIII

There are several things I still need to think, being like that... Should I just go?. I actually would like to take my time to do so. Maybe taking a car would be to fast, in that case I should just walk. I am not sure how much time exactly will that give me, but I can at least tell that it will be more than what I would have if I had a vehicle take me to the manor.

Deciding that I called to the young lady.

"Miss Maid, I actually would like to go on foot. So I don't need that someone gives me a ride"

"Miss Maid? No, wait... What do you mean with going on foot? You want us both to walk all that for no reason?"

"Us? No, no. I by myself will go, I did not ask you to come with me. You can take it easy and use the car"

"I was assigned to take care of you as a guest of the manor, I can't just leave you behind and go on my own"

So she plans to follow me regardless huh. Too bad for her, she will have to deal with my selfishness for a while.

"I see, that is too bad. Then, let us depart"

"I am glad you understand, let us calmly go to... wait, that is not the way to the car. The car is in the garage"

"I did not say I was going to take the car. I will go on foot"

"You... urgh, wait up. I still have to go with you. I said wait up. Urgh, these shoes were not made for walking fast. Couldn't he go a bit slower?"

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It seems like I have a companion during my walk, I did speed up a little to see how much would she try to follow me but it looks like she still did her best to catch up to me. Quite the dedication, is it?. I have been trying to believe she is a normal maid, but this girl's behavior during my chat with Mr. White makes me doubt her, not to mention her presence there was already very strange from the get go. No, if you thing about it, suddenly getting a pretty maid is already not normal. Well, in my case I think I wanted to turn a blind eye to all her suspicious behavior since I just like maids.

I continue walking while keeping an eye on her. She has a look that is a mix of resignation and annoyment, I think she is also sulking a little but I could be wrong. I don't recall doing anything wrong other than... dragging her with me and walk in complete silence, huh? I feel like she actually has a legit reason for the way she is acting. I have to suffer later.

Now then, I kept thinking about the mess I got into. When I came here was because I had taken a job. I was to use my employer identity 'Sid Grayworth' to find out who might be trying to take his life. Everything looked normal but now not exactly. He crearly planed to use me as a diversion, but he also left me the job of finding the person who might harm him so that I did not find it suspicious. Although I can not say he 'recently' received a threat, I think he expected it. The sender of the message is crearly hostile to 'Sid Grayworth', in this case me. Since they decided to focus on me, that either means they truly believe that I am Sid or they actually know that I am not him and think I can contact him somehow. Too bad, I can not.

That put those two against each other with me in the middle. I can not forget about certain old man with a slightly screw loose. He has something planed for tonight, the man he brought with him is related to it. But I am not sure what that might be. For now, this is one thing I know for certain, he wil do something. It is not much would it at least has a proper date. Different from what the message said about being late and not giving further clue. At night I should be extremely wary, the best choice would be to keep my eyes open during that time.

There is also this other old man, the guard. That is looking for the thief. He... probably read the messages, yet he is still trying to catch that person. This makes it hard to judge whether he is serious or not. I must also point that how knew of certain things that make it seem like he is somewhat connected to one of two people I met alone in order to chat.

Miss Kingwood is quite difficult to judge personally, she is someone who is putting a strong front. The problem is that I am not sure why is she doing that. Considering that, her family relationships might be the reason. It would complicated if that's the case, for what I know so far... the other members are quite troublesome people. Even when it's like that, she showed a rather distinct interest about that little girl. There should be a reason for that, and in that reason a story surely awaits. Not sure if trying to dig up that will be helpful, but I may as well try. It could earn me her ire if treated poorly though.

There two characters whom I have yet to meet that I think are the turning point in all this. Probably. Raymond Kingwood, the person who 'invited' me here. He wanted for my employer to come here but I am not sure how good they know each other. My arrival was probably, no, he surely already knows that 'Sid Grayworth' is here. I am sure that everytime he has new guests, someone lets him know. Considering the fact he took the bother of inviting a number of people here, he most likely has a reason for it. So he must pay attention to who comes. The reason why he had many people come and have a vacation here, well... I think that he is having some kind of trouble. My conversation with the crazy old man made me recall a good number of facts regarding the problems that he might be facing. A number of problems have come up around the time he started to take charge of the family business, if you add that to his already bad reputation then it is not hard to imagine what he wants from all the people he called. Too bad for him that it looked like a sign of weakness and certain people used that chance to rope a few of those guest to their side. Everything went wrong due his carelessness. He acted recklessly by having many people come at once and neglected them, giving a chance for other to take advantage of. I would need to meet him once to have more detailed analysis. The other person I have not met, and I should be wary of, it's the late Mr. Kingwood's wife. A widow that is trying to fight for the position of the head of the family can't be a simple person. As I recall, she wants to put that plumb guy, Eric Kingwood in that position. There should a story about why she wants him to do so. But unfortunately I am not sure if I have the time for that. In any case, if the opportunity presents itself, I should try to find out about it. Learn more about the people here will help learn about the mess I am into.

We have been walking for a while in silence, but Miss Maid has not complained. That's some patience she got there. Talking about walking, Where are we?. I wonder how much do we have walk, not that I mind. But I did not even pay attention if we are taking the right path to the manor, Miss Maid is here she would... no. She is looking left and right, Is this the first time she is going on foot? That makes this a kind of tricky situation. Is this my karma? Getting lost in forest. Well, not exactly 'lost' since we can just follow the path we are walking back, but it still feels like it. I heard maid's bring good luck but maybe it was a hoax. No, maybe... she is not a real maid?.

With those nonsensical thoughts in mind we arrived near a small building, upon closer look it seems a small chapel. It seems to be an old building judging by the traces of paint. The entry is a large wooden door with simple design, it is currently half open. Maybe there is someone in there. Really, to find a chapel in the middle of the woods while we are lost, no matter how you think about it. This is spooky, but at least it is not in the middle of the night. My curiosity keeps telling to take a look, well, we could use a break.

I should use the opportunity to ask this maid a few things about the path we took and some other stuff. In particular there is one thing I need to ask... her name. Calling her Miss Maid every time will become an habit.

"Hey, let's take a break here. It seems like a nice place"

No, actually looks rather abandoned but I still wanna enter here.

"Here...? A nice place? Where is that?"

She looks at me like I am crazy. Of course, I ignore that. Otherwise my poor little heart will break.

"We have been walking for a while. So I thought that you may be tired. That's way, let's go, come on"

"No, It is your fault that we are walking this much. You... wait, why do you want to enter this place? I did not have much time today so I could not memorize all the paths made for walking, so I don't know where we are exactly, I said wait! Would you please stop doing as you please? Urgh"

I think she got angry. That is bad, but the worst should be that I heard her say she does not know the way. I thought that I could easily follow the path near the road get to the manor, but since I was distracted I must've taken the wrong one at some point.

Inside the chapel everything was tidy and well maintained. Quite different from the outside. The window glasses had simple designs of angels singing on one side of the chapter and on the other side there were what I would describe a people being punished in hell. I am lacking religious education so I can not tell if that is norm in chapels and churches. I can't see anyone inside, but it looks like someone takes care of this place. Besides the windows the other religious sign I see is a cross further inside, although the design makes the vertical part considerable longer, I guess there are some diferences with the common one. Well, I am not the one that could point out which particular cross could this be.

Usually in churchs or the likes there are small stands where the preacher puts his bible or however is called the book they use to preach the words of God, the name can change depending the religion. In this case I could not find such a book, so I am lacking information to determinate the origins of this place. But during my inspection of the stand I found a small familiar symbol carved at the base of the stand. It looked considerably faded, yet there are enough common points between the two. I think it was a good idea to enter here, I did find something interesting after all. It does not help to solve my problems, but... I think this could become something helpful at the end of the day. It can not be a coincidence I found that symbol in a statue, and now in this chapel. I thought that this symbol was used as the sign of some skilled scultor, but this stand has it too. There is more to it than what looks like. I just don't know what that is.

Well, for now there is nothing I can do about it so I should focus in what I can do at the moment. Miss Maid followed me with her eyes during my inspection of this place. Anyone would be curious if they enter an unknown place, and since I was doing the work of searching around she just sat on one of the rows of seats arranged for the people that come to chapels to hear preaches. I guess that dealing with her is the only choice left.

"Well, there is no one here so we can't ask how far we are from the manor. Let us just rest here and decide whether we should keep going this way or go back"

With that said I took a seat too. She sat on the left side and me on the right side. If you just related us to the images on the windows this would make many people have funny ideas.

"By the way, a few things happened and we could not properly introduce ourselves... let's use this change to do so"

With a face that said 'Really? Now?' she told me her name.

"I guess a proper introduction is a must, and we delayed it enough. I am Jeanne Saphir, I started to work today, that is way my skills might be lacking compared to others maids. Still, I will do my best in my job"

Quite a strange surname I must say. She said she is new... so she really won't be able to tell which is the right way.

"If you are new then you don't know the way then. I am sorry, I planned to just follow the path near the road to the manor, but I was lost in thought and unknowingly went the wrong way"

Since it was my full that she got into this I should just apologize, I could just say that is not my fault that she followed me. But her job is to take care of me, since she is inexperienced she just decided to follow me without questioning or stoping me. That itself is not bad, but it led to this situation. Still, she is just doing her job and ended up lost because of it. That makes me responsable for that.

"By the way, I was never taught about religion properly, but what about you? Can you tell the origins of this place?"

"I am sorry, I am not sure. Although there are common things related to common churches, it is not enough for me to tell it apart"

I guess that she lacks enough proof to tell apart this chapel. Sadly that means I won't get more information about it. I should try to ask someone else at a later time.

"Still, I at least can tell that the style of the windows and how they divided them is not something 'common' so I think that it would help to identify it"

"That indeed could so I should keep it in mind. Do you have a phone with you?"

"I am not carrying it with me right now, don't you carry yours with you now?"

I feel that with what happened to it, I should not use my phone. Not sure what they could've done to it yet.

"The battery is dying so I was wondering if I could use yours"

It still has more than half of the charge, but she does not know that. I think.

"Too bad then, we could call someone to ask for the right way, or to come to pick us up and take us back"

"Indeed too bad"

Now what, if she is new here then there is hardly anything that she will know.

"Is this your first time working?"

"Yes, today was my first day"

Awkward, really awkward. What to do... eh?. I just took a look behind my and saw someone standing at the door. Due the light coming from outside chapel I can not see that person very well. But never mind that, since there is someone here I could ask about the right way.

"Hey there, Could I ask y..."

Damn, why did that person started to walk away as soon as I talked? Never mind that, I think I can catch up to him. Although rather thin and tall, I can at least tell he was a male.

"What happened?"

"Wait here, I saw someone just now. I will try to ask him if he knows where we are"

Without waiting for an answer I went outside to catch up to him. A naive thought I guess, since by the time I had arrived I found no clue of that person.

That said, I did find on the floor cleaning tools that I think he planned to use in the chapel. It looks like that person was the one that kept the place tidy. Although I am not sure why he ran away, I can't even see his shadow. No matter what, I did not take that long getting out of the chapel and yet, he was nowhere in sight. So I think he went through the woods rather than the path made for walking... that or he runs extremely fast, which I found unlikely since if even that were to be true I would at least spot him because the path is a straight line in front of the chapel.

"Hey, What happened? You just started running and left me behind... What this?"

Miss Maid, I mean, Miss Jeanne came out the chapel complaining a little since I came alone. I actually left her alone because her shoes would not allow her to keep up with my running speed, and I planed to come back for her. Although leaving a lady alone just like that sounds kinda bad I must say. Thankfully, her attention was stolen by the cleaning tools on the floor. Thank you unknown guy for dropping this, I avoided a bullet thanks to that.

"I saw someone at the door, but when I tried to talk to him he started to get away. Not sure why he did that I was about to chase him, sadly I lost him as I got out of the chapel"

"Anyone would run if someone tried to chase them"

I have not words to say in my defence even though I know he started to back before I chased him.

"I guess he felt intimidated that there were people in this lonely place"

"That would mean there is barely people who comes here"

He could also be trying to avoid people completely.

"What do you say? Should we keep going a little longer or should we go back? I doubt that person will come back anytime soon"

I pick up the cleaning tools from the floor and take them inside the chapel as I await for her answer.

"...We should walk just a while longer, we got this far so I think we should be arriving somewhere soon. By the way, why are you picking that up?"

I think what she said makes sense, we also did not have many options. Her question is not particularly difficult so I answer without minding it too much.

"We were kinda intruding here without permission anyways, and we ended up scaring that person. I feel kinda guilty about it. I would like to stay and clean in his place but I could break or damage something by accident if I caressly try to clean a place I am not familiar with"

Damn, I forgot myself with that answer. As I recall, Sid is not the type of guy yo clean by himself, instead having people to take care of it. He did give me a summary of how he is so that I could act the part. I don't think I can cover up this. How troublesome.