Chapter 3 - First Tale III

It's still early in the morning, the sun just came out, and I have yet to leave my room, taking this opportunity to do something useful, I start checking my room since I had no chance yesterday. A really uselessly big room, my first impression really described the best, besides the bed that I used yesterday, there is a large desk with with a rather comfortable chair, just at the back, there was a French door, further you could see a small balcony from where the sunlight was peeking, the sky was clear and no sign of clouds were in sight. There was a door inside the room that would take you to a rather fancy bathroom, the first thing you could see was a mirror abode the sink, there is also a shower and a bathtube, it would be great to take a bath here after I get a clean change of clothes. Going back to the room again I found a closet but it was lacking in clothing though, there is nothing to change into, my stuff is still wet, I will have to ask for help for that too. The desk had locked drawers, that's strange, but I have more important things to worry about, I wonder what should I do now, my main worry is my lack of information about the people here, I have no way to know who could've stole my things.

"I guess I can't just stay here, I have a lot of things to do, but first, I will go to the kitchen... hope I can find someone that could take care of my clothes"

From what I know Mr. Grayworth have a large amount of money and he's used to many people doing things for him, so I can not try to wash my stuff by myself. This is quite complicated, I usually do things myself, having other people doing them for me... feel uncomfortable.

With that, I just walk to the door, and then I try to recall...

"Now, Where was the kitchen again? I completely forgot..."

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As I walk I try take as many information as possible, I am currently in lobby, there are a lot of furniture here, a few sofas and amrchairs surrounding a low table, everything seems like it's been here for a while, there are also some paintings, but I can not find anything valuable, they seem rather low quality in comparison with most things in this place.

"Everything have a classic style in this room... wait"

This sofa, it's from a different tone, it also looks rather new, quality too it's different, usually you look for something rather similar in case like this, but the quality is far from the others, odd, another thing I should pay attention to, I guess I should start taking note.

I should not stay here for a long time, if someone were to look at me right now, they would totally think I am suspicious (I'm kinda suspicious though), I barely interacted with the staff here.

"E-ex-cuse me-e, Who-o are-e you-u...?"

As I was busy with my thoughts I failed to notice that someone else was there besides me, I can only blame myself here. The voice sounded just behind me, the tone of voice was low but not enough that I could not hear it, it sounds like a woman's no, a young lady's voice, well, I will know when I turn to see, and as I do.

I can see a little girl standing there, I wonder if she lives here or another of guests have kids, whatever it is, I have to answer, as I do, I walk closer to her.

"Hello there, Young Lady, I-"

"...!"

As I get closer she looked rather frightened by my actions, so I stopped and took a few steps back and waited until she calmed down a little until I tried again, now from a certain distance.

"I am sorry, I must've scared you, Can you let me start again?

This time, I could finish my sentence, so I think she is not as frightened by me as before.

"Eh... Ok..."

She seems to speak rather softly, I am not sure if it's because she is on guard or frightened.

First impressions are important I guess, I must look like a bad guy in her eyes, that's some wary look she has, sadly, it does not look intimidating enough with those tears, I can only smile wryly at her try to look tough in front of strangers.

"I am a guest of Mr. Kingwood, I just got here yesterday"

I can not help but notice that when I said 'Mr. Kingwood' she looked more frightened and wary for a minute but calmed down really quick, that's one thing I should remember.

"...Are you friends with him?"

Something tells me that the answer for that question is important, she is a lot more focused on me, better be honest here, not like the true Mr. Grayworth got along with him anyways.

"Sorry, the truth is that I am not"

She was visibly relieved after hearing that, her wariness decreased by a large amount. Girl, I could be lying to you, you shouldn't lessen your wariness against strangers, well, as least she will be more willing to answer my questions, not to mention, she won't just scream, I think. I should ask for the way to the kitchen now.

"Actually, since I came here pretty late I don't know my way around here, so I was thinking which way I should take to go to the kitchen"

I try to get closer again, this time much slower than before, I could see that she tensed up a little but she did not say anything. I kneeled to be at the same eye level, and decided to continue talking this way.

"Could you tell me the way?"

She seemed to hesitate for a little, quite visible thanks to the frown on her face.

As she was pondering about the answer, I was thinking about who this child might be. She is wearing what looks a light black summer dress that seems of high quality, she also looks very young, maybe around ten or so, her height should not be more than 110 cm, she had long black hair that reached her knees, that is quite rare I must say not many people have it like that, in her case, someone must help her to take care of it going by how well maintained it looks, the last thing I noticed before she spoke again were her green eyes.

"...I can take you there"

I did not expect she would offer that so I did not answer immediately, she seemed scared of me before, I wonder why. Maybe due my delayed response she added.

"...You could get lost"

After saying that she said no more and stared at me awaiting for my answer. I could not help but to ask her.

"Isn't it easier for you to tell me the way?"

"I am hungry"

I guess it was for a simple reason that she told me that.

"I see, then let's go"

I stood up and decided to follow her. Now that I think about it, I don't know her name yet. Well, for now I should just get to the kitchen.

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Although I expected it, this is awkward. Walking in silence, following a little girl feels wrong. But talking won't help either. Asking questions would needlessly put her on guard, the last thing I want is that went she meets her parents she tells them I was some weird guy, and that put them on guard against me too. I don't want more people wary of me.

After a few minutes of walking through hallways, we finally arrived at the kitchen.

The little girl just went inside without saying anything and left me there alone, after saying a few words to a couple of maids that were making preparations for what it looks like breakfast one of then came to talk to me.

"Good morning, Sir, Is there something you would like from the kitchen? Are you here for breakfast?, I am sorry Sir, but it will take a little longer, we will let you know when it's ready"

Maids sure are nice, but I will have to postpone my hobbies for another time.

"Good morning to you too, that certainly sounds nice, but I had something I would like you helped me with. Yesterday when I came here I had to change into spare guard clothing because the rain caught me unprepared, so I would like to have clothing washed and dried, if you wouldn't mind"

With a small now she said.

"Certainly Sir, I will have someone to take care of it"

Someone else will do it, well, maybe they have different people for different jobs.

"I apologize for the bother then. By the way, you don't seem surprised about my presence here, I got here pretty late and not many people got to see me"

"About that Sir, we were informed first thing in the morning, so every worker is aware. Only the other guests are unaware"

"I see, thank you for your help. Since it will take a while for breakfast to be finished I will take a walk around the place, no need to let me now when it's ready. About my stuff, Will that take long?"

"No Sir, we will leave them at your room as soon as they are cleaned and dried"

With a small now of my own I tell her.

"I see, thank you in advance"

She slightly smiles and gives me another small now, then she says.

"It is not a problem Sir"

With the conversation over, she goes back to continue with her work. I take one last glance at the maid and turn to walk away. The maids here use a type of dress similar to a French maid dress, but the skirt is not that short, this makes you wonder about the reasons the owner of this property has them wearing it. I should pay attention to this too, maybe it's important.

The little girl was gone before I realized too. I wanted to thank her for taking me to the kitchen, but she went somewhere while I was talking to that maid. Talking about them, none of the ones I met earlier were the same from yesterday, but in both cases I met young women. Thinking about it, besides that Mr. White, the staff I met are just young people, although that could be a coincidence. But if you put things together, this sounds rather troublesome, hopefully it is not the worse case possible.

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I walked outside and took a look around, first of all, I was looking at the building I was in.

Impressive, this is a huge four story manor. But the architecture is the impressive part, you could describe it with an Elizabethan architecture, which could be called pluralistic, known to be constructed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, making this property pretty valuable in terms of culture, not many people could be said to have owned such fortune and land to build this kind of building during Queen Elizabeth I reign.

There a few cars parked outside, all of them look expensive, but before I could check them I heard what it looks like the car getting closer. I turn from facing the car to the small road where the sounds comes from and I spotted said car.

As it got closer I see what kind of vehicle it was, a Grey Aston Martin DB11, a friend of mine has one of them, he's quite wealthy and likes to buy all kind of cars, a rather expensive hobby, but thanks to that and his constant rambling about cars, I got to learn a bit of knowledge about different cars.

It was coming here fast. I better move, I don't wanna test if the breaks are working fine when the needs to stop.

I got close to the door and remained there to observe the owner of the car. In time to see how the guy trying to park but since he is doing it rather unskillfully, he pressed the break but the car was going to fast so the driver could not control it well and ended up lightly crashing into one of the cars that was already parked.

This of course alerted the people in the house as I could hear hurried steps getting closer.

This feels like it will be troublesome, but I need to at least check if the driver is ok. The crash was loud but it does not look it was that bad.

u

I was on my way to check on the driver until I stopped after hearing...

"Damn it, this stupid piece of junk, why did you no stop when I wanted"

The driver getting out of the car perfectly healthy.

The crash did not look bad but it is not about how the car looks what decides the state of person inside the car, in this case, the driver seems safe. Also, he looks angry so I better don't get involved, going by the sound of the steps, they should be getting here about... now.

"What happened?"

The first person walking through the door was a tall and thin middle aged man, he had short brown hair and blue eyes, he was wearing a white shirt and black dress pants.

He completely ignored my presence and walked closer to the crash site. When he saw what exactly happened he got angry.

"That was my car, you crashed my car!"

Now, having got out of the AM, the driver hear what the other man said and...

"Shut up, it was your fault for parking your junk here, look what it did to my car, now that is like this I can not use it anymore"

The driver was a man that looked on his late twenties, he was rather short around 160 cm more or least. He had short blonde hair and had blue eyes, similar to the other guy. He was in the plumb side with a big belly. He was wearing a a black shirt with black jeans, around his neck were a number golden chains, he also had a golden bracelet on his left wrist. They seemed of high quality, although all of them had different designs and it looked awkward. Not like the the guy seemed to mind.

I must say he is an unreasonable person, he was the cause of the crash with his driving but still wants to blame others.

Soon, more people got here, an old man wearing a brown suit, he was wearing a hat and was using a cane to walk.

Hearing the reason for the fight he said in lowered tone of voice.

"Not again, they always fight for whatever they can, I hope this was not intentional, that vixen wouldn't ask him to crash his car would she?" Maybe she..."

He did not seem to notice me standing nearby and was talking to himself. But as he saw me he shut his mouth and took a look around to see if someone else heard him.

He faked a cough a looked at me sternly before he asked.

"Who are you?, Judging by your clothing... Are you a guard?, Why are dumbly standing there?, Go and help them, that's what you are paid for"

I guess that using this uniform makes me look like one of the staff here. I find interesting what he was saying before but I doubt he will continue talking about it. Obeying what he said it's out off question, I am not working for him and I can still hear those guys fighting.

"You crashed your car again Eric, and it was my car. How many times has it been?"

"Shut up, shut up, your car was in the way Edward. Besides, who cares about such a cheap car"

"That is not the point, and it was not cheap!"

I should seriously avoid being the focus, and those guys feel like they will drag me into their fight.

"Sir, I am not a staff working here, I am a guest, now if you will excuse I need to go"

"Hey, wait what do mean with... wait"

The driver seems healthy enough so I have no need to be here. I also do not want to deal with this old man right now. Maybe I should look for him later and ask subtly about what he was saying, although judging by his actittude before... he is a difficult fellow.

I will just go and walk around the manor until breakfast is ready, I really need to change my clothes, otherwise everyone that meets me will try to order me around. That makes me think about something, that girl... she was clearly afraid of me, even as I was wearing this uniform, maybe she has a bad memory about it. Asking around about her should not hurt.

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After a few minutes a find myself in one particular room, a library. Like you can expect from the name, there are plenty of books in this room, many of the books here look old but they are in perfect state, at least the ones I took to check. Just by the quality of the cover you can say they are expensive. I would love to spend my time reading here but I am afraid that my job does not allow me to. A shame I must say.

Everything looks tidy and I can not find even a speck of dust, I can not tell if people read them often or it's the fruit of the maids work. Anyways the place is being taken care often so I think at least one person in this Manor must like reading.

"Ummm, this one here..."

While I putting back I book I randomly took from a corner, I noticed a particular book, on the spine of the book said 'Family Tales'. What an odd book.

My curiosity makes me take a look at it.

"There is a bookmark here"

Let's see, on this page there is a particular tale called, 'Emerald Eye'.

There is no much written here.

'Long ago, the way to the old family head gave his position to the new generation was decided by the emerald eye.

Only someone with..'

The rest of the text is faded. Why is it marked if the text is lacking so much?, someone took the bother to do so...

"Are you lost again?"

Lost in thoughts maybe, with that nonsensical idea in my head I turn to face...

The little girl from before.

This seems familiar somehow.

"Oh, Hello there, we meet again young lady"

"We spoke not long ago..."

What a tough crowd. At least she is no longer scared.

Now that I think about it, I never heard her name. I wonder if she is related to the owner of this Manor, or maybe one of the guests here.

"I did not introduce myself last time, right?, I am Sid Grayworth, what's your name?"

She lowered her eyes for a moment to think and then with a little bow and grasping the hem of her dress as she introduced herself.

"My name is Noir, Noir Dubois"

After she introduced herself, she tilted her head and asked...

"Did I do it correctly?"

This seems quite awkward, normally you don't ask that. So far I can only say that she is an amusing child.