Chapter 16 - First Tale XVI

I was really surprised to heard her say that. After all, we have barely spoken, and I almost made her cry everytime we met. But this kid suddenly called me to talk and the dropped those words just like that. My first thought is that this just a game, and she is just playing around. But I had to reconsider once I looked at her serious face. Whatever the case, I should heard what she has to say first.

"...What do you mean with that?"

She bites her lips and clench her fist.

"I am an unwanted child"

That's some harsh words she is using there. She said unwanted, but that Miss seemed found of her. Is there a problem with their relationship? For her to be saying this, it is not usually for some small fight. But that Miss did not look the type to be cruel to kids. That makes other people the reason then.

"Why do you think that?"

Without looking at my eyes even once she said.

"They all hate me... They... He said he will take my eyes"

I must say, I... got really angry when I heard that. Even though I can not confirm what she said. So, I just need to breath to calm myself. Not sure what kind of sicko would say something like that, but I better hear all she has to say first.

Should I ask who did it? Will she tell me that if I ask?

"Who said that?"

This time she turned to look into my eyes.

"Will you help me?"

It seems agreeing to help her it's a must to learn more about this. Logically, I should just ignore this... I am already into something bigger than I deal with and adding more to the mix could screw me. But, I have not acted very logical since I took this job. Being reckless and helping a kid is never wrong. I don't think I would be able to forgive myself... Besides, this could be a misunderstanding. Well, that is what I hope. This kid here looks pretty smart so it is likely to be true what she said. Although I can not guarantee that I will solve her problem since I don't know what it is... I can at least lend a hand.

"I can't promise you that I will solve your problem. Telling you that I would do so would be irresponsable of me, but I can lend you my help. Is that... good enough?"

I wonder if she will not like my answer, I really can't make promises here. No matter what, I can't be 100% sure that I can solve her situation... since I am on one of my own. Guess I am quite unreliable.

For now she just stares at me for a while until she says.

"It's ok... I guess"

At the moment she seems to accept my words.

"Why don't you tell me what the problem is... and start since the beginning?"

She takes a moment to consider but still answers.

"It all started when that person died... Maybe they were waiting for a chance like that even before it happened. I... can't remember very well that night but something changed"

She is leaving a lot of information out. But she is also speaking about some really hard stuff for a kid so maybe that is why.

For now, I will limit myself to listen to her first and then I will ask any questions... But if the start already has a number of thing I would like to know, then I am not sure how many things I will ended up asking when she is done.

"They probably read about that in the book. I once took a look at it by chance so I know what it said there. So I know that's where they found out about it, and that's what pushed them to look into it. They found a real proof that night while everyone were still in shock. I didn't like all that noise so I wanted to find somewhere quite. Accidently I saw them, I think it was lucky that they could not see me at that time, but since I was just outside the room then I had to hide. It was really uncomfortable but I was there for some time and I was getting sleepy... so I felt asleep. They were there for a while, but my drowsiness did not help me to pay much attention what they were doing. At that time I did not pay it any mind... Maybe I should've had"

I can't quite follow what this is about but there is something here that feels like it will ended helping me. She is talking about 'they' so maybe they are the same people. In this case, helping her might mean helping me. I have to say I feel really bitter about it, I said I would help her and now I just thought of myself only. Not sure if I am the right person to lend my help.

She kept talking unaware of my thoughts.

"Since that day, they would visit the library quite often, while everyone knew they were acting strange, no one was in the mood to do anything about it. With the master dead, the servants that worked here for a long time and knew him were in low spirits so they also did not pay their action any mind. That gave them some leeway in their actions. They went from the library to the... Hmm, it is also a library, but it is in the basement, I think. I am not sure what's in there exactly, there are not many keys for the door that leads inside. But they were not suppose to have one, so I don't know how they got there. I saw them taking a few visits there, and then, it started. They, for some reason started to act 'normally'. On the outside it was like nothing happened but... they started to get involved with whatever happened around the manor, causing different changes. One the major changes involved looking for reasons to fire the old employees, they used many methods but the result always ended up with getting rid of them. With that, they had a reason to bring new people to work here. Many of them seemed to know them so they hired them for that reason"

So that's the reason for the lack of people, and the large number of young employees. But the really important point seems to be what 'they' were looking for. Whatever that is, they found a clue in that other library. I wish I could take a look at some point, it would help me to make sure of a few things. Although the I have no idea where it's located. Even if I find where it is, I have the problem that I need a key to open the door. I also don't know where that is so... That library is out of my reach for now. She mentioned something about the people they hired. If it's how she just said, then there is good number of people hired under their instructions. Oh well, I expected that but it sure feels different to hear it from someone else.

"With more people under their orders, they could focus on other things instead of continue their search, which had come to a stop for some reason. After things settled down after the funeral of the late master of this manor, people daily life went back to normal. Although that did not matter to me since non of that affected me in the first place. Well, that is really how I thought at that time. I started to notice how their looks towards me were getting less friendly... not like they were friendly to begin with though. So I did my best to avoid them, but they seemed to not want to leave me alone since I had eyes on me pretty often, it was either their eyes or the people they hired. While I felt uncomfortable I got the hang of it, and got better at avoiding being found by them. I was able to hide from their eyes for longs periods of time, but at the end it was rather a futile effort, since I could not stay that way forever. It is awful and hard to get used to having eyes on you, but I did not have many choices. Thankfully I knew how to lost them so I could free myself of that. That allowed me to be in places without people knowing. That's how I heard them talking about it. The thing they were looking for. From what I heard, they were looking for a proof, and they said that it would help them to get everything. I am not sure what that 'everything' means. But I don't think it would be a good idea if they get their hands of it, they are bad people after all. I can tell that, I always can tell"

That's it, what 'they' are looking should have something to do with this somewhat subtle fight for the position of the head of the family. The person who invited 'me' here should be in that position due his achievements while the last master was alive. For an outsider point of view that should be enough for him to take over... but apparently for the family is not. To take over, they need a proof... and for the looks of it, no one currently knows. Otherwise they would take over at once... unless they have something else in mind. I am onto something there. That also brings the death of the previous master again, if no one has the proof, Does that means the his death was too sudden? A sudden death could mean a lot of things, sadly I have not much information about it. It was announced he died of old age, but now I can't be so sure.

The key in all this should be that proof, but this kid here, how to say it... there should be something about her. The fact that 'they' suddenly got interested in her is really important, I doubt they suddenly got charmed by her cute looks and made a fan fan club to watch over her. Their unfriendly looks growing more unfriendly should be for some reason, and that reason should be related to that so called proof. Do they think she knows something? Maybe they 'know' she knows. Either way, since she did not mention it, they must still be having her under their watch. That sounds really bad, she has had to get used to that because she is by herself for what she told me. I wonder why that Miss did not do anything about it, or maybe she is the reason by the kid got more freedom. At some point I am sure I will meet her again. She told me to stay aways from Noir after all.

Anyways... her ability to avoid that people should be why she is rather good at sneaking around. Maybe the reason why I could tell that she was following me was because she wanted that I could tell she was doing it? Not sure why she would want that. If it's how she said and she can tell who is actually bad, then that means I am a good guy. Getting the good guy card from a kid, Should I consider her naive? Or just be happy because I am not considered bad. Putting those useless thoughts aside, I don't think she has said I am a 'good' guy. For all I know, she could just not have another choice but me. That is really sad, but above all, I think it's really bad. If she thinks that, then something could happen soon.

"I noticed some time later, that the number of people acting differently increased. Some sort of competition started. The people 'they' hired were fired pretty much the same way that was used to get them working here. New people were brought here to replace them, but these ones were under the other people from the manor. It was a troublesome time, I used to go outside the manor and take walks around, although my endurance was rather poor at the beginning so I could walk too fast. There were a couple of times I saw 'them' walking around around the gardens, and even when I followed them because I was curious I could not tell what they were up to. After a while I just gave up. I was running out of places to be, first the library and then the gardens, the people in the manor barely visited those places before but thanks to 'them', they gained new visitors frequently. They were no longer peacefull"

Hmmm, quite a mess I must say. From what she is saying. 'They' tried to replace all the employees with their people, but the other residents of the manor did not like it. The methods used were pretty much the same, fire employees after they are blamed of something. I can not imagine how that was, but it surely was 'noisy' for Noir. Enough for her to turn outside, although trouble followed her. Not exactly like that, but from what she said there was a sudden interest in gardens or even more places, the people took upon themselves to look for something. What was it? I wish I knew. But since there was considerable manpower invested into it... then it had to be important.

When I got here I did not see that air around the manor indicated any conflict like Noir mentioned, so things must've changed. I wonder if they did it for good. Anyways, from what I have learned, the situation is peaceful only in the open. Things might change if there were no outsiders like me. Although I think a number of guests must be unaware too, I doubt they would just take this peace just for 'me'. Hmmm, maybe they would really do it. 'They' are rather wary of 'myself', so I think 'I' must be someone with enough weight. How can this help me? I don't know the extent of the actions 'Sid Grayworth' can perform. The number of things 'I' can do should be rather large since I could affect this whole family, or maybe it's not me the one who can do that but I am the person who informs said person. Argh, none of that makes sense. I better focus on hearing what else she can say.

"This walks continued for a long time. During that time I started thinking about why they were doing their search. I remember reading once about certain secrets located in this manor, but I could not recall where I read about it. So I thought that maybe that's what they are looking for, sadly... when I went to look for the book, I could not find it. Although I did not know what particular book it was, I did remember the first page rather clearly. The content was not that interesting but there was a draw on it. So I did remember how to identify it, but the book was not in the library. I wasted a lot of nights looking for it, being during the night the only moment where I could go in there without having someone's eyes on me. But at the end I could not find it... I actually knew of one secrets, it was something someone told me to keep as a secret, so I can not tell you. I knew about even before 'they' started to act strange, so I am not sure if it was on the book"

From her words, it seems there was a book in the library before where you could read about something secret on this manor. This further proves that what 'they' are looking for it is not just to take control of the position of the head of the family, but they took a fancy to whatever those little 'secrets' this manor has. For them to be so bend on getting it, there is no doubt about it's value. The problem is that I only know that much, I can not picture what it might be. Finding that book would help me to understand what it may be, but I can not be certain that the book remains intact. If 'they' got rid of it so that no one else could find out about that 'valueable' thing, then that book is no more. As for the secret this little girl mentioned, I am quite curious but asking would get me no where. The reason why she is under surveillance should be that they suspect she knows something, whether they think she knows about their actions or they suspect the secret she knows is what they are looking for, I am not sure. No, if they suspected about her knowledge of something that valuable, I doubt they would be this passive. So they might be on guard since they suspect she might know about their dealing or other dirty business they may be doing without anyone's knowledge. Hmmm, I should ask later if she really heard about something like that. Having a card against them would be a really good idea.Although that would depend on this little girl.

At the end, she is really involved one way or another with all this mess. But that still leaves many questions. Who is this kid exactly? She know a lot about how things run around here, but she is not a Kingwood. Is she some sort of relative? But from what she said... Yeah, her words at the begining were about her saying how she is an unwanted child and how she is hated. Putting aside the hated part which seems to be partially to 'them'. I am not sure about the 'unwanted' part. Is this some sort of bullying that 'they' caused? No, she would've had said so already. She does not like them so she wouldn't be talking me about all this while leaving that part behind. That 'unwanted' part should be related to her situation, or more like... her reason to be in this manor.