Chapter 20 - First Tale XX

Talking about those messages, I did not recieve more of those. I can help but find it strange since all the messages did not seem to come from the same source. If it's like that and they come from different people... Did those guy just had a gathering to spread my phone number? How many people do actually have it? Well, I can't exactly expect that the thief respects my privacy, can I?.

Putting that aside, there is something else I should focus right now.

I wonder where can I find that guy. If I ask at the reception they should be able to lend me a hand now since I am sort of working for that Mr. White. Thinking about about, I seem to be doing their job but I won't get paid huh, the same as with the guy who hired me to come here since he only paid a small part on front. Hopefully Mr. White will at least provide some support from his people to make my 'job' easier, the list has a good number of names and just trying to ask all the people would take days since they are not just waiting for me in some place but scattered around the whole property. Not to mention that the idea is to be subtle when asking... well, I am more interested in the other things I can ask around instead of this job.

Having those thoughts in mind I got out this room and walked until I was in front of Mr. White office since the place was nearby.

This time I did not take too long with my business, just knocking and after I had permission to enter I told him that I will be leaving the file with him before taking my leave.

I really did not want to spend another awkward time there so I walked away rather quickly.

My next destination was not set yet so I had to go to the reception. They should be able to help me out this time... hopefully.

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Well, everything went well enough. They did give the information I wanted, aparently someone already let them know that they should colaborate with me if I ask it.

Since they let them know already, I took the opportunity to ask for someone to take me to the location of Anthony. The person in question was working at the same place I found him last night so it would be hard to reach on foot. Once again they helped me with my request and told me that my ride awaits me at the garage.

I did not forget to say my thanks before I walked away. I felt bad before if I had to ask for stuff because my role as 'Sid' but now they are asking me to help them so my guilt is lesser now that they have to provide me with some support.

Waiting for was.... not the same person who drove me here. It seems the poor (?) guy who wanted to skip work was sent back. This time there was a female guard I had seen before a couple of times beside the vehicle. Miss Highlander was on the phone but hung up when I got close enough to listen. I did not get to hear anything but I didn't pay it any mind. Although it looks suspicious you can not deny that there are people who do not like to be heard while on the phone. Besides, she already hung up and there is nothing I can do even if she was talking some troublesome topic for me.

I tried to greet her first but she managed to speak before me.

"We meet again, Mr. Grayworth... I heard about you from Mr. White. You will be lending us a hand and I am thankfully for that"

"You don't have to, that person is rather bothersome to just steal someone else belongings like that, I don't find it amusing. It annoys me that he has actually done this before but still continues doing it"

"It is a failure on our part, but there is no much we can do if there are no leads or clues to follow. No one really talks about it so we just can assume and speculate most of what we know"

"That is certainly tricky, from what Mr. White told me about the victims might talk to me since I am not a guard but I can't say I am confident about it, I am not an expert at conversations"

"No no, actually from what I heard about the employees you are a peraon rather easy to talk to so the conversation will flow, you just need to direct it at the right course and you will get what we want"

Yeah, yeah, you make it sound so easy. Why didn't you get the info you wanted since it's that easy? Well, with such a large number of people... at least one should that, right?.

Let's hope that the one that talk says something at least useful.

I only answered with accepting or denying what she said.

"Well, let's go... staying here will just waste our time"

"You are right, I will be taking you to the location you tell me. Mr. White thought that there is always the change that the thief is somewhere around this property. If I come along with you we can catch him. Although that is only if he is still around"

I could not enjoy my new found freedom after Miss Maid went to who knows where and now I got someone else behind my back.

Perhaps I let my thoughts be reflected on my face because she said.

"Don't worry I will keep my distance to avoid making things hard by scaring whoever you talk to"

That's great, at least I won't be that restricted.

"I will leave it to you then"

"By the way, I will give Mr. White's phone number... mine to. Just call us in case something happens and we are not nearby"

That is pretty useful, I wrote down the numbers on my notepad under the doubtful stare of Miss Highlander which I ignored to avoid explaining.

After that I just took a seat on the vehicle and waited for her to start driving. Which I found interesting since she was making a face like she lost her country after riding the same vehicle as Mr. White. This lady recovers quickly. Although I am more impressed by the fact she did not get some trauma and tries to stay away from cars.

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I will spare recalling the drive since I was more focused on the roadthan talking. Last night I did not have the chance to look around but I used this chance to take a look around. The road did not feel much different than the other roads I had taken before if you don't count the bigger number of trees surrounding the road. This time you can really call it a forest, slightly different the path I took, these trees were planted close to another making it easy to spot place that make a wooden wall. This made me think since I find the way the trees planted in and out the property seem to follow different order. The inside have them much closer than the outside, that seems rather strange but I can find any possible reason right now. Maybe I could ask someone that knows later. It has to later since without paying attention I was already in certain place that looks familiar.... well, I was here less than 24 hours ago so it would be strange to have no recollections of the place.

Miss Highlander seemed to take seriously the idea to keep her eyes on me from far away since she did not plan to follow me inside. Good thing for me that she is following what she said then, although in this case I doubt there will be much of a problem since talking to this guy is easier since I have talked to him before.

Since I don't have to wait for her then I should go already inside the place.

The door was closed so I knocked first to make the person inside to notice.... but he is taking his time. Should I sneak around and giving a scare? That sounds interesting, sadly I won't have the chance since he finally came to open the door.

He also spoke faster than me.

"It's you again..."

I will ignore the lack of energy in that sentence and greet him normally.

"Hello there, we meet again"

"Did you have any business with me?"

Straight to the point huh. Well, this guys is the type to take his job seriously. I think he would prefer a straightforward approach on this one rather than playing around. But I can't just make my topic to obvious, I might as well mix a few things I am curious too.

"I actually came here because I think you might be able to help with some doubts I have"

"Me? Well, I am currently working but considering they allowed you to come here I guess there is no problem if I spare some time for you. Come in and make yourself comfortable. I can only offer you coffee, Is that ok?"

How homely of him, but putting that aside. He said something about allowing me to come here, that is an interesting thing I just heard.

Following his lead I to seat on an empty chair located on the small kitchen, I had a small table in front of me and there was seat opposite of me. I recall having done the same thing yesterday. Finally on the chair I started asking while he was busy making coffee.

"You said something about being allowed to come here... Is this place normally off limits?"

"Hmm, that's where you will start? Very well, you have actually asked something I did not get to explain to you yesterday"

"Yesterday I was still considered a trasspaser until they confirmed my identity after leaving this place"

"I guess so, anyways... to be honest with you, it was quite dangerous for you to walk around that part of the forest alone and in your gears. There are actually wild animals at the other side of the fence, and although it does not exactly means you will be immediately in danger... there is always the possibility to get hurt"

Yikes... That seems bad. I was quite lucky then, I did not find any kind of animals there. But I can't help to recall that when I asked for the way, no one told me about it. Should I blame it to their poor memory or was that intentional? Either way I got here safely. I still will have a chat with that person when I get out of here in one piece.

"I guess I was lucky then... talking about that, Howw is the fence doing? Is is fixed?"

"Fixing the fence is not such a hard thing to do. What is taking some time is that they are still try to find out who did it. Also, the possibility that some animal got inside and could cause some troubles. In that regard we are thankful of your unique way of arriving since we found that opening in the fence. If you actually want a more detailed explanation about it then you should look for the people on site. I am only have basic knowledge of the situation since I work nearby"

To call that basic knowledge is quite the understatement but it might be because he judged it as such. He may thing that there is more information to gather on site huh. To be honest I did not expect that my arrival would cause this, but in a sense it was something good since the people who actually want to do their job will have a good opinion of me... although those that like to laze around will find me hateful. Well, I can't expect to get along with everyone just because I was lucky to get lost in the forest.

He finally finished making the coffee and put my cup on the table in front of me and took a seat at my front. Black coffee... yay, I already drank a cup at Mr. White's office. I wonder if I had asked he would've added some milk. Although I like black coffee, always drinking the same gets boring... not to mention I drank it not long ago. Well, it is tasty, not as good as the one the old man made though. Mr. White seems to be good at it.

"You sure you can tell me all that?"

"You came here for a reason, right? Then you would just continue staying here longer if I avoid answering you. Although I know you have permission, I still take my job seriously since I get paid for it"

Well, there is that I guess. Kinda subtle when telling me to leave him work. But I still some other questions.

"I see, let's continue the topic with another question. I happened to find the problem with the fence and informed you, but... Don't you guys inspect the fences often to check any damage done to them?"

"That is... not exactly my responsability so I don't know to much about it. Not to mention I just started to work here not long ago. But I heard from a senior at work that due lacking of people some of the jobs have not employees to complete them"

Again with the problem of people huh. Having few people to take of such a large property can be hard. In this case, the problem has affected the security in different areas. They are not paying that much attention to the fences and that's why something like that happened. I am not sure if I will find some other problems like these but I should keep an eye open just in case. I might be able to use the holes in the security in my favor if things go south.

"That means that the security and safety has problems just because they lack people?"

I know the answer of this one but I asking for an employee's opinion could be useful.

"That is a troublesome topic which I would prefer not to talk about"

Oh... If he says so then it should be not as simple as I thought. I wonder if the problems with factions has caused a bigger mess than what I heard.

Since he does not want to talk about it, I could ask other people that like to talk more. I also have Miss Highlander following me, I may as well ask her since she is higher ranked than other guards.

"By the way, I don't know if you heard but someone got into my room while I was sleep and stole some stuff from me"

"You are really unlucky then, getting lost and then someone stole your stuff. From what I see you seem fine, so I guess that is the only good thing. Did you already mentioned that to other guards? I could help you if you have not done so..."

"Yeah, how unlucky of me since I had just brought that phone. I also let them know already"

"To be honest, it happened to me too. Well, the stolen phone part... but since it was an old model and I was planing on replacing it, I did not mention it to anyone. The actual phone appeared sometime later... but I already had a new so I paid it no mind anymore. At the beginning I thought I lost it and after I found it I thought the same, but later I heard the rumors about a thief and it was a better fit to what happened. I did end up find it in a place I had already checked before"

So his situation was like that. I guess that is why he did not bother filling a complain. But it is strange considering he is a guard that he did not mentioned it to his superiors, at least the files said so.

"Did you mentioned to your superiors? You also said something about about some rumors..."

"Well, I did not think it was stolen at the beginning so it was not until later when I found my phone and paid attention to the rumors that I mentioned it to a senior at work. But he told me not to say a thing since I had my phone back already, something about how no one will pay attention to what I say. In the case of the rumours is just as rumours goes normally, someone thought they saw a shadow lurking around their rooms while they were half asleep and some stuff went missing after that but people laughed at then since the same stuff was later found in their rooms. I think most people treat it as a prank, or at least that's what my senior said. I spend most of my time out here working or sleeping in my room since I just passed probation"

That is a lot information to take, despite what he said about not know too much... it sure is useful.

About the rumor, it is really similar about what happened to me except how my phone was found. For some reason the old man did not tell me where he found it, not to mention that in my case my invitation was taken too. The method at the beginning was the same but why did they change the 'delivery' method... considering that the stuff taken appeared later implies that they had said stuff for sometime. Sadly I am not sure how long is that, without that I can not compare it with my situation. I hope that the other 'victims' will provide me with that answer.