Tuesday, September 18, 1349
"Bread, butter and chicken breast. And one black coffee with three tablespoons of sugar." Kiyotaka ordered as he sat on the uncomfortable bench and let his mind wander blanky while he stared through the glass window at the smog-filled streets.
He was wearing a white shirt with a black waistcoat over it. Besides him, on the bench was his long black coat and his half-top hat. His shoes were squeaky clean and the look over his face was much more fresh than usual.
This was because despite drinking a little last night, he had woken up earlier, exercising by doing some pushups and squats. He had tried to do pull-ups, but he failed in the end. So instead of that, he practiced dead hangs for around 30 seconds and then ran for around an hour.
During the run, he bought a bottle of alcohol, for emergency's sake.
Yes, for emergencies. It cost him 4 Solis, leaving him with £3, 9 Solis and 2 Pence.
After all that, Kiyotaka took a bath and then drank some water with lemon.
Only then did he prepare for his job. Of course, while he was aware of most of the work related to Accounting and Finance, he still felt there might be a few bothersome things that might come up, like some very specific local laws.
'There is also the matter of that queasy feeling. It is definitely not normal. That feeling is not natural, nor was it because of my unstable mental state. And my intuition tells me that a lot of things are not how they should be.'
'Could it be due to my association with the Tarot Club? Or the Mysterious Space above the Gray Fog? That can be the case. However, there is nothing to be afraid of. Right now, they are posing as a security company. If they are associated with a department that deals with the supernatural, I can just play victim and oust the Tarot Club.'
'Yes, I should do that. I have no attachments there. I can pretend that I was forcibly called there and was made to participate and help an evil organization in their crazy rituals. Hmm...yes, in this day and age, that explanation can be sold in quite a cogent manner.'
Satisfied with himself, Kiyotaka nodded and kept looking outside. The weather had begun to become even more moist and cold as the date got closer to October. While it was only his third day, due to Williams' memories staying in his head as a parasite, Kiyotaka couldn't help but reminisce over the vacation Williams took in Desi Bay.
The warm rays of sun were something Kiyotaka felt the need of as well. He looked around and tried to spot the man and the woman he had helped the other day, but they were nowhere to be found.
'Probably dead.'
The waiter's clatter of plates snapped him out of his daze, and the smoky warmth of roasted chicken hit him first, followed by that cozy, can't-miss-it smell of fresh bread and soft butter.
His stomach gave a little lurch and his mouth salivated. He grabbed a slice of bread that was still warm as its crust gave a faint crunch and applied butter on it.
Once he had lathered the slice in enough butter to tangibly feel the difference in the weight of it, he took a big, greedy and ungraceful bite and washed it with two sips of coffee. The slightly bitter with a sweet aftertaste of sugar, along with the perfect harmony of white bread and decadent smoothness of butter that melted on his tongue almost made his vision hazy withheld tears.
'Williams truly was a poor man. It seems like these tastebuds have never tasted something as ordinary as this. Truly a pity.' Kiyotaka shared his highly discontent viewpoint of Williams and his life with himself.
Once the bread was finished, Kiyotaka ate the chicken that was made with simple salt and pepper. The taste wasn't that bad.
'Looks like they boiled it in salt and pepper first and then shallow-fried it in oil later on. While it's soft, it does not have a lot of juiciness to it. The char outside tastes a little strange too...probably used old oil.'
Making a quick analysis in his mind, he kept eating. Somewhere, along the line, he had added some butter to it, which alleviated the taste a little.
The reason why he was commenting on almost everything today was because he wanted to keep his mind active, and make an observation of his own observations, and evaluate how much of a hit his intelligence had suffered. While it was temporary, it was necessary for him to know where his limits were.
Pressing a cloth against his mouth, he burped but suppressed the ensuing noise. The waiter came in his direction and stopped. He had almond eyes and was pretty insignificant when it came to looks but was healthy overall. He looked at Kiyotaka and then the tray where the loaf of bread was, the curved utensil of butter and then the chicken.
He could not believe that someone ate all that in 20 minutes.
"Uh- do you need anything else? Coffee? Or bread perhaps?"
Kiyotaka shook his head and tucked the stray blonde strand behind his ear. "No." He replied sparsely and then walked over to the counter. Paying 2 Solis, he was left with £3, 7 Solis and 2 Pences.
As he was sitting down, he suddenly felt something. The boundless gray expanse suddenly entered his eyes, and he could see a person sitting in the far corner of a long, mottled bronze table inside a palace that seemed to belong to the giants.
"Are you available?"
Suppressing his voice, Kiyotaka leaned back into his seat. "Can't you tell?"
"No. I can't. Nor can I see where you currently are. You seem to have the same immunity as me." Klein admitted frankly.
"I have some time. How long is it going to take?"
"A bit. Assuming you're from Loen, which you are, given your accent, I am assuming we are in the same time zone. Let us meet at night. Is 9pm ok with you? If not—"
"9pm it is." Kiyotaka interrupted and then hummed before talking again. "I will be there."
"I have a question." Klein spoke, right before he severed the connection.
Kiyotaka picked his coat and half-top-hat and then left the restaurant. On his way to the new workplace, he took a detour and talked to Klein.
"What is it?"
"How did you manage to arrive last time? I know you didn't perform any ritual. Then how?"
'Actually, I am unaware myself. But it would seem like I can only come there if The Fool is already present. Otherwise, I can't seem to make a connection to the Mysterious Space Above the Gray Fog at all.'
"Who knows." Kiyotaka replied and shrugged.
The boundless gray fog and the long mottled, bronze table vanished from his sight in an instant.
Kiyotaka let out a sigh and pressed his hat down. 'I hope I do not look like a lunatic while talking to myself.'
Meanwhile, above the Grey Fog, Klein sank back into his high-back chair and huffed. "Well, at least it was worth a try. Does he have something on him that is connected to the Grey Fog?" While ruminating over it, Klein let out a silent scoff. "Why am I so rattled...?"
********
Kiyotaka arrived at the WhiteThorn Security Company on time. Once he was inside, he took off his hat and walked over to the reception. "Good morning."
Roxanne who was clipping her hair up in a tight bun looked at him and smiled. Without saying anything, she busied herself into making her hair. After about a minute or so, she stood up and beamed at him. "Good morning. It is rather cold today."
Kiyotaka nodded slightly. "It is."
At first, he thought that he should continue the small talk, as was the custom of Loenese people where they engaged in a lot of small talks, the most common of them being complaining about the weather. However, since he was barely familiar with the lady in front of him, he tried to stay reserved.
Of course, it worked well in his favor as well since he wanted to observe more. And since it was the beginning of his first job in two lifetimes, he wanted to stay diligent and work well enough to gain a raise. Only then would he be able to put more effort into his research in the field of Beyonders.
"Come, I will show you around." Roxanne spoke in her cheerful manner and guided Kiyotaka to the back.
As he had seen before, the company had a huge hall, a reception and then at the back of the reception were four rooms. One of them was the pantry where the employees could sit down, rest, have coffee, read the newspaper and eat their lunch. The other was an office with two desks and a wardrobe with a lot of files and documents.
The third room was basically the room of the "Captain" of the security company, but from Roxanne's description, Kiyotaka understood that he was a busy man and was rarely here. As for the fourth room, it was a storage room filled to the brim with windbreakers, guns, bullets and other "important" things.
Only the Captain or the ones above him were able to access it.
'That is quite stupid, since in case of an emergency, all of the important arsenals would be stored there. If fire breaks out, or the company is attacked by someone, and none of the high-ranking officers or Captain is here, it will just exacerbate the situation.'
'That said, it would seem like the woman, Daly Simone, and the man were both much higher ranked individuals than this supposed Captain.'
After a moment, Roxanne guided him over to the second room, the general office. She guided him over to the desk and helped him settle in by taking his coat and hanging it by the nail beside the desk.
"Would you like some tea, or coffee?" Roxanne asked with a charming smile.
"Coffee." Kiyotaka replied sharply and then, as if remembering something, he called out again: "And yes, one more thing."
"Mhmm?"
"I would need the records of all of the branches of this Security Company and any kind of documentation that might not be in this room. Ranging from small requisites, petty cash vouchers to sales records and previous forecasts, balance sheets and cash flow statements. I need them all."
Roxanne looked a little surprised. The man who looked like an addict and couldn't live without inhaling some kind of substance was actually trying to work. In her eyes, the accountant Williams was someone who was merely here to con them out of quick cash and then dash.
Since maintaining "strict accounts" wasn't really necessary for the Church of The Evernight Goddess, it was merely a formality to appear as a normal security company to the rest of the world and keep the identity of the Nighthawks—the organization handling supernatural affairs on behalf of Evernight Church—under wraps and as confidential as possible.
***********
'Well, this is strange.'
Kiyotaka was sitting inside the closed office inside WhiteThorn Security Company. All four walls, except the single window, of the office had pieces of paper stuck to them.
He stood up and started to pace back-and-froth in a clockwise manner around the entire office, slowly digesting what he was seeing.
From expenses incurred by the company in Backlund, Tingen, Dinos Island and Midseashire to the income generated, petty cash float maintenance records and employee reimbursements, everything was present in front of him.
Every now and then, he would slow down, cast a quick glance at something and then would scurry to the other end of the room and would scribble something down on the ever-increasing stack of yellow paper.
The air smelt of fresh ink by now, and the single window let in a weak, gray light that barely reached the four walls. His eyes darted from here and there as he tried to make sense of everything.
Tingen's records covered the eastern wall. It was a mess of pinned-up forms and crumpled invoices. The name that stuck out the most—due to its frequency—was Mr. Neil.
The petty cash reimbursements showed that he had been claiming reimbursements for odd things. Most of them were against money spent from pocket for the company.
"What kind of security company's expense is this? It doesn't even make sense."
Kiyotaka was baffled as he looked at the neatly arranged audit pattern.
From his perspective, it was clear that Mr. Neil was extorting money from the company in the name of company expanses. While the amount itself was not something that would put a dent in the wealth of the company, it was still considered a fraud.
His eyes suddenly stopped at a yellowed reimbursement form, the ink smudged but legible: "Vanilla flower essence, one crate."
Mr. Neil had written that it cost 1 pound. Kiyotaka's memory flicked to the market rates he'd seen on a vendor's price list, pinned just below on the wall. One crate did indeed cost a pound in Backlund, however, according to an inquiry done through Roxanne, in Tingen, near the herbalist stalls on Zouteland Street, a crate of vanilla flower essence went for around 10 soli, even from the priciest shops.
"2 Solis over. Hmm..."
He added the 2 Solis to the "Total" list he had on one side.
Kiyotaka grabbed a crisp paper from the desk and scribbled: "Neil—vanilla essence, 2 Solis overcharge."
'That said, why was a person of a security company buying materials used in Rituals? It won't make sense. Also, the expenses were approved and reimbursed on time.
However, there is no trail that suggests anyone else had claimed the expenses. The expenses claimed by the likes of employees such as Klein Moretti seem to be true without any signs of pilfering the company.'
'Going by this train of thought, there is definitely something strange about it all. The person who had exerted the strange pressure on me, my fall to sleep and now their employee's involvement in rituals. They are all indicating that everything is not as simple as it seems. It is entirely possible that underneath the guise of a Security Company, they might be doing something else entirely.'
'Perhaps even something related to this world of Beyonders.'
'That is a reasonable hypothesis, but since I do not have something concrete to base my guess off of, I should not think too deeply into it by using this idea as a basis. I should also not show much concern or be nosy. Yes, I am sure there might be some kind of surveillance going on. I should act normal and raise the matter innocently later on.'
Satisfied with his line of thought, Kiyotaka looked ahead.
The southern wall held Midseashire's records.
He began to analyze them as well.
Elias Crowe's name popped up again and again, scrawled on salt-stained manifests from the coastal branch. Crowe reported £1,000 from the sale of a security service for a high ranking noble. The money was received in his own personal account in a bank by the Pritz Harbor.
However, the catch was that only 750 pounds landed in WhiteThorn's books.
Crowe's note mentioned: "Taxes took 25%, per Loen law. Net amount sent."
Kiyotaka's fingers were rapidly twitching as he tried to concentrate and his lips straightened into a grim line.
Shaking his head, and wiping the beads of sweat from his face, he sighed and got busy again. According to the tax laws that he had checked this morning, the tax charged should've been D-Class at 20%, whereas the one charged here was C-Class, relating to a totally different kind of sale.
"Crowe—50£ missing. Tax claim fraud."
As he noted down the final point, Kiyotaka quickly put the notes down and stumbled. His whole hand was spasming and his head felt heavy.
He rubbed his shoulders. "It's so cold..."
Kiyotaka was shivering, an indescribable cold emanating from inside his body, while his heart was beating so fast that it felt like it could jump out of his ribcage and then his flesh.
Slowly, he reached out for the inside of his long coat and took out a medium-sized bottle. Sitting by arranging his chair right behind the door, he uncorked the bottle and took a few sips of the alcohol.
The burning liquid touched the back of his throat, and a sigh of relief involuntarily left his lips. He touched his lips to it tightly and turned the bottle up, drinking it as simply as drinking water. After about 15 seconds, he stopped.
Looking down, he saw that the bottle was a little shy of half left. Sighing to himself, he placed the bottle back into the inside pocket of the long coat and picked the chair, placing it back in its original position.
'This is better. I lasted more than 5 hours without drinking alcohol. If I keep up with my routine and partial abstinence, I might be able to fully pardon myself from this debilitating state of alcohol dependency.'
Feeling content with his progress, Kiyotaka reached out for the pages with his notes written on them. He bent down and picked them up. Correcting the creases in his shirt and pushing the hem of his shirt properly inside his pants, he turned around.
A face with no eyes, nose and ears was embedded into the wall and its lips were strewn shut.
He only saw for such a sliver of a second that he could not even recall what it looked like. However, before it could fully register in his mind, his instincts made his arm move as he swung at the face by twisting his lower body.
His fist landed square in the wall, and it resulted in a loud bang which echoed inside the office room. After about 5 seconds, the charming young woman, Roxanne, politely knocked thrice and then twisted the handle before peeking her head in.
Her hair was tied in a bun and the few strands framing her face hung down.
"Are you ok, Mr. Williams?"
Kiyotaka, who had already receded his fist did not hide his bleeding knuckle and let his hand hang to the side, feigning ignorance to the knuckle that had split open, and blood was dripping from it.
"Yes. I believe I saw a bug." Kiyotaka replied and then managed to give an apologetic look. "Apologies for the commotion."
Roxanne stopped peeking and half entered the room. "Oh no, no. It is fine. I thought you had fallen and injured yourself."
'Why do you think a grown man would suddenly fall in a room with enough space and no slipping agents? Do you really have that low of an impression of me?'
Kiyotaka bowed a little and put a hand on his chest. "Thanks for the concern."
Roxanne pursed her lips and gave him a narrow smile before departing. As she took a few steps out, and the door closed, Kiyotaka breathed a long sigh. Suddenly, she peeked back in. "Is that...?"
Kiyotaka looked down and nodded. "Yes. I have prepared a detailed Audit report. As well as last month's D-Type Tax Filing Report."
Roxanne felt his jaw loosen into a cartoonish surprised look; however, she avoided making such an unsightly face. Instead, she beamed at him. "I will notify Madam Daly."
"Please do."
**************
Sitting across Kiyotaka, Daly looked at the report with a grim look. She had a look of morbid anger but at the same time, there was longing in her eyes.
"Sigh...you can make the report on the Tingen department void." Daly spoke, her black-purple-matted lips slightly trembling as she spoke.
"Void?"
Daly placed the report on the table between them and then crossed one leg over the other, adjusting her long skirt in a way that did not reveal any highlight of her body. "Yes. Void. The reports concerning Old Neil, Dunn Smith and Klein Moretti are to be made redundant."
Kiyotaka stayed silent. He stayed silent until Daly felt like talking again.
"All three of them have died in line of duty."
After a while of juggling with words in her head, she added. "Terrorists."
Kiyotaka nodded his head and then leaned back. He wasn't too dejected by it since his work wasn't all lost. Even if they were dead, he still gave an impression of being a talented accountant who could do huge volumes of work in little time.
As if expecting some praise, Kiyotaka looked up at Daly.
"Regardless, good work for today. I will pass your findings of Elias Crowe's fraudulent activity to the concerned branch. You can go home."
Kiyotaka tilted his head. "Home? There is still some time left until my shift."
Daly let out a tired breath. "You can rest. You've worked quite well and this isn't a full-time job. And besides, I have seen what I needed to see."
'That...doesn't sound right at all.'
'Well, in any case, I can take my leave. I will use this time to go and find Xio. It didn't occur to me before due to Williams' conflicted state of mind, but Xio is a Beyonder. She would definitely have some helpful insights for me.'
Kiyotaka walked over to where his coat was hanging and wore it before picking his half-top hat. As he was about to leave, Daly spoke without turning around.
"Travel light, Mr. Williams."
Kiyotaka felt his feet coming to an almost halt. Without showing any signs of nervousness, he started to button his coat and pretended he was cold. "I have a tendency to fall sick. Backlund's weather is quite harsh and this is my only medicine, unfortunately."
Daly didn't respond as Kiyotaka tipped his hat up and left. On the way out, he wished a "Good evening" to Roxanne and left.
'She knows about it. However, she isn't totally against it. That is good to know. However, there is also the question of how she would know. There were no gaps in the room from where she would've peeked.'
'Well, she is not malicious, so I should come back to the matter later on. As for now, I should try and find Xio.'
As he walked quickly to find the Inn from his memory where he had first met Xio, Kiyotaka smelled a foul smell. He paused for a moment as he saw a man lying in the corner while tens, even hundreds of rats were devouring his corpse.
He frowned and stopped. After a moment of observing the man in the alley, he decided to leave. The reason he left was because there was a man standing at some distance, staring right at Williams.
He wasn't even trying to hide. It was as if he was announcing his presence to Williams.
Kiyotaka turned around.
He was in no condition to make enemies.
After about 10 minutes of walking, Kiyotaka finally arrived at the Bravehearts Bar. He had planned to ask around for the whereabouts of Xio, but as soon as he entered, he saw the tiny blonde girl sitting on the counter with a bored expression while another woman who was much taller than her was sitting by the stool beside her, drinking from a giant wooden mug.
As Xio boringly twirled around, her dull eyes landed on Kiyotaka.
"Williams!" She spoke from her seat excitedly.
"Who?" The woman beside her looked back lazily, her eyes glossed.
'Drinking at this hour?' Kiyotaka felt like he finally had competition, or rather, old Williams did.
Waving his hand at her, Kiyotaka walked over to the two ladies.