Let’s explore the right wing

“I’d like to finish exploring the ground floor first.” I say. “Let’s go and see what the right wing has to offer.”

We head to the front of the stairs, towards the entrance and then take the door to the right. It leads into a hall, similar to the one that led towards the library and living room. It has been similarly cleaned like the previous. I try to open the first door we get to, but the door is locked.

“Hmm. Should we break it open?” I ask Kiara.

“Just because this mansion is abandoned, doesn’t make it some kind of dungeon.” Kiara answers. “It is property which belongs to a count. Breaking a door like this will do nothing but get the quest giver mad at us.”

Amelia nods and says, “I agree with Kiara. Maybe the count wants us to stay out of this specific room. Or maybe we can be lucky and find a key somewhere. So, let’s just move on to the next room.”

We move on to the only other door in the hall and check if it’s locked. This time it isn’t. We go into the room and discover it is a ballroom. It has a tiled floor with a large open space in the middle for people to dance. Next to the outer wall is an old piano, and the light of the sun shines through the windows onto the dusty musical instrument. As I look around the place, I also see some tapestries decorating the walls. This room is similarly dusty as the living room we were previously in. Though the piano is just as dusty as the library. Now that’s an interesting oddity.

We start investigating the ballroom for anything that can help us in our quest. Halfway through our search we notice a rolled-up tapestry in the corner of the room. We didn’t notice one had been taken down before since there are none missing from the walls. No empty spots anywhere. Kiara suggests we unroll it, just to make sure we don’t overlook anything. It is a good call, because we find some dark spots hidden inside. We first assume it is some kind of mold, but upon closer investigation, we discover it is actually blood.

“Human blood?” Amelia asks. “You mean, somebody died here? And then they tried to cover it up like this?”

“I think that whomever did is was not interested in covering it up.” Kiara says. “They got rid of the body, sure, but that is probably because a body starts to smell. If they wanted to cover up the ****, they would have burned this tapestry. They even bothered to replace this tapestry before disposing of it.”

“But who then did the ****?” I ask. “Is it something that happened before Amelia’s quest giver came here, or after?”

“With any luck, we can find out.” Kiara replies. “Keep searching the room, maybe we will find some clues.”

We continue searching until Amelia discovers some letters in a shelf. She calls us over and starts reading the first letter to us.

So, first time writing my thoughts down. I’ve never done this before, but last week has been such a ride … My head is still spinning from everything that happened. As in, I feel like I’ve been having a dream and could wake up any moment and then I’ll be back in my bed in that dingy alley. So yeah, gotta write this down to collect my thoughts.

So, it all started this one night. Our landlord came to the shack we were renting and was banging on the door furiously. I was demanding we pay him the rent we owed him. I can understand him being upset at us. We had a hard time paying rent. We even cut down on food and didn’t bathe as much as we ought to, just to save up money for him. But even that was not enough and we were 3 weeks late in paying.

Leena explained to him we were trying our best to get the money, but he had enough. He wanted to kick us out. Leena tried to continue talking, but eventually he had enough and outright slapped her. Then he grabbed her by the arm and literally pulled her out to throw her onto the street. I ran over to my sister, because of course I did. She’s the only family I have left and I was so scared. The landlord, happy that we were finally out of his dirty shack, went inside and closed the door on us. All our stuff was still inside. Not valuable stuff, but some of them were mementos of our parents. Now we’re going to lose those too.

That is when Lorenzo walked up to us. Or well, we didn’t know his name was Lorenzo back then. For us, it was some stranger who came up to us in the night. In the poor section of the Riledo, that is usually not a good thing. Before he even said a word, Leena stood up and put herself between us. Shielding me with her body. Like she often does when she doesn’t trust someone. But it was not necessary this one time.

So, Lorenzo told us he was just walking home from some business he concluded with a friend and as he walked through this alley, he saw our interaction with our landlord. He said that for 2 women like us, it is dangerous to be out on the street at night, so he offered us shelter at his place. Leena of course didn’t trust him, as she shouldn’t. As far as we know, this guy might be some kind of slaver, leading us to some warehouse where his buddies capture us and then sell us into slavery or whatever. So, Leena told him that if he really wanted to help us, he should settle our debt with the landlord and let us back into our shack.

Interestingly, Lorenzo waked up to the door and knocked, yelling at our landlord to open up. When he did Lorenzo asked how much we owed him. The landlord said 70 coppers. That was a lie, we didn’t owe him that much. Lorenzo asked him that if he paid our debt, if we could be let back in. The landlord responded with “no”. He said that we don’t have a stable income and so it would only be a matter of time until we can’t pay our rent again.

And then Lorenzo did something that surprised both me and Leena. He pulled out a silver coin and told our landlord that for this silver, not only would our 70 copper debt be settled, but we should also be allowed back in to take our belongings. He should see it as Lorenzo renting this shack for a week. More than enough for us to take everything we needed and move to somewhere else. Then he could rent it to whomever he wanted.

I think this was more to impress us than the landlord. By doing this, Lorenzo was letting us know that he has enough money that he can afford to overspend. I didn’t recognize it at the time, but him making sure we can take our belongings with us also endeared him to us. If Leena and I had been smarter and noticed this, we probably would not have taken him up on his offer. But we didn’t notice it at the moment. So, we accepted his offer, went back in to take our most precious things. Then, when we were outside again, the landowner gave Lorenzo his address and locked the door. While Lorenzo did rent the place for a week, for more than he should, the landlord didn’t want to risk the two of us getting back in and squatting there. So yeah, we were homeless. This time with our parent’s mementos at least. And Lorenzo standing right next to us, asking us if we were hungry. We were, so we accepted his offer to take us to an inn.

Lorenzo walked us all the way out of the poor northern section and into the western part, controlled by the Dark Dragons. The Dark Dragons are rumored to take the safety of the normal people much more serious than the other guilds, so this is a much safer place to be at night. Lorenzo took us to a nice-looking inn and my sister and I could order whatever food we wanted; money was not an issue for him. So yeah, we took advantage from that, because he said we could. I cannot remember when the last time was that I had such a good meal. It might have even been the fullest meal in my life.

That is when Lorenzo brought up his proposal for us to stay at his place again. He said that when he saw us getting kicked onto the street, his initial intention was to just be of help. But on the way here, he thought it over and understood that a stranger asking some girls to come spend the night with him is actually far creepier then he intended it to be. So, he understood if we didn’t trust him. His offer was still open, but if we didn’t accept, he would give us some money so we could get by, and then leave us alone.

I really appreciate him putting himself in our position like that. It shows that he cares about our feeling. So, when he went to pay the bill, I told my sister we should accept his offer.

She was like, “We can’t, Auri. We have no idea what kind of person he is. It’s too dangerous to trust him. We don’t even know his name or where he works.”

So, when Lorenzo got back and asked if we had made a decision, I asked him to tell us more about himself.

That is when he told us his name. He said he was 36 years old and he is an adventurer but he recently retired. Leena asked him which guild he was a part of and Lorenzo said he used to be a member of the “Knights of Fortune”. That’s a guild in the southern part of Riledo. One that’s allied to Midnight Dawn. This information honestly made me a little confused about him. Where I live, the adventurers we come across are usually E or D ranks, in rare cases C ranks. The ones who don’t have any hopes of joining respectful guilds and instead try to form their own weak guilds. But since they rarely receive quests, they need to engage in underhanded means to get funds. Guilds from the other parts of Riledo are different. They actually get quests. They can have their members earn money in a respectful way. And they also take in a lot of C and B ranked adventurers. Or even some D ranks with good skills.

Leena next asked Lorenzo about his class and rank. He said he was a mage and, I swear I am not lying, an A rank. Like, holy shit. A rank adventurers are almost as legendary as S ranks. Neither of them comes to the poor parts of Riledo. Absolutely never. But the day we were kicked out of our house, one of them was actually there? This means he was there because he wanted to hire one of the low ranking adventurers to do some dirty business for him. Without a doubt. Leena understood that too and asked him what he was doing in our part of the city. Lorenzo probably lied about this, but he said that he recently discovered an abandoned mansion a bit outside the Riledo farmlands. Hidden just inside the forest. It is old and covered in dust everywhere, and he wanted some house maids to clean the place up for him. So, he went to the poorest part of Riledo to offer the job to some poor girls. That way he could help them get a better life. More like he wanted some poor girls as his maids because if they quit their jobs, they only have something worse to go back to. But yeah, his idea was to let us live at his place and give us food and shelter, and all we have to do is clean the place up for him.

So, the three of us then got out of the inn and my sister and I stepped away from Lorenzo a bit so we could discuss it amongst ourselves. Leena didn’t trust him, but his offer sounded very appealing. I had the opposite opinion. I didn’t quite trust the job offer. He would have us clean his dirty clothes and make his food. We’d basically be acting like his moms or something. But I felt Lorenzo himself might actually be trustworthy. Like I said earlier, the low-ranking adventurers don’t have options and so get pushed into criminal jobs. A rank adventurers like Lorenzo on the other hand, do have options. They can easily join one of the big three, but instead, Lorenzo joined a medium sized guild. I think that means he has a specific idea of what he wants, and the big three were not offering that for him. For me, it shows that he has a strong personality, and I respect that. So, we went back to Lorenzo and told him we accepted his offer.

Lorenzo walked us all the way to the western gate of Riledo. He had left his horse at the stables outside the city and after paying the stablemaster, he let us ride it while he walked. He had us travel all across the farmlands, into the forest and just like he promised, there was a big house over there, hidden amongst the trees. I had never seen a house that big before. Even the guildhalls in the poor district are smaller than this mansion. It looked even more amazing on the inside. The rooms were huge. Our old shack could fit into just the living room. It was insane. And we are going to live here now.

It was already late then. Far too late to do any cleaning. Leena suggested for us to sleep in the living room. It was one of the rooms that Lorenzo had already cleaned himself and it has a hearth where we could start a fire in case we got cold.

So, the next day, Lorenzo led my sister and I to the kitchen so we could make food. The freaking kitchen was so big. I enjoy cooking more than Leena, so I did it most of the time. But when I compare my old kitchen to this thing … Oh, I am going to adore cooking in here.

After breakfast, Lorenzo guided us up the stairs and assigned each of us our own room. The rooms were incredibly dusty though. But Lorenzo helped us clean them up so now we have our own places to sleep.

So, it looks like everything Lorenzo had told us was true. He lives in a big house, too big for him to maintain by himself, and he wanted some maids who can maintain the house and cook his food while he does his work. I did join Lorenzo to the city again to pick up the rest of our things from the shack we used to rent, and you know, this time I was happy I could leave that ugly thing behind forever. I am so grateful Lorenzo found us and made his offer. He is my hero.

So yeah, that was quite the day. First getting kicked out of our home and then immediately being offered an even better one. It is almost like Lorenzo was the savior we needed at the moment we needed him the most. I am so grateful that he found us. But it’s getting late for me now, so I will write more another day.

“Hmm, I thought this mansion was owned by count Lomalet’s grandmother. And yet, here we have evidence that some Lorenzo guy and the sisters Leena and Auri were here too.” Kiara mentions.

I shrug and say, “I guess, if you leave a house unattended for so long, it’s only a matter of time until someone will think it is free real estate and start squatting.”

“Well, I have some more letters here.” Amelia says. “Do you want me to read the next one, or just skip to the last letter?”