Standing in front of this manor, I couldn't help revealing a faint smile.
After all, it was this place where my fate had changed.
If it wasn't for the noble sending Shaka and his men to come help me, who knows what would have happened when Haley was kidnapped.
At the same time, it was also because of them that I was able to finish the side quest.
That was right, after Haley was rescued yesterday, the side quest showed that it had been finished. The reward had also been released, but I had been too tired to look at it.
I had been planning on seeing what the reward was today, but Shaka had interrupted before I could and now I was here.
Back in this place where it all began.
As we stood by the door, Shaka knocked on it. However, I could hear that there was a special pattern to the knock that he gave.
In no time at all, the butler from before appeared and let us in without a word.
This time, the butler didn't lead the way and instead let Shaka go in by himself. I was surprised by this, but I still followed Shaka in.
As we were going in, I felt like there was someone staring at me from behind. But when I turned around to look, I found that the butler was already gone.
I slightly knitted my brows when I saw this…since I felt something off about this gaze. It was as if there was some kind of hostility behind it.
Seeing that I wasn't moving, Shaka turned around to ask, "What's wrong?"
I was pulled out of my thoughts by his voice. I shook my head and said, "Nothing."
Shaka looked at me with one brow raised, but he didn't ask anything else. He just turned back and walked forward down the hall.
I followed him with slightly knitted brows, but I shook all those thoughts out in the end.
I knew that I couldn't be distracted when meeting the person I was about to meet. I had to keep a sharp mind so I would be able to react to anything that he did.
Shaka led me to the same door as before and when he pushed it open, I saw that the same noble was sitting there with a piece of paper in his hand.
He turned to look at us when he heard the sound of the door opening.
Seeing that it was the two of us, he revealed a smile and waved for us to come over to sit in front of him.
Shaka didn't hesitate to walk over, but he didn't sit down like the noble indicated. Instead, Shaka just stood behind the noble, as if he was guarding him.
That just left me, who was awkwardly standing there.
But I couldn't just keep standing there with the way that the noble was waving at me, so I walked over and sat down in front of him.
After sitting down, the noble picked up the pot of tea in front of him and poured a cup for me that he placed in front of me. Then he pushed a plate of cookies that were on the side over in front of me before sitting back and looking at me with a smile.
It was very strange the way that he acted…almost as if he was trying to be overly friendly…
So in the end, I couldn't help asking, "Is something wrong?"
The noble shook his head as he said, "No, nothing's wrong. In fact, everything's very good because you did a very good job. I really didn't expect the results that you would yield and I can say that I'm very pleasantly surprised."
I felt very strange receiving all this praise from him, but I just gave a nod in response.
After seeing this, the noble continued, "Your talent and luck really is something amazing, so I recommended you for a special position?"
"Special position?" I repeated back in a soft voice.
The noble said with a nod, "It's a very special position that I'm sure you'll take since the benefits that come from it are things that you just can't turn down."
I didn't think the same and it was clear by the look on my face, but I still asked, "What is the special position?"
The noble didn't answer this question right away as he said, "You might know me as Baron Trello, but that isn't actually who I really am."
When he said this, he was also carefully looking at my face.
It was then that he saw a trace of confusion in my eyes, as if I didn't know what he was talking about.
Seeing this, the noble raised a brow and asked, "Did you not know who I am?"
An awkward smile slowly creeped onto my face when I heard this question. After all, I really didn't know who he was.
I only knew that he was one of the nobles that had been there when I met the count, but I didn't know anything about his identity.
So I just gave a slow nod in response.
The noble looked at me with a strange look, as if he was trying to figure out if I was being serious or not. When he determined that I was indeed being serious, he suddenly burst out into laughter.
To the side, Shaka also revealed a faint smile on his stoic face.
The awkward look on my face just became even more awkward as they laughed at me.
Finally after laughing for a while, the noble calmed down and looked at me with an interested smile. He wiped a tear from his eye before saying, "I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself just now. You really are an unexpected person."
Hearing him say that didn't really make me feel better.
The noble continued by saying, "It seems like you're someone who only cares about the big fish. You're someone that cares about the big picture."
The look on my face turned awkward again when I heard this since I knew that this wasn't the case.
I wasn't someone that cared about big fish or the big picture, I was someone that only cared about my tiny world.
During this time, my one task was to get enough food and supplies for our town and nothing else, so I had only paid attention to that. As for the other nobles of the town, other than the count, there was no need for me to learn more about the barons.
Especially since knowing more nobles meant getting in more trouble.
Connections with nobles usually led to trouble one way or another, so I wanted to avoid that by just staying in my own little world until I had to socialize with others.
The noble continued by giving another appreciative nod before saying, "I need someone with your luck and your intelligence on my team. I want you to join us."
"Join you?" I asked immediately before adding, "Just who is this you that you're talking about?"
"I want you to join Shadow Garden, the organization that I work for." The noble said.