'You know, now that I think about it, am I not super awesome ?'
He put his hand on his chin like he was carefully considering the matter.
'No, I definitely am. I should call myself Ninja Nem from now on.'
Even though that was what he was saying in his mind, Ninj... um, Nem was actually frantically looking everywhere, especially behind his shoulder while walking in the large corridor that the short man had come from.
There were multiple rooms on the sides, but Nem wasn't interested in them. He had come to listen in on the boss and Mannie's conversation, not play and seek with the servants. This actually hit Nem rather hard, since he then realized that he had to find the so-called boss in an unfamiliar manor without being noticed by anyone in it.
'Well, I was always a lucky guy when I played dice in my past life. Let's hope it continues.'
Nem would do his best, but he didn't really bother considering whenever he should back off and come back another day with more information. In his mind, the situation wouldn't change just because he waited. Worse, Carl would most likely come back in a few days. It wasn't worth it.
So, he continued to progress in the corridors of the manor, jumping at every sound. Fortunately, compared to its size, the place was rather empty. After all, based on what Nem assumed, the boss of a criminal organization wouldn't be some noble like in the Holy Kingdom with a full family and five times as many servants.
'The man probably just had too much money or something.' He thought rather superficially.
Suddenly hearing footsteps, Nem hid behind a large rock.
'Wait a second, why is there such a big rock in the middle of the manor ? Perhaps it's a religious thing...'
The stone in question was shaped like the head of an arrow from the prehistoric era, with rather sharp edges. It was large enough to hide Nem's body without a problem, and he could even glance at the two people coming in the room. He had identified two footsteps.
Nem wasn't in a corridor at this time, but in a room seemingly designed to let the light and ventilation in the manor, similar to an atrium. Considering the layout of the building, though, it probably wasn't very useful.
Even with his red eyes peeking over the stone, Nem heard the two people before he saw them, their voices were soft, carried a bit of stress and he could tell they were both women before he could make out their words.
"... seemed a bit anxious don't you think ?" He could hear only the end of the question.
"Everyone is a bit on edge today... Expect Master of course. Didn't I tell you what Anthony was telling me a few minutes ago ?"
"No, what is it ?"
Unfortunately for Nem he never got to hear what it was, since they went inside a smaller room down a corridor and closed the door behind them. He only made out their appearance, which would be rather good if not for the dirty and cheap robes they wore.
'Well that was useless, couldn't they just tell me conveniently where their boss is?'
'Still, I should just head to where they came from and continue from there. They seemed to have met their "Master" which is probably the one I'm looking for.'
He continued in this direction for only about two minutes before coming in contact with a very large double door. Nem looked around to make sure he wouldn't be taken by surprise before putting his ear against it. Holding his breath and doing his best to calm his heartbeat, he concentrated on listening.
'Hm... There are clearly multiple people there, judging by the noise...'
Suddenly, Nem could hear the booming voice of a man, seemingly energetic and happy. He couldn't understand anything he was saying due to the door being too thick and isolating the sound too well, but Nem quickly came to a conclusion.
'This person clearly feels very comfortable in this manor, even while being in presence of many people... This should be the boss.'
'Now comes the real question. How do I listen in on this guy ?'
Nem didn't think too long about this issue. Not only was this entire manor full of people that could be anywhere, but he also had no idea if there were any other doors that lead to this room. Therefore, he decided to do something very simple and reckless.
He opened the door very slowly and peeked through the gap, praying to not be discovered. As mentioned before, the door was very thick and made out of hardwood. Not only did it make it harder to push, but its movement was more obvious. Nem had to open only the tiniest gap and place his foot against the side of the door to make sure it didn't close on its own.
Finally, he could see inside and hear the words spoken out loud. The room was rectangular shaped with many openings all around it. The most notable thing about it was the truly huge table at the center, filled with food and with only a few people sitting around it. There were a lot more people standing up in the room, however. They seemed to be servants.
As for the ones sitting, Nem was able to recognize only two among them : Mannie and Mal, his assistant. They both wore very professional expressions and didn't even have a plate in front of them, let alone food.
The person who attracted the most attention was a fat and short middle-aged man, who had a long mustache. His white and greasy skin was slightly flushed and he was gulping down some kind of dessert, looking very cheerful. Different from his behavior, though, the man was dressed in a very common Alarian suit, which made Nem believe he really was from the Red Empire and not just trying to act like it.
Around him were other men, almost all from the same origin and they seemed to have all stopped eating a while ago, judging from their content and relaxed looks as well as the red wine in their glass.
'The fat guy is definitely the boss, and he seems to come from the Red Empire, which means he probably has a few relations there... Perhaps it's the background Mannie was talking about at the time...'
'The others might be some kind of business partners or friends... It's hard to tell.'
At this time, it seemed like nobody was really speaking much, so Nem took his time to observe every individual while the boss finished his dessert. Meanwhile, Mannie was waiting very patiently, and only the fact that he was fiddling with his monocle a bit too much betrayed his nervousness.
Mal had chosen a different tactic, namely keeping his eyes on the table in front of him and not moving at all. Out of curiosity, Nem moved his gaze towards the servants. Fortunately, he didn't spot any children nor any signs of abuse, which probably meant that the boss of this organization liked to keep things compartmentalized.
'In other words, this guy doesn't mix business and private. Good choice, or I might have set the manor on fire before leaving.'
Soon, the boss finished his meal, took a gulp of wine and went straight into business.
"So, Mannie and... um... the other one. What brings you here so soon ? Do you not have enough work to do ?" He laughed loudly, making a few people flinch. "I have to say, business isn't going too badly except on the side of the kids' trade. Have you gone soft or something ?"
Nem took a breath in surprise. 'This guy really doesn't care at all about the people around him. Even the servants don't seem surprised at all, this must happen quite often.'
Before he could make more observations, Mannie removed his monocle and started cleaning it while answering calmly :
"Boss, you know this kind of thing comes and goes, we can't force it too much. Since a couple of months ago, the amount of orphans sleeping on the streets has been decreasing at a steady pace, and we also have gotten some concurrence on that front... And they aren't doing too well either." He replaced his monocle on his eyes, giving himself a sharper look. "This is also what I'm here to talk about. It seems Big Kor is planning something big this time, do you perhaps have any orders ?"
At this moment, a couple of servants entered inside the room, making Nem briefly check behind him in fear. There wasn't anyone there.
'Damn, that scared the hell out of me. Why are they still coming in like this if everyone has finished eating ?'
Looking through the gap of the door again, the two servants were actually serving tea, bringing the conversation to a temporary stop.
'Oh, yes. I see. Tea. Of course.'
Soon, the boss started again.
"Hehe, don't you want to know who it is that supports Big Kor from the shadows ? I can tell you, it's no trouble really..." This time, even the servants seemed a bit awkward, feeling as if they were listening to something they shouldn't. Without waiting for anybody to answer, he continued. "You know I've always respected the food church..." He patted his belly like he was simply mentioning his weight, but his words made Nem widen his eyes. "It seems they somehow found where all those street rats lived ! Haha ! And of course, they immediately told their precious partner... And they also made the news easy to find for me, so I wouldn't be able to act against them and plead that I didn't know they had anything to do with it."
The boss simply sighed and drank a bit of tea.