Gomen nasai minna-san! This is a repost of the last chapter! I felt that I have to post it again for the people who don't have me on author alert to see.
Ne, ne. I know! RedemptionMoon is very bad!
Don't worry, I'll try to post a chapter this week amidst the stupid major exams and annoying long quizzes!
Chapter 13 : Blind explorations
The day after his attempted escape was almost like any other day, but he noticed that in the estate, there were more roving guards, two sentries at the front entrance of the mansion itself were standing at attention. In the span of several hours, the security had almost double.
He didn't know if it was on account of Crawford's paranoia towards his business rivals or if it was due to his exploit the previous night but he certainly didn't like it. This added precaution almost reduced his chances of ever escaping to nil.
Sullenly, he had proceeded with his routine, derided even more by the servants because they probably knew about the incident the night before and expected him to be punished soundly for it. Not that he paid much attention to them anymore anyway.
But when he sat down at his usual seat at the servant's hall, he was driven away by the butler to the dining room empty-handed and was told to sit at the right hand of Crawford who was already starting on his breakfast.
The butler himself served Ken with the same breakfast that Crawford was at present picking on and he sat there, silent and unappetized.
He tried to avoid Crawford's scrutinizing gaze and instead forced himself to regain his usually voracious appetite but ended up only nitpicking on his food as Crawford habitually did.
He was still puzzled by the strange turn of events, and stranger it was still when they were brought to the office, he sat at the back of the black car with Crawford, nearly tearing his hair off from the interminable silence.
Most astounding of all was when they arrived, he was immediately manhandled by one of Crawford's personal secretaries whom he recognized as the young American, Sarah, who then throughout the course of the day taught him the basics of what she did and told him little nasty details about the other employees along the way.
His presence at corporate meetings took on a more active role as Sarah taught him how to take down notes or the minutes of the meeting for future reference – something he found out that he was very adept at and taking down additional notes on schedule and such.
She seemed to have taken a liking to him, and thought of him as her young protégé and formally introduced him as 'Mister Crawford's' personal aide from then on.
The other female secretaries (Crawford seemed to surround himself with many of those beautiful women) who hadn't dared approach him during his days as an unnamed while he tagged along behind Crawford like a dizzy puppy now, took it as their patriotic duty upon themselves to fawn over him and to examine every aspect of his person with interminable zeal.
By the end of the day, he had another legion of starry-eyed ladies fussing and toadying after him – something he didn't necessarily like but preferred over the cold treatment he'd been getting back at the mansion.
Lunch and dinner were likewise was spent with Crawford who didn't deign speak to him as if in punishment to what he had done the night before – but then again, it was not like he had gotten any friendly words of encouragement from the man ever anyway.
By then, all the other servants had looked at him differently. Oh, they hated him. They hated him almost with the vehemence that he hated Crawford. But they also knew that he was off-limits from then on, and no one was allowed to lay even a single finger on him.
One minute he was the communal punching bag for disgruntled staff, and the next he was virtually an untouchable.
That night, he was almost unable to sleep, puzzling over his sudden change in status. He couldn't understand Crawford's reasons for elevating his rank all of a sudden.
But it suited him just fine. If he'd have to stare at those impaling glares, he didn't know if he could keep his temper and avoid tearing one of them – or all of them – limb from limb.
Sighing for the nth time that day, he rolled onto his back, bored as usual.
As usual, he had nothing to do. He wasn't exactly fond of television and the only shows he ever really watched were soccer competitions and the random action movie that Schuldich seemed to like. Books weren't that interesting to him either, the little oak bookcase in his room seemed to serve no purpose but for him to glance occasionally at the indiscriminate picture or sketch on the pages.
He needed something physical; something to do with his hands or legs.
There was no way he could go outside for some fresh air, the guards would be on him in a minute and would tear his skin off his convulsing skeleton.
... but it didn't mean that he couldn't stretch his legs walking around the mansion.
In the weeks that he'd been there, he never really got to explore the damned place and it intrigued him what kind of secrets Crawford hid around the place. He probably wouldn't be surprised to find a basement of caskets with corpses in them or at least a huge gallery of human organs in jars.
Interesting.
Why didn't he think of this earlier anyway ?
Grinning to himself, he pulled on a pair of pants and a black shirt.
He had to admit, for having just failed his escape, he was in pretty good spirits.
His shoulders were unable to steady themselves as he bit his lip to keep his excitement in check.
Who knows ? He could probably find a concealed someone who was important enough to take hostage like the movie he watched – "The man in the iron mask" where the king's twin was held in the Bastille for years without anyone seeing him .
He didn't think that Crawford was above that.
Slowly, he set foot outside his room. This night, he was going to set out for some adventure.
RedemptionMoon : Holy shit, I know this is very much belated but there were many problems that arose and I have been unable to take the liberties that I had always loved having. But don't worry, I have treat for you soon. A one-shot (or two if I found the answers favorable enough) AyaxKen-centric fic soon. Anyway, please review.
More reviews mean more inspiration and more sense of urgency to write more for me. manipulative grin