Timeline of Errors

Part 30 - Infiltrating The Grey Estate (1)

"There it is," Antonio said as he looked up.

I gulped as I looked up as well. In front of us, stood a tall fence spreading before my eyes. It looked like a set of very big arrows lined up and held together by two horizontal bars, one near the arrow head and the other at their feet. And beyond that fence was a tall grey building which looked like an old-style castle, with turrets and small pointy towers on its sides. It was about thirteen stories high, and about the size of a football field. Around it were well-trimmed topiaries in the shape of people, presumably the owners of the estate. A path of grey stones stretched from the fence to the horizon - well, probably to the entrance of the estate but I couldn't really see the entrance right then. Around it was a grassy area, which was definitely as well-trimmed as the topiaries.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, nodding, "here goes nothing,"

The lady's imposter took an elegant step forward and walked ahead with an unexpectedly good posture of a noble woman: arched back, tummy held in, shoulders backed, chin held high, and even his pinky stuck out slightly. I turned to myself and looked down on my feet which were wearing a pair of open-toed red sandals, which were partly hidden by my floor-length soft pink dress. The ends of the dress swept the ground elegantly, and about half a meter up from there, sat a red satin belt with beige and red roses adorning my waist. My thoughts, however, quickly drifted away to my conversation with Matias earlier.

"Well, it's a bit complicated. How about you tell me what you know and I'll fill you in on the missing pieces?" Matias suggested.

"..."

"Well, guess I don't have to add anything. Perhaps I didn't choose the wrong person for the mission, after all," he commented, "your hunch and observations are on-point,"

"Thanks, but what do you want me to do with this information?" I asked.

He gave out a loud sigh before answering, "What do you want to do, Valen?"

"Me?" I asked, "I'm just an outsider here,"

"This might come out as a bit unprofessional of me, but... what would you do, Valen?"

"Well, you guys aren't in good terms, right? Also, what happened to your relationship with them after you called the authorities?" I asked.

"Truth be told, I didn't. I called someone else and before I knew it, everything was... sorted out," he answered, "and everything was gone by then... the higher-ups, everything... it's just me and the lady,"

"Valen?" asked the young man in a drag, waking me up from my thoughts.

"Oh, sorry," I said and took quick steps to catch up with him.

"Don't go too far off on your own," he said, "we don't know what's up ahead,"

"I know. By the way, what party is this?" I asked.

"It's the duchess's birthday," he said, "don't worry too much about her. She's not particularly nice to girls, but she's not crazy like her son. It's just that she's a real flirt when it comes to men. It's almost like she's thirsty for them,"

This is what I heard in the video diary as well, I thought.

By the way, should I tell him that I gave his number to Matias?

The closer we got to the estate, the more guests I could spot walking down the entrance. And, you could say that I was very, very stunned. All of those guests wore floor-length dresses in different colours and shape. I swear I could see at least each colour of the rainbow and some monochromes there. Some of them have very puffy sleeves, some of them look like medieval princess dresses, some came in mermaid-tail dresses, some are asymmetrical. One thing for sure, one look at the fabric and I know even just one of them would cost more than the insurance Matias provided me at the beginning of the quest. It was not just the dress, but also the shoes, the purses, and jewelry. I'm pretty sure everything is studded with precious minerals, and they are mostly white diamonds. There was even a blonde girl with diamonds stringed on her flowing straight hair.