“What are they talking about?”

Betty had followed Sebastian from the city streets all the way to somewhere close to the agency headquarters where not many people went.

Currently, the old butler was meeting with a strange man who appeared quite ordinary. The only indication that he was any different was his posture which seems to be someone who has come from the nobility. 

Unfortunately, the words they spoke were unable to be heard at the distance Betty was at.

Throughout the entire time Betty followed, Sebastian’s movements didn’t seem suspicious and acted as if he was just passing by the area. Still, the petite girl followed closely behind.

Betty saw Sebastian starting to turn his head around, which she quickly hid behind the wall.

Realising that they had continued to chat, she took a small peek at her face.

The mysterious man was smiling and patted Sebastian's shoulders. Clearly, he was one that the butler knew and seemed to have a close relationship with.

“That’s…”

She saw Sebastian handing over a large sum of money, all in cold hard cash.

Is he dealing with some kind of drug? Or is it something related to the murder case? Maybe a way to hide and run away?

Many possible explanations ran through her head but she kept them aside for now. What’s most important was that she needed to keep watching to find more clues about the case.

Betty took out her phone and took a picture, only letting her hand out of the wall. With a loud click, she smiled with satisfaction after seeing the result.

“Hey young Miss, what are you doing here?”

Betty turned around and came across two tall women, both similar to Daisy. Commoner in origin but had a more thug-like kind of feeling.

“W-what? I… err just looking for something.”

“Looking for something? A small kid like you?” One of the women snickered and laughed.

I’m going to be 21 soon! I am not a kid anymore!

Instead, Betty replied, “Why is it your business? I can go around here whenever I want, right? It’s not like this place belongs to you!”

One of the women had her eyebrows raised.

“This place may not belong to us. But it belongs to Mr Charles, the man who you've been watching for the past few minutes.”

Damn it! They knew I was watching them!

Seeing that she was caught, she had to leave quickly. Fortunately, she had several cards to play despite her lack of combat training. Assuming that they were going to fight… Actually, forget that. She has to consider the best of these two! Just because they were women didn’t mean that they couldn’t keep her away and beat her up!

These two women were most likely the man’s followers or guards, so they were far ahead of her.

One of the women, seeing Betty's predicament, grinned.

“Don’t worry about that kid. You can just tell us why you are following our boss and perhaps we can let you go.”

“Um…”

I have to find a way to get away quickly…

Betty looked around desperately.

“C’mon girl… if you don’t tell us, we might have to bring you along with us. Not necessarily alive either.”

The two women inched closer to the petite girl as she scrambled herself and stuck to the wall.

“Betty? What are you doing here?”

Betty turned to see Sebastian and the man, who was called Charles. Their expressions were seemingly positive and they were all smiles.

“I uh…”

“Boss,” one of the women called out. “I found this girl sneaking up behind your meeting and took a picture of both of you.”

“Sebastian?” Charles turned to the older man.

“I’ll handle this, sir. I know her and she’s safe. Come on, let’s go.”

Betty gulped. Her body remained tense but she casually followed Sebastian, who was beginning to leave the group.

She turned her head to the unknown man and what she assumed were his followers. 

The two tall women were still glaring at her while keeping an aggressive posture and expression, not letting their guard down. They seemed pretty defensive of their boss.

“So do tell me, Betty. Why were you following me?”

“Um… I wasn’t following you. I was just-”

“You were bad at doing it. And I was able to see and hear you quite clearly. I pretended not to see you.”

Betty, feeling ashamed, simply looked down.

“Were you hoping to catch me off guard and see if I was doing something in regards to the case you are investigating?”

“Yes.”

Seeing that the cat’s out of the bag, Betty had no reason to lie anymore.

Sebastian released a loud sigh, making it louder than it was in this relatively isolated and abandoned area.

“I understand your suspicions but I wasn’t doing some shady deal if that’s what you were wondering.”

 Betty looked up at the old man, who was grinning. It puts her off slightly but she intends to listen and get as much information as possible.

“You know that I am Mr Jackson’s butler, right?”

Betty nodded.

“Well, I am aware that Young Mr Jackson isn’t fond of me and may kick me out at some point. So I’m taking the precaution of ensuring that I could have at least a future somewhere when that happens.”

The petite girl’s eyes widened. So that’s what it is.

“But why so much cash?”

“I am planning to do some things with that man as a business partner, which I hope we can succeed together. In any case, at least you know I wasn’t doing something bad, right?”

Betty had to admit he was right. But still, he wasn’t entirely out of the way yet. To her, the most suspicious person in all of this was this old man. If anything, she needs to get more out of this conversation so that perhaps, her team could move forward.

“I’ll tell you something that no one knows. Take it as something I compensate you with.”

Without waiting for Betty to respond, Sebastian continued, “I heard Young Mr Jackson and Miss Yui quarrelled yesterday.”

Betty had a surprised look on her face.

“It was Young Mr Jackson who told his father about Mr Daniel’s spending of money, causing them to fight.”

“But Shiro told us that he isn’t jealous of his brother!”

“I don’t know. Perhaps both of them are misleading you. Don’t believe everything they said.”

A silence fell between them. “Is that all?”

“I have a confession to make. I didn’t inform you about Mr Daniel’s gun because I was the one who stole his gun from his room after the fight.”

“What, why?”

“Because I was afraid that Mr Daniel might consider killing him,” Sebastian explained. “However, what didn’t anyone know was that the gun was stolen from my room too. In the afternoon of the murder.”

“But that gun is the murder weapon.”

The old butler grinned, “Don’t you worry, I’m not the man you are looking for. I’m too old to bother committing a crime such as this.”

“Hmm… but Sebastian told us that the gun was stolen weeks prior. In contrast, you took the gun on the night before the murder. What do you have to say about that, Sebastian?”

Sebastian’s face turned to that of anger, losing all of his composure. “You don’t seem to believe a single word I say. And so it happens, here is where we go our separate ways.”

Betty realised that they were already back in the busy streets.

The old man stomped off in annoyance. However, Betty remained perturbed and hid a smile.

If he is disturbed by this, I am sure everyone does too.

The petite girl started jogging back to school, hoping that her leader was still in the clubroom. She has to tell her about this as soon as possible.