Ch. 356..360: Forbidden Heat R18 Chapter 356-360
Chapter 356: Reiner - Too Early to Give Up
I sat down with Charles at his table while we waited for our orders to arrive. Charles seemed to be in a decently good mood while the same couldn’t be said about me. The whole issue with Reiner at work was stressing me out quite badly. It was fortunate that I had this job at the bar to run to for comfort so that I felt like my life was still useful. When I first got a job here, it was mainly to earn some money so that I could support myself and work towards moving out of the mansion. However, this job at the bar along with the people here made me feel like I had a place to belong.
“What are you thinking about? You don’t seem so cheerful today,” Charles asked as he stared at me from across the table.
If he’s saying that then I guess my efforts in trying to act normal wasn’t really paying off. It was like he could tell right away that I had something troubling on my mind and he was right.
“I’m finding my new job a little tough actually...” I confessed a little shyly.
It’s only been a few days and I’m already complaining about my new job. I wanted to laugh at the loser that I was.
“Everyone needs time to adjust to a new job. It’s completely normal so just keep trying and don’t give up,” Charles said encouragingly.
“That’s what I intend to do. I’ll keep on trying my best, although, I don’t know if my best will ever be enough,” I replied, completely deflated.
“Don’t try to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders alone. You’re new there and there’re many things for you to learn and catch up on. Is there someone who can help you?” Charles asked.
Well, I wouldn’t say that there wasn’t anyone to help me but the guy that I needed help from the most happens to be Reiner. I sighed when my thoughts turned to Reiner. All he wanted was to send me back home and because of that he’s not willing to tell me, teach me, or help me with anything. Not like I could tell Charles the whole story behind that.
“There is. The thing is...my boss is kind of like a...difficult guy to deal with...I guess...” I confessed hesitantly as I struggled to find the right words to describe Reiner and our situation.
“Difficult? How so?” Charles asked with genuine interest.
“Well, he’s very cold towards me and he gets angry at what I do sometimes. It’s like everything that I do just isn’t good enough for him. It makes me feel so useless. He doesn’t tell me anything about his work and doesn’t give me any real work either. He probably doesn’t trust that I can do anything right...and he probably just doesn’t want me there...” I explained my feelings to Charles.
Honestly, I was surprised at how easy it was for me to tell Charles these things. Before I knew it, I had somehow put my feelings into words and told Charles what was happening from my perspective. That made me realize that I was feeling more depressed about this than I had thought.
Charles looked thoughtful for a moment as if he was deciding on what he should tell me. I wondered if Charles has any experience dealing with these types of situations. Probably not because Charles seems like someone that everyone would like. I had a hard time imagining someone who wouldn’t like working with Charles, plus he seemed too capable at everything.
“I don’t know your boss or what type of person he is, and I don’t know anything about your line of work but in my line of work, it can take a new joiner a lot of time to prove himself to his boss and the team,” Charles said before smiling a little my way.
“Really?” I asked, curiously. It wasn’t often that Charles would volunteer to talk so much about himself or his job.
“Well, in my line of work it’s not uncommon for people to lose their lives. How the team works together and the skills of the people in the team can make a big difference to the success of the mission and the survival rate of the team. In other words, if the new joiner is not skilled enough or not a good fit for the team, he or she can put the team in grave danger. It also takes time to develop trust and for people to get used to working together,” Charles explained flawlessly.
“I see. I guess you’re right...” I replied.
“It’s only been a few days since you started working, right? Don’t give up just yet. I’m sure if you do your best, your boss will recognize your effort and skills,” Charles said with certainty.
How he said it and the way he looked at me with confidence made me feel more confident about myself than before. It was like he truly believed that I could do it. In the back of my mind, I wanted to work hard so that I would succeed and so that I wouldn’t disappoint Charles. Some day soon, I want to come back here and have dinner with him like this and tell him how well I am excelling at my work. Hopefully, that day will arrive very soon.
“Thank you, Charles. I’ll try my best. Thanks to you, I think I’ve gotten my motivation back,” I replied before flashing him a cheerful smile.
“You’re welcomed. This is a strange place for a girl like yourself to be. It’s not an easy place to adjust to but I think you’re doing splendidly for yourself,” Charles said with a warm smile.
He was right, this place was unusual to say the least. If I hadn’t followed Reiner, I would never have ended up here on this island and I wouldn’t have met Charles along with everyone else. I wasn’t sure if this new life that I had found was the right one for me, but I was willing to see it through to the very end. Perhaps just like how Charles had his missions, this was my mission of sorts.
Chapter 357: Reiner - Alone Together
The next morning, I woke up with renewed motivation thanks to Charles’ words. I got up early and prepared everything well with the target to do well at work today. I’ll get along with Reiner and I’ll find a way to be of use to him no matter what. Charles gave me confidence and I knew that I had to get my act together before I start to lose my confidence once again. He was right, it was too soon for me to give up on anything. Today will be the day that I turn over a new leaf!
I opened the door of my room with a loud and proud bang. So much for my dramatic entrance, the only thing that greeted me outside of my room was the empty and long hallway. Laughing a little at my own silliness, I made my way to the staircase so that I could head to the first floor. When I walked past the living room, Queen called out to me.
“Natalia!”
I turned around when I heard her call my name. Once again, I thought it was weird that Queen was up so early in the morning. I smiled at her and waved my hand. Knowing that I still had some time left before I needed to leave, I walked towards her because it seemed like she had something that she wanted to say to me.
“Good morning,” I greeted her warmly as I sat down on the sofa opposite from her.
“Good morning. You’re up early again today,” Queen said sweetly.
“You’re up early too. Morning yoga?” I asked.
“Not today. What about you? How are things going at work?” She asked and her eyes seemed to sparkle with interest.
Well, it wasn’t going well but...
“I’m trying my best. I need to work on a lot of things to catch up. It’s not easy but I’m sure that I’ll get there eventually,” I replied, trying not to lose my determination.
“Wow! You sound so committed which is great but don’t work too hard,” Queen said.
I was about to excuse myself so that I could go to work but Queen lifted her arm and waved.
“Knight!”
This was the first time that I heard Queen call Reiner by his alias, and it felt quite strange. That’s not the point! Why is she calling him here?!
My heart skipped a beat, and it wasn’t for a good reason. Slowly, I turned around and as expected, Reiner was standing there in the doorway to the living room. He hesitated a little before sighing and making his way over to where we were seated at the sofa.
He looked at Queen and then he glanced over at me before his gaze returned to his mother once again. The look on his face was clearly asking ‘What do you want?’
“Are you going to work now, Knight?” Queen asked in a sweet voice.
“Yes,” Reiner replied curtly.
“That’s great. What a coincidence! You see, Natalia is also going to work now. So, what about you two go to work together?” Queen suggested gleefully.
I knew that she could be quite meddlesome, but I had to say that I didn’t see this coming. The weird look on Reiner’s face told me that he didn’t anticipate this either. Queen was full of wild moves.
“Umm...that’s ok. I can drive. It’s not a problem...” I quickly turned down her suggestion.
Judging from Reiner’s reaction, the last thing he wanted was a ride in the car alone with me. I’ve bothered him enough already and I didn’t want to be a burden to him.
“Well, you see...I need to use the car that I lent to Natalia today, so she won’t have a car. Since you’re going to the same place anyways, why don’t you give her a ride?” Queen pressed without backing down.
Great. Now she’s using the car as an excuse. There’s no way that she needs the car today, plus, there are so many other cars in this mansion. One glance at Reiner told me that he also knew that the car was just a poor excuse for him to take me along with him to work. She was right about us heading to the exact same destination, though. Reiner didn’t say anything, but he sighed uncomfortably. I decided not to say anything more as well.
“There’s this go green trend going on to save energy for a better planet, right? I believe carpooling is a smart move to achieve that. Let’s all do our part for a better world, ok?” Queen said cheerfully before winking at her son.
I bit my lower lip and glanced over at Reiner to see his reaction. He was silent as he seemed to ponder something. After a few seconds, Reiner closed his eyes and sighed loudly as if he had admitted defeat.
“Let’s go...” Reiner said to me before he turned and walked out of the door.
“See? I just got you a free ride. Don’t forget to come back home together too!” Queen called after me as I headed for the door.
Seriously, she’s very meddlesome...
I hurried after Reiner before he would change his mind and leave me behind. Although I knew that he didn’t really want to drive to work together with me, since we were going to spend some time alone in the car together, I might as well try to make the most of it. Opportunities should not go to waste. Somehow, I managed to catch up to him and we walked together in silence as he led me to his car.
Now that I was seated in the passenger seat of his car, I didn’t quite know what to say. After I had fastened my seatbelt, Reiner started driving to the office while I tired my best to figure out how to start a conversation with him. Unfortunately, it had become hard for me to even talk to him. I truly missed how things use to be between us. Back then, I could tell him anything and he would listen to me so patiently. I glanced at his emotionless face that was watching the road ahead and wondered if we could ever return to how things were.
Chapter 358: Reiner – Closer to My Boss
“Are you going to be busy at work again today?” I asked, trying to start a casual conversation.
“Yes,” he replied after a pause.
“Is there something that I can help with? I want to help you...” I said before smiling a little hopefully at him.
Reiner didn’t reply to my question and the atmosphere in the car became awkward. Not knowing what else to say, I looked out the window at the scenery passing by instead. I wondered what Reiner is thinking about right now. Before I got depressed about his lack of response, I decided to suck it up and put in more effort. Charles was right, it’s way too early for me to give up now. If I show him enough effort, he’ll acknowledge me one day.
“Reiner...umm...I can call you Reiner now because we’re alone, right? It was quite strange how Queen called you Knight before. Guess it was my first time hearing it...” I said before laughing a little.
Reiner continued to drive in silence but that didn’t stop me from talking. I’m going to keep talking until we get to the office and then I’m going to spend time with him at work and talk to him some more.
“You seem so busy at work but what work do you do exactly?” I asked as I turned in my seat to look at him.
Once again, he didn’t reply, and I had to say that I was getting used to it. Sadly, talking to a wall wasn’t that bad when you got used to it. In my case, the large wall that I was talking to had very beautiful red hair, a beautiful nose, and very kissable lips. He was a very handsome wall indeed, I thought as I smiled to myself. My eyes admired the side view of his face as he continued driving us towards our destination.
I wondered if I would get another word out of him before we arrived at the office. I knew that I probably won’t but that was somehow fine. My mind was made up and I refuse to falter today. No matter what, I’m going to do something useful at work together to help Reiner with his work.
We arrived at the office and Reiner quickly parked his car. Wordlessly, he got out of the car, and I did the same. Together, we walked in silence to his private office. Reiner didn’t seem to be in a bad mood, but his mind felt like it was elsewhere. He was probably thinking of something about work, so I decided not to bother him anymore...for now.
Once we arrived at his private office, I placed my bag down on my desk and followed him right into his office. He didn’t chase me out and I took that as a sign that it was fine for me to be there.
“Coffee or tea?” I asked.
Sure, the coffee that I made last time didn’t pass his standards at all, but I was willing to give it another try. My effort has got to count for something, right?
“The coffee you made last time was disastrous,” Reiner said.
Although his words were nothing but a complaint, it still felt great that he was talking to me. I laughed a little at how ridiculous it was.
“Then...can you teach me how to make good coffee? Well, more like the way you like your coffee. If you show me, I’m sure that I can make it,” I suggested before smiling brightly at him.
I’m not backing down today, watch me.
“You’re asking your boss to teach you how to make coffee? Unbelievable...” Reiner said disapprovingly; however, I could tell that he wasn’t angry.
“What about I help you with some work too, so you don’t have to go home late again?” I offered.
“You can go back first...” he muttered.
“I don’t have a car and Queen did say that we should go back together. What about I help you out with work and in return you can teach me how to make coffee the way you like it?” I proposed before flashing him my most enchanting smile.
Reiner stared at me coldly before he sighed loudly.
“I take that as a ‘yes’?” I asked, basically forcing him into it.
“Fine...do whatever you want...” he muttered.
Reiner turned and took his usual seat behind his large table. Unlike the previous days, I didn’t back out of his room. Instead, I approached him and peered at the documents that he was looking at. Honestly, I didn’t understand a thing that was written on the document although it was in English. What is all of this about?
“I told the guy at the archive to dig up some documents for me, can you ask him to bring it here? He should have found them already,” Reiner said without looking up from the paper that he was reading.
“Wow!” I exclaimed in joy as I clapped my hands together loudly.
“Why are you so happy all of a sudden?” Reiner asked and he looked straight at me.
“My boss just gave me some work to do! Thank you, Knight. Wait here, I’ll be right back!” I said happily before skipping out of the room.
It was when I was in the hallway in front of Reiner’s room that I realized that I didn’t even know where the archive was. Well, no big deal, I’ll just drop by the secretarial office and ask about it. I walked with such a big spring in my steps that I might as well have skipped all the way to the secretarial office.
It was the right choice that I had decided to drop by and ask because the archive was located underground. There was no way that I would have found it without explicit instructions on how to get there. I wondered what Reiner wanted from this large and moldy underground document storage place. Just like Reiner had mentioned there was a guy down there who seemed to be in charge of running the archives.
Chapter 359: Reiner – An Impossible Task
In this day and age that most things were electronic and no longer paper-based, it was surprising to see so many documents gather and well arranged all in one place. I bet whatever Reiner was looking for must be quite old. Perhaps it was some documents from the time when computers and everything digital wasn’t popular yet.
“Excuse me. I’m Knight’s secretary. He told me that you have some documents for him...” I said to the muscular old man who was seated behind a counter.
The old man peered at me through his thick-lens glasses as he squinted his eyes. I wondered if it was a requirement to be this muscular to guard an archive. I smiled at him a little nervously as he continued to stare at my face. Finally, he seemed satisfied enough and nodded at me in acknowledgement. Without saying a word to me, he slowly got up from his seat and waved his hand at me for me to follow after him.
He led me a little further into the archive and the smell of old paper and books filled my nostrils. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell, but I wouldn’t want to spend an entire day down here either. After a little while the man came to a stop in front of a large pile of documents. Documents in folders was piled up almost as high as my waist.
“All of this is for Knight?” I asked.
I eyed the tall pile of documents in front of me. Did Reiner request for all this? I couldn’t imagine how I can possibly carry this many documents back to his office. Did he expect me to carry all this back on my own? Really?
As I stood there in shock, the old man stood silently to the side and watched me as if he was waiting to see what I was going to do. Effort, Natalia, perseverance, and endless effort. I flexed my fingers and bent down to gather as many documents and folders as I could carry into my arms. If I can’t carry all of them back at once, I’ll just make multiple trips.
“Thank you!” I called out to the old man as I started walking out of the archive with a large pile of documents in my arms.
After just making it out of the archive, I quickly realized that I must have bitten off more than I could chew. The documents in my arms rose up higher than my chin and it felt so heavy in my arms that my arms started feeling numb. It was also a little hard for me to balance myself and walk straight. Miraculously, I made it back to the elevator that connected the underground archive to the first floor. Back at the lobby, I had to change elevator to the one that would go up to Reiner’s office.
I must have looked quite funny struggling with all those documents because many people who walked by gave me weird looks. Of course, I decided to ignore them completely. I mean, if they had time to judge me, they could have offered this poor young pretty lady a hand. Seriously!
To make matters worse, the elevator was crowded. I couldn’t wait for the next elevator though. The papers in my arms felt like it was getting heavier with each second. I need to get them to Reiner’s office as soon as possible. It felt like an eternity before the elevator reached my floor.
“Excuse me...so sorry...” I said as I squeezed myself out of the crowded elevator.
Either I wasn’t watching where I was going, or I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings. Perhaps, it was both. After exiting the elevator, I walked right into someone.
“I’m so sorry!” I quickly apologized as I tried to balance the pile of documents in my arms.
It would be a disaster if I dropped these now. The old man probably arranged these documents in order so dropping them wasn’t exactly an option. Suddenly, the weight in my arms completely disappeared.
“What do you think you’re doing?” a familiar voice asked sternly from above my head.
“Knight? Umm...why are you here?” I asked cluelessly.
Why is he here? Isn’t he supposed to be working his ass off in the office?
My arms were still hugging the weightless air when I realized that Reiner had taken all the documents that I had been holding into his arms instead. He looked at me sternly and I started to get the feeling that I had done something wrong.
“You were gone for so long, so I came looking for you...and the documents,” Reiner replied.
The sentence would have sounded so perfect if he hadn’t added in the last part.
“Sorry...that it took so long,” I mumbled apologetically.
“What do you think you’re doing? Why are you carrying all this heavy stuff all by yourself?” he asked with a slight scold on his face.
Umm...because you told me to?
“You told me to go get the documents for you...” I replied in confusion.
Reiner sighed before turning to walk away from me in the direction of his office. I had no idea what he was thinking at all. We entered his office, and he dumped the large pile of documents on his table before turning to face me.
“I asked you to ask the guy in the archive to bring me the documents that I asked for. I didn’t ask you to bring them to me because I know that it’s too much for you to carry,” Reiner said followed with an exasperated sigh.
Oh...I guess he did say something like that...
“I see. There’re still some documents left in the archive because I couldn’t carry them all...” I mumbled.
“Of course, you couldn’t carry them all...” Reiner replied.
“I’m sorry. Just wait here, I’ll go get them for you now,” I quickly said before turning to the door.
“No need. I’ll get someone else to grab it later,” Reiner said to stop me.
“Ok...” I mumbled softly.
Reiner sat down in his chair and began going through the documents from the archive and I found myself wondering what he was looking at. I still haven’t figured out what Reiner’s job was, and it became my mission for the day to figure that out.
Chapter 360: Reiner – Educated Guess
Boldly, I dragged a chair over and sat down at the desk opposite him. He glanced up from the papers that he was reading to take a look at me. Without saying a word, his gaze returned to the papers in front of him. I considered the fact that he hasn’t chased me out of his room a big leap of improvement. My curiosity started taking over and I found myself leaning forward across the desk to get a look at the papers that were in front of him.
They looked like stats and data on something that I didn’t quite understand. The report on the desk next to his hand had photos of people on it next to table filled with text in various fields. It looked like information and profiles of people. Apart from that, I couldn’t make out anything at all and I still had no idea what Reiner was working so hard at.
“Knight...what are you reading?” I asked softly.
He didn’t reply and as time went by, I figured that he probably didn’t want me to disturb him. However, there were so many reports that I couldn’t imaging Reiner going through all of it by himself. If only he would tell me what he was trying to do or what he was looking for then perhaps I could help him, and we’ll get it done faster if we worked together.
“What are you trying to figure out?” I asked.
To my surprise, this time I got an answer.
“How to save lives...” Reiner muttered without looking at me.
How to save lives? What does he mean by that? Will reading these papers somehow help save lives?
“What do you mean by that?” I asked with interest.
“You tell me. If you can figure something out, I’ll let you help out with my work,” Reiner said as he placed a pile of documents on the table in front of me.
My eyes widened at his sudden change in attitude before falling on the large pile of paper in front of me. How to save lives? If there are clues somewhere in these reports, then I’ll be sure to find it. Just you wait and see...
Reiner and I focused on the documents in front of us as we silently read through. The documents that he handed me were stats and reports on different people. After reading through a few, I began to get the picture of what was going on from the data. Basically, the death rate of agents that were sent out on mission have risen over time. That meant that more people died and were dying. Of course, I knew that that wasn’t good.
If my educated guess is correct, then Reiner is trying to find a way to decrease the death rate for agents that went on missions. I glanced up at Reiner to see him still busily going through the reports. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but I believed that I had a better understanding now for the reason why he was working so hard.
Charles’ words came back to me when he talked about his job. I think he did mention something about the importance of people working well together as a team and trusting each other to increase their rate of survival on missions. If a team member was not trusted or did not work in sync with the team, he or she could put the team in grave danger. My face grew numb as the seriousness of the situation that Reiner was handling hit me. If he doesn’t get this right, more people are going to die.
“Knight...are you trying to find a way to decrease the death rate for agents? Based on this data, the survival rate has been going down, right?” I asked as I pointed to a report that he had handed to me.
“That’s right. More agents are dying, and we can’t let things continue like this,” Reiner replied before his blue eyes looked straight at me.
The seriousness in his gaze froze my body in place and whatever words that I had prepared to say died right on my tongue. Instead of saying anything more, I just nodded and shifted my focus back to the various other reports in front of me.
There’s got to be something here that will help us figure this out. Reiner is looking for something, and although I had no idea what that was, I felt like I would know immediately if I found it. If the increase in death rate is a problem, then we probably should find the root cause for that before we find a way to solve it. Is the cause somewhere in these documents?
“Have you found anything?” I asked after a few hours had gone by.
“I think so but nothing conclusive yet,” Reiner replied, sounding tired.
“This might sound like a wild guess but perhaps the increase in death rate has something to do with the nature of the mission that has changed over time. You see, up until a few years ago, most of the missions were individual based. One-man-show type of missions. Then after that, missions that require agents to work as a team to complete them increased sharply,” I began stating my hypothesis.
Reiner stopped what he was doing, and I could tell that he was listening with interest to what I was saying. Perhaps he didn’t think that what I was rambling about was just a bunch of nonsense after all. I sucked in a breath to steel my nerve before going on with my hypothesis.
“It might be the case that agents that were used to working alone on solo missions found it hard to adapt to working as a team on team-based missions. Working in a team is probably more difficult because the team must work in sync and also trust each other for the mission to be successful. Therefore, if this is an issue then it is possible that more missions would fail and there would be more casualties leading to the hike in death rate over time,” I said as I looked straight at Reiner.