REINER - CONVERSATIONS

“What makes you think that?” I asked, more shock at how he knew rather than how forward his

question was.

“It’s pretty obvious. You’re either in love with him or really obsessed with him…” the old man said.

“Well…” I mumbled.

“So, what do you like about Reiner?” the man asked.

“I guess…everything…” I replied after some consideration.

The old man’s eyes widened at my response before he roared with laughter. I watched him in wonder

because I didn’t quite understand what it was that he found so funny.

“What’s so funny?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Well, you ask me to tell you everything about him as if you don’t know anything about him. Yet, you tell

me that you love everything about him. You’re a complex paradox, aren’t you?” the old man said while

he tried to suppress his laughter.

“Well, we’re not in that type of relationship,” I said softly.

“I wonder. He never brings anyone with him. Let alone a woman…” the old man said as his eyes

narrowed at me.

“Don’t get my hopes up. He’s not in love with me,” I said, quickly shutting down my own hopes.

“You seem very trusting,” the old man said observantly.

“Excuse me?” I said, not quite following what he meant by that.

“You trust him and his words…maybe a little too much,” the old man said before winking at me.

“Maybe…” I muttered.

“If you want to be with him…you’re going to have to be very brave,” the man said as he nodded his

head.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Exactly as I said. Brave…in every sense of the word,” he replied.

In every sense of the word…? While I was taken aback by the old man’s words, my arm was yanked

backwards, and I started to lose my balance. I let out a small cry before my back hit something warm

and hard.

“What are you doing to her?” Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

Reiner? I glanced up to see that the hard wall that my body seemed to have bumped against was in

fact Reiner’s body. He still held my arm, and I could feel that he was very tense. I thought these two

were friends or did I misunderstand something? The air between the two men didn’t seem friendly at

all.

“I’m not doing anything. We’re just chit chatting. Is that the word that young people use these days?

Chatting…” the old man replied.

Reiner looked at the old man suspiciously before he sighed and loosened his hold on my arm.

However, he placed a hand on the small of my back and I knew that he wanted me to stay close to him.

“It’s rare for you to appear in front of people,” Reiner said flatly.

“I’m human too you know, I do like to socialize,” the nameless old man said.

“I don’t happen to recall…” Reiner muttered, clearly unconvinced.

I watched the two men conversing and I could sense some tension between them. That made me

wonder how they knew each other and what was their relationship. I could tell that they’ve known each

other for a long time and seemed close in a weird way. Perhaps, if I asked Reiner later, he might tell

me.

“Natalia, can you go wait for me inside first?” Reiner asked and I knew that he was asking me to leave

the two of them alone.

“Sure…” I readily agreed.

I guess old friends have somethings that they wanted to catch up with each other on. Smiling a little at

the old man, I took my leave and headed back towards the entrance to the mansion.

…

Reiner watched silently as Natalia walked away from them until she rounded a corner and was out of

sight. He then turned to the old man

“So that’s Natalia…” the old man said thoughtfully.

“Why did you approach her? It’s unusual for you to show your face…to anyone…” Reiner asked as his

eyes narrowed at the old man.

“Easy easy…don’t get your diapers up in a knot. I just wanted to see the girl you skipped out on your

real job for…” the old man said before he smiled knowingly.

“I didn’t skip out. I told you that I’m quitting…” Reiner replied.

“Isn’t that even worst? I’m losing my top agent…” the old man said before sighing.

“I’m quitting…” Reine repeated emotionlessly.

“Why? You’re still so young? When you told me that you wanted to…go after her…” the old man said

as he recalled some memories of his own.

“I didn’t say that I was going to go after her,” Reiner quickly corrected.

“But that’s exactly what you did. You have no idea how much trouble I went through to keep this away

from your father…” the old man complained.

“Why? You should have just told him,” Reiner said without a care.

“Me? Tell him? No no no…spare me my life, please. It’s your mess and I’m staying out of it. If you want

to break the news to him, you can do so…” the old man said as he waved his hand dismissively.

“You’re scared, huh?” Reiner asked with narrowed eyes.

“Yes. I’m scared out of my chicken-brained mind. Your father’s a monster…” the old man replied

without hesitation.

“He’ll be in a good mood as long as business is going well…” Reiner muttered.

“I guess. Are you…planning to go home?” the man asked.

“Maybe…” Reiner whispered.

“Reiner, you’ve used this name for many years now, but I still find it strange. Anyways, I just want to

say that you should not feel responsible. You just did as I told you. The mission instructions were as

such and you followed through. There’s nothing that you should feel responsible for,” the old man said,

sounding serious.

“What about you?” Reiner asked calmly.

“That girl lost her mother because of the mission that I assigned to you. I could have assigned

someone else, so it could have been someone else who would mistakenly kill her mother. So don’t

overthink it. If you need someone to blame, you can just blame it on me. It won’t make me feel guilty,”

the old man said passionlessly.

“I can’t do that…” Reiner replied.

--To be continued…