Atonement, About it's Cruelty - Chapter 5
The employee blinked, struggling to find the right words before asking more pointedly.
“Did you come in here alone? Without anyone to guide you?”
Seo-ah mulled over his question before replying softly.
“Is that inappropriate?”
“No, that’s not what I mean…”
The employee was clearly flustered. He glanced around as if he was dreaming with his eyes open. This was definitely the VIP reception room of Felpe Bank.
What exactly was this woman’s story?
Felpe Bank did not discriminate against its clients. Even if a client was a commoner, as long as they had the means to open an account or a safe deposit box, they were treated with utmost respect.
The challenge, however, was the substantial minimum deposit required for opening accounts or safes, a condition that even some nobles could not meet. Thus, those who could cross the threshold of Felpe Bank were typically well-known business owners, high nobility, or royalty.
The bank’s main entrance was staffed not only with security guards but also with employees ready to assist clients. It was standard practice for visitors to be personally escorted by an assigned employee. He was able to leisurely read the newspaper precisely because incoming clients would have announced their visit in advance.
Yet here was this woman, suspicious merely by virtue of having arrived alone, and her appearance raised further doubts.
Though it was still technically summer with the occasional chill in the early mornings and evenings, the woman was dressed in a wool coat suitable for deep winter. Moreover, the coat looked neglected and ill-fitting, as if it had been left unused for a long time or it wasn’t hers at all.
Additionally, she seemed almost guilty, avoiding eye contact and slightly bowing her head, adding to her mysterious demeanor. The employee couldn’t quite put his finger on what was peculiar about her.
Suddenly, the woman spoke up.
“I came here to open a safe. Is this not the right place?”
“A safe?”
“Yes.”
The word made the employee hesitate, his expression uncertain.
“Do you have the key?”
At this question, Seo-ah sighed softly, relieved that she had indeed come to the right place.
“Yes, I brought it with me.”
Safe and key.
The employee, who had been ready to call security, instead gestured politely towards a chair.
“Please have a seat.”
Seo-ah set her bag down and perched lightly on the edge of a sofa. Meanwhile, the employee cleared the newspaper and slid a black velvet tray across the table towards her.
“Could you please hand me the key?”
Seo-ah reached inside the lapel of her thick coat. The employee watched closely as she pulled out a small pouch connected by a string to the inside of her coat. The pouch’s mouth was tightly secured with a string, clearly meant to prevent any loss of its contents.
The unique part about the key wasn’t in question. It was standard practice that only one key was issued for each safe, and it wasn’t uncommon for people to wear it like a necklace day and night to ensure its safety.
As his gaze traveled from the pouch up her slender, pale fingers, it reached her face.
Her face, with chestnut brown hair tied back, was strikingly pale, almost as if she had spent her life sheltered from the sun, reminiscent of a cloistered nun. A neatly framed forehead with well-aligned eyebrows, and the light brown eyes he briefly met had been plain.
Pale face, chestnut hair, and light brown eyes.
These were common features. Pale complexions were typical among Norfolk inhabitants, and the hair and eye color were nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet, something about her had caught his eye, but what?
As she successfully untied the pouch and placed the key on the tray, her face lifted like the moon rising from the water’s surface. The employee, now facing her directly, finally found the words to describe the peculiar aura he had sensed.
Like a white lily blooming solitary among red roses or an occasional cool breeze in the midst of summer heat… strikingly foreign and unfamiliar.
Clearly, she was not from Felpe, and it seemed unlikely she was from any part of Norfolk continent, despite her fluency in the common language.
At that moment, the woman who had been insistently focusing on the key pushed the tray slightly further towards the employee, as if urging him to proceed. The employee collected the tray, his gaze finally shifting away from her face.
The shape of the key passed inspection.
“Please tell me the number of the safe you wish to open.”
“Number 5555.”
5555.
As the employee jotted down the number in his notepad, he blinked. He glanced between the number he had written and the key, then lifted his head.
“Did you say 5555?”
Seo-ah gave a slight nod while looking at the employee.
“…Yes.”
At that moment, any lingering suspicion he had about her appearance receded into the background.
The number 5555 seemed to work like a magic spell, altering the employee’s demeanor. He repeatedly verified that this was indeed the key for safe number 5555, and Seo-ah consistently confirmed.
“Yes, that’s correct….Yes, it’s 5555.”
“….”
“Is there a problem?”
It was only when the woman stared directly at him, as if to ask why he was behaving this way, that the employee felt compelled to believe she wasn’t mistaken about the number 5555.
“…No, there isn’t.”
The employee held the velvet tray carefully with both hands and politely excused himself.
“I will verify the key and return shortly. While you wait, would you like some coffee or tea?”
“Ah…No, thank you. I’m fine.”
He nodded slightly in a courteous manner before exiting through a staff-only door, then hurried down the employee corridor to the key verification area.
He moved with a sense of urgency that not a single second should be wasted, he immediately entered a storage area after arriving at the verification center.
Just to open the door of the storage, four different keys were needed.
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