The Note (3)

"This is serious," Alex responded to Luke's explanation why we were late.

"They're still looking into it," Luke appeared more mad than disappointed in the school.

I continued to finish the thick workbooks in silence while I listened to their conversation. Everyone except for me was studying ahead of the class materials. This way, everything they learned in class would serve as review instead of making them confused, trying to learn in the process. After that monster incident, I never considered school to be entirely a safe place anymore.

"This is why I'm planning to have Rika stay in my room for tonight," Luke continued.

I stopped writing in the book from surprise. I made plans with Oili I would meet him tonight. I desperately needed to vent my stress out. How would I ever sneak out of his room without him knowing? I already created a new route in my head with the information I got from listening to the teachers.

"With you?" I hoped he would stay in my room instead.

"Can you stay in Rika's room for tonight?" Luke ignored my question.

This meant we were totally spending the night together. My private life was thrown outside the window as they continued to talk about what they could do to catch the culprit. Why couldn't I stay in Shelly's dorm instead?

"Do we really need to do this tonight?" I interrupted them.

"I can stay with Shelly," I pleaded.

"Wouldn't it be safer than our dorms?" I tried to reason with them.

It looked like my reasoning worked. Luke switched his line of thinking as he asked, "Can we switch dorms for tonight?"

"I don't mind," Shelly knew about my plans.

Alex nodded his head as they made a few changes. Now I just had to hope that we weren't staying in the same room. Like ours, Shelly and Alex moved into a luxurious dorm to reward them for protecting the barrier.

In fact, the layout was exactly the same when Alex opened the doors for us. I had trouble walking from all the studying I did during the day. I never felt so glad that they decided to end the study session earlier today to setup their plans.

I immediately opened Shelly's room and flopped down on the bed. I needed to sleep to go to the karaoke meeting near the middle of the night. Thankfully, with all my pestering, we were sleeping in separate rooms. I had to exchange my entire day for the price, making them merciless.

"I don't want to get up," I mumbled into her pillow.

Luke left me alone, knowing how tired I was. He probably thought I would wake up the next morning like I usually did. I pulled out an energy drink from my inventory and chugged it until it was empty. It was something I brought from the time when I visited my parent's house. I sneaked it out of Evan's room when he wasn't looking.

He had an entire supply of these drinks in bulk, the next best thing after canned coffee. While he was distracted with talking to Luke, I placed an entire set into my inventory. I didn't think he would notice anyways since I took very little.

I set my alarm to 12AM and dozed off to sleep. This was why I woke up to the faint feeling of my marble vibrating in my hand. I couldn't let it continue to get loud enough so that Luke could hear it in the next room. With that determination, I opened the window and pulled out a rope. All the luxurious rooms were on the top floor, making it harder to sneak out.

I tied the rope around the bed, using it as an anchor. With the remaining, I tied the rest around my waist just in case. I jumped down from the third floor without any hesitation. I sighed in relief when it seemed that nobody had noticed. I pulled out a map where that room was supposed to be located.

It was near the club rooms. My eyes sparkled once I opened the door. Oili, already inside, had set everything up. My supply of otaku goods that I had missed so much was right in front of me, all I needed to do was grab onto them. This was why I joined Charles' fraction. It was totally worth it.

"Here," Oili passed me a microphone.

"What song are we starting with first?" I looked at the screen.

"How about this one?" he punched in the numbers.

This was an old song that we always included in our karaoke sessions. I smiled as the song began and got ready to start the duet. We sang for hours, placing more songs on the list. I laughed as if all my worries were starting to fly away. This didn't even compare to eating all the food I wanted to eat.

"That reminds me, my partner and I also got chosen to participate in the competition," Oili let me know while we took a break.

"Do you want to explore the third district together?" I was starting to make a plan with all the tourist spots.

This was the perfect time to decide where to go. It wasn't like we were going to stay at the arena the entire time. In the schedule, contestants got the freedom to go outside during the break.