The Note (9)

"What were you thinking Rika?" Alex added to Luke's lecture.

Unfortunately, the three of us ended up inside the self-driving car together. My ears were already hurt from Luke's long lecturing. However, things were just getting worse as Alex supported his cousin as usual. I regretted not jumping into a car with Ellen and Allan when we were close to the bottom of the hill.

"I told you, I'm sorry!" I apologized for the nth time.

"Didn't everything turn out fine in the end?" I grumbled.

"We're lucky that everything turned out to be fine," Alex crossed his arms.

"Is there a special room we can use?" Luke turned to Alex.

"What do you need?" Alex asked him.

"A room where I can keep an eye on Rika," he was thinking of confining me.

"I'm really sorry, I won't use my mana like that again," I started to plead to change his mind.

"It's only until we move into the competition arena," Luke looked like he was set on his decision.

I clenched my fists since it wasn't fair. The sunlight drifted into the windows as I placed my life on the line to help everyone escape during the night. Everyone would be able to relax and have fun in the second district while I would be excluded from that list.

"What if I'm not willing to go in that room?" I avoided their line of sight.

"You don't have a choice," Alex answered for him.

"How are you going to make me?" I squeezed my nightgown.

"Rika," Luke warned me.

"We can teleport to that room first and leave Alex to return the car," he told me another option.

Luke knew how I enjoyed looking outside the car window to look at the scenery in the second district. I couldn't give that up. I gave up and continued to look at the people enjoying their weekend, starting to make the streets busier.

The hotel towered over us as Luke pulled me out of the car. Alex picked up the hotel card and gave us all the information as we entered the lobby. As I expected, everyone seemed to be using this time to enjoy all the luxurious amenities inside the hotel. Luke had to drag me to the elevator as the students roamed around the lobby, chattering about where they should go next.

He only let me go once we entered the room at the top floor. It resembled the luxurious dorm, except the technology hasn't reached the same stage. There was no way I could stay here for the entire day. My ears already heard about the waterpark also inside the hotel. I didn't even want to explore the area outside the hotel anymore, I wanted to explore the hotel now.

"Are we staying here the entire time?" I glared at him.

"We need to get ready for the competition," Luke pulled out another thick workbook.

My jaw almost dropped as I couldn't believe he was making me study here. If I couldn't get out of this room, I would rather catch up on my sleep. I stared at him, wondering when he would put the book away. There was no way I would continue those horrible study sessions here.

"One book in exchange for four hours at the waterpark," I formed a plan inside my head.

"We're not going to the waterpark," Luke narrowed his eyes.

"One book for three hours at the spa!" I also heard the people chattering about how great they felt afterwards.

Luke stayed silent as he started to set up the table to supervise me in my studies. I had to admit that the hotel owned by the Monete family almost had everything. It was like there was a whole city inside with the pure number of attractions.

"Not even two hours at the 4D movie theatre?" I switched to another attraction.

"I'll think about it once you finish one workbook, Rika," he gestured to me to sit down.

Tears started to well up in my eyes when I received a message from Ellen and Shelly that they were heading to the spa. Meanwhile, Sienna and Delia were going to the waterpark for the entire day while enjoying their desserts. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to save all those people a few hours ago.

"One hour at the gaming centre," I tried one last time.

"Open the book Rika," Luke appeared to be running out of patience.

I flopped onto the chair as I frowned while opening the book. I knew the day would be almost over by the time I was finished with this book. The time-space setting wasn't available in this room. Luke sat down in front of me, opening a book of his own like usual.

"You're really not letting me go anywhere?" I noticed the sun starting to go down.

"This room has the best security," Luke revealed.

"Nothing is going to happen," I grumbled.

How could he not trust his cousin's family hotel? Nothing was happening to the others as happy pictures of how they were enjoying their time was sent to my marble. I knew they were just letting me know how they were doing, but it just made me feel more awful. I started to feel more restless as I would move into the arena tomorrow.

"That note was targeted at you," he pointed out.

"But we're in the second district now," I argued back.