Chapter 570 - Secret Room (7)

"Can I check your room?" Alex asked Luke.

"It's the last place we didn't check," Luke agreed.

My mind went blank as Luke revealed himself within the first ten minutes since we switched to playing hide-and-seek. I guessed it was better than twenty seconds like yesterday. I was glad I was inside an invisibility spell, holding my breath for a long time. Like I had expected, Alex immediately checked under the bed. I was floating a bit above the floor, not showing any traces of someone on the floor.

"She's not here," Alex continued to scan the area under the bed.

"Are you sure?" Luke joined him.

An invisibility spell was the newest spell to join my repertoire. I read it from the dimensional library yesterday. I needed to keep my concentration up as it would flicker in and out of existence often. It also consumed a great amount of mana, making me chant the spell beforehand before entering the room. After looking under the bed, Luke gave up when he didn't notice anything.

"We should search the entire mansion again," Luke began to leave his room.

After they walked to the first floor, I was able to take a deep breath. My invisibility spell wore off as I hoped they wouldn't return. I tiptoed out of his room and walked into Alex's bedroom while placing a sound barrier. It was another room that was surprisingly open. I opened his closet doors, finding a space big enough that I would be able to fit. Unexpectedly, time quickly passed, twenty more minutes adding to the clock.

I had ten minutes until the hour was over. My ears perked as I heard them walking towards this floor again. I didn't want to play lava floors when hide-and-seek was more peaceful. Paper games were another route to a makeshift study session and the cards were confiscated. When Alex opened the door to his room, I desperately began to rack my brain for more ideas.

"Are you sure she didn't leave the mansion?" Alex wondered.

"None of the alarms went off. She should be hiding somewhere," Luke began to check Alex's bed.

I briefly froze when Alex stepped towards his closet. When he opened the closet doors, there wasn't enough time to teleport to another location. I raised my head to find him gesturing to me to get out of his closet. I instantly stepped out of the cramped space, my back a little stiff from staying there too long. Before they could say anything, I turned to Luke, "it isn't any fun if you don't play the game seriously. Did you actually try hiding?"

"I hid behind the curtains," he intentionally chose a poor location.

"You have to move around so the person that is searching doesn't find you," I revealed my new tactic.

"No wonder we couldn't find her," Alex muttered.

"We're going for round two," I had eight more minutes with me.

"This time, I'm the one who is counting down for a minute," I changed the time.

I closed my eyes as I loudly began to count down the time. We didn't have enough time to count down the usual five minutes. When I opened my eyes, both of them had disappeared from the room. But since they didn't bother to hide their loud footsteps, I knew they were inside my room. I sighed as they weren't trying hard enough. I pretended to look for them inside Alex's bedroom, stalling for more time.

When around a minute was left, I opened my door to instantly find Luke covering himself with my blanket while Alex hid behind the curtains. I knew they were doing this on purpose, tapping on Luke that I found him before pulling on the curtains to reveal Alex. Hide-and-seek was depressing with them.

"The hour is over," Luke found it ending at a perfect time.

"I'm going to check what you touched inside my bedroom," Alex immediately left us.

They needed more motivation. Something to make them try harder. Unfortunately, I received a message from Jules that it would take at least the rest of the weekend to find the document. My head lit up as I started to draw some paper dolls and houses inside my notebook. With a pair of scissors, I cut them out while following the lines. The next day, both Luke and Alex stared at the paper ornaments.

"We're going to play with dolls today. Hide-and-seek isn't fun anymore," I hoped this would change their minds.

From then on, Alex's impression of me hit rock bottom. He had no expectations for me anymore other than listening to him during the study sessions. Luke never had any expectations in the first place, holding onto the doll while following the storyline. I was impressed how they made their voices pitched a bit higher to go along with the script. I knew they were trying, both their eyes looking a bit miserable.

"Maybe we should play hide-and-seek for the remaining ten minutes, but we could go through another storyline," I pretended to contemplate.

"We can try harder in hide-and-seek," Luke placed the doll down.

"But Kristie is joining us this time," I could hide her in a spot near me.

"Let's start the game," Alex wanted to leave the room.

Since both Luke and Alex didn't want to play with dolls anymore, they instantly hid in better spots to drag the time. However, I enjoyed how they suffered while holding the paper dolls in their hands.. To get my revenge, a quarter of the time was spent playing hand games, half an hour in playing dolls and the rest in hide-and-seek.