Chapter 572 - Secret Room (9)

"Seriously? How many?" I was told there were several pages.

"One," Charles hung his head down.

"Are you kidding me? What are you doing here?" I urged him to leave.

"Did you know how hard it was?" Charles wanted some praise.

"Do you want me to clap for you?" I coldly faced him.

"The others should be nearby. If only you didn't mess everything that day," Charles left the room.

How could Charles forget both Luke and Alex were inside the room with me? I sighed as I could tell he was consumed by the happiness of destroying a single page. Thankfully, the entire conversation was incredibly vague. I gave them an explanation before they asked for one, "I accidentally released some bugs into the office. Charles killed a bug."

They knew about the several cages of living bugs inside my inventory, making both of them freeze. It was incredibly hard to get rid of bugs with the system placing more importance in preventing them from getting in. This was why I made sure I never took the cages out except for transferring them to Ethan.

"How many did you release?" Luke hated bugs as much as I did.

"Six," I recalled the number of pages.

"We should move everything out of the office," Alex slightly shuddered.

I silently cheered inside my heart that they didn't question my explanation. Everything clicked inside their heads for the reason why I was closer with Charles lately. I was supposedly trying to hide the released bugs from them. They were also too disgusted with the fact they had bugs crawling around their office. Although it didn't explain why Jules joined us, they didn't say anything about it.

"We destroyed five of them in total," Jules resembled Charles, not knocking on the door.

"Go back. There's still another one," I pointed at the door.

"Still?" Jules became dejected.

"Isn't that why Charles isn't here with you?" I wondered.

"He was waiting for the good news," Jules sighed, closing the door behind him.

Both of them sneaked into the office at night, staying up to search for the entire document. I had a tough time joining them as I returned to my room in the middle of the night. My eyes wouldn't stop closing from the intense schedule I suffered in the daytime. I didn't have any energy drinks and caffeine to help me, the lack of sugar in my body making me weaker. Once they determined I wasn't any help, I was tasked with distracting Luke and Alex instead.

"I can't congratulate them when there's still a bug out there," I explained.

Later in the evening, Jules, Charles and I had an emergency meeting in Jules' bedroom. I had no choice but to sneak into the office tonight to help them find the last page. The three of us were extremely close from one common goal. In fact, my friendship with Jules was almost repaired. We needed to plan so that the same event wouldn't repeat again in the future.

"Did you make sure to delete the original file?" I turned to them.

"Haruka has the original," Jules had forgotten since he was busy searching for the copy.

"Message him to delete it!" I almost yelled to Charles.

"I'll make sure to delete the other copies and original," Charles' hands became busy with sending more messages.

"What are we going to do about the future of that room? You can't continue to hide everything from Yulee forever," I pointed out.

"I can bribe the teachers to give a secretive room unrelated to any fractions for research purposes. I'll make sure to move everything into that room by the time you come back," Jules had a plan.

"How about the security of that room? We're doomed if Luke eventually finds out," I poked the weakness in his plan.

"I'll install many prevention measures, adding face recognition and fingerprints. I can spell everything with Oili," Jules explained.

"And make sure to bribe the teachers enough so they never reveal anything to Luke," I added.

"We can fortify the room by adding barriers in the process. I have some friends that can help," Charles was equally desperate.

"I can stay up tonight. We have to find the last page today. How's the progress?" I wanted more details.

"It's not easy. Luke is quickly working through all the documents that it's inhumane. He was close to touching the pile we were searching until Charles volunteered to take over," Jules sighed.

"Is the two hours helping?" I wondered.

"It is. We abandon doing any work and purely search for the pages," Charles nodded his head.

"Are you at least close to finding the last page?" I needed to know.

"It's somehow separated from the rest. It's gotten harder since Haruka sent them more documents, mixing everything when Luke reorganizes the piles every day," Jules revealed.

"Do you think it'll help if I make things messier?" I offered.

"Don't. It should be the last resort," Charles blurted.

"Are there any signs Luke is suspicious?" I hoped their acting was good enough.

"Luke is too busy to have time to be suspicious. He's more strained for time ever since you began to distract him," Charles smiled.

The three of us stiffened when someone knocked on Jules' door. We all knew the person on the other side of the door. It was not good if Luke discovered the three of us together.. I wondered if Luke was truly busy with fraction work.