51 Going Back to the First District 2

"Stop!" Ben shouted as he tightly grabbed my hand to prevent me from running up the stairs.

"What!" I yelled at him angrily.

"Don't you see Rika?" Ben pointed out a thick fog of mist covering about two worth floors of stairs.

"We can just use mana to create an air barrier to push through it?" I answered Ben's worries like they were unfounded in the first place.

"You haven't noticed yet, have you Rika?" Ben asked me while he sighed in disappointment.

"This place is a research center," Ben shrugged like I was helpless child who didn't know anything.

'Umm, so what?' I glanced at Ben to continue to explain he meant.

"Ben means that research centers are highly volatile and unpredictable since they develop strange mechanisms and devices," Shelly explained on Ben's behalf.

'Weren't research centers part of an independent country?' I thought.

Research centers were funded by the taxes collected from the people who reside in the first district. Since research centers could be corrupted by those with a political agenda, it was determined to be the best if they stayed independent from the government system of the first district.

"It's not like the mist over there is spelled with anti-mana," I said to Ben sarcastically.

Ben smiled in response, "Actually they can be, we don't know how far the use of mana have developed in the research centers."

"Oh, then what do you suppose we should do?" I mockingly asked Ben with irritation from the fact that he was treating me like a little child.

"The mist only covers the stairs so we can get a rope to attach to the upper part of the rail so we can climb up," Ben told us with eerie merriment in his eyes.

Shelly and I miserably frowned in response. We were already exhausted from using our mana to teleport to the upper floors. Plus, the strenuous exercise we went through beforehand when we climbed the stairs one by one made our muscles cry out for rest.

"Is this really happening?" Shelly asked Ben in disbelief.

"You'll get used to this once you go to higher level missions when you enter the high school section of our school," Ben informed us like he was very experienced in landing in these kinds of situations.

"Then where do we get this stupid rope?" I asked Ben with great contempt.

Ben took off his fancy leather belt. When Ben straightened the belt, the belt suddenly expanded into a long strip of leather that was long enough to cover the height of two floors. Of course his clothes were altered by mana spells. It resembled the work clothes Luke and I bought at the boutique that were customized to match our mana and figure.

'I should have just taken the teleportation gate!' I thought with great regret as I panted from the lack of air flowing into my lungs from the intense exercise.

Unfortunately, Shelly didn't look much better as her face reddened from doing something she wasn't used to doing. Other than our physical education class, Shelly and I didn't do that much intense exercise as we just went to cute cafes or shops on campus during our free time.

"I made...it," I congratulated myself after pulling myself onto the floor with no signs of the fog of mist below us.

I looked up to see we only had to climb one floor worth of stairs to get to the staff-only door. We ran up the last set of stairs with great hope and opened the door. Even Shelly who was about the faint any minute ago, ran faster than me as she was the one that opened the door.

"We're here!" I jumped with the last bit of my energy.

"There's a chair!" Shelly sat down on the chair gratefully.

Fortunately, the cafe was empty as nobody visited the school during the holidays. We collapsed onto the chairs while quickly ordering cold drinks on the tablet.

"We're using the teleportation gate next time," Ben groaned.

"There is no next time!" I shouted to defend myself.

"Who knows with you Rika?" Ben refuted.

I shrieked when I spotted Luke and Alex about to the enter the cafe while Ben covered his ears in surprise from my sudden scream.

'Why were they here when practically nobody visits the school during the holidays?' I thought.

"Rika?" Luke looked at me in confusion when they entered the cafe.

"You!" Alex yelled at me angrily.

"I know you were listening to the call when you were at the Nuelle's family villa on Monday," Alex continued.

I quickly tried to hide behind Shelly as Alex angrily walked towards me. I attempted to offer Shelly as a sacrifice as I apologized to her in my heart. However, Alex stopped walking towards us when Luke asked with great suspicion while studying all three of us, "Why are all your clothes in tatters and covered in blood?"

"We were playing paintball in Ben's villa," I lied.

When Alex noticed Ben's bandaged shoulder, he calmed down and pulled a chair to sit beside Shelly.

"We have been disrespectful," Alex bowed to Ben to apologize.

"I don't mind, it does look undignified at the first glance," Ben started to talk in code of the first district elites.

"However, I must ask. Why have you returned to school in such a state when playing 'paintball' in your villa?" Alex accused Ben.

Ben narrowed his eyes as he was being questioned by his underclassmen when he was in a higher position.

"I confess it's because we hastily tried to return to school when Rika didn't have enough spare clothes at my villa," Ben smoothly replied.

When Alex gave up on questioning Ben for the answers, he started to pressure Shelly with his angry stare.

When Shelly couldn't stand the pressure anymore, she confessed, "It's because Rika stepped into a teleportation gate that went to the second district at Ben's villa and we got injured trying to teleport back to the first district as the teleportation gate in the second district ran out of energy to teleport all three of us back."

'I'm sorry," Shelly mouthed after her confession as I instantly felt betrayed.

But I soon started to forgive her as it was a good summary on what happened without revealing the smaller details that would land me into greater trouble.

"So that's-" Alex started to ask while glancing at Ben's pitiful shoulder.

"Real blood," I finished the sentence.

"Thank you, Ben de Nuelle. I know Rika must have been a lot of trouble. I also apologize that my cousin was acting out of bounds," Luke bowed while pressing my head down while he dragged a spare chair to sit beside me.

'Who was whose cousin?' I sat there in shock.

Luke ignored my questioning stare as he sat down beside me.

"It has been an interesting journey," Ben answered while using mana to heal his shoulder as he had luxury now to use his mana on his shoulder.

"I hope this is enough compensation for now," Luke indirectly asked Ben as a bright light suddenly filled the cafe from Luke abruptly using his mana to fully heal Ben's shoulder.

Ben nodded as he took off the pieces of cloth tied around his shoulder to find that not even a scar remained from the injury.

"As expected from the heir of the Roselia family. I give you my thanks." Ben smiled elegantly despite his poor appearance.

"No, no. Thank you for taking care of Rika." Luke insisted.

"Then I'll get going now," Ben stood up to excuse himself and headed towards the high school section of the school.

I knew Ben was trying to escape before the situation got more ugly. Once Alex and Luke figured out Shelly and I got kidnapped in the second district, even Ben would get in trouble with the school for going to the second district during the holidays.

"So what really happened Rika Roselia Shanes?" Luke faced me once Ben left.

I stopped pressuring Luke for answers from surprise while avoiding Luke's line of sight.

"You already heard the explanation from Shelly. It's really all that happened." I lied flawlessly while looking at the ground.

"And since we're dressed like this," I waved my hand to show Shelly's destitute appearance.

"It'll attract the attention to whoever else that enters the cafe." I pointed out to both Luke and Alex.

Luke and Alex were forced to agree as torn clothes covered with blood would attract attention wherever we went.

"Shelly..." I whimpered when we had to unwillingly separate to go to our respective dorms.

'We'll meet soon' Shelly answered with her sad gaze.

After I changed into my pyjamas, I found Luke sitting on my bed so he could get an explanation on what happened while Shelly and I were supposed to be at Ben's villa.

"There's really not much to say," I tried to finish the conversation before it even started.

"Oh, I'm sure there's tons of things to say," Luke brightly smiled.

Yikes. That meant he was going to go all his interrogation techniques on me to figure out what really happened. Better distract him with a new topic.

"Is Alex really your cousin? I thought you were from separate families." I tried distracting Luke from his former topic.

"Don't try to get out of this Rika." Luke warned me.

"I'm not... I just think I have the right to know since I'm your partner." I tried to convince Luke.

"My aunt that is my mother's younger twin sister, married into the Monete family," Luke explained.

No wonder Alex and Luke seemed closer to each other than they were with Allan! Now that I thought about it, the way they acted were pretty similar as well.

Alex acted like he was a doppelganger of Luke when he tried to burn all my light novels and stack of manga when we were forced to reside in the medieval-like room together. Plus, his study sessions of hell resembled Luke's as they were neat and concise.

"Now, I think it's fair you honestly answer my questions like I answered yours," Luke brightly smiled as he leisurely crossed his arms.