Chapter 212 - To Safety (5)

"Because it's you," Charles sighed like it couldn't be helped.

"You do know one teleportation gate costs a fortune, even more than the mansion itself, right?" his voice became more hostile.

I didn't know. Since I was so used to teleportation gates being readily available, I thought they weren't that expensive. The only reason why I thought people used hover cars instead of teleportation gates was because of the huge mana consumption.

"Does this mean you refuse?" My eyes narrowed.

I didn't want to do this, but I sighed as I had to use my hidden card. After seeing how sensitive Luke was when I tried to see his magical sword after I came from the sixth district, it must be something secretive. Even though I didn't understand why they were trying to keep it hidden when they readily took it out during a fight.

"Oh my, Exphaxia! Close your eyes Rika!" I almost choked as I imitated his voice from the sixth district.

Charles momentarily froze as both Luke and Alex stiffened. I guessed it was because it was something that only the topmost powerful families knew and Sienna, Allan and Cillian who weren't a part of it were here. Before I could continue, Charles' face went red.

"But the Lumiere family doesn't mind a small loss like a teleportation gate," Charles coughed out the words.

"And you Allan?" I faced Allan's face turning pale from seeing how my words affected Charles.

He knew how I would pull up something from our childhood to threaten him if he declined as Charles waited for him to answer.

"Yea, ummm a teleport-port-ation gate is noth-ing," he stuttered.

"Thank you for your understanding," I waved before hanging up.

Seeing that Sienna and Cillian didn't think too deep about the name of the sword, both Alex and Luke began to loosen from the heightened tension. But Cillian appeared a little impressed as to how I convinced one of the members of a rival fraction a little bit too easily.

"I never knew how close you were to other fractions," Sienna's eyes glittered.

"I'm not, it's because I'm classmates with Charles," I didn't want to give her a false impression.

I didn't want Sienna to think that convincing two other people that I didn't know would be easy as Charles. This only worked since I was holding onto Charles' weakness. Charles would never be able to say anything about me if he didn't want anything that happened in the sixth district to be exposed. Unfortunately, this was the only good thing that came out of being kicked out to the sixth district.

"Can you give me the phone numbers for the other two heirs?" I asked Shelly.

My marble rang as I received Shelly's message. But why did one of the numbers seem so familiar? I used to call this number a lot when I was in elementary school. I hoped this was who I thought it was.

Everyone seemed confused when I brightly smiled at the familiar face of a young boy starting to mature. He was one year older than me when we first met. His tousled walnut brown hair stuck out in many directions. Cute dimples near his mouth remained as he was confused if he picked up the wrong call.

"Hey, Oili," I awkwardly waved.

"You haven't called in a long time, is this really you?" Oliver yawned.

"Yea, things changed," I showed off my new hair colour.

No one knew Oliver's real identity. The club formed between Jules and I didn't just have us two as its members. The final member of the Lilika Yuri fanclub was Oili. Someone I unfortunately fell out of touch with once he graduated from elementary school.

"You still look the same as before though," I couldn't help think of Jules' betrayal to our club.

"Yea, I heard what happened in the second district. Jules was always two-faced. It's just that you never noticed it," Oliver shrugged.

I nodded as I couldn't believe I ignored his warnings the entire time before he graduated. Feeling of guilt crept up into my chest as I shot him an apologetic look. Oliver smiled as he accepted my apology as if it couldn't be helped.

"Are we meeting up again?" Oliver wondered if we were starting our karaoke meetings again.

"I'm not the only person in the room," I warned him.

"Oh, shoot," Oliver ran out of the screen to clean up his appearance.

And now I needed to explain to the numerous people in the room how I knew Oili. But I couldn't just tell them that Oili was my best karaoke buddy. I sighed as things were much better in elementary school where the security of the rooms was much more relaxed.

Thankfully, Oliver managed to brush up his appearance under a minute. It was like he transformed as he wore his perfectly ironed uniform with his tidy hair. Oili always got my secret hints, especially about those telling him to either hide or hurry up and help to get out of this situation.

Karaoke was something to be frowned upon in the first district. After Jules had managed to sneak it into the school, we always had to tiptoe and plan extensively to continue our meetings. But if I had to choose someone who liked singing more than me, it had to be Oili.

"So what's up?" he switched into a wary expression.