Chapter 403 - Finale of the Circus (2)

"What is the tower and the cave like now?" I asked them.

"You can almost go anywhere in the first and second district with the cave while the tower is almost as magical as a fairy tale," Belle explained.

I froze, shocked how the tower had changed so much within a week. I did know they would do some renovations but not to this extent. While Belle gushed about the tower, I attentively listened to every detail like the spa, stunning ballroom and private attractions put in place. The tower was only accessible to family members, making entrance even more exclusive. And since it was very old with many floors, there wasn't an end to what you could explore.

My eyes sparkled, wanting to go with them. Ailes did mention that he placed us at the most horrible room they had. Almost finished with my meal, I chimed in, "I want to go too. Can't you take me with you?"

"Maybe after you graduate from high school," she teased me.

The table was filled with chatter on what they should do with the rest of the floors. Apparently, it was the oldest tower in the first district, only having one hundred floors available. Many ancient artifacts and technologies were present in some of the rooms, unlike the ones in the lower districts. It was no wonder Ailes didn't want to give this space up. Plus, there weren't many places in the monster's territory that would be free from them as the tower due to the contract.

"The tower seems to have changed very much," Shelly knew from my descriptions.

From her comment, the whole table went silent. I wondered why the atmosphere became awkward when Shelly had nothing wrong. Sometimes I commented on how some of the floors should be arranged and their parents just went along with my ideas, taking a few notes inside their heads. The servants had cleaned up the empty plates, replacing everything with some tea and other drinks along some desserts.

"The tower did change," Alex coldly answered her.

���Is this another version of strawberry shortcake?" I commented to switch the topic.

"We have our way in making desserts," Jules' father started to talk about their family history to me.

Descending from fairies, they always had the best desserts since that was what they could only eat. I never knew a fairy and human could produce any offspring together. The table started to be filled with more conversations about history from other families, almost like the incident before had never happened. Shelly shot me a grateful look before trying to stay invisible, not participating in any conversations.

In front of her was Yulee, who was also silent. Meanwhile, Jules and Alex were busy talking to their family members to the point they were almost ignoring them. However, Lucius and Belle were still in the spotlight, getting the most attention from their parents, aunts and uncles. I wondered why we were getting treated so differently. I didn't feel uncomfortable telling them about my opinions, chiming in more conversations that interested me.

I tugged on Luke's shirt, wondering why they were being excluded. Luke whispered into my ear as soft as possible so that only I would be able to hear him, "they're not family yet. They could use whatever information from here to report back to their families to profit off of them."

Feeling sorry for them, I decided to go with the flow, not wanting to stand out. Rising from my seat to move to the next location in the mansion, I noticed both Yulee and Shelly trailing a distance behind others. All of us were staying for a night, sparing the entire day for Lucius and Belle. Introducing our bedrooms, everyone except for Yulee and Shelly had rooms on the third floor. While theirs were inside the guest rooms on the second floor where it would be a bit more convenient for them to move around in the mansion.

"Let's go to the living room on the third floor," Luke grabbed my hand.

When I looked around for Yulee and Shelly, only they were missing for this second event. However, there was nothing I could do since everyone here was in Luke's family, not mine. Both Lucius and Belle laughed while opening their gifts, full of more property and land allocated towards their names with thousands of millions of Aris transferred into their bank accounts. I knew how precious land and property was in the first district where some parts were occupied by monsters.

"I'm sorry for ruining your special day," I went up to Belle, feeling guilty I ruined their ceremony since I was Ailes' main target.

"It's fine, this is better anyways," she stroked my hair.

"Besides you helped us obtain the tower a week before," she pointed out.

"Rika, you may be interested in this," Jules' father called for me.

Since he knew I loved desserts, I eagerly listened to him on all the delicious cakes they had recorded in the recipe book. While Luke left me alone, under the care of his family, enjoying the conversations about different swords. Joanna, who I normally thought was very strict, also liked to praise the desserts at the house she grew up in. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

But my ears perked up when I noticed Alex was suddenly missing from this room. Hearing Shelly's voice on the other side of the door leading to this room, everyone else went silent doing the same thing.

"Can I leave? Your family hates me!" Shelly's voice trembled.