Just as Alex was about to put the book back inside the backpack, he suddenly noticed a few of the pages were no longer blank.
Taking it out and checking it from the first page, his face immediately started to blush as he closed it back up.
"Why does Mom have this kind of stuff?" Alex thought to himself, unable to believe what he had just seen.
It was a hand-drawn picture of him having sex with his mom with an almost extremely detailed depiction of their bodies.
Soon, his brain couldn't help but check more of it as he flipped the book open again and went to the next page.
As he expected, it was another page of sex scene, with him having sex with Katherine from the back this time.
Rapidly flipping page after page, it was clear the book was just a flat-out adult book of him and Katherine having sex.
His heart started beating so fast that he closed the book and quickly shoved it back into the backpack.
"Does mom like me? No, no, I need to calm down. It's just a fictional book. Calm yourself down."
Alex quickly headed over to the window and slid it open, letting the cold wind cool his brain down.
After his heart rate returned to normal, he started to wonder about the book's mysteriousness.
It was clearly blank at the start, and the pictures only showed her having sex with him after he flipped to the last page.
More importantly, for a fraction of a second, when he flipped to the last page, he saw Katherine's face rather than his.
Something was clearly different about the book besides the adult element inside it.
"Where did Mom find this book?" Alex wondered as he began to look around the backpack for more clues.
The only clue he found was a slight hint of dirt on the bottom of the backpack, with a slight bit of ashes inside.
Because the backpack looked the same as the one they had gone to the dungeon with, Alex had drawn up a conclusion in his head.
"Mom got this book from the dungeon?" Alex murmured as he slowly zipped the backpack closed.
His mind quickly connected to the chest that Katherine pointed out at the start, with the dust that made the three of them fall asleep.
It was all coming together, as Alex now had a concrete idea of where the book came from.
"But how does a book do all this? What purpose does it serve? Why is mom hiding it from us?"
More questions appeared as he thought more about it, but he couldn't come up with any answers.
But there was one thing he was certain about, which was that Katherine had opened this book in the past.
Even though he wasn't sure if she saw the same stuff as him, his brain quickly realized something that relieved him a little.
"Mom doesn't actually think about me that way. It's just the book acting weird.
Obviously, she won't see me that way. I'm just her baby in her eyes forever."
Alex let out a little chuckle before instantly shutting his mouth, as he could hear the door next to the room he was in being opened again.
"Alex, I know you're in there!"
As the door opened, Alex didn't try to resist or run away, so Sophia walked over and tagged him.
"You got me. But I'm not telling you where Mary is hiding."
"I don't need it."
---
Meanwhile Mary...
As Mary began to count inside her head, she closed her eyes and started praying.
"No way I'm losing this. She has to be in this room."
Mary could hear Sophia flipping the blanket above, despite it being impossible to hide there, considering the outline it would have formed.
"Time's up."
---
"Dang it. Alex, where is Mary, then?"
Sophia questioned as she searched through all six of the bedrooms down the hall already.
"Isn't it obvious? You are on the right track. She is indeed in this room——"
Before Alex could finish, Mary finally emerged from underneath the bed.
"It seems you're just a second too late to find Mary," Alex smirked as Mary excitedly ran over to Alex.
"We won!" Mary yelled as Alex lifted her into the air.
"Yes, we won!"
"Hmph! I was just about to check it. Just one more second, and I would have won."
"Too bad you didn't have that one second, ha ha ha!"
As Mary gave off an evil laugh, Alex quickly separated Sophia from trying to put her in a chokehold.
"Okay, okay. Mary, you need to stop taunting Sophia. She's your older sister." Alex pointed out, making her stop.
"It's just a game of hide and seek. Why take it so seriously."
Sophia backed down, realizing how childish she looked for trying to punish Mary over something so small.
"Ahem, who told you guys to come inside my room without permission?"
As all three of them turned towards the voice, Amelia was standing right by the door.
"Mary decided to hide in here!" Sophia quickly pointed out.
"Sophia was the one who agreed to play hide and seek with any of the bedrooms in this hallway."
Seeing the two pushing the blame on each other, Amelia turned her attention over to Alex.
"I was the one who suggested this. I'm the one who's responsible." Alex replied, taking all of the blame to himself.
Amelia didn't take Alex's answer as the full truth, so she turned to Luqing for an answer.
"Who was it, Luqing? I trust you."
"I was the one responsible. I should have stopped them when I heard them talking about it."
"Luqing!"
All three of the kids were a little shocked by Luqing's attempt to take all the responsibility from them, but Amelia didn't buy it.
"I'm not blind Luqing. Come on, do I look like a child who can be fooled easily?"
Luqing only smiled back, not saying a single word to Amelia.
"Whatever, you guys get out of my room. I have work to do."
Amelia quickly shoved all four of them out of the room before closing the door right in their faces.