"Past the large stairway on Hall 3-B and use the elevator, last room at the right," Alice murmured, looking at her phone.

"Ugh." She closed her phone. "They couldn't make this place any less cryptic?"

After she talked with Leonhard, he left through a different gate than the other kids exited.

"You are no help either." She called the sword.

Since the encounter with the Chancellor, it had stayed quiet, but she could still feel its fear.

"Sorry," the sword said, still immaterialized. "I need to process things."

"Was he that strong?" Alice asked. She also felt the choking presence of the Chancellor, and it was common knowledge that he was the most powerful, but no one saw him struggle even once.

"He was." The sword said.

Alice understood the situation her company was in. "Then I let you enjoy some silence." She walked just walked until she reached the floor where her room was.

"Environment here is completely different." She said, looking at the long corridor adorned with high-quality floor carpet, colorful wallpapers, small decorative items, and a playful tune in the background.

"Compared to all that concrete and steel, here feels nice."

Alice walked through the corridors until she found her assigned room.

She used her phone to open the digital lock and entered inside.

"Decoration is simple, yet modern. We even have a comfy-looking couch, a TV, and a cute coffee table. It is not too spacious either. I liked it." Alice sniffed. "And inside smells like lavender."

Her luggage was also in the middle—two pieces of baggage and a massive wooden crate with her power armor.

Alice looked at her clothes. Her duel with Yulia wore them quite a bit. "Should have worn my armor first."

"These were my favorites." She murmured.

Alice quickly changed into something relaxed and threw her into the bed.

"Kingsize, how great." She closed her eyes and dazed a little.

"I wonder what people on the island are doing now?"

When she left, construction was still going. She heard her father managed to bill some of the construction costs to the UN because Younglaw failed both on his hunt and didn't inform them of the gaping beast's route.

She smiled, "Serves that baldie right."

"Oh!" She jumped up, pushing her bed away in the process. "Others invited me."

Alice summoned the sword. It materialized out of thin air but didn't have its distinct golden glow.

It didn't answer or react.

"Hey," Alice called the sword, lightly swinging around.

It gave a faint glow. "Sorry, what do you want to ask?"

"Nothing, just that I see a large television in this room. Do you want to watch your soap opera on a bigger screen?"

The sword levitated away from Alice's hands and dropped to the couch, bouncing twice before stopping. "That would be nice."

"Alright." Alice pulled out her phone and put it on the coffee table. "You know the password and how to connect it to the TV." She then moved to her luggage and searched it for something. "And before we forget."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She put a small plastic cap on the sword's tip. "So you don't destroy it."

"Thank you." Sword opened the phone and began searching for its show as Alice left the room.

When she closed the door, someone called her.

"There you are!" It was Jin. He held a stack of pizza boxes. "We were just staring, come!"

"Okay," She followed him to another room. Music and colorful lights were coming out of the door.

"There you are," Yulia said. She lay on the couch with a bag of mixed snacks next to her.

She wore a brown bear onesie.

"Somehow, adorable." Alice thought, unable to hide her smile. "Hello," She said, waving.

"Oh," Yulia straightened. "Welcome!"

"Nice onesie," Alice commented.

"Yeah." Yulia got up and twirled. "Somebody bought me as a tasteless political joke." She clenched her fist and gritted her teeth but relaxed and puffed her chest with pride. "But shame on him, it's pretty comfortable, and I like it!"

She then looked at Jin. "Talking about that person, where is Jonathan?"

"Oh, he forgot the drinks and flew back to grab some."

"But that will take him at least an hour!" Yulia protested.

"Don't worry, there is a gas station nearby."

Yulia sat down. "How good. I'm lucky to have two flying errand boys."

"What?" Jin suddenly turned to Yulia.

She looked at him with a smug grin. "I said what I said."

Alice watched as the two bickered and decided to join.

"I am glad they are friendly, but isn't this too much." Alice thought.

She stepped in before the two started fighting.

"Talking about drinks. Where did you get all these?"

There weren't only pizzas or snacks, wings, burgers, boxes, and boxes of American-Chinese food.

"We just fly." Jin opened his wings. "Cool, isn't it?"

"Woah, that must be nice." Alice approached Jin. "I know it might be rude, but can I?"

"Go on." He moved his left-wing towards Alice, who inspected it with glowing eyes.

"Man, running is boring."

"Do you run fast though?" Jin asked.

"I can go faster than most cars." Alice backed away from the wings. "Although if I go too fast, I usually lose control and hurt myself or things around me. I once cracked a giant boulder while testing my top speed. There was a me-shaped mark on the thing."

"I have a bike license." Yulia suddenly said.

"This is not a contest," Jin replied.

"I know. I just wanted you two to know."

"Know what?" Jonathan entered through the door. He carried multiple cases of different soft drinks. He looked at Alice. "Oh, you are here too." He showed a case of grape soda. "I didn't know what you liked, so I got random stuff."

"Oh, anything is fine by me." Alice grabbed the case. "Where should I put it?"

"Just put it on the ground. It's not like we won't be eating like animals anyway," He said as he placed the other cases.

"Good, feasting time!" Jin said, opening one of the pizza boxes. "We have mixed meat pizza. Who wants a slice."

He turned to everyone, his eyes still locked on the pizza, pupils fully grown.

"You know, you take that one," Alice said.

The other two agreed by nodding.

"Alright," Jin sat on the ground with a box on his lap and began eating.

Alice also sat down and pulled all sorts of food in front of her, "Billard will kill me if he learns I ate so much junk food, but this is my one opportunity." She pumped with her fist, one tear of joy in her eye.

Everyone stopped talking and devoured food until Alice broke the silence.

"Oh, just a question, did you also invite Leonhard?"

Jonathan gulped his bite. "You mean the mysterious guy. We did, but he always said he would if he could but never showed, so we stopped asking."

"Alright, but what is even his deal?"

"We don't know either. He is also part of the program but never shows up to training except when things need fixing." Yulia said before cracking open a soda can.

"He is also very close with high-ranking staff and works with the site security," Jin added.

"I also saw him today when the Chancellor arrived. He walked in right between him and his guards."

"The Chancellor was here!" All three suddenly stopped.

"Yeah, he greeted me but teleported away, saying he had business."

"Did you feel his presence?" Yulia asked.

"It was..."

"Oppresive and powerful." Yulia finished Alice's sentence. "But so cool at the same time!" She added her thoughts after.

"Can't argue with that, I think," Alice said. "But what is Leonhard's relationship with him anyway to walk so close so carefree?"

"We don't know, but that kid smells like trouble, secretive, stealthy, good with military tech, plus he is mechanically modified," Jonathan said.

"I think they raise him as some sort of important agent," Yulia said. "My bet is for the anti-cultist agency!"

Jin chuckled. "Kid walks around with an army of robots and private security, and you put him in secret service."

Yulia crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Then tell me what you think?"

"I think he will go for Defense Council."

"Boring," Yulia said before turning to Alice. "Why do you care for him anyway?"

"Oh, he invited me to a duel, saying he would give me high-class intel for participating and something even more valuable if I win."

"Be careful," Jonathan said, his face dead serious.

The other two nodded in agreement.

"That kid is from the UN inner circle. Expect anything and everything from him." Yulia gave her advice.

Alice sighed. "Yeah, you are right." She grabbed a drumstick. "Am I too naive for this world?"