Chapter 179: Pix’s Room

I stood behind Eselin as she clapped her hands, the sharp sound cutting through the chatter around the girls’ side of the circular street. Heads turned toward her almost immediately, and a moment later dozens of curious eyes shifted onto me.

"A boy will be entering the dormitory in five minutes," Eselin announced. "Please finish what you’re doing, leave the showers, and return to your rooms until we’re done."

A wave of whispers spread through the street.

"Why’s he going inside?"

"Isn’t that Ace?"

"What happened?"

I resisted the urge to sigh. Man... the way she announced it made me sound like some rabid dog that’d start drooling the second I saw a girl. I kept that thought to myself, though.

Eselin walked over to a nearby bench and sat down.

I sat beside her, and the next few minutes felt painfully awkward. Girls occasionally peeked through their windows or cracked their doors open just enough to stare at me. Even from the boys’ dormitory across the street, a few students leaned out of their windows, obviously wondering what was happening.

Neither Eselin nor I said a word.

Eventually, the dormitory door opened and one of the girls stepped outside. She quietly whispered something into Eselin’s ear.

Eselin gave a small nod before looking at me.

"Come."

I got up and followed her into the dormitory.

The halls were completely empty now. We climbed the staircase in silence before stopping in front of Pix’s room.

Eselin unlocked the door and pushed it open.

I stepped inside.

The room looked exactly the way I remembered it from the night I’d entered through the window using Shadow Leap. Clothes were scattered across the floor, books had been left open on the desk, the bed hadn’t been made, and one wardrobe door was hanging half open.

Eselin closed the door behind us.

"Why are we here?" she asked.

I slowly looked around the room. "The woman pretending to be Pix stayed here for several days."

"She did."

"But why?" I asked. "The job was already finished."

Eselin crossed her arms. "I don’t know."

"I think she stayed because she was searching for something."

Her eyes wandered around the room. "You say that because the room’s messy?"

"Exactly."

"So you’re saying she turned the room upside down while looking for something."

I nodded.

"Think about everything we know. The real Pix was kidnapped before Jelda was murdered and thrown into the Circle. Someone else took her place, lured Jelda outside, tortured her, killed her, and then... instead of disappearing, kept pretending to be Pix."

"When you put it that way..." Eselin murmured. "It is strange."

"It makes no sense otherwise."

She looked at me.

"Unless she simply enjoyed pretending."

I shook my head. "Too risky. Every extra day increased the chance of getting caught."

She didn’t argue.

"Let me ask something." I looked back at her. "Was Jelda’s family wealthy?"

"No."

"Did Pix or Jelda own anything valuable?"

"Not that I know of."

"So coin probably wasn’t the motive."

I nodded thoughtfully.

"Then let’s ask another question. Why leave the real Pix alive?"

"I don’t know."

"Maybe one of the kidnappers knew her."

"Possible."

"Or she escaped before they could kill her."

"Also possible."

I slowly walked around the room. "Either way, the fake Pix stayed here for a reason."

Eselin watched me carefully. "You sound awfully confident."

"I’m not confident." I smiled faintly. "I’m eliminating possibilities."

I stopped beside the desk and lightly brushed my fingertips across its surface. A thin layer of dust coated one corner, but the rest of the desk looked cleaner.

"Hmm."

"What?"

"This desk was searched."

She frowned.

"How can you tell?"

"If nobody touched it, the dust would’ve settled evenly." I pointed at the untouched corner. "Instead, most of it has been wiped away while this part was missed."

Eselin leaned closer.

"You’re right."

I opened each drawer. Books. Paper. Ink. Nothing valuable.

I closed the final drawer. "Whoever searched this wasn’t looking for coin."

"You already know that?"

"If they were, these drawers would’ve been emptied onto the floor."

I walked to the wardrobe and opened it fully.

The clothes inside were pushed aside carelessly. I checked every shelf, ran my hand across the back panel, then crouched to inspect underneath.

Nothing.

"The wardrobe has already been searched too."

I turned toward the bed.

"If I wanted to hide something important from everyone, I wouldn’t use the desk or the wardrobe. Those are the first places people check."

"You think it’s somewhere else?"

"I do. Probably somewhere even the real Pix didn’t know about."

"So..."

"It’s somewhere easy to reach, but private enough that nobody would question you for going there. Somewhere safe. Somewhere most people wouldn’t even think to look."

"And that is..."

I snapped my fingers. "The shower lockers. They’re private, you’re alone while using them, and they’re locked... hence the name lockers."

Eselin gave a small nod. "Okay. Let’s go."

We left Pix’s room and walked downstairs toward the showers. The dormitory had gone quiet after Eselin cleared everyone out, though the occasional whisper still drifted from behind closed doors.

Eselin pushed the shower door open.

A girl was standing inside with a towel wrapped around her body. Yeah, great. Just what I needed. The moment she noticed me, I immediately turned around.

"What did I tell everyone?" Eselin asked with an irritated sigh. "Go back to your room until we’re finished."

"S-sorry."

The girl quickly tightened the towel around herself and hurried out of the shower room, keeping her head lowered as she passed us.

"Sheesh..." I muttered. "You sounded like a disappointed mother."

"Mm."

Wooden lockers lined one side of the room, each marked with a number. We found the one assigned to Jelda, and I grabbed the handle.

Locked.

Eselin stepped beside me, wrapped her fingers around the handle, and gave it one hard yank.

The lock gave out with a loud crack.

Inside were nothing more than a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hairbrush, a comb, and two neatly folded towels.

I picked up one of the towels and squeezed it lightly. It was damp.

I frowned. "This was used recently."

"Jelda is dead. Who’d use it?"

Realization crossed my face.

I immediately turned and walked back out into the corridor.

The same girl from earlier was only a short distance away, still walking toward her room with the towel wrapped tightly around herself.

"Wait!"

She stopped and looked back at me, instinctively pulling the towel closer. "Y-yes?"

Eselin sighed as she caught up behind me.

"Ace, you really shouldn’t be chasing girls through the dormitory."

"I’ll be quick." I looked back at the girl. "Jelda. Did she use Pix’s locker?"

The girl blinked in confusion before slowly shaking her head.

"No..."

I waited. A few seconds later, her expression changed.

"Oh... wait. She switched lockers with someone."

"With who?"

"Elena."

"Why?"

The girl scratched her cheek awkwardly.

"Jelda thought she’d gained weight. So she swapped locker keys with Elena because Elena’s locker was two floors higher. She wanted to climb the stairs every day before showering."

I stared at her for a second. "That’s actually kind of ridiculous."

"I know." She smiled weakly. "She wasn’t even fat."

"What locker number?"

"It was thirty-two, but... no. It’s thirty."

"Thanks."

I turned toward the staircase, hoping I could finally find her locker.

Eselin followed without saying anything, and together we climbed two more floors before entering the upper shower room.

I found locker number thirty and pulled on the handle. Locked.

Eselin stepped forward again, grabbed the handle, and forced it open just like before. The lock snapped. I searched every shelf inside.

Toothbrush. Soap. Towels. Nothing else. I checked behind the towels, under the shelf, even tapped against the wooden walls. Nothing.

I let out a slow breath. "The fake Pix found what she came here for."

"Looks like it."

I stood there for another moment before another thought crossed my mind. "Elena."

Eselin looked at me.

"Where’s her room?" I asked.

She thought for a moment before nodding. "It’s on this floor. I’m pretty sure we walked past it."

"Then let’s go talk to her and her roommate."

Eselin nodded once, and we left the shower room together, heading back into the corridor.

Finding Elena’s room, Eselin knocked twice and we waited outside. A thick perfume drifted through the gap beneath the door. It was so strong that I instinctively wrinkled my nose. Sheesh... whoever was inside had practically bathed in the stuff.

"Elena," Eselin called. "Please open the door."

No answer came.

A few seconds later, two teachers finished climbing the staircase and stopped a few metres away from us. Both looked between me and Eselin with obvious curiosity before one of them folded her arms.

"Eselin," One of them said. "An explanation, please."

"Ma’am," Eselin began. "We’re just..."

"That’s blood," I interrupted, pointing beneath the door. A thin trail of dark red had begun creeping out from the gap. "Shit."

Eselin immediately looked down. "Blood?"

"Eselin." One of the teachers exhaled. "Care to explian why a boy in our..."

I took a step back, tensed my body, and drove my foot into the door. The lock shattered, and the door flew open.

The perfume hit me even harder.

Ah. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This was... bad.