Chapter 122: Ch 122: Awkward Dinner

Dinner at Ethan’s house was a tense affair.

It was nothing anyone did or said, but the air around the dining table was a little stiff and weird. Noah had a hard time swallowing his food as he kept feeling Ethan’s parents looking at him.

But Daniel and Alan had no trouble swallowing, even with such intense eyes on them.

"Mother, father, do you need to ask my friends anything? I am sure they will be more than happy to answer any questions you have for them."

Ethan decided to address his parents’ behaviour, which Noah was glad for. He had no idea how to even bring up this topic.

"Hmm, were we staring too long? I apologise for it. Both your father and I have developed a habit of observing things due to our jobs. Please don’t take our looking the wrong way."

Ethan’s mother quickly reassured Ethan and the others while making a fanning gesture with her hand. She also eased her observation after this.

But his father continued without a hint of uneasiness on his face, even when he was asked to stop. He simply gave Ethan a look as if Ethan had told a great joke before he continued to eat.

Ethan sighed and shot Noah and the others a sorry look before dinner continued.

Once finished, they all quickly left the dining room. But Ethan’s mother had one last message for them.

"Ethan, have fun with your guests. But also make sure they don’t come into our section, alright? We will be running some experiments, and would rather not have company for obvious reasons."

Ethan’s mother was smiling, but it was obvious she was not joking around.

Whatever experiment she was about to run must be important enough to warrant all this safety and even a personal warning to not loiter around.

Noah could not help but be curious about the nature of her experiment. But he decided not to look into it since he was a guest in Ethan’s house and not an operative.

They retreated back to the guest room after dinner, but it did not take them long to get bored.

Usually, everyone was too exhausted at the academy to seek entertainment once they reached their room. So all they did in there was sleep.

But now that they hardly had any physical activity, sleep was hard to come by. So they easily got bored.

Alan stretched his arms and let out a big yawn before speaking.

"Hey, I am bored. Can we do something before we go to sleep? What do you usually do to exhaust yourself here?"

Alan asked Ethan, who looked taken aback by this question. But he quickly started to list out solutions for Ethan’s problem.

"Well, we can try and have some fun in the pool or the gym if you want-"

"But that’s boring. Let’s play hide and seek. We can hide around your house and you can try and find us. It will test your knowledge about your house as well."

In the end, Alan pointed out what he wanted to do and not what Ethan was suggesting.

"Hey idiot! Don’t you realise how rude you are sounding? We are in someone else’s house, so we should follow their house rules and not do whatever we want. Ethan, disregard what this idiot said. He will find a way to fall asleep on his own."

Daniel put Alan in the back for his rude words before he forced Alan’s head to bow to Ethan.

Alan resisted with all his might, showing not even a hint of remorse on his face for this suggestion.

Ethan just sighed and shook his head.

"It’s fine, and usually I won’t say no. But it was too late, and my parents also warned us not to loiter around. Well, how about we explore the mansion tomorrow?"

Alan pouted, not liking the idea. But he decided not to say anything in the end because he did not want to come off as rude.

...

It was hard for Noah to fall asleep. He could hear the wall clock ticking in the room as he tried to close his eyes. But it was of no use.

In the end, he tossed and turned the whole night, trying to get comfortable until he was finally able to close his eyes. But his instincts kept waking him up every few minutes.

’Ugh, this feels exhausting. I am sure I feel sleepy, but why can’t my eyes just close right now?’

Noah sat in his bed as he looked around himself. There was nothing out of the ordinary, which meant he should not be feeling like this.

And yet, he could not fall asleep.

Noah’s eyes lingered around the room, and he tried to calm himself down while looking at Daniel and Ethan, only to notice that Daniel was not in the room.

’Huh? Where did Daniel go?’

Noah had not noticed him slipping out while trying to fall asleep, so he had no idea how long Daniel had been gone for.

The logical thing was to think that the other guide was gone for a few minutes for a bathroom break, but Noah still felt uneasy. Something about this mansion was making him feel as if he was in danger.

The smart thing to do right now would be to stay by Alan’s side where it was safe. But Daniel...

’I will need to look for Daniel one way or another. I hope he’s in the washroom, but why is he taking this long then? Maybe I should go around looking for him on my own.’

Inside Noah, the two feelings of wanting to protect and wanting to be safe collided, making it harder for him to sit still.

But in the end, one side won, and he got to his feet before heading out. He recalled that Ethan had shown them the outside bathroom, so he decided to look for Daniel there first.

He was so worried that he even forgot all about the attached bathroom to the room where Daniel was.

The guide came out and fell asleep with Noah being none the wiser.