Exposed (5) - Oliver’s POV

After visiting the club room, I walked to visit Rika's new storage room. Charles was busy with placing more barriers around the room while Jules was desperate to fortify them. I didn't understand why they were making it more secure than the school barrier. At first, I knew it was due to trying to hide from Luke, but spending a month on it was insane. I wanted to talk to Charles to get more information about Rika's situation since they spent three months together in the mansion.

I never knew Rika was engaged to Luke in elementary school. Rika was laid back, relaxing to be with. She never judged any of my actions nor had any other intentions when approaching me. The aspect of politics and fractions were never brought up, focusing on using the karaoke machine instead. Rika always addressed me using my first name, eventually switching to calling me by my nickname that only family members used with me.

On the other hand, Jules was sneakier. Rather than enjoying the secret room, he mostly went with Rika's actions. In the past, I wondered why he was interested in Rika, finding no connections between each other. However, everything came to light during the charity ball, finding Luke introducing himself and his partner. My mind went blank, shocked to figure out Rika's true identity.

"Hurry up and come inside," Jules urged me, interrupting my thoughts.

"We're dead if Luke finds any traces of it," Charles widely opened the door.

I walked inside the room, discovering more identification features added. Maybe both of them knew the whole truth the entire time, fearing Luke behind their masks. Most of the items inside Rika's storage room were harmless, various entertainment and clothes mixed with junk food. I pitied Rika, having a strict partner that burned all her possessions. When Rika revealed it to me last year, I tried to persuade Charles to give her a storage room in exchange for joining our fraction.

"Why is Luke so strict with Rika?" I wondered.

"Luke raised Rika for over ten years. You have to be careful around Luke when it comes to Rika," Jules gestured to me to sit down on the couch.

"He tries to control everything about her," I found it to be extreme.

"You figured out?" Charles seemed to know everything.

"What happened during the time you spent together in the mansion?" I wanted to know more.

"I'm telling you this since you seem to mostly know everything. If this spreads to everyone else, Luke won't have to hide it anymore," Charles equally pitied Rika.

"How much worse could it get?" I leaned back into the couch.

"Rika can't do anything without Luke's permission. Since Luke got rid of most of the entertainment, we made an excuse we were seeing documentaries. The next day, they banned them from Rika since they didn't approve of her seeing them," he revealed.

"It's gotten worse," Jules agreed.

"Didn't you say they also sealed her mana for not listening to them?" he turned to Charles.

"They did what?" I was stunned.

"They confined Rika to her room for weeks, bringing all her meals to her room. Rika got mad and threw some pillows at them. It was because they forcibly sealed all of her mana with the bracelets," Charles explained.

"But Rika wears them all the time," I noticed.

"All those accessories are actually tools to shackle her to them. They can choose the location and determine how many steps she can move inside it," he nodded his head.

"What kind of life has she been living?" I couldn't imagine.

"A miserable one. Her health is so fragile she gets sick so easily. Each time she gets sick, it's life threatening. The pain is nothing you can imagine. But when you combine that with having no privacy of her own, it's pretty hard to tolerate," Charles seemed to be close with Rika.

"You also have to see Luke's side to get the full story," Jules began to add.

"Imagine you have a partner who encounters dangerous situations very easily. You dedicated your entire life to her, but you often see her close to death. You think it's your fault for not watching her enough when you watch her painfully suffer each time. You're definitely going to do anything to prevent similar things from happening again," he reasoned.

"Rika is reckless and doesn't seem to care about her life," Charles agreed.

"But she's mostly pushed to a corner with how controlling Luke is," I realized.

"Rika has been confined ever since she came to the first district. In elementary school, they almost never allowed her to leave the school. Now, she's always confined inside the mansions whenever the holidays come," Jules nodded his head.

"Is this why she always wants to visit the amusement park, waterpark and the other attractions?" I recalled.

"Rika has never been to those places before in her life. We went to the amusement park last month and I've never seen her so happy. It was her first time," Charles sighed.

Rika's relationship with Luke was very twisted. I could understand both sides of the story, but this situation was terrible. I didn't know how I would reveal this to the rest of the people in the club room. Rika's life would get more miserable if Luke figured out everyone knew. How were they able to hide this until now?