บท 25: The Birth of the Mercenary Circle

After getting approval from the president, the group was now following the Public Relations officer of the student council to their new room as advised by the Vice-President. When they reached the room, it turned out to be the old storage room outside of the school building.

Rachel was already expecting this since they were a circle created a week after most people created their own circle, so this must be the only remaining available room. Oliver, on the other hand, saw the old storage room, as something with a lot of potential.

Oliver opened the door, and a bunch of dust spread out. Inside the old storage room were spider webs, old tennis rackets, broken balls, and a bunch of broken miscellaneous things. Rachel who entered the storage room thought that the inside looked much worse than she expected.

Alex, on the other hand, was scanning the inside for potential bomb threats, and structural hazards. He quickly killed all of the spiders he saw, since he had no time to check if they were able to harm Rachel or not.

"Okay, then my comrades let's borrow some brooms and clean this place up," Oliver said with an excited voice. The three immediately went to get the materials they needed to clean up. When the three returned, Oliver was surprised to see Alex and Rachel surrounded by a ton of people who held brooms and mops.

"Where did all these people come from?"

"Well I told them we created a new Circle and the room we were given was the dirty old storage room outside, so a bunch of our classmates in the going home club volunteered to help." Rachel was smiling at everyone present, which warmed the hearts of those who came.

'She scammed them.' Oliver quickly figured out what had happened. Seeing as most of the people who came were boys Rachel must've enticed them to help. There were also some girls who were attracted by Alex. Oliver seeing the scene of a bunch of people cleaning the inside of the old storage room just to help them, made him feel that the circle the three of them created would be successful one way or another.

Once the cleaning was done, some of the boys even brought three chairs and an extra table they got from the new storage room and placed them inside. Oliver and Rachel happily thanked the kind helpers, Alex on the other hand simply bowed his head.

Alex once again looked inside the room as well as outside and double-checked everything. He actually found two wiretaps hidden outside of the room, near the open window. One of the boys who helped clean must've placed it there.

'This is a recorder that is connected via wifi... Who could want to use such an obvious wiretap? This is the work of an amateur. Still, since they decided to wiretap this place their target must be one of us. It can't be me cause if they knew who I am they would have used better equipment. The same reasoning could be applied to Oliver, so that leaves... I see their target was Rachel, then it's time to eliminate the threat.'

Alex was ready to hunt down the boys who placed the wiretap to protect Rachel from them, but before he could do this Oliver and Rachel noticed the wiretaps in his hands.

"Really those peeping toms what were they trying to achieve with this?..." Rachel sighed at the pointless practice the boys did.

"This equipment came from the newspaper club right?" Oliver asked Rachel, and Rachel nodded.

"Newspaper club? Are they our enemy?" Alex asked confused as to why the newspaper club would even try wiretapping their room. The only reason he could think of was that they were the enemy.

"No, they most probably wanted to get some dirt on us so that they can write exaggerated news on this week's newspaper. Well, whatever let's just keep these things as our spoils of war." Rachel suggested with a wicked smile on her face. Alex and Oliver nodded at Rachel's suggestion.

...

In the newspaper club's clubroom, the president who was listening to the talk of keeping their recorder made him angry.

"Whose the one who hid the wiretap in an obvious place that they actually found it?!" All the members were looking at one guy. The one they were looking at was one of the boys who helped clean the storage room.

The boy started panicking as he explained it was not his fault. "I didn't hide it in an obvious place. I hid it where you told me to hide it president! I hidden it outside of the room on top of the window of the storage room."

"If you really have hidden it there, then why was it found immediately after you left?"

The people of the newspaper club start arguing, not knowing even if they hid it underground Alex would've still found it.

...

Back in the new room of the Mercenary Circle, Rachel was writing a message on her smartphone. "What are you writing Rachel?" Alex asked Rachel as he was observing her as usual.

"I'm trying to advertise our new circle, and asking people from the clubs to come if they need help," Rachel responded without looking at Alex.

"Do you think that would work comrade Rachel?" Oliver was a bit skeptical of this tactic. Rachel stopped looking at her phone for a moment and looked at Oliver as if he was the most stupid person to ever exist.

"I hope you haven't forgotten, but unlike you two I'm actually socially active. The only reason why I'm not talking with my other friends is because they're giving me space to be with you guys for now." After answering Oliver's question Rachel went back to staring at her phone.

Alex suddenly noticed something outside. "I'm going to step out for a bit okay?" Alex informed Rachel, who simply waved her hand still focusing on her phone.

Alex took a step outside and picked up some pebbles, he then started to throw the pebbles in different places.

From afar he could hear some thud sounds.

'Hmm are those still from the newspaper club? They're really persistent, are they really not an enemy?' Alex started to think of ways to stop the newspaper club without using force.

...

Back in the newspaper club, the members were panicking.

"President all six of our cameramen who went to the new circle established by Rachel, have fainted."

"What? How? How could they all faint at the same time!?" The president of the newspaper club couldn't understand what the hell was happening.

"Yes, our people who went to pick them up, noticed a small lump on their foreheads, it seems like something hit them."

"Nice observation Sherlock! Of course, something hit them, but what was it that hit them and who was the one who threw it?" The newspaper club had no idea that they were now being targeted by something they shouldn't have provoked.