Only Max remains at the base of the statue.
"With the distractions resolved, let's put what's important on the table now! The party details!" says Max with his arms wide open and a broad smile.
Amidst some people who are celebrating, Max notices that certain students are still worried and overwhelmed by all the recent news.
"For those of you who are hesitant, know that you are doing exactly what 'whoever' caused this situation expects of you! It's not worth dwelling on it now!" he exclaims, intending to motivate the students. "And most importantly: if what you want right now is safety, know that I would give my life to protect any one of you here! The way you can help me protect you is by staying with me at the party! Just don't forget to have fun and drink, you hear? Ha ha ha!"
The mood among the students noticeably improves, and some who were looking down, worried, now look forward again.
"Are you going?" Teresa asks Noah, leaning on his arm.
"I don't know yet, but I don't think so. I have something else to do first."
"But it could be fun... it could be good for you," she says, squeezing Noah's arm a little. "I think I'll go find my friends and head to the market with Max to get things for the party."
Noah is embarrassed by Teresa's touch. He tries to hide it, but his cheeks turn red.
"Okay... I... I'll try to go," he replies.
"Whatever you're going to do now, it seems important. I can see your eyes are shining more than usual. Well, anyway, see you later!" she replies with a smile.
"See you... later."
The two say goodbye and Noah, still a bit light-headed, begins to walk toward Building C again. With his back to the courtyard, he can hear Max in the distance.
"Tonight! At 10 PM! Don't miss it! In the meantime, I'm heading to the market!"
Noah continues toward Building C, gets into the elevator, presses the button for the fifth and final floor, and takes his notepad and pen from his pocket. Upon arriving on the fifth floor, he makes his way to the last room and notes that there really is nothing there; it's impeccable. He turns to leave the building and, on the way, feels a chill as he walks through the completely empty school corridors at night. While going down in the elevator, Noah also passes the first floor and sees that there is nothing in any of the rooms there either. Upon leaving Building C, he starts walking toward Building B.
Arriving at Building B, he sees a large number of students entering and others already leaving. Again, he waits for the elevator to go to the fifth floor.
"Noah! I figured I'd find you here."
Noah recognizes the voice and turns around, surprised. He sees a boy with long, messy blond hair, swept back. He wears round, silver-rimmed glasses with red lenses that rest on his pointed nose. Unlike the other students, who wear variations of uniforms, he is dressed only in a black, casual, and comfortable jacket.
"Lucien? I thought you didn't go on the excursion," Noah replies, confused but happy to see his friend.
Lucien approaches smiling, greets Noah by ruffling his hair, and takes the notepad from his hands.
"This is so you, you know?" Lucien laughs, pointing to the notebook. "I haven't seen you this excited since we used to play those investigation games together after school."
"It was fun, until you started disappearing from classes and we stopped playing."
"For old times' sake, then, Noah! You see all these people going in and out of the building to see if what Max said about the fifth floor was real. How about we play a game? You observe the scene, make your notes, and then I'll ask you questions to see if they match my interpretations. We used to call it 'cards on the table,' just like the old days. What do you think?" Lucien asks, handing back the notebook.
"Hmm, okay then," Noah replies, intrigued.
Thus, the two arrive on the fifth floor of Building B and see that it is completely clean. No trail of blood or handprints on the wall.
"Should we head back?" asks Lucien.
"Not yet, let's check the last room."
"Very well..." he responds with a one-sided smile.
Both walk down the hall until they reach the last door, and indeed, there it is: the doorknob smeared with red. Noah pulls out his notebook and starts making notes again. The room is tidy and clean, however, they notice a sentence written on the whiteboard, with the same red liquid they saw on the doorknob.
"'The fallen angels of Class B swear vengeance.' Ooh! Exciting!" comments Lucien, after reading the sentence.
"Max really lied about what he saw here, but he didn't bother to hide it..." comments Noah, as he also looks around and jots down other important points.
They leave the room, return to the entrance, and agree to head toward Building A.
When they arrive at the ground floor of Building A, they notice some students discussing something that seems important. They approach and try to overhear the conversation.
"It seems they're trying to organize a meeting tomorrow morning in the school theater."
"About what, this time?"
"Apparently, they're trying to organize a system to figure out how we should act in this situation."
"Are they going to create rules?"
"There might be an election."
"Who would you vote for?"
"Thomas seems to be the best option, for now."
"I disagree. I still don't know who to vote for."
Lucien shakes Noah's arm and hurries him along to investigate the building. The two move away from the students and enter the elevator.
"Thomas said there was something written on the board in the last room of the first floor. Let's go there first and then check the fifth floor," says Noah.
"As you wish, Mr. Holmes," replies Lucien, as he presses the button for the first floor.
They arrive on the first floor, check for inconsistencies along the way, and finally, open the door to the last room. They look at the whiteboard and read the sentence: "Don't believe Class A. They are responsible for this," written in white chalk, exactly as Thomas had reported. Noah makes notes. After that, the two return to the elevator and go to the fifth floor, which, after investigating, they find has nothing.
"Only our building left now," comments Noah.
"Have you already been to the Class C building?"
"Yes, there was indeed nothing there."
"Interesting... Then, on to Building D!"
Both return to the ground floor and notice that the group of students from before is no longer there. Noah looks at the clock on the wall, which reads 7:30 PM. They cross the courtyard again and arrive at the ground floor of Building D. They see the last few people leaving the building, who were also there to verify the reports from the meeting.
"Ugh, this place gives me post-traumatic stress just from remembering the faces Ms. Turner used to make while giving me detention for my absences last month," says Lucien.
Noah doesn't respond, and both continue toward the elevator. When they arrive, Lucien presses the button for the fifth floor, this time without needing to consult his friend. On the floor, the two head to the last door and again spot the doorknob with a red liquid on it, just as the girl from Group D had said. They open the door, and the sentence is there: "There is a demon in Class D," written with the mysterious liquid.
Noah takes out his notebook, makes notes, looks around, sniffs the liquid on the board, and then puts the notebook away again.
"Anything else we should check?" asks Lucien, pulling up a chair to sit down.
"I think, for now, this is it," replies Noah, still taking one last look around.
"Quiz time, then!" Lucien smiles, almost lounging in the chair and adjusting his glasses.
Noah looks at Lucien with a challenging air.
"I'm ready. You can ask the questions," he responds, with a one-sided smile.
"First question: why did Max lie about what he saw in Building B?"
"The obvious answer would be because he wanted to omit the real information from the sentence on the board. He manipulated the truth to attack Thomas."
"However?"
"However, that's not the whole truth. Max lied about what he saw in Building B because he wanted us to go there after the meeting was over. This is obvious because he tried to create a story that was purposefully absurd and shocking. I believe he did this to stir our doubt. Thus, by sacrificing his own report, he wanted us to question the veracity of all the information, including his own. Max said something right before he lied that, in my opinion, is even more important than the sentence itself: 'And that something made me pay more attention to who is around us, to who we let speak and give us orders as they please.' He's someone who believes that the truth should be seen with one's own eyes, rather than being told by someone else. I already suspected this, but it became obvious when we visited the room and saw that Max, despite having lied about the story, did not alter the original sentence; he left it there for everyone to see."
"Impressive..."
"What's next?" Noah smiles at Lucien, his eyes shining.
"Second question: what is the pattern of the rooms we saw?"
"The three rooms—the last one on the fifth floor of Building B, the last one on the fifth floor of Building D, and the last one on the first floor of Building A—create a clear pattern. Two are on the fifth floor, and one is outside the pattern, on the first. But, more importantly, the three buildings with important information also leave Building C out of the pattern, being the only one where there was nothing. This makes me question if some information in Building C was erased."
"And what does your intuition say?"
"There was an Asian boy in Group C who tried to rush our investigation and suggested we return to the courtyard before everything was clear. The same boy also stood up to report the information when Thomas invited our group to speak. I can't prove it was him, and I also don't know if he was responsible for the fifth or first floor when we split up. But, generally speaking, my intuition tells me something is wrong there."
"Nothing strange with the rooms we saw?"
"Yes. Something caught my attention: the absence of the red liquid on the inside doorknob. Only the outside doorknob was dirty, both in the B room and this one, in Building D. The dirty doorknob implies that the person who wrote the sentences got their hands dirty in the process, but if that were the case, the absence of the liquid on the inside would make no sense. I believe the responsible person dirtied the external doorknob on purpose and did not get their hands dirty. The writings were probably not done with a finger, but with some object."
Lucien adjusts himself in the chair and leans toward Noah. He gives a one-sided smile and stares at his friend as if, in his vision, he were glowing entirely.
"Third question," says Lucien.
"Bring it on," Noah replies, confident.
"What is the pattern of the sentences we saw?"
"I knew you'd notice too."
"In your own time, champ."
"The content and style of the sentences make me think that one of them is also an impostor."
"Why?"
"The clear contradiction that only one was written with chalk is just the beginning. The sentences from buildings B and D have only one sentence and both mention religious beings—'fallen angels' in B and 'demon' in D. However, the sentence from Building A had two sentences and did not mention any religious beings. Curiously, all three sentences talk about the class of their respective building: the A sentence talks about Class A, B about B, and so on."
The two take a second to breathe, then Lucien opens the discussion again.
"So, Noah, what's the final conclusion?"
"I'll leave that one to you, Lucien."
"Are you sure?" Lucien replies, surprised.
"Completely."
Lucien stands up from the chair.
"The conclusion of today's investigation is based on three crucial points. The first is that Thomas's sentence is fake, due to multiple pieces of evidence: wrong floor, wrong writing material, and wrong sentence pattern. However, assuming it was Thomas who wrote the sentence and that Barbara was his accomplice, the fact that he got the pattern of 'each sentence talks about the class of the same building' right raises the question of how he knew about the existence of the other sentences beforehand. And, even if he knew, the reason he got the other patterns wrong is also unknown. The second point is that Max knew Thomas would try to write a fake sentence; all his actions lead to this belief. His creating doubt to make us question the other reports, the fact that he interrupted Thomas to ask about the chalk, and also the content of his own fake story: 'The result of the actions Thomas took today will prove that he is the stupidest one here.' The third point is that there were probably two more sentences, on the fifth floor of buildings A and C, but they were erased by someone. We have a suspect from Group C, but if we consider that the groups formed teams of two to search the floors, this would indicate the existence of three more unknown accomplices: one from C and two from A."
"Perfectly said," Noah claps.
"Nailed it, right? I just copied the way you would say it," Lucien replies, pleased.
"But there's something strange. While you were talking, I realized there's a problem in the sequence of events."
"Which is?"
"Why would Thomas write something fake in Building A? If he already knew about the other sentences, he would also imagine there would already be a real sentence in Building A, which he would erase to write his own over it. However, he wrote his even without having found the original first. With that in mind, it's safe to assume that Thomas didn't find the original sentence in his building precisely because he got the floor where the original sentences would be wrong. So it makes sense that you considered two more students, outside of Thomas's plan, in Building A, who would be the ones who erased the sentence from the fifth floor. What would be their motivation?"
"It seems to me that he wrote on the first floor as a desperate measure, when you put it that way. And believe me, I know a lot about desperate measures."
"Maybe."
"But the most important thing hasn't been touched on, Noah!" Lucien laughs.
Noah looks at him, confused.
"Who do you think was responsible?"
"You know it's still impossible to answer that," Noah replies with a tired but determined smile.
The two stretch after the feeling of satisfaction.
"I think all this talk has made me tired," says Lucien.
"Me too."
"What do you say we go to your place to think together about whether we'll go to the party at 10 PM? For old times' sake?"
"Sounds like a good plan," Noah smiles.
Lucien and Noah leave Building D. They see that only a few students remain talking in the courtyard, while the sunlight is gone and now only the lamps on the posts remain. Both cross the entrance gate and walk toward Noah's house.
"Wait! Please!"
They are interrupted by someone calling them from behind. They turn to see who it is.
"Noah, let me stay at your house. Please," says the voice as it approaches.
"And who are you?" Lucien asks the silhouette of a boy that appears and disappears in the darkness as he gets closer.
"It's Leo. He's in our class. I met him on the bus back to the city," says Noah.