To Beatrice's surprise, Jack was already at the student council room before she arrived. He was lying down on the couch with his legs on the coffee table while Thomas worked away at a desk.
"Oh, it's you." Jack said as Beatrice entered. He took his legs off the coffee table and sat upright. "So what's going on today?"
Sitting across from him, she started, "I have everything worked out. You are now an official member of Oleander's student council."
"Ah, it really is such an honor, ma'am."
She was a bit nonplussed at being called 'ma'am' for the first time, but her attention was quickly snapped away by the door swinging open.
"I'm sorry, I'm late." It was a young woman about a year older than Beatrice and Jack. She was very beautiful with blonde hair, a bosom, and a very short skirt that showed off her upper thighs.
"It's fine, Celine. Anyway, I don't think you've heard, but we have a new member. Meet Jack Richter."
"Oh, it's nice to meet you, Jack. We've really been needing a new member."
"Yes, nice to meet you too…" Jack lied.
"Celine is our secretary," Beatrice explained. "She handles a lot of the paperwork and whatnot. Anyway, Celine, Thomas, come sit down. Let's inaugurate our new member."
Celine sits next to Beatrice while Thomas pushes himself away from his work and sits next to Jack.
"You know, aren't there more members on the student council?" Jack asked.
"Yes, actually, two more, but they're unavailable today, but anyway, with everybody else present, I welcome you to the student council, Jack. As for your position, you have been appointed as our new disciplinary officer."
Jack rolled his eyes, although to be fair, he would've rolled his eyes no matter what position he was given. "So what? You want me to walk around and give out tickets for dress code violations?"
"There's much more to it than that. It's about maintaining order in our sch–"
"All right, all right," Jacks cut her off, "just tell me what I have to do."
With an annoyed scoff, Beatrice responds, "Your most basic function is to monitor our school and make sure all rules are being followed."
"Yeah, is that it?"
"It's more complicated than it sounds. If the need arises, you may even need to perform investigations?"
"Investigations?" He laughs.
"Don't laugh, it's serious. If somebody vandalized a classroom, for example, you'd be expected to find the culprit."
Jack narrows his gaze before relenting with a sigh. "Figures."
"Well, don't worry about all that for now… Here, take this." She hands him a notepad.
"Hm? I assume you want me to write down the infractions on this?"
"That's right."
Getting up, he continues, "Well, if I am to be the new disciplinary officer, then my first act is…" He dramatically turns Celine. "You! Your skirt is too short! I know you've rolled up the waistband!"
"What?" Celine is astonished while Thomas stifles a laugh.
"Sorry about this, but it's a bad look if we let student council members get away with breaking the rules," he said while writing out a ticket.
"You're breaking the dress code too!" She said, raising her voice as she pointed at his unbuttoned shirt.
"Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me." He handed her the ticket before buttoning up his shirt.
Irritated, she snapped her head towards Beatrice, scowling with a look on her face that said, "Is this guy for real?" However, Thomas who sat across from her could barely contain his amusement.
Beatrice sighed before leaning in towards Celine. "Just trust me on this, okay?"
"Whatever." She scoffed and turned away.
Recruiting Jack as the disciplinary officer was certainly not going to improve her reputation with her peers and much less the faculty, but she had to do it. She needed to know more about him, and this was the best way.
"By the way, is there anything else I should know?" Jack asked while staring out the window.
Getting up and walking towards him, Beatrice said, "Well, we don't enforce a quota, but if you don't ever hand out tickets then we might assume that you aren't doing your job."
"I see. Noted."
"Also, you should know about your first assignment. Celine, you have the notes, right?"
Celine sighed and walked over. "They're all in here." She handed Beatrice a folder.
"Yes, thank you." Opening the folder, Beatrice started to explain, "There's been a student reportedly sneaking in at night."
"So? Students sneak out all the time, isn't that right?" Jack gives her a mischievous smirk.
"Yes," Beatrice looks away, "and while that is a problem as well, the student in question has been sneaking into the faculty only area."
"Ah, I see… So this student is stealing test answers, or maybe even school secrets?"
"We don't know exactly, but it certainly can't be good."
"Well, what do we know about this guy?"
"Nothing. There's only been one sighting, but it was too dark for them to be recognized and they disappeared immediately. Besides that, it's just that teachers have noticed certain things out of place in their offices."
"Great. And you want me to catch this guy?" Jack sighed. "Well, I suppose I could take a crack at it, but I'm going to need some help." Taking a few seconds to think about it, Jack eventually continued. "Do any of you guys have connections to the Art Club?"
"Actually, I do." Thomas got up and walked over. "I used to be a member."
"Do you think you could get them to give us some oil paint?"
"Oil paint? I mean maybe, but they'd want to be compensated at least."
Jack snapped his head towards Beatrice.
"You want me to pay for it?"
"Well, you could file it under a student council expense if you want."
Beatrice groans. "Fine, but what are you even planning to do with it?"
Jack chuckles. "Simple. I plan to set a trap."
"A trap?"
"That's right." Jack sat down at the main desk before he pulled out his notepad. "There's probably a more sophisticated way to do something like this, but my plan is to place a container of oil paint on top of the door of the perpetrator's targeted room. Then when the crook opens the door, the container falls and he gets covered in paint." On his notepad, he had illustrated his design. "Oil paint is very difficult to wash out, so with his school uniform ruined, he'll be easy to track down."
The plan seemed ridiculous, but not necessarily faulty. Thomas was the first to chime in. "What if he doesn't wear his uniform?"
"That's a possibility, but I doubt he'd bother."
"Why oil paint?" Beatrice asked.
"It's very hard to clean out. Motor oil would probably be the best, but it's not as accessible."
Celine asked, "Isn't it going to make a big mess?"
"We have janitors, don't we?"
Beatrice was skeptical of Jack's plan to say the least. It was as absurd as the person who designed it, but there was a cleverness to it. "Are you sure it's going to work?"
"Well, I'm not sure, but I am confident."
Beatrice sighed. "Okay, we'll try it."
Jack smirked. "I'm glad you see things my way."
"All right, you and Thomas go and get the paint, I'll go and ask the headmaster for permission." Beatrice put up with Jack's insolence, but only because she needed to know more about him. Keeping him in the student council was the best way to unravel his secrets, secrets that she was sure existed, even if Jack played dumb at every turn.
***
Jack had finished setting up the trap. It was pretty sophisticated. The outside looked completely normal, but on the inside there was a platform above the door that was held up by supports attached to the door. On top of the platform was the container of paint which would fall once the door was opened, completely covering the perpetrator.
"Um, now that you've set the trap, how do we get out?"
"Oh, that's easy. I left a ladder by the window earlier."
"A ladder?" Beatrice took a look out the window and there was indeed a ladder there. It was only a single-width ladder, very unstable and leant precariously against the school building. They were on the third floor of the building, and Beatrice, not being too handy with such matters, was a bit nervous at the prospect of climbing down it.
"Anyway, let's get out of here." Jack expertly vaulted over the windowsill and onto the ladder, climbing down at a steady pace. Once at the bottom, he looked up. "Are you coming or what?"
"Yes, just give me a moment." Nervously, Beatrice climbed onto the windowsill and lowered herself onto the ladder. As carefully as she could, she began to descend. Every step she took down moved the entire ladder and made it feel like the whole thing was about to topple over.
"I'll come by early and disarm it if it doesn't trigger tonight. But swing by before class anyway in case it does trigger."
"All right."
"Good. I'll see you tomorrow then."
***
As Jack requested, Beatrice went to the headmaster's office to meet with him. What she saw was a complete mess. Oil paint had been spilled all over the doorway, and Jack was there examining the scene.
"Oh, you're finally here. I must say, this even surpassed my own expectations."
"It really worked?"
"Looks like it. Anyway, we should try and confront this guy as soon as possible. During lunch, can you get all the attendance sheets for the first half of the day?"
"Um, I think so."
"Good, once you have those, get the records of each absent student. From there, we'll make a list of the most likely culprits. Is it okay if we take the afternoon off for this investigation?"
"Well, I think I can make it work."
Jack chuckled. "Nice. Hey, that's at least one perk, right? Student council members get to skip class, even if it is to do more work."
Unamused by his joke, Beatrice probed a bit more, "What do you plan to do once we start confronting people?"
"Simple. If they or their uniform is stained with oil paint, then the investigation is over. If the answer is unclear, we ask some questions to get more information."
Doubts swarming her mind, Beatrice decided to just let Jack take the lead for now. Someone had actually fallen into his ridiculous trap, so now she just had to wait and see if it would actually lead to the perpetrator.
***
Beatrice had done everything that Jack asked of her. She had that morning's attendance records and the files of every student who was absent. Although there were only a handful. They were both currently in the student council room as Jack looked over the documents.
"Hm, I think I've got this figured out…"
"You do?"
"Yes, my list is pretty rough, but this guy is the most likely culprit." Jack slid the student record over the table towards Beatrice.
Beatrice picked up the file and scanned it. It was a third year student named Jacob Delbeke. He was Belgian and his Rune was invisibility magic.
"I was a total idiot. I mean, obviously the guy with invisibility magic was going to be the spy."
"What are you talking about? What do you mean spy?"
"I had my suspicions ever since you first told me, but I think this guy's an enemy spy. Oleander is far from an ordinary school, after all. If they let us test experimental military equipment, then I'm sure there are plenty of other useful secrets buried in the desks of the teachers and headmaster."
Beatrice started getting angry at his words even though he wasn't saying anything outrageous. Oleander was like a second home to her, she couldn't stand hearing such insults even if they were to a student she had never met, it didn't matter. "That's enough!" Beatrice had raised her voice. "We don't know why the culprit did what they did, and we certainly don't know if it was Jacob Delbeke or not."
Jack, backing off, continued more carefully, "Anyway, there are a few others, but he sticks out the most. We should start with him."
Beatrice wanted to intentionally skip Jacob just to spite Jack, but she had trusted him this far already, and it would be childish of her to interfere with the investigation purely because of her own emotions. "All right."
"Great, let's get going then. Let's see, he's in the third boys' dorm and his room number is 316. Also, we need to grab the dorm's master key before we go. Just in case."
Jack confidently led the way as Beatrice followed at a distance. She didn't at all like how Jack's investigation had developed, but he was actually making some progress. At the very least, she had to wait to see if it would all blow up in his face.
The school grounds were vast, but thankfully the boys' dorms were relatively close. After entering the building, they proceeded to the third floor and found Mr. Delbeke's room.
Jack leaned over and whispered, "Don't say anything," before knocking on the door three times. After hearing no response, he knocked again. "Excuse me, this Jack Richter. I'm with the student council. Can you please open up? I'd like to have a world." Again, there was no response.
Jack leaned over and whispered again, "Can you give me the master key?"
Beatrice nodded and handed it to him.
"Thanks. You stay out here for now." He turned and started unlocking the door. "I'm coming in now, Albert. I'm sorry about this."
Jack opened the door and walked in. The room was a mess. He saw a suitcase packed with some essentials and a few other random items. It's clear that somebody was preparing to leave in a hurry, but that someone could not be seen.
Narrowing his gaze, Jack looked closely around the room, doing a 360 scan and focusing his hearing, trying to pick up any piece of information. However, the silence was abruptly broken by a small thud. Jack snapped his head in the direction of the sound only to see a small eraser that had presumably fallen off the desk.
As Jack looked closer, Beatrice watched. Her vision was limited since she wasn't in the room, but as Jack approached the desk, she saw a strange glimmer in the light appear behind him. She squinted, and as it raised high, ready to pounce, she realized what it was.
"Jack! Watch out! Behind you!"
Jack turned around, and saw it, a knife floating in midair heading right towards him. Even though no wielder could be seen, he was most certainly there, a fact which Jack knew as he grabbed the attacker's hand and arm, stopping the knife inches from his face.
High on adrenaline, Beatrice ran into the room, grabbed a textbook from the desk, and slammed it into the attacker. She presumably missed a weak spot, but the attacker faltered, giving just enough leverage to Jack to wrestle him to the ground and disarm him.
"It's over, turn off your invisibility!" Jack demanded.
After a few seconds, a figure appeared. It was Jacob Delbeke.
It was a sad sight to see for Beatrice. She saw the students as her family, but one had just tried to kill another student right in front of her.
"I assume you're the one who's been sneaking into the faculty only area, right?"
Jacob remained silent.
"And let me guess, you're also a spy, right? You made a mistake there. Oleander is international territory, and MI6 is hardly known to treat their enemies lightly."
Jacob still remained silent. Until he spoke. "You think I didn't know that…"
"Hm?" Jack looked at him curiously.
"You people will never understand…" Hatred seeped out of every word.
"Never understand?" For some reason, those two words stuck to Jack.
As Jack momentarily lost focus, Jacob immediately took action. With the last of his strength, he broke out of Jack's grasp and knocked him away with a powerful kick. "It's been an honor to serve and to die!" Jacob said as he grabbed the knife from the ground and slammed it into his throat.
Beatrice screamed at the sight as blood ran down his chest, his lifeless body collapsing onto the ground.
Jack was shocked as well, but it wasn't purely because it was disturbing. It was also because the sight and Jacob's words reminded him of a memory from long ago.