The European Youth Martial Tournament is hosted at a different school every year. This year, it would be at the Imperial German Military Academy.
The student council was preparing to leave for Berlin tomorrow morning. Every member other than Shawn had been accepted into the Tournament, so Beatrice wanted to wrap up everything quickly so they could go back to their dorms and pack.
"Actually, Shawn. The Deputy Headmistress told me earlier that she wanted to meet with you immediately."
"Meet with me?" Shawn was worried.
"Yeah, it's to do with the Tournament, I believe."
"All right. I'll get going…"
As Shawn nervously made his way to the Deputy Headmistress's office, his mind ran through a thousand of the worst case scenarios. He could only assume that he was getting punished in some way. The Headmaster had requested that the members of the student council enter the Tournament, and he had been the only one to fail. However, these thoughts were cut off once he arrived at the door of his destination. Steeling himself, he knocked.
"Come in!" a raspy voice said.
Shawn tentatively opened the door and stepped inside. Before him was the Deputy Headmistress, Clarisse Ryder. She was a woman in her late fifties who had never married. She wasn't particularly well liked due to her her coldness and occasional bad temper.
"Please, sit." She dictated.
"Yes, ma'am." Shawn sat down promptly, dreading whatever her next words would be.
Ryder cleared her throat. "Ivan Sokolov has unfortunately come down with a terrible illness. In addition to taking an indefinite break from his studies, he will also be unable to attend the Tournament."
Shawn's heart lightened. Was she going to say what he thought she was?
"So as the third place applicant in the preliminaries, we have decided that you will take his place in the sniper competition. Do you accept this responsibility?"
"Um, yes, of course!"
"Very good. You will be present and ready at the courtyard tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. That is all, you may leave."
"Yes, thank you." Shawn tripped over himself on his way out, but he could hardly believe the words he had heard. He wouldn't be left behind and would instead be competing with Celine and the rest at the Tournament.
***
Jack yawned. He had to get up a bit early since they were leaving for the Tournament at 8:00 AM. The train ride from Brussels to Berlin was scheduled to take about ten hours. The trip was supposed to be about a week, so he had packed pretty light.
He made his way to the school courtyard where everybody was meeting. There were ten events in total, and with two students competing in each, that totaled twenty students. In addition, a few teachers as well as Deputy Headmistress Ryder would also be coming to chaperone. He showed up at around 7:55, so he was pretty much the last person there.
"Jack, there you are!" Beatrice said as she spotted him. "I was worried you weren't going to show up."
"Well, I'm here now." He scanned the area, seeing every other student council member including Shawn. "Hey, didn't Shawn not make the cut?"
Shawn smirked. "The other guy got sick, so I was called to fill his place."
"Oh, really?" Jack looked over at his partner, Celine, who seemed indifferent by his presence.
"Hey, this is nice, though. Now we can all go to Berlin together!" Beatrice clasped her hands together.
"Yeah, great…" It seemed like he'd be stuck with everybody else for the duration of the trip.
Jack wasn't paying much attention, but he noticed Yuki standing away from the group looking nervous. He figured he'd better check up on her. "Hey, Yuki. How are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm fine. It's just that the Tadasu Mk. II is being transported separately."
"I see." It made sense. You couldn't bring it onto a passenger train.
"I know it should be okay, but I'm worried that something might happen to it."
"Well, it's fine for you to be worried. But it's out of your hands, so just try and relax a bit, all right?"
After taking a breath, she replied. "All right."
"Listen up, students!" Ms. Ryder yelled out. "I will be doing roll call. After which we will be leaving immediately. Now…" She continued calling out each student's name, until all were accounted for.
***
The student council got their own train compartment. It had a big window and two benches facing each other. They naturally sat the same way they did back on the student council room couches. Jack was against the window with Yuki next to him and Thomas next to her. On the other side, Beatrice was facing Jack, Celine was next to Beatrice, and Shawn was next to Celine.
Beatrice spoke up. "Before we get going, I figured we should do some German practice. Just to make sure we know enough to get by."
"No thanks. I'm fine." Jack said.
"Hm? Are you sure? Few people speak English or Dutch there. We should all at least learn the basics."
"It's really fine. I already know German."
The five others looked pretty surprised.
"You know German?" Shawn asked.
"Yeah, my dad taught it to me when I was a kid. It's rusty, but it should be okay."
"Your dad?" Thomas asked, curious.
"Yeah. My family was originally from Germany." Jack leaned back. "I figured my last name gave it away."
Him being German wasn't really that much of a surprise. The bigger surprise was him actually knowing German.
"Well, anyway," Beatrice interjected, "even if you can speak it, the rest of us still need practice."
Laying against the window, Jack responded, "All right. Just leave me out of it."
And so the rest of them did some German practice as Jack stared out the window. It was all pretty mundane, and even as a group exercise, it fell a bit flat. However, as their badly pronounced German became white noise and the countryside out the window became a blur, he drifted off to sleep.
***
The train arrived in Berlin a bit late at 8:00 PM due to a few delays. Jack absolutely hated big cities. New York, London, Brussels, he could hardly stand them. But he didn't mind Berlin. Something about it felt so much more homey.
Reactions varied for the others, though. This was all their first time in Berlin. Most were impressed, especially Thomas who had grown up in the Flemish countryside, only ever having briefly gone to Brussels on his way to Oleander. However, Beatrice was underwhelmed. To her, the city paled in comparison to London or Paris.
There was tons to see on the way to the hotel, but unfortunately they didn't have time to peruse. However, there was one thing in particular that caught Thomas's eye, a shop selling postcards. There were a lot of designs. Most displayed aspects of Berlin such as nature, architecture, or art, but there was one specific postcard that he really took a liking to.
"Hey, Thomas! Hurry up!" Jack called out to him from a distance away. Remembering to come back later, Thomas ran to catch up with the group.
They were staying at the Germania, a four star hotel in the heart of Berlin. It was designed in a German gothic style.
Students were split off into pairs with each sharing a room. Jack was with Thomas and Beatrice was with Yuki. Celine and Shawn were with other students.
Beatrice and Yuki got along fine. They're personalities were quite different, but didn't necessarily clash. But after some small talk while they settled in, Beatrice realized that she was alone with Yuki for the first time in a while. This meant that she could ask her some of her burning questions regarding Jack.
"So, Yuki, I've been meaning to ask, but how did you get Jack to help you?"
"Huh? How did I get him to help me?" She blushed a little. "Well… I just asked him."
"That's it?"
"Yeah."
Beatrice didn't really believe it was that simple. "How'd it even come up then?"
"Well, it was late at night and I was doing some work on the Tadasu Mk. II, but as I was stepping out for a bit, I ran into Jack. I showed him the Tadasu and he was interested in it. Tanks aren't that popular at Oleander, so I was glad to be able to show it off to somebody who cared. Anyway, the topic of the Tournament came up and I told him that I didn't have a partner. Then I just asked him if he could be my partner and he agreed."
"Is that really it?"
"Yeah, pretty much…"
Beatrice was doubtful. There must've been more to the story. After all, Jack wasn't the type to do things out of pure kindness, but she decided to move on for now. "What's it been like training with him?"
"Well, it's a lot different from a student council meeting."
"How so?"
"He's a lot more enthusiastic for one thing. And he's very skilled. It was thanks to him that we were able to beat the Jumeau twins."
Beatrice kept tabs on high profile students, so she was familiar with Bleu and Rouge Jumeau. A novice being able to beat them in a tank competition is almost unbelievable, even with the help of an expert such as Yuki. It seemed that Beatrice wasn't wrong to place her faith in him, although it'd be nice if he brought some of that enthusiasm and skill to the student council.
Beatrice had one last question, though. After some hesitation, she asked, "Yuki… Do you know about his Rune?"
"His Rune?" Yuki titled her head, visibly confused. "I thought he didn't have one."
"Oh, yeah, that's right… Never mind." Beatrice pretended like she had forgotten.
There was a silence afterwards, but then Yuki broke it with her own question. "Beatrice… Why did you recruit Jack?"
"What?"
"I mean, he's not a top student, and he doesn't even really want to be in the student council."
"Um, well…" Beatrice wasn't sure how to respond to that. She could just tell her that she thought he actually had a Rune, time magic, but that sort of thing just sounded crazy. That's why Thomas blew her off when she told him. "I don't know, I just thought he would be a good fit," she lied.
"Okay…" Yuki didn't believe her.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the floor where the boys were staying, Jack and Thomas were unpacking in own room.
Thomas actually sort of liked Jack, but he always had some reservations about his inclusion in the student council. He was easily the least productive and was recruited for an idiotic reason by Beatrice, so Thomas decided to try and inquire about that. "You know, Beatrice thinks you can use time magic."
Jack laughed. "She told you that?"
"Yeah. That's why she recruited you apparently."
"I know. "
"Why does she think you have time magic?"
Jack sighed. "She thinks I saved her life."
"Well, did you?"
Jack turned away, his voice quiet. "Of course, not."
Thomas could tell that Jack wasn't being completely honest with him, but he figured it wouldn't be good to pry any deeper.