Secret Society: Raising Calamity Class Disciples

[Found anything?] Eulene asked.

The carriage rattled through the streets of Derbury. They had departed from the Detectivete a few minutes ago.

[There were fourteen cases of children's disappearance over the course of last five years excluding Eulene Maisel and Sylvia Anderson.] Xavier replied.

[It doesn't mean all 14 were kidnapped and killed by the same culprit, does it?] Eulene transmitted.

[No. But there's a way to find out.] Xavier stated.

Eulene raised a brow. What was the bastard thinking of doing?

Xavier opened the small front window. It was still bright outside. A few gusts of breeze invaded into the carriage.

"Take us to Willies Little Flower Academy."

The school was not that far away from their current destination. Xavier had already memorised the entire map of the town, and Willies Little Flower Academy happened to be the closest. They reached their destination in five minutes.

Xavier and Eulene exited the carriage and walked through the school gates. There was a medium sized playground outside, with a couple of swings on it, and a slide. But there was nobody on the field.

Even the two-storeyed red bricked building was as quiet as quiet could get. Clearly, classes were still ongoing.

Xavier took out his pocket watch and checked the time.

3:54

It was day shift and classes would be on for a little more than two hours at most. They had to make the most use of it.

Once they entered the building, a young man- a peon- led the duo to the principal's office.

The office was neither extravagant, nor lacklustre. It was neat with a coloured wall and a shelf filled with prestigious decorations.

Behind the old looking desk, sat a woman who look as if she were in her late forties. The light wrinkles could not mask her beauty.

"Greetings." Xavier took off his hat. "I am Xavier Godwin."

"I am Eulene." Eulene curtsied.

"Greetings." The woman stood up and bowed. She could not sit still after the newcomers' aristocratic gestures. "I am Clara Daffodils. The principal of this institution." She gestured at the chairs opposites the table. "Please take a seat."

Xavier wore his hat back and sat down. Eulene followed and sat beside him.

"So, what brings you here to our institution?" The lady sat down. "To admit a child?" She teetered her gaze between the two.

Xavier ignored the woman's implicit meaning. He gave the decorated shelf behind the lady a glance before turning back to the principal. "No. I was just passing by and decided to give a visit after I remembered your school's achievements in quiz competitions. The fact that this school's representative team won the bronze prize in the national championship, competing against all those behemoths from Aramon speaks a lot about your institution."

"Thank you." A smile surfaced on the principal's face. "Not every guardian wants to talk about 'worthless' extracurricular activities. So, it really feels good when someone appreciates the children's efforts."

"It's not only the children's efforts. If the school did not give them the necessary environment and support, that shelf behind you would have been half empty."

The woman laughed. "The teachers and I could not let the students down. So, we contributed to the school library with our own old books or bought new ones. We take pride in our library, it's on par with the public library. It's a shame that the public library is too far away from here. Else, the children could have done better."

"I was wondering if I could contribute to the library?" Xavier asked. "I have connections with the Queen's Library of Aramon."

The lady's eyes opened agape. The duo sensed her breaths slowing and heart racing.

After a few seconds, she stood up and bowed. "This would be a great help to the children. I can never thank you enough."

Xavier shook his head. "I am a reader myself. And it's my duty to help the next generation of readers."

The principal sat back down. "We'll be in your care."

"If you don't mind me asking," Xavier said, "I've heard that two of the students here went missing recently." He raised a brow.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! The tower chimed.

Xavier and Eulene detected an anomaly on the woman's vitals. But soon, it turned back to normal as the lady sighed.

"Alvin and Maria- both were geniuses- God-gifted to be exact." The principal heaved yet another sigh. Alvin brought the National bronze trophy home and Maria scored the highest in this school's history. But Alvin suddenly disappeared…" she looked up, "has it been four years already? As for Maria, she followed two years ago."

Eulene gave Xavier a glance. So, that's what he was up to! The culprit only preyed upon brilliant children.

After some pleasantries, the duo left and went to the next school. Before the schools closed at 6, they managed to investigate seven more schools which once harboured eight of the missing children.

And six of the children met the criteria.

Eulene discovered that after every investigation session, Xavier only became more and more serious. She wanted to ask the reason, but she curbed her curiosity… for now.

Just when the sun drowned all the way down, the duo reached their base- Miss Maisel's house.

Xavier sat on a couch. Eulene sat opposite him. She could not hold her curiosity back any longer.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Remember the second scenario I told you about?" Xavier sighed.

Eulene nodded. It was about how the culprit was deceiving everyone that it was done on a moonlit night.

"Not only have we confirmed that children are dying, I also discovered today that five of the eight suspected victims went missing on nights without a full moon."

Eulene scowled. "So, we don't have time until the next full moon? The next target can be kidnapped anytime, and there's a possibility of him being killed?"

"Precisely so." Xavier nodded. "And according to the reports, the rate of disappearance is only getting higher. The perpetrator is gaining confidence after every successful strike. But we can use that against him."

Eulene raised a brow. "How so?"

"Considering the perpetrator's boosted ego and the fact that his last victim- Sarah- failed the test, there's a high probability that they will come out to hunt before the next full moon."

Eulene's eyes twinkled. "You want to wait for his next strike?"

"Indeed." Xavier nodded. "We wait."

The next day, the duo visited the schools of the remaining six victims and five of them happened to fulfil the criteria. After they came back home, Xavier let go of Wilbur after giving him a few gold coins. The duo would not require his services for the next few days.

Though Wilbur was saddened, he wished the duo good luck and departed.

Xavier cooped up in his room. He hanged the hat, the coat and the suit on the hooks before lying on the bed. His eyes glinted gold as he stared outside the window. In a matter of thirty minutes, he did a bird's eye scan of the entire town and spotted all the probable areas where the next 'test' could happen.

There was 73 such open spaces. After memorising the locations, he began to alternate his vision among those spots every millisecond.

Minutes turned into hours, hours into days, and days into a week.

Xavier did not take a drop of water in a week, nor had an ounce of sleep.

Eulene, being the caring sect leader she was, brought pies, cookies and other desserts to him. She knew how to fuel his busy brain.

After ten days, Xavier suddenly disappeared from his room, along with his coat and hat- with the window left open.

Eulene, noticing the sudden movement, woke up from her meditative state.

Something happened, she scowled.

She vanished from her room as well.

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