25. Turnabout Exams
The room is tense when Alice begins to hand out the case's file. Julius steals a glance to the librarian who looks like he's about to faint, and Ace grins at him as if they're just meeting at the park on a stroll. He stares at Alice who looks really serious than ever.
And then she did a pose—coolly putting her right hand on the table, and Julius narrows his eyes.
'No way. Seriously?'
"Coach Frank, please read the case summary that I've written."She asks, and the gym teacher stands up.
"Three days before midterm, on Friday, there is an anonymous log that downloads the midterm's answers list. The computer teacher quickly looked over this and tracked down the log—the anonymous log had accessed the school's data from the computer in the library. Hey, wait a second! Where did you get this information, Liddell!?"
Alice narrows her eyes on the man. "If you want to keep things away from your students, you should make this damn meeting room sound-proof, since you can find out rumors easily from your sneaky students." She deadpans, and the teachers flinch.
'Though I actually just asked your student council president.' She adds in her mind.
"So yeah, the anonymous log only appears from the computer," Alice says. "It's because you need to enter the Student's ID Number to access the school's computer, right?"
"Obviously—and Monrey's ID Number is the one that accessed the computer and is proven to be the anonymous log that hacks the school's data," the computer teacher says sternly. "Despite that, we've given a chance for him to decide whether he'd use the list or not—and he does. He got straight A+ on all of his exams."
Alice clicks her tongue and shakes her head. "Tsk, tsk, no...you can't use that as an evidence—you have to prove that Julius did use the answers list."
"Sure—we found the printout in his bag," Coach Frank says, being the one who checked Julius' bag.
"There's still no evidence that he used it—but there's also no evidence that he didn't use it, so let's agree that we can't prove anything about that point, and move on, shall we?" Alice asks, and the headmaster hums.
"Well, if neither of us can't prove it, then what are you going to prove, Liddell?" the old man asks sternly.
"I'll prove that Julius didn't download, nor did he print the answers list." Alice sharply answers, and waves her hand to get the librarian comes forth. "Mr. Dale, can you show us the list of students who logged into the library on Friday two weeks ago?"
The librarian meekly plugs in a flash drive to the computer in that meeting room, and turning on the projector. Soon, there's an application of Library Log In List that's being shown on the screen.
"W-Well...first of all, I want to make sure e-everyone is aware that I can not alter any data here, because Mr. Flint, the computer teacher has made this application to be read-only," he clears his throat. "The only person who can change the application's attribute is Mr. Flint, since he knows the password."
"Got it," the computer teacher nods.
Alice takes the pointer beside the projector and points at the date. "This is the day when the anonymous logged into the teacher's online board, where they keep confidential data shared only for teachers. This is also when the culprit used Julius' ID to access the computer, however..." she nods to Mr. Dale, who clicks onto the date.
"When students are entering the library, they have to use their ID number to log in—this is done in case someone steals a book, and to narrow the search, we can just see the list of students that came into the library when the book is gone, right? However, on that Friday...you can see that Julius' name is not on this list—he didn't come into the library to use the computer at all."
"Wait a second—then you mean that the other students—one of them in the log for that Friday...is the culprit?" their homeroom teacher asks. "Shouldn't the culprit just use Monrey's ID to login? I mean, Monrey can also use other's ID to login...If you say that someone else used Monrey's ID to access the computer."
The dark blonde scoffs and shakes her head. "No, no, that's impossible. Unlike the computer, you can't use someone else's ID to get into the library."
"Why not?" Coach Frank asks in confuse.
"B-Because that'll be suspicious..." the librarian stutters out. "W-When a student login to the library...I can see their face...and their photo will appear on this application, so...if Monrey logged in using other's ID, I...I'd be suspicious, o-of course..."
The teachers begin to whisper around about this. Julius frowns to himself for not thinking about that...but being framed, he just blanked out.
"Then, someone that Friday, logged into the library with their own ID Card, but then used Julius' ID Number to access the computer?" the headmaster sums up, holding his hand to silence his co-workers.
"That's correct." Alice nods.
"Then...how do you explain the answers print out I found!?" Coach Frank yells. "Maybe he's teaming up with someone else!"
Alice holds her hands up. "Hold it—we've established that Julius didn't access the computer that day, so he's not the hacker."
"Then can you give more proof that someone else is the hacker?" the headmaster calmly asks.
Julius shivers when Alice confidently smiles and nods once. "Yes. Yes, I can." She nods to Ace. "I have my second witness, our popular jock, Ace Pendragon."
Ace grins and walks to her side. "Wow, this is kinda cool—like in the movies..." he chuckles. "So yeah, the proof that someone else is the hacker, is because the culprit stole his ID Card. And coincidentally, I found it," he pulls out Julius' Student ID Card from his pocket.
"Wait, how can you know that Pendragon isn't the culprit?" one of the teachers asks.
Alice groans. "Well, his name isn't on the list—he didn't come to the library that Friday, so it wasn't him!" she explains impatiently. "But, Ace found it on Monday, the first day of midterm. It should be enough to prove that Julius didn't come to the library, used the computer and hacked your data."
She turns sharply to the gym teacher before he speaks again. "The reason why the answer's list is in his bag, is because someone puts it in there in order...to frame him."
The meeting room is silent. Julius begins to realize something. Then, the headmaster clears his throat.
"I suppose you can tell us who's the true hacker, then, Liddell?"
Alice nods. "I can...but that's Julius' decision to make." She crosses her arms, and turns to Julius, who knows that she's going to say that. "It seems that we've come to an agreement that Julius didn't hack the school's system. I can easily prove who's the true hacker—with motives and even more evidences...but being the victim, Julius has the right to choose how he wants to deal with the culprit."
Mr. Flint, the computer teacher, scoffs. "That can't be so hard—I'll just track the students that logged into the library on that Friday,"
The dark blonde chuckles. "That won't be possible, Mr. Flint. The hacker is much more advanced than you are...you won't ever be able to track that person. The hacker...that person quickly recognizes your security system—that person even knows that the Library Log In Application can show the photo of the ID users—none of the students until now, found out about that, but the hacker knows. Even more, the hacker knows that the computer saves log-in data of anyone who accesses it—no average students are aware of this until now." She points her thumb to herself and snickers.
"I'm the only one who have the decisive evidence that the true hacker had used Julius' ID and used the printer in the library. Try to track him down until the World's End, but sorry, sir...It's all up to Julius." The dark blonde pats her friend's shoulder. Mr. Flint looks irritated, but then looks away, apparently going to try and find the hacker on his own. Ace whistles, impressed.
Julius sighs, shaking his head. "I'll deal with that person on my own." He says.
"Alright, then..." the homeroom teacher says in agreement. "There's this one thing—we just need a way to prove that Monrey didn't use the answers list in his bag. The students won't probably accept this result easily."
"Yeah, I've thought of that too," Alice laughs. "Can't you just make new exam problems and make Julius work on them in front of the whole school?"
Julius flinches and turns to Alice. "What!?"
"Hey, that's brilliant, Alice!" Ace praises.
"Huh?" the navy head twitches.
"If only we'd think of that sooner...!" the headmaster looks impressed as well. "Well then, everyone, what are you waiting for? Give Monrey his solo midterm debut, at once! If he can get perfect scores when being watched by the whole school, then everything will be cleared up!"
Alice and Ace pats Julius' back. "Good for you, right! We did it, Julius!"
'I...have to...take exams in front of the whole school...' Julius shivers at the new gain nightmare.
'Maybe I should just drop out and get disowned instead.'