Ascension Of The Failed Mage

"Richard! He actually did it." She whispered to herself.

'But how...?'

Ciara knew that his intervention had somehow prevented the exposure of her mishap yesterday, and the spread of the news. While she still wasn't aware of how he was able to achieve something like that, she realized how indebted she was to him.

"I have to speak to Richard. He should be in his office..." Ciara said to her friends, standing from her seat.

Serah held her friend as soon as she attempted leaving.

"Mr. Lawcroft didn't come today."

Ciara halted and turned to see Serah's serious expression. Normally, Serah would tease her about wanting to see their homeroom teacher, but this wasn't currently the case.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Richard Lawcroft was their homeroom teacher, so it was only natural that he would be around. Yet, Serah said otherwise.

"Oh yeah. You came late today, so you don't know." Sam said, looking at Ciara.

"He had a day off today, so we had a substitute homeroom teacher today. He did say Mr. Lawcroft would be back in two days."

Ciara's expression appeared confused, wondering whether his absence had anything to do with her.

"Welp, there's no use overthinking it. I hear it's pretty common for lecturers to take breaks, and who wan blame them? I mean... If no one else, Mr. Lawcroft deserves to rest." Serah pointed out.

Ciara found reason in her friend's words and realized she was probably stretching things out.

'There's no need to worry. When he returns, I'll have to thank him for everything!' She resolved within herself.

"In that case, let's head back to the dorms. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty beat!"

Serah's voice caused Ciara to laugh, making Sam join in on the fun.

"Yeah. I guess you're right!" She answered.

The three friends proceeded to exit the lecture hall, leaving only one last student behind. Of course, the student's presence bothered them a little, but they ignored her and decided to leave.

Mia, the only one remaining in the lecture hall watched, from the corner of her eye, Ciara and her friends leaving the hall. After they were no longer in the room, she closed the book she pretended to be reading and sighed.

Her lips pursed downward, making a slight frown while pondering an issue in her mind.

"... I wonder..." Mia's soft voice whispered, before finally rising from her seat to return to her residence.

*************

'T-this is... so surprising!' Ciara's mind rang.

There she was, walking amidst students, yet none of them stared at her with any eyes of suspicion.

Of course, the rumor persisted, but fewer people were talking about it now. Since they had no proof, such hearsay was bound to dissipate sooner or later.

"At this rate... It's only a matter of time before everything goes back to normal!" Ciara beamed.

And everything was all thanks to Richard. Ciara steeled her fists in resolve, promising herself to see him the moment he returned from his break.

He deserved her total gratitude!

As they were walking, with Roxanne beaming in satisfaction while thinking of her teacher, and the life of normalcy that was within her reach, a voice suddenly broke her out of her thoughts.

"Hey, Ciara..."

As soon as she heard Serah's voice, Ciara looked at her friend with a pleasant smile. However, the troubled expression on Serah's face made the smile she had slowly fade away.

"W-what's the matter?" Ciara asked, tilting her face to catch a glimpse of Sam in hopes that he would be able to explain Serah's reaction.

Surprisingly, Sam also had a similar expression.

"Guys... come on, what's wrong?" Ciara asked, now genuinely worried.

"Ciara. I'm sorry... for yesterday, for everything." Serah blurted out.

She wasn't very good with apologies and expressing her feelings, but her guilt had eaten into her too deeply.

"Eh..??!" Ciara let out in surprise.

Of course, she didn't know what exactly Serah was sorry for. It wasn't as though she was the one responsible for the bullies attacking her, or Ciara's loss of control. Serah was only caught up in Ciara's mess, to begin with. The one who spread the rumor was even the true perpetrator of whatever chaos that arose following its spread.

"I-I'm sorry too, Ciara." Sam stuttered, shutting his eyes and quickly bowing his head.

"W-wha-?!" Now she was even more confused.

'Two of them? What's going on here?' Her thoughts rang.

"Yesterday, even though you went through a lot, we couldn't do anything to help you. We were only liabilities and hindrances to you. You even had to expose your Tier... If only we were strong enough..." Serah muttered, squeezing her hands as she recollected the incident that occurred.

"Yeah. And even after everything, we couldn't do anything for you. We couldn't comfort you, or ease your worries. We're truly useless friends, aren't we?" San added.

Ciara watched as both of her closest friends beat each other up over something she didn't even consider to be their fault.

In fact, she was even blaming herself for dragging her friends into her problems. To think they felt the same way and blamed themselves, Ciara wondered about the irony.

"Guys. It's fine, really. To be honest, I don't know how far I would have gone if you two weren't there. I really wanted to crush those losers, you know?" Ciara gave a scary look while grinning ear to ear.

Shivers ran down Sam and Serah's spine for a second as they caught a glimpse of Ciara's crazy side for merely a moment.

"Besides, you guys should direct these emotions to whoever was responsible for spreading those rumors in the first place!" Ciara added, the picture of Mia still kept popping into her mind, though Serah had already given her opinion that she wasn't sure of that conclusion.

Serah and Sam soaked in Ciara's words, and a look of relief began forming on their faces. Ciara, just as they remembered her to be, was quite the considerable friend.

"You are right though... You guys are pretty weak."

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