Author (4) - Cillian's POV

Inside the large crowd, I watched a girl trying to hide her face with her brilliant silver hair. She tightly hugged Ben around his neck, sinking her face into his chest. I didn't remember Ben having a younger sibling, treating the girl like he was extremely close to her. Wearing the Nuelle family crest from her accessories to her dazzling dress, everyone was curious about the mysterious girl.

"Rika," Luke whispered beside Delia.

I froze when Luke was right. When Rika lifted her face to whisper something into Ben's ears, I could immediately recognize her. She was a bit skinnier than the first day she was discharged from the infirmary. Back then, I numbly listened to Luke when he passed me all the different sizes of her uniform for her to wear.

When he showed me the smallest size, I doubted she could even fit in them. Sometimes I helped Sienna order some clothes for social week. Although Sienna had a smaller frame than others, she wouldn't be able to fit into the uniform Luke passed to me. Only elementary schoolers could wear this uniform.

This was why the next morning, I handed Rika one of the bigger sizes. But the shirt swallowed her like she was wearing her older sister's clothes, showing her thin wrists that looked so delicate that it would snap from the slightest touch. Rika frowned as I decided to listen to Luke, passing her the smallest size. When Rika finished changing again, I was shocked since even the smallest size didn't fit her, her bony arms between the large sleeves.

I gave her a thick sweater that Luke told me to make her wear and the smallest belt I could find inside the suitcases. While helping Rika get ready for school, I realized that Luke dressed her in a certain way to hide how skinny she was. All the dresses she wore outside of her uniform fitted her very tightly, not showing her lost weight. She never wore blouses or skirts since her size was changing all the time.

Since her legs didn't match the upper part of her body, I passed her some thick thigh-high socks from Luke's advice. Even her shoe size changed when she came back from the infirmary, finding an array of different sizes laid out in front of me. How did Luke keep track of this every single day? Opening a case full of accessories for me to pick, my eyes were blinded by all the money that was used to purchase each individual item.

"Can we skip the accessories?" Rika seemed to take them for granted.

Choosing the smallest bracelets and rings, I slipped them onto Rika as she started to get annoyed. She looked like she was used to this as I brushed her silky hair to add some hair clips inside. The only thing left was to pass her a supplement to drink before walking to the cafeteria with her. Taking a glance at the label, the supplements that Luke had packed weren't cheaper than her accessories. It was better than what was provided inside the school infirmary.

This product was widely known to be able to help with almost any disease or illness. How sick was she that she would need to drink them every morning? Wanting to get it over with, she chugged the supplement, leaving the bottle still a half full. Luke had told me that she usually never finished the drinks. Since it was too precious to throw away, I decided to put it into my inventory as I followed her to the cafeteria.

It was my first-time eating breakfast with her since she usually ate with Luke. Once she ordered some salad with cake not available in the mornings, she only ended up eating two bites at most. This wasn't a meal. It was worse than a snack. It was no wonder she needed to wear all those spells to help focus in class. Throwing the rest of the small plate into the compost, she walked to class with me.

After negotiating with the teachers that I would help her catchup, they didn't bother her during class anymore. I could tell she wasn't fully listening to the lessons, choosing to watch what was happening outside the window. It made sense she had to do those study sessions with Luke to not fall behind when exams were coming up. The workbooks Luke packed for her weren't normal as well.

It went through all the basics before going to the actual level of questions going to be on the exam. This was double the work, making the workbooks much thicker than the ones provided from the school. There was a note on each section to have Rika finish a certain chapter by the dates provided and some tips in helping her understand the material better. I was stunned by the time and effort Luke dedicated to Rika.

"What are we going to do?" I couldn't find any traces of her through the cameras.

"We should ask everyone around us," Michelle ran to the witnesses.

"Rika is going to be fine, it's not the first time this has happened," Helena tried to console us.

"Are you even her friend? There's no way she'll be fine," Henry yelled at her.

"All we can do is trust in her that she'll be able to escape," Helena shrank a bit under him.

"I never liked her from the start. She's not even helping us," Henry grumbled as he ran around with me to search for more clues.