Raising Capital (4) - Cillian's POV

"There's still no signs of Rika?" Sienna was worried.

"We're going to find her," Alex answered in Luke's place.

It had been one month since Rika's disappearance. For the first few days, Alex tried to stay calm for Luke, "it's not her first time running away. She always came back alive. She ran away from the mansion, the dorms, and even contacted criminals to purposely kidnap her."

"Rika did what?" Ethan was stunned.

"There's a reason why we lock most of the doors and windows. We place alarms and trackers inside our dorm room as well," Alex revealed.

"How many times has Rika run away before?" I was shocked.

Alex went silent, not willing to reveal the numbers. Instead, we moved onto extensively searching the school to help them. However, Rika was nowhere to be seen as we went through the club building, the dorms, courtyard, the café and everywhere else we could think of.

As the last resort, Luke requested the teachers to assist us, making them close the teleportation gates. And as the days passed, the teachers became equally frustrated, using their authority to search every inch of the school.

When more than two weeks had passed, the Roselia family began to make their moves. Using all the connections they possessed, travel became more stringent, increasing the usual procedure by hours. The staff inside the school immediately became replaced again, getting hit with the blame. All the districts were thoroughly inspected, affecting all the business deals. The Roselia family had a powerful set of relatives, who were equally invested in the search.

"My parents were asked to help with the search," I turned to my friends.

"I think the Roselia family asked everyone," Delia murmured.

"They have to find Rika within this week. There's no one who isn't searching for Rika," Ethan joined us.

Everyone believed the search would end by the third week. No one expected it to continue.

Luke abandoned all his fraction work to focus on Rika, and didn't dare to take a break. Nobody blamed him as we distributed his workload between the others inside the club room. I never saw his face so despondent, living off Alex's words of comfort.

However, Alex's efforts could only go so far. Although Luke was living, he seemed to be devoid of any emotions, and his complexion worsened. He didn't talk anymore, and responded to less things with each passing day.

"I was too harsh on her," I admitted.

Nobody was able to predict another month would pass without Rika. And Ethan, who was the harshest to her, walked up to Luke. He ran his hand across his hair in frustration.

"I mean- I didn't know. I didn't think she would not come back for this long."

Luke didn't respond and nodded at best. Instead, Alex was hostile.

"Is there anything you want?"

Ethan bit his lip, and clenched his hands.

"Is there a way I can help?"

That was the start of Ethan coming to the club room with heavy eye bags. It seemed like he was helping Luke, not that anyone knew what was going on during the nights.

We were tired, no, school was a lot of work. Even if we wanted to help, would we be of any help? I carried on with school and continued to come to the clubroom to do some fraction work.

Until one day, Luke's marble vibrated, filling his dull eyes with life.

He immediately teleported out of the club room, making us wonder if he found a new lead. My mouth wouldn't close when he dragged Rika with him, returning to us together.

"Where was she?" Ethan felt relieved.

"She was inside her bedroom. Her lack of control made her mana leak and nearly created a separate dimension where time flows differently," Alex explained.

"Her control is seriously that bad?" He was stunned.

The lack of control combined with her large possession of mana was frightening. I started to understand why Luke always wanted to keep an eye on Rika. The amount of control he obsessively used over her was because he wanted to prevent incidents like this. Rika's disappearance had affected everyone in all the district with the Roselia family unwilling to give up on her.

"Our family arranged more lessons for her and we made her wear stronger items to help with her control," Alex apologized to us.

However, Rika was dangerously close to not graduating. Since she missed two months of school, she had many things to catch up on. The schedule given for her to follow was harsh, Luke bringing some pillows and blankets from his dorms to sleep here to take advantage of the time-space function. I shuddered from the thought of being inside her shoes. This all had to be done within a week, the ceremony taking place on the weekend.

For the first day, everything went smoothly as both Luke and Alex threatened her by using the waterpark. However, Rika quickly broke down starting from the second day, and nothing entered her ears.

By the end of the fourth day, Alex seemed extremely frustrated. His hand was placed onto the pile of many empty workbooks that were supposed to be done days ago.

But Rika's face was placed against the desk, sniffling and sobbing for several hours, unwilling to do anything. At one point, she began to pound on the door, screaming for someone to let her out.

"How is she going to graduate?" Ethan watched her.

"I think they're behind the schedule by several weeks," I noticed.

"Is this usually how you conduct your study sessions?" Delia found it brutal.

"This is nothing new," Alex sighed.

"Let me out, save me," Rika continued to pull and twist the doorknob.

Rika's hands were starting to turn red, not giving up on her attempt to escape the club room. Most of us struggled to look at her, her desolate pleas being unanswered. Her face was drenched with tears, her eyes filled with misery, and her clear voice became strained. But Luke was cold towards her, dragging her back to his office as Rika desperately clawed the floors. Once he managed to place her on a chair, he immediately shackled her to it.

"I can't, I need a break," Rika cried.

"I don't care if I don't graduate. It'll be easier if I repeat a year anyways," she yelled.

"One more chapter Rika," Luke tapped his finger.

"You said the same thing days ago!" Rika refused.

I was surprised when they weren't able to move on with the planned schedule for the entire month that they slowed down. No threats were working on her, making Luke turn to bribing her to study. Several plates of cake were placed in front of her, acting as rewards for each chapter she completed. However, Rika refused to eat, not falling for their tricks. She was gravely turning skinnier to the point bones were prominent in her figure.

Luke's eyes were filled with worry, eventually begging her to eat the cakes. But Rika tried to negotiate to end the study sessions in exchange, using her poor health as leverage. I winced when she fainted a few hours later, Luke taking this chance to feed her while she was unconscious. Meanwhile, Alex adjusted the time-space feature to slow down time to its maximum. How would they make any progress at this rate?

"Grandfather says he will give you a trillion Aris if you finish this workbook," Luke showed her the message.

"Did he sign a contract?" Rika didn't believe him.

"Here's the documentation beneath," Luke nodded.

"They're using money to bribe her now," Ethan was stunned.

Everyone could tell the Roselia family was beginning to get desperate from the lack of progress. Luke frequently kept in touch with his parents, sending pictures and eventually turning to calls. We stayed silent as his parent's faces showed up, trying to convince Rika to study harder. But Rika was incredibly stubborn, and too busy crying to listen to any of their words. This made his parents transfer the call to his grandparents, extremely powerful people who were hard to meet.

"I already gave you a trillion Aris to finish one workbook Rika," Luke's grandfather was frustrated.

"I don't care if I drop out of school," Rika shook her head.

"I can become the owner of my own café or become an actress," she smiled.

"We can pull you out of school and place you with the tutors. Do you want that?" He warned.

"Try it! Let's see the time difference coming into play with the traveling," she rudely said.

"I will never listen to the tutors anyways," she placed her face against the desk again.

"Two trillion Rika. That's the furthest I can go for another workbook," Luke's grandfather sighed.

"Three trillion and put it inside the documentation," Rika properly sat back up.

"Two trillion or nothing, this is in addition to the initial trillion you received," he slammed his offer down.

"Deal," she picked up her pen.

However, the calls didn't end with the Roselia family. The Monete family, a close relative, didn't want to risk their reputation becoming stained from their relation to her. Resembling the prior conversation, Rika managed to gain another three trillion Aris from Alex's grandfather. The bribes to motivate her to study were mind-blowing, nearly impossible to believe. It was hard to stay silent as I unconsciously whispered, "this is six trillion in total."

"There's a call coming from grandmother," Luke swiped the screen.

"How is the studying going?" Luke's grandmother-in-law from the Suilett family seemed irritated.

"We are one month and three weeks behind schedule," he checked the progress.

"It's worse than the information going around," she sighed.

"Rika, my granddaughter, stop drawing inside your workbook," she instantly noticed.

"I was taking a brief break," Rika continued to draw.

"Come on Rika, you have to increase your pace to keep your end of the promise," Alex pressured her.