Ascension Of The Failed Mage

As soon as he slept, Noir's troubled mind plunged into a dream.

Everything was blank, pure white, and spotless. Noir was all alone in the space. He was completely naked too.

"W-what the...?!" This was the first time such a thing was happening to him, though he had heard stories of men who had such strange dreams.

"You're finally here." A voice echoed throughout the white room.

"Who's there?" Noir swiftly responded.

Suddenly, a mist-like substance gathered from everywhere, then it converged into a single location.

The mist formed a figure. The hair, the nose, the eyes, the height... Noir recognized them all.

They were—

"I am you." Another version of Noir was now right in front of him.

In his dream, Noir met with a subconscious copy of himself. This 'Noir' told him the truth about [REBOUND], explaining that even he was not entirely sure about its purpose. But the most important bit was to come.

"I was the one who interfered with your Status Window, and made that suggestion to you, so that you grew concerned and checked your Status Information...." The newly appeared Noir stated.

"Your feeling of unrest did not dissipate until you saw the [REBOUND] information."

"Why did you do that when you could just tell me here?" Noir answered.

"I needed you to be on the same thought wavelength as me. My signal is really weak, that's why we've never interacted until now. You also have multiple other 'selves'. All as a result of [REBOUND]." Subconscious Noir added in a sigh.

"Then I have to wake up soon, and quickly—" Noir was still talking but was interrupted by his other self.

"When we wake up, you will forget everything I've told you. I don't know why, but our memories are entirely suppressed while we are active."

"Then... We'll never reach the truth?" Noir was shaken by this revelation.

"No, It's only a matter of time. There's a very thin line between the conscious and unconscious, that is the subconscious. A time will come when we'll be active, but still be in a subconscious state. I believe that will be the moment of truth." Subconscious Noir answered.

"We just... wait?" Noir's tone hinted a bit of frustration.

"We wait." Sub Noir said. "No need to be upset... It's not as though you'll remember anything when you wake."

"True"

"In the meantime, I'll keep digging up more. When the opportuned time comes, we'll meet again, and we'll regain our memories as well as the lost fragments of our power." Noir's subconscious aspect smiled.

"Till then."

The dream turned hazy at that point, with Noir's subconscious self fading away like mist, and then the entire white space grew dark.

Then there was a loud spark, causing Noir to open up his eyes quickly.

"I-I'm awake...?"

Noir looked around his room. He remembered what he had seen the other night vaguely, but for some strange reason, he was at peace with it.

Eventually, the entire thought of it vanished from his mind.

"I need to see Ciara," Noir said slowly and suddenly.

He had narrowed a lot of events down for the past few days. And after his encounter with Trevor, he knew for sure that the Magic Institute that he thought was safe enough for Ciara might not have been so.

He would need to take further action.

"It's not safe," Noir muttered to himself.

"It's not safe..."

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

A month had passed since Ciara began her academic stay in the Institute as an Exception.

It had also been over 3 weeks since she had taken the position of the Class Representative, and it was by far no easy task.

The Class Representative had to deal with, not only the students, but the Lecturers as well. The entire schedule and activities of the entire semester were placed at her feet.

She had to sort through the wishes of the students and the instructions of the lecturers, to no end.

She was fortunate, however, that she had Serah as an assistant.

Since Serah was more experienced in dealing with the students and had more experience within the Institute and its workings, her job was considerably easier.

Serah mostly served as a bridge to connect Ciara with the students, while Ciara was able to interact with the lecturers better on her own.

The lecturers had no problem with Ciara, in fact, they liked her. Not only was she brilliant and talented, but she was eager to learn more. Even before she became Class Representative, she had made her way into the offices of the Lecturers to inquire of things from them, purely academic.

This made their opinion of her skyrocket.

The most challenging part of the job for Ciara was the students. While it was true that she won the election by a majority, the total number of students who voted for her was less than half the total number of students in the class.

Most of the students initially faced her with suspicion, her speech was too good to be true so they assumed she had ulterior motives. Some thought her to be naïve and assumed she would be incompetent as a Class Representative.

Needless to say, the opinion of the students weren't so good.

However, as time went on, Ciara impressed and won over, not some of them, but all of them. Yes, she had managed to change their opinions of her.

She was even beginning to think her Bloodline Magic was at play here, but the truth was that it was due to the efforts she put in.

The students grew more cooperative and eventually, Ciara didn't need Serah to bridge the gap between her and the students anymore.

While it was true that Serah, as well as her other friend Samuel, were very helpful to Ciara in her bumpy periods, there was one who was most helpful. It was their Homeroom Lecturer, Mr. Richard Lawcroft.

She would never have thought so, but the man was amazing.

Enough so that she slowly forgot about Noir and embraced her life in the Academy a lot more.