The days after the ranking ceremony passed by quietly, there were no more classes being taught and everyone was waiting. Ike was curiously visiting the noticeboard each and every day to see if the ranking results had been posted already. He wasn’t the only one curious, there were always many girls coming and going.

Most of time these days he spend playing around with his favourite sprit animal, flashlight bees. Ike really liked them because u could summon thousands of them despite the normal limit of one spirit animal at a time.

Despite the possibility of summoning thousands of them he usually only summoned a hive consisting of 3 bees. But just those three were already almost more than he could manage. With those three bees summoned there were four possible pairs of eyes to look through, three bees to mentally order around and himself to move when needed.

Concentrated fully on walking forward while have the three bees circle him he suddenly heard someone clapping just behind him. Not bothering to physically turn around he used one of the bees to look behind him. After dismissing his summon he said “Hello Miss Babcock” while turning to face her.

“Practicing hard as always” Miss Babcock said, “In any case the ranking results will be announced shortly. So come along will u”.

Arriving at the town square he could already see a crowd of more than fifty girls being held back by the teachers while some town elders where busy writing the results on the noticeboard. Ike could hear cries of happiness and sadness coming from the crowd, trying push a way towards the noticeboard was difficult even with his teacher just walking in front of him.  

This is just too difficult Ike thought, with a flash of inspiration he grabbed Miss Babcock’s arm and started to move backwards. Even leaving the crowd was a bit tricky with the constant arrival of new people curious about the results, but with a bit of pushing he managed to get out.

After getting a short distance away from the crowd he could hear Miss Babcock’s say “Why did u suddenly leave Ike?”. Seeing his teacher looking confused at him he smiled at her and pointed forward where a single flashlight bee was just appearing. Hearing his teachers laugh he moved his summoned bee to the noticeboard.

Flying over the crowd he could see the mass of girls all pushing trying to move forward. Nearer the noticeboard groups of friends were huddled together, some where cheering while others where grieving. Looking at the board up close he could see that three elders were busy writing down the names of the girls that were ranked. While a forth elder wrote down the names those left unranked. For them their education stopped here and Ike knew that they would be escorted back to their respective villages and towns within the week.

However nobody was busy writing down the rankings of the three boys. To the side of him he could see a small firefly starting to fly next to him. “Hehe finally caught up” he could hear Miss Babcock say “I don’t see the rankings of the boys anywhere.”

“Don’t see them either” he said “It will probably take 15 minutes or so before they are done with all the girls names.” He relaxed his control over the flashlight bee, controlling it just enough to keep it hovering in front of the notice board.

Ike had had days to think about the meeting with Carla and Johan Shepard after the ranking ceremony. He could understand the reasoning of Miss Babcock why he should be ranked first although he didn’t fully agree with it.

But there was something he didn’t quite understand, so Ike said “Miss Babcock could u tell me why did Johan and Carla Shepard come to congratulate me?” He could see Miss Babcock stare at him for a bit then she said “You really don’t know? But surely I spoke about what happens after u get ranked?”

“Yes” Ike said.

“Oh, then surely u can figure out why they came to congratulate u?” Miss Babcock said.

Feeling that he was missing some crucial piece of information, Ike was about to follow up with some questions when he felt the control over his flashlight bee slip. Focussing on the flashlight bee Ike could feel that its instincts were actively trying to evade the incoming bird. Letting the bee’s instincts take charge he saw it deftly avoid the bird by diving towards the crowd.  

Hearing a scream coming from Miss Babcock he knew her firefly hadn’t been as lucky. Looking up he could see that Miss Babcock’s face was a bit pale but colour soon returned. “I’m ok” Miss Babcock said, “Just a bit of mental backlash, nothing to worry about”

Inwardly Ike couldn’t help but sigh at his teacher taking the life or dead struggle of a spirit animal to be free again and leave alive so lightly. Hesitantly he said “Miss Babcock u might want to come take a look, Dickey and his grandmother elder Deen are coming towards the noticeboard. Although given the smug look on Dickeys face I’m pretty sure he is ranked first”.

“Oh” he could hear Miss Babcock say “I’ll be right there” with a sigh. Keeping an eye on elder Deen he could see her starting to write; “Boys, 1. Dickey Deen, 2. Ike Spalding, Unranked: Remy Dal”.

Seeing that he was 2nd Ike felt a tinge of anger and sadness in is hart, largely it was aimed at himself for disappointing his teacher who believed in him. Looking again at the results he saw the familiar firefly fly past him straight towards elder Deen only to disappear just before hitting her. Hurriedly he dismissed his summon as well, only to see Miss Babcock seething with anger.

Feeling the anger radiate from Miss Babcock he could help it and took step backwards. He could hear Miss Babcock say in a cold voice “Wait here”. Seeing her hurry away, Ike noticed to his horror it wasn’t in the direction of the noticeboard where elder Deen was but it was towards the house of the master of the town.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Ike didn’t really want to wait for Miss Babcock’s return. He knew that even being on the very edge of a situation which involved the master of the town was something avoid. But right now he felt that he was right in the very middle of it. Ike had seen students punished by the master of the town whom they often referred to as Miss S-Class calamity or She-devil. Most teachers would hand out small household tasks as punishment, often things which they were responsible for. The punishments of the She-devil were always fierce and often involved hard physical labour, something detested by most mages, and on top of it was always utterly pointless.

The only time he had seen her in person was stuck in his mind forever. It was on a summer two years ago when he had seen a group of twenty students digging on a pool as punishment. It was a hot summer so students often came by to see if the pool was already finished. When the pool was almost completely dug out she had come to look as well. Only to tell the students to fill it up with sand again. Some of the students in the crowd started to complain but a single look from her, Miss S-Class calamity, had been enough to warn every student that whomever complained would be busy filling up the hole.  

Fear that Miss Babcock would return with her was enough to keep him rooted on the spot. It would be bad enough that she could possibly come here but Ike reasoned it would be even worse if he didn’t happen to be there waiting.  Time moved forward slowly and he could see the crowd near the noticeboard getting smaller and smaller.

There were only thirty of so students left looking at the board and he spotted Dickey amongst them and he instantly knew Dickey had also seen him. Ike could see Dickey walking towards him, normally he would just leave and avoid the situation altogether. But today he had to choose between possibly upsetting her or facing Dickey.

The choice wasn’t difficult, soon he heard Dickey say “Scared to go even near the noticeboard? No need to go look, your second. Grandma even told me that it had been a really difficult. To decide which one, u or Remy was the worst magician.”

Part of him wanted to punch Dickey in the face or kick him some particularly painful for boys. But he couldn’t he knew Dickey’s grandma would pay him back at least in threefold for it.

Looking at the situation Ike thought about the pyramid of fear, who was actually scared of whom. Little thought was needed to figure out, the person at the very top the one feared by everyone. Therefore Ike calmly said “Dickey congratulations. I’m actually waiting here for a teacher to come back, it wouldn’t surprise me when she comes back with her”. Seeing that Dickey hadn’t grasped the hint Ike said “U know her, Miss S-Class calamity”.

Ike waited alone for the return of Miss Babcock until it was almost dark. Seeing the sun set he finally had a good reason to leave, since it wasn’t allowed for students to be out and about in the dark. Hastily he returned to his small room, not bothering with undressing he fell mentally exhausted into his bed and fell asleep.

The next day Ike spend his morning doing chores together with the younger boys. Twice a week they had to clean the class rooms and their common room. Fortunately during these chores he didn’t have to worry about running into Dickey. However he had expected to see Remy, but after a short conversation with one of the younger boys he had found out that Remy was leaving this morning for the main village.

The other person Ike had expected to see that morning was Miss Babcock, he really wanted to figure out what had happened after he had seen her walking away in anger. Walking towards the houses of the town’s teachers Ike wondered which one belonged to Miss Babcock. After asking for directions he arrived in front of her house, but after knocking on the door he found the house to be quite empty.

To search the whole town would simply take too long, so he tried going to the restaurant for the teachers and elders of the town. It was a bit risky since students were forbidden to enter that part of town under normal circumstances. Ike hesitated a bit whether or not he should use a flashlight bee to scout the place but he decided not, the risks were really low but on the other hand it wouldn’t give him any useful information either.  

Under the pretence of having an urgent message for Miss Babcock Ike entered the forbidden part of town. Luckily nobody really questioned him, asking everyone he met be it the staff of the restaurant, teachers and even a few of the town’s elders, nobody could tell him where he could find Miss Babcock.

Worried Ike went back home, not knowing what to expect he did some mental exercise and tried out various new tricks with his flashlight bees for the rest of the day. Every morning, afternoon and evening he visited Miss Babcock’s house, never finding her there.

On the morning of the sixth day after his ranking ceremony he was wakened by someone knocking on his door. Seeing that it was still dark out side he shouted “Who is there?”.

“It’s me Miss Babcock” he heard from outside his room “Now, open the door and let me in”. After opening the door for his teacher he said “What happened after u left? I tried looking for u but I couldn’t find u anywhere and nobody knew where u were?”

“Oh” Miss Babcock said, “Uhm, I was asked to help Master Reese these past few days. Now there isn’t much time so pack your things. U can use this bag, oh and get dressed will u.” Together they packed their things and then he followed Miss Babcock to the outskirts of town to where a horse drawn carriage was waiting.