Descending Into A Novel

"Raymond. Shut if off now."

The others raised an eyebrow, staring at him.

Sienna’s eyes locked onto him. Reaching into her coat, she pulled out a slip of paper that was strangely frozen in ice.

As the ice thawed, a sound that could only be described as a mixture of trash can music, dumpster beats and thingamabob instruments blared from the paper. Enough to make his ears bleed and his brain stop working.

Freezing the paper again, the sound slowly rescinded.

"It’s quite amazing actually. I may specialize in ice magic, but the fact that I was unable to figure out how to destroy or stop this spell is very impressive. "

She definitely didn’t look impressed however, now that she was standing in front of him. Raymond could notice the eye bags underneath her eyes very clearly now.

"It was an emergency that justified the means."

She tossed the paper at him.

Raymond tilted his head slightly, catching it with his telekinesis after it had went past him.

"Next time. Just call my number, don’t send me any more of these."

"Pretty sure there was something blocking us from making calls anyways."

"Anyways? Did you even try?"

"No. But Rudeus sent out a signal and I don’t see any academy reinforcements."

The others stared at the current interaction between Raymond and Sienna. Slightly wide-eyed with the exception of Ellen.

Where was the respect?

Compared to their own relationships with their own instructor, the difference was like night and day.

Their instructors were individuals who stood at the pinnacle of humanity right now. Even within the S-rank, they stood out among the others.

So they always treated them respectfully! It was an honor to be guided and taught by them!

Noelle quietly stared at Rudeus.

Every personal guided education class was like a brand new special form of training hell for her. Each time, Rudeus would make her do something so unbelievably creative that any other instructor could only use the word creative to describe his training.

So hearing and seeing Raymond’s own relationship with his instructor made her eye twitch a little.

She was definitely grateful to Rudeus, but sometimes. It just got to a point.

Ignoring her gaze, Rudeus let out a small cough.

"Ahem. Thank you Sienna for the assistance there."

"Yeah yeah...make sure you don’t let them escape."

Standing next to them, Kane and Prince Nezerath. Still in their stance, stood there frozen in ice.

With the thick amounts of ice fully enveloping them, it was hard to believe they were still alive. But S-ranks were tough, let alone a demon contractor and a demon.

Even now, they had tried to break out a few times. Each time, Sienna simply casted a few more spells at them.

"Any chance you can make it smaller? At this size, it’s hard to move or contain," he asked.

"This is the smallest that it can already go and still hold them."

With that brief interaction, Sienna immediately left. Teleporting away to wherever it was she normally spent her time.

Rudeus put his weapons away, rubbing his chin as he stared at the massive chunk of ice containing the two.

"Hmmm."

Suddenly, like a divine thunder of inspiration struck him. His eyes brightened, an amazing idea forming inside of his head.

Turning to them, he grinned.

"Who wants to do some strength and endurance training?"

***

Raymond quietly rubbed Ellen’s shoulders, feeling some of her anger dissipate with his massage.

As sad as it was, Raymond had unfortunately gotten pretty good at giving our massages recently.

Since he was the only one who had managed to avoid Rudeus strength and endurance training, he was unfortunately then subjected to Ellen’s pettiness.

"Slackers shouldn’t grumble."

He mentally cursed her.

Luckily he didn’t have to do it long. Only for most of his waking hours on the train back to the academy.

Raymond was pretty sure her soreness was gone by the second day, but he still had to continue anyways.

Now that they were finally back in the academy however, he was now free!

He also really wanted to see Erin again!

Hearing the litter pitter latter of her feet against the floor, Raymond crouched down onto his knees. Holding his arms out as Erin ran straight for him.

He could feel Ellen’s glare at him from behind again.

’Don’t kids love their moms more? Why does she always go for Raymond!’

She too also wanted Erin to run up to her like that!

"You weren’t scared were you? Being alone at home while we were gone."

"Nope! Colleen was here the whole time!"

"Colleen..?"

Hearing a second set of footsteps, Raymond looked up. Seeing Colleen lean against the wall as she watched him and Erin.

"Seems like she likes you two quite a lot," she remarked.

"Weren’t you still in Mirovia City?"

"My appeal was accepted, they’re moving my case out of the Mercia Family courts and into the government to be processed."

Colleen was still handed a guilty verdict, although her sentence had been massively reduced thanks to their help.

But now, with the help from three different families—Floriza, Asteria and Grace. Her case was being transferred elsewhere, likely to even further reduce her sentence.

The government may have been stronger in power then any one family, but three together could still influence them enough for a small decision like this.

"Since it’s going to take a while. I figured I should get a new job, and the academy just so happens to be looking for teaching assistants for monster biology."

"Glad Erin had someone she recognized with her then."

Finished with her reunion with Raymond, Erin moved onto Ellen next.

"Hehe.The teachers said I was really good!"

"That’s amazing Erin!"

Moving into the living room so they could all sit down, Colleen quietly pulled the two away for a private conversation.

"What’s this about?"

"While you two were away, Erin was being taught by the academy."

"That’s a good thing isn’t it?"

"Well the problem is that she wants to go to a school now."

He frowned. Erin going to school was a good thing, getting an education was always important and he didn’t see any problem with it.

The problem was her identity, dragons were rare and she would almost always have a target on her back.

Hiding her identity would be hard, Erin herself might not know. But any small slip-up or mistake could easily reveal her identity even if she was disguised. The academy didn’t offer education for children either so she couldn’t stay here.

"Does she want to go to an actual school? She won’t accept one-to-one teaching?"

Colleen clarified further,"She wants to experience the school life, with others. So no she won’t accept one-to-one teaching. She wants to have friends and be a normal kid."

"What if we send some one to watch over her in secret? They can protect her and make sure she doesn’t reveal her identity."

Ellen covered his mouth.

"We are not sending anyone to watch over her."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"Can’t we just trust her to not say anything? She’s old enough to know better."

Raymond couldn’t help but remember back when they had first met Erin, when Colleen told them of why Erin was a human.

She was just too gullible!

What if someone asked her why she had wings? Or horns? Or a tail? They could disguise them using magic but they would still be there!

To actually make them disappear, the pain that would be caused was something he didn’t want to subject Erin too. Only adult dragons who had frequently transformed and were decent at magic could morph often, but Erin was still young and her circulatory system was still blocked!

Flare was the best mage Raymond knew, but even he disliked morphing because of the pain it caused. The more drastic the change, the more painful it was.

"We could just say it’s an Art. Thomas has his wings and halo but people don’t suspect him of being an angel."

"Because his wings and halo only appear when he transforms! What kind of young kid like Erin would know of an Art that permanently transformed her like that!"

"Why don’t we just ask Erin herself?"

Good point. This whole time, they were just discussing it amongst themselves and hadn’t even asked the one involved.

Walking back into the living room, Raymond found Erin staring at the tv screen. Eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

"..."

Shaking her out of her daze, Colleen asked.

"Erin. Do you want to go to school?"

"Uhm...Yes! But...I don’t want to go..."

"..?"

Faced with her self-contradictary answer, Colleen raised an eyebrow. Trying to make sense of it.

"Do you want to go or not?"

"No...but, I want to go!"

She turned her head to Raymond and Erin, seeking help.

He sighed.

He had already identified the issue anyways. But for kids like Erin, you had to voice aloud what they wanted rather then waiting for them to tell you. Otherwise, it was like slamming your head into a brick wall. It was the same thing with Anna as well.

"Erin. You want to go to school. But you also want to skip school whenever right?"

"Mmh!"

She nodded her head frantically.

"That’s fine then."

With that issue settled. The three of them returned to the kitchen, still pondering over Erin’s future.