Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 123:Red Dragons

"Raymond. Care to explain the bill I just received from the mage association?"

Raymond let out a brief sound, "My stuff finally arrived? That’s good to know."

He couldn’t see Rayez’e face, but his silence told him everything.

"You’re rich anyways, it’s not like it’s expensive for you."

"That’s not the point! The point is that neither you nor Ellen possess any financial literacy!"

That hurt. Raymond considered himself someone with amazing financial literacy actually. If he wanted something, he bought it. What was the point of saving money if you weren’t going to spend it?

"I think you should relax. Ellen is already really angry at you."

"She—what?!"

When in trouble, just pull out the Ellen card! Guaranteed to solve most problems, usually. Maybe. Sometimes.

He continued, "She was so sad, we were at Mirovia City but we couldn’t even enjoy ourselves because you didn’t give us enough money."

"I already gave you two quite a lot..."

"Do you know how expensive Mirovia City is? Besides, it’s gonna look bad on you if we ask for money as a reward don’t we?"

The Mercia Family had to reward them for unveiling such a thing in their territory, and if Ellen and Raymond, asked for money. When the Grace Family was the richest family. It would definitely give them a bad look.

"We even got our first titles, shouldn’t we be rewarded for that?"

The public was even starting to give them titles, referring to them as heroes in the making. A bit earlier then in the previous timeline, but he supposed it was natural.

"We deserve a reward right?"

"Fine. What do you want?"

"Great! Ellen has this concert she really wants to go to...

Ellen had previously scolded him for spending his money, despairing at the fact that she was unable to get a ticket. But there was now a perfectly fine father who was willing to spend the money necessary.

" I’ll send it to her soon. Can you...inform me whether she’s still mad at me?"

***

"Dad?"

He paused, the term still made him a bit uncomfortable but it would be selfish of him to ask her to stop.

"Yes Erin?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can."

She blinked, staring at him nonchalantly sip on a cup of coffee before looking back at Ellen who was lounging on his couch.

"Are you cheating on Ellen?"

Pfftt-!

He choked, struggling to hold back himself from spitting his coffee out. Not just that, he could feel an extremely intense gaze boring holes into the back of his skull as well. Her head immediately snapping towards their direction as Erin asked her question.

’Why are you also staring at me like that?!’

No he had to solve this issue right in front of him first!

"What—what makes you say that?"

"I can smell a different girl on you every time you come back home!"

Raymond could feel her gaze intensify. Sweat pouring down his back.

He immediately searched through his memory of the past few days, Erin had only started living in his apartment since a while ago. So how had she come to this conclusion in such a short amount of time?

He returned home after sparring with Lin Qingyi, had she felt her lingering mana traces on him at the time?

After that he had went out again for a coffee club meeting, but the club was relatively equal in terms of male and female.

Then again, he had also decided to buy a cake to thank Lily. So maybe when he gifted it there was some lingering smell? He knew that Lily was someone who often wore perfume So a few traces might have stuck to him.

He had also attended a special class personal guidance with instructor Sienna, but Erin should have known her scent since she had net her before.

Clearing out his throat,he explained to her. "You’ve got it wrong. In the first place, me and Ellen...we aren’t married."

"Mom and dad...not married!?"

Was that where this confusion came from? She likely assumed that due to her believing all mothers and fathers were married. A pretty common belief among children.

"But you two always eat together!"

"Friends can also eat together?"

"But mom and dad went on a date?"

"It’s not a date. It’s just a casual outing."

She narrowed her eyes. For such a small child, it was more adorable then scary.

"You two go out together alone?"

"Yes."

"You two eat together alone?"

"Yes."

"Is it not a date?"

"..."

Ellen let out a small laugh, before quickly making her face go still again.

Where had Erin even learned this kind of thing?!

"Also! You two sleep together!"

"..."

That one Raymond unfortunately couldn’t deny. Ever since that little fiasco after he woke up, he and Ellen had basically slept in the same bed together every night except for during the mission. Since she lived in his apartment, it wasn’t that strange was it?

"That’s different. But me and Ellen aren’t married."

"You have a ring?"

"This isn’t a marriage ring, and Ellen doesn’t have a ring either?"

Erin seemed to have finally accepted the truth. Her eyes and mouth wide open in disbelief at the fact that they weren’t married.

"But..."

He put his hand on her head, ruffling her hair as he calmly soothed her. Her horns made it a challenge but he managed still.

"Just because we aren’t married doesn’t mean anything."

"Hmph, I hate you dad. You’re so mean to mom."

?

What did he even do that was so mean to Ellen?

Before he could ask, she proceeded to swat his hand away using her tail. Before running away back into their room.

Ellen let out a quiet snicker again, not even bothering to try and hide it this time.

Raymond was fairly sure he could feel some sort of magic being activated as well.

He should have known dragons would be hard to take care of. But this was too much.

"That was certainly a way to start the day."

"It certainly was."

Today was a weekend so both of them were free. They had been planning a small outing to let Erin get used to the academy grounds but.

He heard another loud sound, his mana senses telling him that some sort of magic was being activated once more.

Raymond doubted they could do that today.

He sighed, of all things. Why did Erin also have to be good at magic? Even if she couldn’t control it properly, her unconscious use of it had made their life quite difficult over the last few days.

Dragons that could use magic proficiently were extremely rare. But to think they had to take care of a young one...

A memory of a past conversation with Flare abruptly popped into his head at this time.

---

"Flare. Come to think of it, if your name is Ignacio Sonder. How did you get the nickname Flare?"

Flare lazily opened his eye, his pupil—which was the size of Raymond staring right at him.

His massive form was practically a mini mountain, able to crush buildings under a single claw or tail swipe. So his grin looked extremely menacing, even if Raymond knew he was actually someone who loathed fighting and killing.

Even if he tried to speak softly, his voice still boomed in his ear. "Hehe, you know how they say red dragons are the worst as kids right? I was a damn pain in the fang for my mother!"

Flare was a rather special dragon.

Dragons were born with extremely high mana, but they lacked the skills to use it properly. It was like being able to lift thousands of pounds but unable to bend your fingers to lift anything.

Their simply didn’t have the skills required to perform any sophisticated magic. But Flare was different.

For starters, in terms of magic. He was actually better then Raymond.

He pointed a claw at the ceiling of his den, shooting out a burst of sparks so bright it was hard to see.

"My mother taught me this spell. It’s an extremely basic one. It’s called flare. She told me ’If you ever get into trouble, use this spell’."

He nodded, it seemed a bit different but a flare spell was a spell that nearly every mage knew. It was so easy, and so useful.

"One day, she scolded me for...ah that’s a story for another time. The point is, she told me to leave her den and go and train. Because of something I did, I had to go all the way to the sea just to train my fire!"

He nodded again, it was a common method for dragons looking to train their fire breath—which was one of their natural abilities. Using water from a lake or river to help them hone their control.

"These five wyverns, they were real angry at my dad for something he did in the past...now they naturally wanted to take their revenge out on me."

"So you used your flare spell and ran away? That’s why your nickname is Flare?"

"Do you take me for some sort of coward?"

"?Are you not?"

Flare was someone who had faked his own death because he was tired of being constantly disturbed. He didn’t even leave his own den for anything other then the occasional hunting trip for food. He just stayed inside, slept or worked on his magic.

"...anyways. When these wyverns tried to attack me, I used the flare spell. Except I misunderstood something."

"I didn’t know you were supposed to use this spell as a flare. So when she said to use the spell when I got into trouble. I used it in a different way."

Flare shifted his position slightly, unfurling his tail as he scratched a spot on his body and yawned.

"So when I came back home late the next day. My mom scolded me for being late, and I told her I was in danger and used the flare spell!"

"I thought she would be proud of me! Turns out, the flare spell wasn’t a spell meant to be used for offense. So she scolded me for killing the wyverns with the flare spell instead of running away. My sister laughed to the point her scales fell off when she heard my story! So that’s how I got the nickname Flare."

"..."

Flare was considered a young dragon, around the same age as Raymond at the time. Meaning this story took place when he was only around fifty years old. Fighting five fully grown wyverns at such a young age, and winning using only a flare spell was such an absurd feat Raymond didn’t even know what to say.

---

Raymond shuddered as he recalled, Erin wouldn’t be so...troublesome would she?

He opened the door to his bedroom, fully expecting there to be a destructive mess. Instead he found, a messy mess.

Erin, had been nice enough to actually not destroy anything. Instead she had sealed herself within a fortress of blankets, on his bed. Which was floating in the air.

He also noticed several holes in the ceiling. Light streaming in from the apartment above.

...he hoped Noelle wouldn’t mind the damage.