Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 50:Past Self

Raymond already knew he would regret his decision to tell Ellen, but he had vastly underestimated just how much he would regret it. His chest felt heavy, his shoulders slumped as he hunched over slightly.

With her kaleidoscopic eyes on him, he sighed. Putting his head in his hands. He had made his bed, and now it was time to lie on it. The only question being how much should he say.

"What Zachary copied from me is a move called the Sovereign Impact...it’s one of the more higher level moves of the Von Mez Fighting Style...a fighting style is like an Art basically."

Her head tilted slightly when he revealed the name, leading him to quickly correct himself. This dimension used a different term then what he was used to after all.

"Sorry, different places have different terms for basically the same thing. Gets a bit confusing from time to time."

"As a kid, I was...forced to learn this Fighting Style. I hated it. This was before I had discovered my talents in magic. I wasn’t very good at it, never was good at holding a sword either. My father...was disappointed in me. He was a warrior and he expected me to follow along as well."

He grimaced as he remembered his own past. His father’s authoritative voice, his gaze whenever he looked at him and William, the disappointment in his eyes. Despite it being years ago, his mental image of him still remained clear as day.

"I really tried hard. I was only 10 at the time when...something happened. He started to expect more from me, it got harder and harder to meet his expectations. At some point, no matter how hard I tried—it just, wasn’t enough for him."

"I stayed up late practicing, I would keep trying over and over gain until my palms bled, each time I collapsed, I would force myself to get up again and again. All so I could maybe hear him say ’Good job son’."

He sighed, looking back on his own past was never a nice thing. Especially for him, he had time magic sure. But he wasn’t willing to risk his own past just to maybe fix a few wrongdoings.

She quietly placed a hand on his back, he didn’t know when she had gotten so close but he appreciated the gesture.

"He never did congratulate me. I should have known at the time, but I was still hopeful. Maybe...maybe if I tried harder. He would have said something. Anything."

"I’m sorry."

"It’s fine, it’s not your fault and it was a long time ago anyways."

Having someone to listen was always a nice thing. It was better then just self-harming as a coping mechanism he supposed.

"I tried so damn hard. Even now my muscle memory still kicks in, every punch, every strike and every kick. I really hate it, I hate it so much that I wish I could forget it. But I can’t, no matter how hard I’ve tried. These movements, this Fighting Style. It’s become a part of me that I can’t just get rid of."

It wasn’t just the Von Mez Fighting Style. Raymond was sure that if he ever tried to pick up the sword or a spear ever again, his muscle memory would activate again.

"I guess he copied me when I was helping him that time. Feels really awful, helping someone only for them to...to just slap you in the face like that."

She comforted him, "That sounds difficult."

He gave her a depreciating smile. "Yeah, after a while. I just got sick of it. I was fed up with everyone and everything. So I left. I left my home dimension and I haven’t visited it ever since."

A partial truth, while it was true that he had left his home dimension because he had been tired of everything. That was only half of the reason why. He wasn’t planning on revealing that other half anytime soon.

A few minutes passed between them. The only sounds being their breaths. Raymond’s heavy ones, mixed with Ellen’s light breaths intertwining to form a rhythm.

Eventually however, he decided to break the silence.

"... Hey Ellen."

"Hmm?"

"Lets go get ice cream."

"Sure."

***

"Miss Lucy, your father has asked me to pass on a message to you. If you would be so kind as to stop practicing your arts, I would very much appreciate it."

Even as the training room was wrecked to oblivion, the old butler stood nearly as still as a statue. Despite his fragile demeanor, not a single one of his grey hairs was being moved by the ferocious winds caused by her Arts.

"Tell dad I’m not interested in going to the academy already! How many times is he planning on asking me!"

Calmly adjusting his bowtie, the old butler replied. "Your father says that he expected you to reply with a message like that. He also says that he would like to offer you a special incentive to join the academy. With a bonus if you manage to make it into the special class."

She frowned slightly, stopping in her tracks. The wind in the room soon died down, revealing the young mistress of the Floriza family. Her long grey hair settling down, resembling that of a wolfs coat. If you gazed at her face, hands and feet. You could spot a pair of fangs as well as claws on each extremity.

Lucy huffed slightly, slowly her grey hair shifted into a light brown color. Her fangs retracted along with the claws on each of her extremities, becoming regular human parts again. By the end of the transformation, she resembled a flower. Gentle and harmless, a far cry from her previous appearance.

With her refined facial features, paired with her clear and calm eyes. She looked every bit like the graceful young mistress that most expected from a scion of the Floriza family.

Next to her, a large grey wolf happily bounded over to her. Wrapping its tail around her leg and snuggling his nose into her body. She quietly put her hand under his chin and started scratching it, causing it to release noises of content.

"Your father is willing to sponsor you several resources for young Ashfield here. If and only if you manage to enter the special class, he will procure a purebred thunderclap viper egg for you."

Her facial expression grew confused, she also wanted to go to the academy really badly. But the biggest problem stopping her was unfortunately also her greatest source of joy.

Ashfield, the not-so-little wolf she now kept as a pet. It had saved her life in a previous assassination attempt and she had now taken it in. A while ago however, she had bought a certain something and fed it to Ashfield. Causing him to undergo a strange transformation which as far as she knew, had never ever happened before.

So she had hid it from others barring her father as the exception. For fear of losing one of her only companions. She knew very well what her family would do to such a creature if they ever discovered what he could do and she knew very well that the academy would be even more crazed if they ever discovered Ashfield as well.

Her family held power sure, but it was her family the academy was scared of—not her.

Her father had understood her intentions once she revealed Ashfield’s secret to him. Something she was very grateful for.

But that left a big problem. She had tested her potential score and found it to be 94. With such a high potential score, the elders of her family had naturally freaked out. If not for her father’s support, she would have faced trouble when it came to not going to the academy. Opting for homeschooling instead.

Since her father had offered her such a deal, it meant that he had definitely found a method to enter the academy while hiding Ashfield’s secret in some way shape or form. Previously, he had simply pretended—acting as if he himself were trying to convince his daughter to go. When in actuality, he was helping her to not go to the academy.

"Take me to where dad is."

Entering her father’s office, she sat down on on of the seats in front of her father’s desk. Patiently waiting for her, he made a small movement to indicate his need for privacy—causing the old butler to leave.

With just the two of them now, he grinned as he looked at his young daughter. Calling her affectionally with his nickname he had made for her long ago when she was still unable to pronounce her own name correctly.

"Luce honey. I managed to find a way for you to enter the academy."

He pulled out a piece of paper from a pile on his desk, revealing an image of two people. A boy with snow white hair tied into a low ponytail at the back and a girl with golden hair also tied into a high ponytail at the back, soft bangs framing her face—revealing her multicoloured eyes.

She recognized who the girl was, Ellen Grace—someone who she hadn’t seen in years. The only daughter of the Grace family, which only consisted of Ellen and her two parents. But she had no idea who the boy was.

"Who’s the boy?"

"His name is Raymond Vance, a never before seen talent with a potential score that exceeds 100."

Now that rung a bell. The knowledge that it was even possible to have a potential score over 100 had shook the awakened world. Many scientists all over the country were left in disbelief, his very appearance had caused the foundations of many sciences to weaken. Lucy had naturally heard of him, how could she not?

Her father tapped on the picture of Raymond with his index finger.

"But you see, Raymond also has a very special identity as well. When he was ten years old, he was taken in by the Grace family."

She tilted her head slightly, "So he was adopted by the Grace family? Shouldn’t his name be Raymond Grace?"

"No no no, here’s the special part. He was taken in by the Grace family and rather then adopting him. They made him into a retainer, more specifically. They made him into a shadow for Ellen."

"A shadow?"

He chuckled slightly upon seeing her reaction. "It’s not a surprise that you don’t know about this. Even I forgot about it myself, it’s an old tradition in the families."

"We raise another kid alongside our own child, the shadow will be their friend, their servant, their bodyguard. Their shadow. The shadow has to sign a contract which gives the master full command over the shadow. It hasn’t been seen in years. It was a dying tradition even during the time of the party of heroes."

He pointed at Ashfield, who was lying curled up around Lucy’s chair. His tail wagging playfully as Lucy scratched behind his ears, tongue sticking out as he happily accepted the scratches.

"In other words. It’s a perfect disguise for Ashfield."