Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 193: 193:New Name

"I was wondering what you’ve been doing all these times. Turns out you had such a ’hobby’~"

The clone quietly curled her toes, as if she wanted to dig through the floor and hide in the hole that was formed.

Ellen tilted her head, "That’s strange, Raymond should be sparring with the others right now though?"

"I’m not the real Raymond. I’m just a clone."

"Oh, a true clone?"

"No, a possibility."

Ellen had received quite a lot of time education from Raymond in order to help her learn more about her new attunement after all. So she recognized the spells used pretty quickly.

"Hmm..."

Ellen quietly held her face in her hand, before moving her thumb to her chin and lifting her head up slightly, meeting her gaze.

"Hmm..."

Squish squish

After playing with her cheeks and squeezing them a bit, she moved on to her hair. Lifting up a small bundle and putting it to her nose. No scent as usual, since Raymond often just cleaned himself via magic rather then showering—and for this clone, who had basically been stuck inside here cut off from actual showers. Magic was just the best way.

"Hmm..."

Poke poke

Unfortunately, Raymond had way too much experience with being used like a stress toy by both Ellen and Erin. So this clone barely even reacted to any of the touching.

After several moments of analyzing, she finally let go. "Not bad."

In terms of similarities to the real Raymond, it was basically a perfect match.

The real Raymond had only shown her this appearance briefly after all. So she hadn’t gotten as good of a look at it, but now that she was seeing it again. Even she was stunned by her beauty.

With looks like this, she easily beat any of the girls in their group in terms of appearance. Including Ellen herself.

Pale white skin, long white hair which resembled silk threads, blue eyes like that of an icy lake in the winter morning. Long slender arms and legs, with a petite body. She had an almost otherworldly appearance, something which looked almost too perfect to be real. Yet stood in front of her anyways. Even Ellen felt her heart skip a beat, something she only ever experienced one other time when she had first seen Raymond.

Likely because this was Raymond’s true appearance, before being perfectly genderbent. Rather then the current Raymond, who had his looks slightly downgraded from his disguise. Something he complained about frequently.

"What’s your name?"

"? Raymond?"

The clone stared back at her, confused at the question. It wasn’t like they were different people, she was still just Raymond from the future.

"Raymond is a guy name though. Aren’t you a girl now?"

"I’m still Raymond."

Ellen shook her head, this couldn’t do.

"No. You need a different name."

"...okay?"

Ellen wasn’t the best at giving names, otherwise Erin might have been called something else much worse. But seeing such a perfect opportunity for teasing Raymond right in front of her. Her brain had practically kicked into overdrive, the way it churned out dozens and dozens of names on just a single second.

She snapped her fingers, "I’ve got it."

"From now on, your name is Raelynn."

It was similar enough to Raymond, and his real name Rayleigh. While still being clear in its gender. Ellen was honestly quite proud of herself for this one considering the fact that it was made up on the spot.

She rubbed her own chin in satisfaction,"Good name isn’t it?"

"...i guess."

Now with a proper name to refer to her, Ellen finally asked her.

"So Raelynn, why exactly are you here?"

"Because the original summoned me."

Even the clone shared the same annoying habit of answering only the most obvious and basic part of the question.

Ellen sighed, "I know Raymond summoned you, I’m asking why did he summon you."

"Well, who do you think was the one improving all his spells lately?"

"...wow."

This was truly laziness on another level, outsourcing his own work to himself? Truly inspiring stuff.

If Ellen ever got the chance to use the same spell, she knew what she was going to do with it.

"No wonder he’s been complaining about points recently."

"Ahem. I’m the one paying for it anyways."

"You literally aren’t?"

"Me and Raymond are still the same person!"

Looking around at the numerous food containers as well as the numerous more random packages of odd things that caught their attention, Raelynn clearly hadn’t been holding back at all. Even with Raymond’s incredibly high point income, all of this couldn’t have been cheap when added on to their already high expenses. Since Raymond practically had to pay for both Erin and Ellen as well.

She grumbled, "It’s so unfair, how can you eat junk like this everyday and still look like this?"

"You could probably do the same?"

"I tried, ugh—I’m never letting dad decide what to eat for me ever again."

"That was before you could even control mana."

"Woah, you even know about that? How far did you stalk us back until?"

Raelynn closed her eyes in frustration, she might have looked different, and maybe acted a little different. But at the end of the day, she was still just Raymond—thus she still had Raymond’s personality after all.

"You literally told me about it!"

"Did I?"

"Yes!"

"My bad then. You even remember the fact that I said something like that. Are you that captivated by me or what?"

Raelynn quietly clenched her fists.

"You’re a shorty as a girl as well."

"..."

"Does that mean the original is also supposed to be this height?"

"No, my height is just part of the perfect morph."

"Heh."

She clenched her fists even harder.

Ellen quietly rubbed her chin. Truth be told, although she had spoken a big game about what she would do to Raymond as punishment for the novel. She wasn’t actually planning on doing anything. Simply letting the looming threat haunt him for a while until the two of them eventually forgot about it. As well as his cute reactions yesterday. She found that to be much more funny.

But seeing Raelynn in front of her made her eyes sparkle with excitement.

Maybe...just a little discipline?

***

"Damn it...you’re such a monster."

"How in the world was someone like you unknown until last year?"

"How did you manage to block my swords? I was sure it would at least startle you."

"No one is injured are they? I still have quite a lot of holy energy left."

"If you count my pride then I’m very injured."

Amidst the several complaints and grumble, Raymond only quietly nodded to each one. Giving out a few small tips for them to help improve.

They were all already stronger then they should have been at their current state, likely due to the presence of Raymond. They were all competitive people who couldn’t allow themselves to be bested by others. In the past, they were competing with each other. But now, they were trying to catch up to him rather then compete with each other. Raymond didn’t really mind that he was their goal, if it helped them improve then so be it.

Unfortunately, while Raymond didn’t mind being their goal. He wasn’t just going to lie down and let them overtake him! With his newly improved spells from his clone, plus his second circle while they were all still at the first level. It was admittedly a tough fight, but he still had to go all out. For both his own pride and their pride.

He didn’t enjoy fighting as much like the others might have, but unfortunately for them. His mind was still very much distracted.

Just remembering the moment. When Ellen quietly leaned into his neck, nibbling on his skin and...

"Let’s go again."

Groans arose once more from all of them. Clearly they weren’t in the mood to fight again, even as much as they loved it.

No worries, there was always a simple fix to stuff like this.

Raymond tapped his feet on the floor, letting out a tsk sound he was sure they could all hear.

"Never mind then, I guess this is all you guys amount to. I expected better but it’s fine you know?"

As if healing magic had been infused into his words, each of them immediately got up again. Or maybe necromancy was more accurate because each of them practically looked like zombies at this point. Still, the fire within their eyes was burning even brighter then before. Fueled purely by the fiery emotions sparked by his words.

"Is it hard? Ah...sorry, I didn’t think you guys would be so weak you know?"

"You—!"

A magical sentence, that simply upon hearing it. Would make energy flow through your body, and invigorate every muscle within. Energy field by the most powerful form of motivation.

"I guess it’s hard to keep up with my level right? It’s fine, just try your best and I’ll match you guys. It’s not that hard after all."

"!!!"

"My fault for assuming someone with a potential score of 100 could at least pose a threat. Zachary, maybe you should take a rest first? You’re looking pretty tired, it’s fine to be weak after all. I’m just out of your leagues anyways."

The effect was excellent, as expected. Raymond had learned this from the best of the best after all. He had to suffer from Ellen for over four years like this, it was only fair if everyone else got a little taste of it as well. They never seemed to believe him after all.

’Don’t tell me you’re tired already? Haah, I guess there’s no choice. Want me to carry you instead~?’

Her words from a long time ago floated by in his head again, immediately causing his own heart to rapidly start beating again.

Ugh. Just thinking of Ellen had him all worked up again.

RAAAH—!

A faint screaming sound that he only vaguely recognized as Zachary woke him up from his daydreaming.

"Frost geyser."

As part of his self inflicted debuffs to make it more fair. He purposely announced each spell he casted, and even limited the amount of spells he used each time. As well as limiting the power of each spell to a certain point.

A massive pillar of ice erupted from the ground, missing Zachary entirely as his entire figure abruptly blurred, golden lines pointing to where he had just stepped. Another one of Zachary’s Arts obtained from his system. Essentially functioning as a short range teleport, he would transform his body into light and walk in one direction. Allowing him to maintain his momentum at the cost of being easy to predict.

No problem for Raymond. He could still cast plenty more spells, and Zachary’s Shifting Steps Art had a cooldown period.

Another massive pillar of ice erupted from the ground. Hitting Zachary square in the chest as he flew up into the roof with a massive crash. Several pieces of debris falling to the ground and causing the already ruined arena to be even more damaged.

With that settled, he turned to the rest. Who had simply stood by and did nothing as they watched Zachary get obliterated.

He raised an eyebrow, "You guys just let him go alone?"

Noelle stared at the ceiling, seeing another piece of the roof come crashing down. A dry expression on her face.

"...we tried to convince him not to."

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