Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 181:Mission Bonanza (1)

"I know the whole point of the special class is the missions. But I’m starting to really hate these damn missions."

Raymond’s complaining fell on deaf ears once again however, as it had been for the past hour or so.

Ellen was already getting irritated by his constant complaints. But just to be fair, Raymond also considered it perfectly normal to be grumpy regarding his situation.

---

Thirty minutes ago.

Ellen checked the time, letting out a sigh. Another five minutes had went by and Raymond was still sound asleep in bed. As snug as a bug in a rug. Rolled up tighter then a wrap. Out like a light. Holding zero intentions to ever leave.

But Ellen had already called him just now, and she didn’t feel like doing so again.

Her eyes wandered to Erin, playing with a toy of a red dragon.

It was similar to the red dragon figure she had purchased from Mirovia, but less spiky and less scary looking. For some reason, despite being unaware of her real identity as one. Erin still really liked dragons.

"Erin. Can you go wake dad up for me?"

"Okay!"

Erin set her toys down, before running into their shared bedroom. Spotting dad sleeping on the bed with his mouth slightly opened. While other children might have just shook him awake or spoke loudly in order to get their parents up. Erin saw something completely different.

Spotting an easy opportunity for mischief, Erin climbed up onto the bed (only after a lot of struggling and falling). Standing over his still sleeping body.

"Hehehe."

She giggled, seeing his chest softly rising and falling. With his eyes closed, he was still completely unaware. Even if she tried to talk or poke him right now. It wouldn’t matter anyways, since he could sleep through every one of the six alarms he set for himself.

Then in one swift motion, she squatted down briefly before jumping back up into the air.

With her physique however, that was actually pretty high up in the air. Almost enough to touch the ceiling if she raised a hand up straight. Although starting from the bed was cheating since it gave her extra height.

Last time, she had tried to land directly on dad. Which didn’t exactly end well, for her that is.

She recently saw a fun thing on the internet however. Where a bunch of kids managed to launch another kid off a trampoline and send him flying. It was like seeing a masterpiece get painted right in front of her eyes. Immediately she gained extreme enlightenment and inspiration equivalent to only a mad scientist taking substances. The realization that their bed was just like a trampoline.

(A realization she had only made after rigorous testing)

So this time, her jump was straight up only. No forward or sideways movement at all.

Unfortunately for Erin, what she was expecting to see was Raymond get thrown off of the bed and land onto the floor. Groaning and hopefully wide awake, at which point Erin would successfully shift the blame onto mom and get off completely scot free. A proven strategy.

Fortunately for Raymond. The moment Erin jumped into the air. His instincts as a perfect human had kicked in. Detecting that something was about to happen to him and forcefully waking him up.

The moment his eyes snapped open, and he spotted Erin with a devilish grin on her face. He immediately arose, snatching her mid-air and holding her under her arms like he would a toddler, or a cat. Staring into her red pupils that stated back at him without a singular hint of guilt for what she had been about to do to him.

"...Erin. Did mom put you up to this?"

She nodded. Her tail briefly swishing to the side as she dangled in the air.

Even if Erin had lied in order to protect Ellen. Raymond would still have been able to tell it was her anyways. The two of them had been living together for way too long already. The four years he had spent in the Grace mansion wasn’t for nothing after all, and the past year especially. With the two of them living together in the same apartment.

He sighed, feeling his sleepiness hit him again like a truck. He knew staying up late was bad, but he still did it anyways.

Without another word, he fell back onto the bed with Erin. Pulling the blanket over the two of them and shutting his eyes.

Ahem. After about ten minutes however. Their peaceful sleep was interrupted by a very annoyed Ellen.

"What happened to waking up dad?"

Zzz...

---

Back to the present.

Once again, they had another mission to complete. With all of them on the special class however, any mission that the academy gave them was easily completed. For Raymond, who didn’t care about the points rewarded or the ’experience’. It was just a massive waste of time.

Especially the experience, because a part of the missions were also to help the special class students gain experience through real world applications of their power. Rather then just doing mock exams in the academy.

"I hate this."

The whole process was annoying as well.

Waking up early just for a mission briefing, then spending several days on a train just to reach the destination. Then spending several days in a hotel when he would rather sleep in his own bed.

The mission briefing was especially horrendous, essentially just an hour of being told what to do and what not to do. Just imagine the most boring thing you ever had to do and you would get a pretty good idea of what it was like.

The fact that he and Ellen kept receiving glances from instructor Janet was suspicious as well.

Instructor Janet was Lucy’s and Cador’s instructor, who was also another Floriza that had been hired by the academy. The two of them were unfortunately forced to share an instructor. Mainly because not every S-class had the time nor did they even want to teach. There just wasn’t enough S-ranks to go around, and the academy struggled to even find instructors for Zachary and Lin Qingyi as well.

Or maybe it was a good thing for Lucy, that way she got to be with Ashfield and better hide his secret.

The instructor had to be a good fit for the student, and the instructor also had to be of S-rank minimum. Willing to spend hours almost every day just to teach and guide them. After those criteria alone, the number of able S-ranks dropped heavily. The number of sword users among the S-ranks weren’t that high after all.

So far, the academy had managed mainly by dragging out retired or semi-retired S-ranks. Such as instructor Rudeus and instructor Juliet.

As for Raymond and instructor Sienna. Well, teaching him was part of her duties as the vice-president of the mage association. So unfortunately for her, even if she was busy. She was still obligated to teach him.

Raymond’s mind wandered slightly, maybe he should teach instructor Sienna his time clone spell. It certainly seemed like she needed it.

"As a side note, we’ve encountered a few difficulties when securing the rooms for your stay. So some of you may need to share rooms."

Instructor Janet shot him and Ellen another glance again. A knowing look in her eyes.

’Please...’

Raymond was really wishing this would just be a normal mission right now.

***

Now that they had finally arrived. Raymond suddenly felt like he understood why instructor Janet kept glancing at him and Ellen.

After drawing lots. He, Ellen, Thomas, and Audrina were each forced to share a room with another.

That was fine, Raymond could handle sleeping in the same room as Ellen again. Every mission had been like this so far and he didn’t mind doing it again.

No, it was the room itself that was the problem.

"Why is there only one bed?"

"...oh no."

Raymond didn’t say it out loud. But his thoughts synchronized with what Ellen was saying anyways.

Because the room held only one bed, not even a big king sized one like at home but a smaller one only about half the size. Comfortable for one, but a tight fit for two. Not that they would ever do such a thing.

"I call dibs on the bed."

"Don’t be ridiculous."

The room itself was also small, so there wasn’t even a couch in the room for Raymond to sleep on. Only after pushing aside some of the furniture did they get enough space on the floor.

"I’m not used to sleeping on the floor. I’ll get sore if I do."

"What a strange coincidence, me too. Why don’t you just take a shower first to clean off and we can discuss this later?"

"And let you steal the bed? No thanks,I’ll just use magic. "

The two of them exchanged several small jabs, but it was clear neither were willing to give up their own comfort.

So Raymond made his decision.

In an instant, he immediately dashed towards the bed. Reaching it within three steps and jumping, only to feel a hand grab him and pull him back right before he was about to touch it. Her reaction speed letting her react to him almost instantaneously.

The moment she overtook him however, he raised his hand at her. Palm open as he used his telekinesis to drag her backwards as well.

If she was going to use her strength for this, then Raymond didn’t consider using his magic as cheating.

Their fighting made quite a small commotion, so Raymond also had to cast a spell to hide the noise in their room.

"Can’t you just sacrifice this one time?Aren’t you a hero?!"

"Not right now! And shouldn’t you let me have it since you’re my shadow?!"

After pushing through his telekinesis however, Ellen successfully managed to lie down on the bed and use the blankets to shield herself.

But Raymond wasn’t the type of person to care about that.

If I can’t have it, then you can’t either!

He wasn’t normally like this, but perhaps Ellen had influenced him too much over the last few years. Because this was something that he could only describe as ’Ellen behavior’.

Even though it was already fully occupied, he still proceeded to jump on top of her anyways.

"RAYM-