Chapter 202:Shameful Behavior

Chapter 202: 202:Shameful Behavior

That time of the year again.

The air got a little colder, the winds a little more harsh, clothes thicker and the silence louder.

The academy, usually a hustle and bustle of hundreds of students gradually slowed down it’s activities. Less people wandered the commercial district. While the library and training rooms begun to see more use.

Inside one of these training rooms, were two friends having a very casual spar.

Ellen calmly jumped backwards, evading a massive pillar of ice before it could hit her.

Notching an arrow onto her bow, she sent a golden streak flying through the air.

The arrow struck a shield made of mana, the extreme precision focusing all of the impact onto precisely the weakest part of the shield. Despite the deadly force behind her arrow, she wasn’t worried about any injuries it might cause.

"Do that one more time I’m actually going to lose it."

Naturally, her opponent was none other then Raymond, and she held a rather good grasp of his abilities.

She stuck her tongue out briefly as a taunt, before sending another arrow at him.

Crash!

Breaking through his shield, Raymond swerved his body to the side. A thin red line appearing on his arm as it cut through the sleeves of his clothes. Revealing his right arm fully.

This was the worst part about fighting Ellen, your defenses didn’t mean much to her. Each shield being only as strong as the weakest flaw.

Raymond responded in kind, by creating a dome around her before. Before opening up the top in order to pour in as many spells as he could.

Rain, projectiles made of ice, bolts of yellow electricity, rocks the size of heads. He wasn’t picky. She dodged and weaved through most of them. Although it didn’t matter. He just wanted to annoy her.

Even if it did no actual damage. Just the rain getting her wet was enough.

She loudly scolded him, "Raymond!"

Raymond. Like the very mature person he was. Stuck his tongue back out at her.

"...oh you little b-"

He sent another rain spell at her.

Later, after they had finished sparring. Ellen, still dripping wet from head to toe. Clicked her tongue in annoyance.

Taking off the outer coat and revealing the thin, layered plate armor that protected her body underneath. She let out a sigh, before chucking the wet piece of clothing directly at Raymond.

Unprepared, it hit him directly in the face.

"Ugh, why are you so petty?"

The sweat filled coat, flopped down onto the ground. Leading Ellen to click her tongue at him again.

"Tch, you don’t even appreciate the good things given to you."

"When were dirty clothes suddenly considered good things?"

She put a finger to her chin, "Hmm. Well, if you squeeze all the sweat out and sell it. You could probably make a decent amount?"

"..."

Raymond suddenly fell into a deep silence.

Indeed, for someone like Ellen. Her sweat would definitely be worth a lot to some people...

How horrible, the past Ellen was the type of person so unbelievably oblivious due to her ice queen persona—being emotionally cold, distant, aloof, and unapproachable. That she wouldn’t have even conjured up the thought of selling her own sweat.

Now, Raymond could see very clearly the effects of his own influence on her as well. Especially the part where she suddenly became self-aware of herself, the self-reflection and the introspection.

"You’re so weird."

He could hear the smirk in her tone, "Really~? How do I know you didn’t do anything weird back then? For all I know, you might have secretly collected my hair when I slept or something."

"..."

Raymond suddenly fell into another deep silence.

Unfortunately, the silence itself was already an answer to her.

She froze, turning to him with her mouth open. "No way."

"..."

’Nowaynowaynowaynowaynowaynowaynoway!!’

She had only meant is as a light jab at him, just a small tease. But seeing Raymond’s shy expression only confirmed it even more for her.

At this point, she was practically shaking with excitement. Having found brand new material on Raymond that could serve as future entertainment for at least a year. Her eyes glimmering as she slowly approached him, who was desperately averting eye contact.

She called out, "Hey."

"..."

"Hey. Hey. Hey. Why do you keep looking away~?"

The corners of her lips curled up even more, resembling that of a cat.

"Was I really that gorgeous? Jeez, if you were so obsessed with me. Why didn’t you at least introduce yourself? You might have had a chance you know~?"

"...I-I did."

She paused momentarily, searching through her memories.

"I-in the first year when I was disguised, you walked up to me and asked me who I was."

Ah.

She remembered now, this was back when she had first obtained her innate power. Seeing all the red around him, she had been trying to figure out what it meant.

"That doesn’t count."

She sat down next to him, leaning closer while he again averted his gaze. Leaning away from her.

"So, what did you take from me?"

"..."

"Come on, don’t be like that. Tell me, did you really take my hair when I slept? Although that’s seriously creepy if you did."

"I didn’t."

She leaned in even closer to him, while he tried to maintain a distance from her.

"So what did you take then?"

"...your arrow."

He said it so softly that Ellen almost couldn’t hear it.

"When you were fighting against the Prince of Wrath, when you created the World Crossing Bow Arts. I took an arrow from you."

She focused her eyes on him, despite looking away and partially covering his face. Ellen could still see traces of red on him.

Ellen remembered that moment very well, keeping track of the arrows one had at their disposal was a crucial skill most archers had. That moment was also very important to her since it was when she had realized the World Crossing Bow Arts. The culmination of her life’s work up till that point, and the basis that set her up to become who she was.

Strange to think that a moment where she had thought she was alone was secretly being watched by him the whole time. With his memory, Ellen wouldn’t be surprised if he could even recount how many tiles were on the ground.

"So it was you..."

At the time, she had thought she simply messed up her arrow counting. A rare mistake but not impossible.

To think he had been present at that moment, Ellen couldn’t help but wonder whether he would have helped her out if she ever got into a situation where her life was truly at risk.

She stuck a hand out, flicking him on the forehead.

Tak

He glared at her, "What was that for?!"

"Just felt like it."

***

Raymond let out a massive yawn, calmly walking out of the exam hall. A stark contrast to literally almost everyone else around him.

Instantly, a swarm of nearly a dozen people flew to him. Each with their own questions of the answers.

"What did you get for question 11?! Was it 14g/cm^3?! Please I need to know!"

"Whats your answer for question 14?!"

"Will you marry me?"

"How are you supposed to get the answer for the last question? I swear half the stuff didn’t even match up!"

There was a weird question mixed in there, but Raymond still answered every single one of them.

"No, eleven, no, it does."

Screams of despair erupted around him.

Ignoring all of that, he pushed past them all. Quickly finding Ellen who was also similarly surrounded by other people asking her for the answers.

Raymond almost called them all background characters again, before shutting that thought out. It had been a while since he had put that on his list, yet he still failed to follow it every once in a while.

Hmph, she was just a fraud! She only knew everything because she was a regressor!

But Raymond had to keep all his complaints internal, because she might get angry.

He paused, narrowing his eyes briefly at the people surrounding Ellen.

"..."

"You jealous?"

Raymond turned next to him, finding Lucy and Cador.

He asked her, "What do you mean?"

"You heard me."

"Tch, why would I be jealous? She probably doesn’t even know their names."

He clicked his tongue, unaware of just how hard Lucy was groaning internally. Continuing on with his mini rant.

"I’m not bothered, they’re just trying to get her attention. Wanting to impress her. It’s annoying. For her, and for me."

"They only like her because of her status anyways. They don’t know her like I do. They don’t even know what she’s like."

"And you do?"

"Of course!"

"..."

Lucy stared at him with a strange expression, while Raymond. Still oblivious, casually listed off at least a dozen different things about Ellen, as well as the reasons why, when, where, and even how the people around her stood no chance at forming a real connection with her.

"-so you see. I’m not jealous at all."

"...I see."

Lucy closed her eyes, before exhaling deeply.

Gods, she didn’t want to interfere with anything for fear of ruining the whole thing. Let nature take its course and all that. But nature was taking way too long here! It was just straight up unbelievable!

In the first place, it was a miracle how no one had even told the two yet! It was just so unbelievably clear to literally any third observer!!

’When will it happen already...’

A blue snake quietly slithered out of her collar, staring at her with its beady eyes as it flicked it’s tongue out.

Sssss...

"I know buddy."

Raymond stared at the snake she was talking to. If she had just left the exam Hall, then there was no way she could have returned in order to retrieve Sparky...

Curious, he asked. "They let you bring Sparky inside?"

"Yes."

"They just let you bring him inside?"

She waved it off, "Ah it’s fine. He can’t read anyways."

"..?"

Sssss...

Sparky let out another soft hiss, this time looking at Raymond.

Lucy waved it off, but despite the fact Raymond didn’t speak snake or understand snake facial emotions. Raymond couldn’t help but think that Sparky seemed a bit dejected by that last part...

Sparky turned its head to look at him. A look of mutual understanding in his eyes.

Ssss...

"...i get it man."