Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 135:Raymond’s Past?

Raymond opened the door to his apartment, casually walking in and removing his shoes.

Today was one of those rare days where he was all alone, with Ellen taking Erin out for clothes shopping. Raymond had his entire apartment all to himself.

Opening his refrigerator, he let out a sigh.

"I knew this day would come. But I didn’t think it would be this fast."

The cloaked man sitting in his living room smiled.

"Rest assured, I have no intention of causing a scene."

"You want anything to drink? I’m afraid I only have water and juice however."

"Oh that’s fine. I’m only here for a while."

Grabbing a glass of apple juice for himself, Raymond sat directly across the cloaked man.

"So? What do you want from me?"

Raymond didn’t need to use his senses to tell him, just the pure feeling he was giving off was enough.

This man was definitely a demon contractor.

Demonic organizations constantly kept track of young geniuses and the current SS ranks of humanity. The former would likely become their future threats and the latter was their current threats. So they needed to be prepared to fight back or learn to counter them.

In the past Zachary’s group was the one being heavily monitored. Now, Raymond’s existence had sped up the process by several months already.

Raymond also couldn’t help but mentally slander the academy’s security right now.

"Well. First of all, it may be hard to believe this. But us demon contractors aren’t as united as the propaganda would like you to assume."

Raymond nodded, demons were demons after all, and demon contractors would usually inherit some demonic characteristics based on the demon they contracted with. So infighting between demon contractors was as common as infighting between demons.

The man continued, "For this reason, there has been many...discussions on what to do with you. Such a talented individual like yourself shouldn’t go to waste after all."

Once again, his high potential score was coming back to bite him in the neck.

"So we want to offer you, a chance to become one of us. Think about this very carefully Raymond Vance, you have the opportunity to secure a contract with a demon of unbelievable strength. You can gain power, you can gain all the riches you want, you can gain everything you could ever want in life."

Raymond stared at the man, before busting out into laughter.

After finally calming down, he replied.

"That’s nice and all but...what’s the point?"

"Isn’t it boring Raymond? With such talent, I’m sure everything in the world must be so easy to you. We can offer you something truly worth your effort."

Hah. So that was what they thought of him?

Some sort of genius who was bored of the world?

"Lets see. What’s the point of power now when I know I’m going to be the strongest in a few years? Riches? No offence but I doubt you guys are richer then the Grace Family. There’s nothing you can offer me to be honest."

He added, "Besides, if I became a demon contractor. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy so many things anymore. I wouldn’t be able to eat ice cream in public. I wouldn’t be able to travel and enjoy the world, Id be hunted down everywhere I went!"

"You could live on the demonic continent."

"Pft. No thanks. I much prefer it here."

Yeah right, living here was so much better then the demonic continent. Raymond would rather be homeless here then a rich man there.

At least the main threat Raymond faced here was wild monsters! Not humans or demons scheming to kill him!

"Hmmm. Just to make this clear. Is it the idea of becoming a demon contractor that you hate or the idea of not being able to live here?"

"The latter."

"So you have no qualms about signing a contract with a demon?"

He shrugged, "As long as it doesn’t affect my life negatively."

The cloaked man rubbed his chin, deep in thought.

"Hmmm. I didn’t wish to reveal this so soon. But I believe this may help to convince you."

Well that was definitely one way to pique his interest.

His brain immediately spun, churning out several ideas. Some sort of valuable treasure? Perhaps a rare magical component or spell? Maybe even a precious encyclopedia? All goodies Raymond would love, though he doubted they would offer anything truly valuable to him right now.

"Actually. We know who your parents are."

"..."

"..?"

What in the world was he talking about?

"Haven’t you ever found it strange Raymond Vance?"

"Someone like you. There’s no way you could ever have been born into a normal family. Abandoned at birth at an orphanage. Your history is much more complicated then you realize."

...Raymond had to utilize his years of experience in this moment. Concealing the smile that was about to creep up on his face at any moment.

"The truth is Raymond. You are one of ours from the start."

Acting as if he was still absorbed in the cloaked man’s words. Raymond narrowed his eyes, faithfully enacting the role of someone suspicious yet curious.

"I’m sure you’ve heard of Lysandra?"

"The current contractor of Grand Duchess of Wrath?"

There were seven grand dukes or duchess in total. Each ruling over their own clan. At the peak of SS-rank, the only humans that could fork a direct contract with them had to be on near equivalent strength.

It sounded like as if humanity had more SS-ranks, but note often then not. Humanity’s SS-ranks were almost always completely outclassed by the demonic SS-ranks despite being the same rank. The same as how Raymond could absolutely outclass anyone in this dimension despite being in the same rank.

"She is your mother."

"..?"

Now Raymond really had to hold in his smile.

According to that, it meant Raymond now shared a connection with Audrina. With her being a demon from the clan of Wrath, and Raymond’s ’mother’ being the contractor for the grand duchess of the clan.

It also meant Raymond technically held the authority to control Audrina. Since his position was nearly at the top of the chain in the clan. He could order around most demons that were below him.

"Then who is my father?"

Raymond didn’t believe a si gle lick of what he was saying. But it was definitely entertaining to hear about!

"Malakar, the current contractor for Grand Duke of Lust."

Wow. This would definitely have been a scandal within the demonic organizations. If it was real of course.

Even funnier was the assumption of the grand dukes and duchesses.

They were called the grand duke or grand duchess. But they didn’t really have gender.

They embodied their sin after all, their very presence would influence anyone nearby to lose themselves in their emotions and commit their corresponding sin. The amount of demonic energy they contained alone was enough to make regular humans go mad and die on the spot before they could be influenced into committing a sin.

The grand duke or duchess of gluttony could be a beautiful woman who loved to eat non-sto, or they could become an ugly man who would force feed others to the point of bursting. It just depended on their mood.

So gender was something that was meaningless to them. They regularly morphed their appearances and more in order to control their own demonic energy.

Of course, this was something that only a few knew, and this man in front of him clearly was not one of the few in the know.

"Shouldn’t I have been born with demonic energy then? Or at least, why wait until now to reveal all this?"

The only part of his face which was visible under his cloak, which was his mouth—smiled.

"I’m afraid I can’t say for now."

"Then what can you say?"

"Not much. But I do have something I must earn you about."

The man handed him a slip of paper.

"Currently, the Black Legion has already started planning an attack on you in particular on your next mission when you leave the academy."

Even the attack by the Black Legion has also been sped up.

Previously, it had occurred only a few months into the third year, right before the Academy’s Rising Star Tournament when the Apex Union attacked. Now it was occurring not even halfway into their second year.

At least they had some warning in advance now.

His next special class mission was in a week. It was supposed to be another pretty standard mission once again. But clearly it wasn’t going to be normal.

He sighed internally, mentally preparing himself.

There was no point in just skipping the mission. They would just wait until he eventually did come out of the academy.

He just had to hope that the instructor that followed them would be able to protect them sufficiently. The Black Legion likely wouldn’t be able to send out any high ranked individuals since most were kept under strict control.

If they sent an S-rank for example, to match their instructor. Then that wouldn’t be enough, but if they sent more, then their instructor would naturally call in for reinforcements. Then both sides would repeat until the fight got too big to conceal, then they would declare a war and their fight would no longer be hidden, and just a whole lot of problems.

The other main issue, was that if the Black Legion sent out too many of their high rank strength. Other demonic organizations would seize this opportunity to cause catastrophic damage.

There was no friends, only advantages and disadvantages.

The cloaked man, stood up bowing slightly.

"I believe it it time for me to leave now. The academy will notice my presence within a few moments."

Without waiting for Raymond to reply. The man snapped his fingers. Disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Leaving only a very humored Raymond behind.

With the cloaked man gone, Raymond could finally release the laugh he was holding in.

And boy did it feel amazing.

He had zero intentions of ever becoming a demon contractor. But by acting as if he did, he could obtain free valuable info such as this!

Unbeknownst to the cloaked man, he had just done exactly as Raymond and Ellen wanted.