Descending Into A Novel

November 22nd was a very special day.

Actually, it was a completely ordinary day for ninety nine point seven percent of the population. But it was a very special day for three people.

Originally it was only a special day for one, but then the second had been lazy and simply copied the first. Followed up by the third wanting to share with the first. Ending up with the three of them now having the same special day.

The specialness was naturally, their birthdays.

Every time Ellen was reminded of what a coincidence it was that they the three of them shared a birthday. She felt her eye twitch uncontrollably. Unfortunately, saying the truth would be minorly catastrophic so she had to refrain herself.

At least for Raymond it was fine, the two had already experienced four shared birthdays after all. But the fact that she was also the cause for Erin choosing to have the same birthday was what really made her sigh.

It was already far too late to change it anyways. Even Erin’s papers which had been delayed, since she was undocumented by right of not being human. Had now been changed with the help of the academy and the government to newly reflect her birthday. Changing it now would just be a hassle, and she wasn’t sure whether Erin would agree to it or not.

"Raymond, Erin. Wake up."

After having woken up early like usual. Ellen had enough time to go jogging, buy a small snack for herself, more exercise and training, take a shower, make breakfast, eat breakfast and rest for an hour. Whereas the two slugs she shared a bed with were still completely knocked out cold to the point they almost seemed dead.

Raymond had once said that since Erin was a dragon, and they had longer sleep cycles. It excused her own over sleeping, but it definitely didn’t excuse his own.

Seeing the two of them still asleep again, she lightly poked the two of them.

"Five more minutes..."

"Five more minutes..."

Erin quietly shifted, her arms wrapped around her own tail as she copied Raymond. Even repeating his exact words. Despite the absolutely adorable sight, she had no intention of letting either of them sleep for another four more hours. Not when the sun was almost halfway through the sky already.

"We have a lot of stuff planned today you know? If you two keep sleeping in so late, you’re gonna miss it all."

"Mmh..."

Erin let out a sad groan, before forcing her body up.

The promise of fun was enough to get her up, as for Raymond...

Different problems required different solutions after all. She stood over him, her eyes locking onto a certain part of his neck again as her multicolored eyes glimmered. Licking her lips briefly.

One minute later, Raymond was fully awake. Staring at her wide eyed as she simply smiled back at him.

"We’re gonna be late."

"...okay."

There was always a road for those willing to search for one after all.

Ellen was the only one in the family to plan anything after all, Raymond and Erin might give a few suggestions about what they wanted to do. But otherwise, they just let Ellen decide on everything.

"Dad! What’s taking you so long?!"

"In a minute..."

He let out a big yawn, putting on a simple outfit Ellen had picked out for him. Meanwhile, the two of them impatiently tapped their feet at Raymond. Scolding him for taking so long.

She covered Erin’s ears, "You know it’s your birthday as well right?"

"...It’s not?"

"This is the fifth time you’ve said that."

"When was the other four times?"

"Every other birthday before this."

She sighed, she really wanted to just give him a good flick on the forehead right then and there. But she didn’t, letting go of Erin’s ears.

"Let’s just go already."

***

"Let’s take a few photos before going back."

"It’s the end of the day already?"

Raymond and Erin had basically lost track of time after the first hour. The only thing that let them keep track was Ellen’s constant reminders to drag them to their next planned activity. At which point they would then lose themselves and the cycle would repeat again.

Renting out an entire shopping mall in the capital, renting out the entire petting zoo, renting out an entire butterfly garden...there was a lot of renting out places.

Setting aside the copious amounts of money Ellen (more specifically Rayez) had spent just for the three of them. This was easily the most extravagant, and the most fun birthday Raymond had ever experienced in his life.

"Say cheese!"

"Cheese!"

Ellen lifted up Erin over her head, carrying her on her shoulders. The two of them smiling as they spoke in unison.

"Raymond, aren’t you going to join us as well?"

"...sure."

Setting up a countdown and carefully positioning the camera so it wouldn’t tip over. He stood next to her, with Erin sitting on both of their shoulders.

Luckily the two of them were still the same height. Which made such a thing possible. Otherwise, he would have been made fun of by Erin.

Click

"I know you like taking pictures, but we’ve taken like hundreds of pictures at this point."

Ellen pursed her lips, recognizing the bizzareness. She was more of a quality over quantity person after all.

"Mom and dad keeps asking me for pictures."

"Ah."

Ahem. Well, they were the ones funding this entire day for them after all. In order to make up for Raymond missing out the last year, as well as the fact that there was now a third celebrant. Rayez had made the surprising decision to give Ellen carte blanche to celebrate. Something that definitely wasn’t easy for him considering he still regularly hounded Raymond over the constant payments he was forced to make to the mage association.

That was the excuse Rayez had given them, but Raymond was pretty sure that Clara (his wife and Ellen’s mom) had played a pretty significant role in this as well. That man was always weak against his wife for some reason, this was despite the fact he was an S+ rank. While Clara was only a healer with barely any fighting capability.

Looking over at the several dozen pictures they took that had little to no differences. Ellen nodded in satisfaction. "This will do."

"Can we finally cut the cake now?"

Erin was practically jumping on the spot in all her excitement. Her big red eyes sparkling as her tail wagged uncontrollably.

In all fairness, Raymond could also understand her excitement. He didn’t even know how or when Ellen had managed to prepare such a thing. But the current tower in front of them was nearly as tall as Erin, and big enough to fit two Erin’s inside if they squeezed against each other.

Whoo-!

Lifting Erin up so she was head level with the cake, she blew out the candles. Her saliva being blocked by a spell Raymond hastily prepared.

He held out the plastic knife to Erin, "Do you want to cut it first?"

"Mmh!"

It might have been Raymond and Ellen’s birthday, but it was Erin’s first. So they wanted to make it a bit more special for her.

It was also why it was just the three of them. Despite the others complaining heavily about missing Erin’s birthday. With the only thing able to satiate them being the promise that they would get to celebrate it the day after.

Directing Erin to cut the cake, Raymond made sure that her entire smile was caught on camera. Dragons didn’t age linearly, growing up in stages which was their equivalent of going up the ranks. Even a thousand years into the future, the two of them wanted to make sure that Erin would remember this event forever, and since her memories might be a bit unreliable at this age. This would have to make do.

"Heheh."

Seeing her big goofy smile, it was worth it as well.

"Here you go mom! And dad!"

"?"

She held out the first slice to the both of them, "The internet says you should give it to the birthday person first, and the one you love the most second!"

"But you’re the birthday person?"

"Dad! It’s yours as well!"

"...Thank you."

Raymond gratefully accepted it, before handing it over to Ellen.

"...were you even listening to her?"

"What?"

"Never mind, just give me that."

Ellen snatched it out of his hands, spearing a piece onto a fork. She held it out to him.

Instructing him, "Say ahh."

"...is this about last week?"

She smiled at him, while also simultaneously glaring at him with her eyes.

"Do it before I get mad."

Raymond complied, because he was obedient like that.

Click

When Erin learnt how to take pictures using a phone was beyond Raymond. When she somehow learnt his password was even further beyond him.

Looking at them like this. They truly did resemble a real family.

Raymond picked up Erin before she could do anything else with his phone. Ruffling her hair.

"How about you put that down and we can open some of your presents instead?"

"Okay!"

If the extravagant activities today weren’t enough. Erin had also received a literal mini mountain of presents. Her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Is that all for me?!"

"Who else would it be for?"

***

Birthdays were always a bit of an odd thing for Raymond.

During his childhood in the palace, it was treated as just an ordinary day. Since his father believed that excessive coddling could lead to him developing to be spoilt or becoming reliant on his status as prince. He had lived a childhood free of any affection from anyone outside of a few of his instructors, his brother and most importantly his mother.

They were denied luxuries deemed unnecessary. Personal servants, extravagant clothes and more. Which lead to their life being relatively mediocre in the palace.

Looking back, it was remarkably similar to Ellen’s upbringing.

It wasn’t much, but they had tried to at least celebrate it each time. Even with just minor things.

After that, Raymond had spent the next several centuries living in the tower with Anna. Busy with his own magic studies, mana cultivation and taking care of Anna, the long seclusion had warped his sense of time drastically. Leading to him often forgetting his own birthday. Often missing it for decades at a time.

He had tried to remedy it during his next two centuries of travel. Using them as sort of anchor points for his own humanity. The action of celebrating his own birthday helping to preserve his own sanity from living for so long.

Which lead to more problems. After several centuries, celebrating his birthday became more of a chore if anything. It lost what made it special and significant, it became monotonous. For someone who had lived for so long, all the years began to meld together. Trying to make each one a special occasion was practically impossible. So he simply gave up, if it passed then so be it. There was always thousands more ahead of him.

In his 500 plus years of life, Raymond estimated he only celebrated his own birthday around 150 times.

One out of a hundred was special, but one out of two hundred, three hundred, five hundred. Knowing just how much longer he had ahead of him made them all the same.

So Raymond didn’t really care about celebrating his own birthday, seeing others that he cherished and cared about being happy for theirs—that was already good enough for Raymond.

’Five years already...’

Five years was still quite a bit of time even for him. To think he had spent five years on Terra like this already, it was starting to catch up to his time spent of Earth. With roughly another seventeen more years before he would fully regain his strength, the thought of his old life felt alien to him.

He hadn’t thought about his apartment on Earth in a while. The cashier of the convenience store he frequented that always tried to flirt with him. His only friend at work that constantly smoked and tried to convince him to join. His boss that always hated him because of how liked he was.

None of it really felt significant anymore to him.

His heart quietly fluttered, eyes wide open as he admired Ellen’s sleeping beauty. Erin having moved around in her sleep enough for him to see her clearly.

A strange emotion welled up inside of him.

How strange...in these years. Raymond’s life had changed drastically, all because of an impulse decision he had made. He didn’t even recognize the kind of person he was anymore. Having been dyed in her colors. He didn’t even recognize the current Ellen either, becoming someone vastly different then her previous self.

He became childish, and immature. Even crying in her arms. Petty and spiteful for all the mean little things she did. He did things unthinkable to the Raymond of the past. He had even started taking care of another child, which was something he didn’t think he would ever do after Anna.

When was the last time he had ever been so happy with someone else? Even after all this time, every interaction with Ellen still felt fresh and exciting. Like a delight to his every senses.

To be honest, Raymond felt that even if given the chance to restart. He would still have chosen to help Ellen anyways. He could barely imagine a life without her at this point.

A peaceful, happy life. Wasn’t that what he had always wanted?

.

.

.

"...thank you."

His whisper was quiet, barely even audible to himself.

Still, it reached her.