"MAGIC DETECTED! MAGIC DETECTED! PLEASE BACK AWAY."

Raymond stared at the bouncer, who then proceeded to stare back at him.

With the bright red flashing lights, and the loud robotic voice announcing his use of magic. The scene might have actually looked a little picturesque if it weren't for the immense amount of danger Raymond was in. Almost straight out of a movie type of picturesque.

"That's funny. There must be a problem with the machine. I think I'll just go now."

"Stop right there."

Unfortunately for the bouncer, he didn't know any magic.

So Raymond got away relatively scot-free. Minus a small missing patch of his clothes. He couldn't exactly chase Raymond far after all, so he just had to run far away enough that he decided it wasn't worth it anymore and gave up.

Raymond sighed, dispelling the illusion magic around him.

Who would have thought a shady place like this would have a magic detector as well as even a magic disruptor inside? Raymond had hoped to disguise himself as a woman in order to sneak through the entrance since he had seen how biased the bouncer was. But the magic detector had clearly seen through his illusion, loudly warning him to step back.

It seemed to be pretty high level as well, given how it had managed to see through his second circle illusion magic. So Raymond doubted he could cast any illusion magic that could fool it.

Illusion magic was out, and sneaking in was out as well. Teleporting inside was out. Time was ticking, the others had went in already and it was just him.

'...no way.'

An image of his possibility clone appeared in his head. Still living inside the training room he had reserved and still working on improving his spells and bringing them up to the current level.

According to her, her cannon event was still a year off into the future. So it wasn't the exact moment that lead to her.

If that was the case, then it should be fine right?

"..."

***

"Age?"

"I'm twenty five."

"Go ahead."

It actually worked...

Raymond felt his own mood sour at the fact that this strategy actually worked.

He wasn't even sure whether to be happy or not. On one hand, it worked. On the other hand, if it didn't work and Raymond had done this for nothing. He might have just started fighting the security for real.

At least he had gotten in. You had to focus on the good things in life he supposed. Even if he had received a few stares.

Looking around, he didn't spot any of the three. Which was to be expected, but it didn't matter. Since in a place like this. There was only one possible location where Ellen would be.

He didn't even need to think about it, he just knew where to look automatically. His Ellen sense just activating in order to find her.

Making his way to the corners and the most quiet part of the place, be immediately spotted her leaning against the walls. It was hard to see with the dark atmosphere, but he could still see her eyes glimmer as the occasional light whizzed by.

"Dammit. Where is he?"

When he focused his hearing, he could hear her muttering under her breath as well.

He casually tapped her shoulder, "Hey."

"Who are you..? Raymond?!"

Even without him saying anything else, she still managed to recognize him after staring for a while. Her eyes widening in shock as she looked at him (or her) up and down.

If not for spending way too much time with Raymond, and being very familiar with his extremely small micro movements and behavior. As well as having very good eyesight, she might have never realized it was him. The fact that he was still wearing the same clothes also helped.

For starters, Ellen actually had to look down on her slightly. Rather then being completely eye-to-eye with him. With long white hair cascading down her back freely, similar to a silk veil and pale skin like fresh snow. Her slender and delicate silhouette, paired with her eyes, similar to that of a frozen lake—it gave her an almost ethereal appearance.

He said bitterly, "It took me a while to get in."

"...I can see that."

Ellen immediately felt at least a dozen new ideas for teasing Raymond appear in her mind. But now wasn't a suitable time.

"Where's the others?"

"Over there. "

Ellen herself didn't actually know where they were, but her innate power let her see red around special individuals, and Noelle and Lucy were individuals who had this red around them.

Simply by activating her innate power and looking around, she could easily find the two.

Grabbing her wrist, Ellen was once again surprised by just how slender she really was. As well as how soft her skin was. Her hand could easily wrap around her wrist. Dragging her along without any resistance whatsoever. In other words, this was some crazy magic at work right now.

The corners of her lips curled up once again, as another twenty ideas for teasing him appeared in her head again.

"Leave me alone will you?"

"Sorry, I can't help it when I see someone like you. Can't I just get you a drink at least?"

Noelle rolled her eyes, a gesture she was sure had to have been seen by her flirt.

Spotting Ellen, she raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar white haired girl she was dragging behind her. Still ignoring the constant chattering from the man next to her.

"Friends of yours? How about I get them a drink and we can all have a good time together?"

Ellen proceeded to ignore him the same way that Noelle did. Not even sparing him anything more then a glance.

Except for Raymond, casually turning to the bartender and raising a finger.

"Give me your most expensive drink."

They might not make use of it, but in Raymond's eyes. This guy might as well just have been a drink dispenser with the words free and unlimited taped onto it.

He might have only been to a club once, but this was a sight he had observed closely. Mainly because the coworker that had dragged him there in the first place, was also the one being used for free drinks.

Raymond hadn't drunk any alcohol for quite a while now, mainly because no one in the Grace mansion would buy a child in their early-adolescence any alcohol, and also because the academy refused to sell any. So he had developed quite a small hankering for it.

It was fine even if he was underage anyways, even if his body was completely different now. His physique as a perfect human still worked perfectly to completely break down any alcohol before it could even begin to make him drunk. Perfect morph triumphed his hastily modified disguise morph after all.

Come to think of it, he was in a morph. While in a morph, morph-ception.

"There we go! Don't get too many of that though, I'm not allowed to spend that much anymore ever since I...nevermind. What's your name pretty lady?"

"...Ellen."

The real Ellen slowly turned her head. Pausing her brief conversation with Noelle as she stared at Raymond. While normally they might have immediately devolved into petty squabbling after a few exchanges, their current situation was more important then that.

"?"

"By the way. Who is she?"

"Guess."

"Is it someone we know?"

"We all know her very well actually."

Noelle immediately felt very intrigued, she was sure that she would definitely remember such an eye-catching figure like her. White hair was a relatively rare feature for awakened to have after all.

"Lily's sisters?"

She shook her head, "Nope, you know her better then them."

"Is she from a Family?"

"Nope."

"I'll just give up, I don't think I've ever seen her before."

Ellen leaned in to whisper, "It's Raymond in a disguise."

"...what?"

After finally processing it for a bit, she physically recoiled backwards. Eyes wide open as she repeated it out loud.

"Raymond?!"

Hearing his name being called, he turned to her. "What?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Nothing. Go back to what you were doing."

Raymond turned his attention back to trying to wring more drinks out of the man, although responding to his real name wasn't the best idea.

His drink dispenser raised an eyebrow, "Raymond? Isn't that a guys name?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. I'm actually a guy and my name's not Ellen."

Raymond sighed, expecting his free drinks to disappear. He only managed to get a total of two glasses, what a waste! He could have gotten at least another four more.

Except he only smiled wider.

He waved a hand, "Ah that's fine. You look pretty for a guy, as long as there's a hole there's a goal am I right?"

"..."

Raymond unknowingly clenched his entire body.

If there wasn't a magic disruptor device preventing magic from being cast inside this club. Raymond might have just blown the whole place up.

And he could already hear Ellen snickering as she listened in on their conversation.

"...this isn't my real appearance, I actually look very different but I'm using magic to change how I look currently."

"Ah. That's a shame, but I don't really mind that as well to be honest. I swing both ways if you know what I mean, although my parents don't really like that."

"...i'm only 16."

"How old do you think I am?"

"How would I know? I don't even know your name, but you look like you're in your twenties already."

He sighed, running a hand through his hair and messing up his neat hair. Giving him a younger, more wild look immediately.

He introduced himself, "David Covinster, from the Covinster Family. I'm only 17, do I really look that old?"

"Covinster?"

"Don't expect me to do any fighting though, I'm just an Arts expert."

Covinster at least seemed to raise their kids decently, because David was much nicer then other noble children. Spoiled maybe, but he wasn't straight up rotten like Troy.

It was unfortunately, a very low bar.

This info was also very helpful in a different way however.

"David, do you come here often?"

"Like once a month maybe? Place is nice, and the women here are nice too. But the number of gangs here is annoying. They don't touch me since I'm from Covinster, but they always threaten my girlfriends."

"Then do you happen to know where the True Disciples base is?"

David stared at him with an incredulous look.

"You're already here though?"