“Now tell me, are you willing to pay that amount? If yes, we’ll have that duel right now! I’ll make sure to teach you properly this time.”
Eren said all that in a scolding tone laced with a mild threat. He had never used this harsh voice before. He was always calm and cool-headed. That’s why his little agitation came as a shock to him.
His team members were confused and surprised by his uncalled-for harsh response.
Some of them didn’t know what was said and done between Eren and Renita as they were busy duelling among themselves. But they had understood that whatever the latter said had rubbed their leader off in the wrong way.
Renita remained silent and her cheeks had gotten red. She knew she was pushing her luck. But she did it because she thought there were no consequences. How was she supposed to know Eren would take a simple joke so harshly?
She also felt guilty for pestering him so much. She lowered her voice and head a little and spoke up:
“Of… of course, I’ll pay. And Eren, I’m sorry if my little prank..”
…
“Steve, Ewen, hewe you aawe. Take me in your team, guys!”
Renita wanted to apologize to Eren but was interrupted by a weird sentence thrown their way from somewhere. She followed the source of that voice and saw a medium statured student heading their way.
“I finally found you hewe. I heawd that you aawe in Steve’s team. Take me in it, won’t you? I won’t disappoint you.”
Eren’s team members saw Ramy Richards asking about joining their party out of the blue. Nobody had seen it coming, including Eren.
“Ramy Richards, what are you doing here?”
Eren was already irked by Renita. His head was starting to calm down. But then Ramy came with his sudden demand wanting to join their party. He felt like he had a headache.
The butcher grabbed his forehead to soothe it a little with a light massage and waited for Ramy to answer. The latter told them that he had been looking to meet him and Steve ever since his defeat by Eren’s hands in the intra-class ranking war.
Ramy was immensely impressed by Eren’s performance with him. The fact that his opponent had figured out the way with which Ramy’s spell worked without knowing about it spoke volumes about Eren’s expertise.
Ramy was going to join a relatively well-established party before his defeat. But that match with the butcher had made him realize that there was always someone superior in everything you do.
And like this Eren had his first fanboy! A fanboy with a lisp!
Ramy’s will to follow Eren was so strong that he didn’t budge when he was told that they already had seven fixed members in their team and he could only join as a forever reserve member. He was dissatisfied, yes. But that didn’t discourage him from committing to the team.
Eren wanted to oppose this idea. But then he kept quiet. He pondered a little before okaying Ramy’s demand. There was no loss to be had to him and his team if they were only taking a reserve member in their team. The problem was for Ramy.
Since he’d be treated as a reserve member, Ramy would have to take part in minimum ranking war battle separately from his team if he didn’t get to play. he ‘d also get less share or no share at all in their winnings depending upon his involvement, which was going to be dicey for the most time. But Eren’s team itself had no problem keeping an extra member around.
Eren nodded to Steve on which the latter okayed Ramy’s verbal application.
“By the way, Ramy, what is your class and what was the spell you were trying to cast on me?”
Eren couldn’t help but ask. He needed to know about the newest member in his team to formulate how to make the best use of him:
“Oh, that! Hehe!
My element is sound. And my inhewent natuwe is dissonance. I pwactise a wanking technique welated to sound as well. My class is that of a knight. But
My spell’s name is Suweeal Sound Swords. It lets me fowm two spectwal swowds made of sound vibwations compwessed into swowd fowms. These swowds, fowmed in the awea awoud me aftwew a successful completion of silent incantation, can attack my opponent as pew my will. I can also wield them to pewform basic knight moves. Pweety cool, ain’t it?”
Eren’s and his team members’ brains stopped working trying to decode what the hell Ramy Richards was trying to say using so many Rs in his speech. It was like the guy wanted people to make fun of him.
But Steve couldn’t help asking with suppressed laughter almost breaking past his control:
“So you have a lisp. And your elemental affinity is sound?”
“Yeah. What’s wong?”
Ramy asked with part confusion and part anticipation on his face.
“Wong he says! Hahahaha! Nothing… oh my god. Nothing’s wong here. You are hilarious, Ramy. I’m glad you are part of our team. Now if we could just hire a translator to understand what you said just now, that’d be great! Haha!”
Steve started laughing out loud while holding his stomach. Ramy had said too many lisp-influenced words in one go for him to stay in control. But not everybody followed his lead.
Eren was again put into deep thought after hearing about Ramy’s characteristics. The element of sound indicated derived elemental affinity. The sound element users weren’t usually found around. But they weren’t extremely rare either.
Therefore, there were plenty of techniques for the user to choose from. And yet, Ramy didn’t harmonize his class and its spell at all when he had so many right choices he could make use of.
‘What the fok this guy was thinking when he was trying to attack me with a mid-range spell. He is a fokin Knight for devil’s sake!
Haah! Most teens are stupid. I should lower my expectations. And who am I to judge anyway? It wasn’t like I never made mistakes in my past timeline.’
Eren had this thought as he shook his head and smiled mirthlessly. Now he had another task that lay in front of him. Fine-tune Ramy into a better reserve member of their team.
What the butcher didn’t know was that his upcoming training would birth an exceptional sound element Knight in the future, in the form of Ramy Richards!
=======================
AN: Hi. I know, Ramy’s speech can be painful to read. I have to show the intended lisp in his speech after all. Hope you can read the words by replacing irregular Ws with Rs in words.
Ramy is going to be a fun character in the VEH-verse. He is talented, fearless, and not shy of his lisp at all.
But let me know if it’s too unbearable. I’ll either not show the lisp in writing at all, reduce Ramy’s dialogues overall, or make him talk in the third person.