Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 116 - 111: After Victory

"I must say, you exceeded my expectations this time, Young Master.", Amy praised, with a smile on her face, but my gut told me she was in a very scary mood.

But, yes, that was my plan.

Luring out demon from the barrier towards Amy.

A simple plan with not much thinking behind it, but a feasible one.

Since, luring the demon horizontally wasn’t possible as he always stayed near the Tree of Light, I decided to lure him out vertically.

The logic behind it was simple, the barrier couldn’t expand infinitely into the sky or the ground, so it had to curve, meaning it had a height as well.

I just had to find out that height.

Of course, for us low ranks the barrier was non existent, so we needed to communicate with the Archmages outside the barrier, without making it obvious.

The simplest way, our amulets couldn’t call anyone who was outside the barrier or vice versa, so we had to do this manually.

Fostoria helped me with this one, firing one or two arrows high into the sky that said Amy and height at a special frequency that only kitsune or other beastmen could hear.

Being the intelligent maid she was, she understood what I wanted and carved the height she found on a wooden stick, before she calculated all kinds of stuff like air flow, moisture and more before dropping the stick, so that it fell right on my head without using magic.

After that it was simple, but at the same time difficult. I had to use all my brain to figure out how to lead a hundreds year old demon that high in the sky, without him suspecting anything.

Thankfully, the barrier was non existent even for the demon, and he didn’t know about the Archmages that tagged along with us, leading to the current situation.

The situation in which the demon’s head rolled.

Quietly, eerily easily, effortlessly. Even with my great stat boost, I couldn’t see Amy move, but the clean cut at his throat from which I could see blood spurting out was an undeniable proof that she did.

And I am glad that I couldn’t, because that meant I could still have that invincible image of her in my heart, even if it was false.

"Oops~", my maid said, as she caught the demon’s head that was about to fall down.

’Yea, nice acting Amy…’, I thought as I looked at her doing her usual antics.

A storm of negative emotions assaulting my mind as I saw the maid toying with the opponent who almost killed me who knows how many times.

Frustration, hatred, inadequacy, helplessness, but the most prevalent emotion was relief. A relief so profound that I wanted to cry.

"Are you alright?", an unimaginably beautiful woman with flowing blonde hair, golden eyes and fairy like armor suddenly asked me from my side, almost scaring me.

’How the fuck I didn’t notice her?’, was the first thing I thought, yeah, that manly instinct was still carved into my brain. Before I realized her, or should I say his, identity.

"Zuri, you’re here.", I stated the obvious, almost like a fool.

But you can’t blame me, a few seconds ago I was fighting tooth and nail, getting the daylights l knocked out of me once every ten seconds, almost getting killed tens of times, trying to succeed the only feasible plan I could think of in such a state… and now, I was in the company of a drop dead gorgeous Archmages, completely safe?

I just couldn’t register that fact so easily.

As if sensing my distress, Zuri patted my back, his soft hand injecting a cool energy into my soul, soothing it, calming it.

Then, with his hand over my shoulder, he patted it again as he said over a mind link, ’You stalled against a B ranked vessel for an hour while being a D rank yourself. You should be proud, Young Master, not frustrated.’

And honestly, even though what he said was very true and was supposed to make me feel good, I was feeling good in a different kind of way!

How should I say it? His body was soft!

Soft and feminine, completely different from a man’s body I knew! I don’t know what he said later, but all I did was to try hard not to blush.

Thankfully, our close proximity didn’t last long, and he separated from me soon enough, leaving me with a scent similar to sunset…?

’I should limit my company with him, or I’ll start swinging that way.’, I seriously thought, cursing my past self for thinking that such a character would be a great addition to the story.

But well, thanks to him as well as seeing Amy tossing pieces of his Varkain’s body into an cubical orange barrier, I wasn’t tense anymore.

At that exact moment, the duration of [Enchant Overdrive] ended. And along with it, my equipment stopped working, which also meant I returned to being a normal D rank magic user.

’Whoa!’

I fell but I didn’t.

The float spell that I had been using being disrupted with the loss of my equipment, along with all my spells that I had been using.

Of course, Zuri could catch me especially with her, no, I mean his, hand on my shoulder, but someone was faster.

-Fluff

-Fluff

With a soft bosom and a total of seven tails wrapping themselves around me, I wasn’t falling anymore.

’ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, YOUNG MASTER!!??’, that was the loudest mind scream I heard in my life.

And though, Amy didn’t say anything, on the outside, she kept on yapping in my mind, ’Are you alright? Feeling nauseous? Or maybe a headache. Do you need a potion? No, not a potion you have already taken a lot of them. I… I’ll have Zuri heal you! He’s a lot better at healing than me. But is your mind alright, Young Master? You have to tell him properly when he heals you. I… I don’t want you to have a single scar from this battle, be it physical or mental. Master’s array can protect your mind from external interference but you can still be traumatized! Also, Young Master… punish me! I was completely useless wasn’t I!? You… you can do anything you want to me! I’ll bark if you ask me to bark, I’ll meow if you want me to mew! And…’

’She’ll mew?!’, I chuckled, feeling that it was good stopping point.

’Okay, stop! Stop now! I have decided your punishment. Do a meow now.’

Even Amy who was stone faced on the outside, couldn’t help but look at me as she heard my command, ’Right now, Young Master?!’

"Yes."

Then, with her palm hiding her mouth, she lifted me up closer with her tails, as she mewed, "Meeoww… meow, meow, meoww… That’s enough, right?", she whispered, her cheeks tinged with pink.

"Ugh, yeah.", I said kinda entranced by her embarrassed look, along with many emotions that her mewing evoked.

Feeling better, I casted float on me again, getting off Amy, as soon as possible. Just like Zuri, her softness was dangerous!

"Are you alright, young one?", Archmage Helden, who was floating not far away, asked as if he was waiting.

"Um, yes your excellency, the Elementalist, I am completely fine.", I said with proper decorum.

Nodding, he turned to Amy.

Of course, he just asked that for courtesy.

"Lady Amelia, is this young one your disciple?"

"Yes, Mr. Helden. Is there any problem?"

"Of course not. It’s just surprising that someone like you with such high standards took someone as a disciple. I must say though, he surely is remarkable."

"Thank you, Mr. Heldon, but can we just get to the point? My disciple needs rest. Surely, your does too."

"Ah, yes. Ray, was it? He helped my disciple a lot in her quest to find the elf’s ancient deity, I wanted to reward him if possible.", the Archmage said, smoothly as if his words didn’t imply a lot of things.

"Whatever do you mean by that, Archmage Helden? My disciple was just doing his job, and protecting his property.", Amy said with narrowed eyes.

"His property? You surely don’t mean the elf’s deity, right? It’s not something someone-", the Archmage too narrowed his eyes as he heard my maid’s tough reply.

"We own it, Archmage Helden.", Amy cut the Elementalist off, her tone leaving no doubt of rebuttal as she turned to me, "Show me that contract, Ray."

"I’m sure you can read this, Archmage Heldon.", she said holding up the mercenary contract I signed with the Baron, "’Clause no. 5, Ray Niger will be the owner of the object Church of Light worships.’, the official contract states. Unless you want to say that this object on Empire’s territory doesn’t belong to the Empire, undermining the imperial authority, that object is my disciple’s.", Amy said, flaring up her mana.

Pausing, the Elementalist seemed to think for a bit before he said, "Unfortunately, I haven’t heard about any such church.", not backing down either as he flared his own mana as well.

It was quiet stare down, with no spells being fired, but just that stare down created such a heavy environment that it felt suffocating.

’Wait, wait, wait! Are they really gonna fight here!?’, I panicked a little.

If a B rank whose spells were nerfed to 80% almost killed me so many times, won’t an Archmage’s random stray spell kill me for real?

I was honestly scared, especially after I saw how easily Amy dealt with that demon.

"I leave Ray to you, Zuri.", Amy said, as the she got ready to fight, her maid uniform transforming into her purple red armor, with a series of clicks and magical sparks as her bearing changed to that of a warrior.

And the world responded to her change. The shadows grew darker, the birds fled and the animals hid in their dens, creating a quiet environment in which shadows reigned supreme. It felt as it the shadows would swallow the horizon on one side.

On the other side though, a staff appeared in the Elementalist’s hand as the colors seemed to get brighter. The earth, the light, the winds, the trees everything seemed much more vibrant and alive, as if they would come to life any second.

"Remember it’s you who chose to fight.", the Elementalist said as he got ready too, raising his staff. Just that action filled the sky with innumerable colorful magic circles.

"What fight? I’m just punishing an Archmage who is rebelling against the Empire!", Amy declared. Unlike Archmage Heldon, no magic circles appeared behind her back, but she was ready to explode as well.

The tension in the air increased every second as two invisible auras one dark, one vibrant clashed silently in the sky.

"Wait! Captain! We don’t want to kill him! I’ll fight, you take care of the Youn- Young one!!", Zuri quickly went to dissuade the situation, nearly letting out my secret.

"Don’t worry Zuri, I won’t kill him, I’ll just injure him permanently, just a little."

You don’t have the eyes of someone who is going to stop at a little Amy!

"That’s exactly what we don’t want! Ray, what are you doing, help me! Ask your teacher to protect you!"

"Ah, yes...!", I, who was suffocating under pressure belatedly went to persuade Amy, ready to use my puppy eyes to the fullest to pull her back.

Turns out, there was no need.

As the horizon was slowly coming alive with colors, Fostoria quickly came in flying as she interjected, "That’s enough, Master."

Without turning to look at his disciple who was now floating beside him, Elementalist asked, "What is?"

"This fight. There is no need to actually go through it."

"And why is that?"

"Because the thing we are fighting for, is useless. Unlike what is written in the elven scripts, the Tree of Light is inert. we can’t use it when its asleep and it is too powerful to use when its disturbed. We don’t have to invest our resources in something so uncertain."

And while it sounded like she was logically thinking, it was pretty obvious she didn’t want her ’master’ to fight against two archmages alone. After all, it wasn’t the first time Magic Engineering had to deal with something like this.

"Inert?!", Finally turning towards her, the Archmage lowered his staff as he asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what it sounds. We can’t use its power in its base form, and it is too volatile to be of use in its active form. Master, you saw what happened to old man who tried to use it. He didn’t last a minute before he turned into dust. Even the vessel gave up on harvesting the power after seeing that. It’s best we give up too, given the circumstances.", the elf explained with a straight face.

"Are you really saying that my disciple? After nearly chasing after it for two years?", the Archmage asked, frowning.

"Yes, master."

"Haa, your legacy, your wish.", Archmage Heldon sighed rubbing his brows, as relaxed his magic power, and turned to Amy, "I was looking forward to our fight but it seems it won’t be possible today, lady Amelia."

"Good for you, Mr. Heldon.", Amy replied, not so politely, going to back to being a maid as well.

"Arrogant.", the Elementalist commented waving off the magic circles, before he turned to Fostoria, "Go ahead to the city and pack your bags, I am taking you back with me. I’ll interrogate the vessel meanwhile."

I sighed in relief as the situation defused.

"Then, I am going down.", I informed Amy who was going to interrogate the demon along with the Elementalist.

Honestly, I couldn’t wait to get my reward anymore.

Before, I could though, "Here.", Fostoria who was leaving as well threw a small box at me, "Take this. The demon was fooling us about the location of Tree of Light as well. The place he was guarding was just a decoy. This will lead you to the real location.", she explained as I opened the box, finding a compass with a leaf of Tree of Light fused in its base.

’Right, she did kill Scheleth for this compass. But…’, I turned to look at the Archmages who were interrogating the demon, ’Sorry, Scheleth, I can’t avenge you.’, I sighed, shifting my thoughts in another direction.

Towards the Tree of Light.

And now that I think about it, that makes sense. No way the demon could set up a demonic magical array right in front of the Tree of Light’s entrance, who rejected demonic mana.

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"I guess, you didn’t tell me because you were gonna go for it yourself."

"Yes, in the end we were competitors who joined hands for a same goal.", the elf girl cooly declared.

"But you gave up for the safety of your teacher?", I asked.

"So, what if I did? I wasn’t lying when I said that it is useless.", she said without showing slightest hint of weakness, "I hope you don’t realize this soon and invest a lot of your resources into it before failing.", she added before turning around.

’I can atleast do this.’, I thought as I saw her back towards me.

Gathering whatever strength in my arm that could, which wasn’t much, I moved through the air using winds, and punched Fostoria in the back.

It was a mundane punch, slow and weak, by magic user standards atleast.

It was weak enough that, Fostoria turned around and blocked it easily, looking at me with an confused expression.

To her, I stated, "Atleast take care of that Runesmith’s family."

"You… how do you know that?", she asked, solely shocked about that fact, no trace of remorse on her face.

’Not that I am much different.’, I ridiculed the man I had become as I answered, "I was the one who commissioned this."

"I see… it’ll be difficult to take care of them in literal sense, so I’ll just give them some money, if you insist.", the elf said, after thinking more practically that I thought.

"I do.", I paused, staring at the elf girl until she nodded, before adding, "Goodbye then, Fostoria."

I left, following the direction the compass showed, finally, towards the Tree of Light.