Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 67 - 66: The city of Lueurre.

A carriage that reeked of luxuriousness moved across a valley.

A strange valley that looked natural, felt natural, but was anything but natural.

The valley...it was mystifying.

It was blinding.

So full of natural mana, that some even suspect if it was actually natural mana.

But of course, the carriage didn’t stop or even slow down to appreciate the valley’s mystic beauty.

It simply blew past the valley, its steeds, a pair of demonic horses, the best steeds available, pulled the carriage with such strength that within minutes they were out of the valley, into the plains.

The sunlight from the three suns that was blocked in the valley, fell on the carriage again, causing the Rayne to squint his chestnut-colored eyes.

But even with sunlight falling straight in his eyes, he didn’t close them. Not because he was too committed to his job or he was afraid of the carriage going off track.

No, that wasn’t it.

He wasn’t closing his eyes, cause he was fascinated by the scene before him.

An impossibly large tree stood before him.

A tree that pierced the clouds. A tree whose crown blocked the sun. A tree whose roots couldn’t be contained by the Earth, forming a valley.

The tree gave the city of Lueurre its moniker, the largest tree in existence.

The Atlas.

The tree that touched the heavens.

After a grueling journey they were finally here, their first stage.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

***

The carriage moved forward, a shadow covering it again as it got closer to the city.

The shadow being nothing but the shade of the gigantic tree, or should I say the shadow of the second floor of the city?

It was fascinating in its own way, but of course we didn’t come here to sight-see, nor did we have the time to appreciate it, so we moved forward.

Towards the gate of the city, that had a long line waiting in front of it.

Of course, with the air of luxury we had, we didn’t just join the queue. Instead, we bypassed it and moved forward.

Of course, there were many people that had a problem with that, but no one there was foolish enough to mess with someone who could potentially be a VIP.

Thus, our short trip to the gate was smooth sailing so to say.

Only till the gate though. As we reached in front of it-

-HALLTTT!!!

A thunderous voice boomed.

’Hmm, a human, a were-men and a what?’

My brows scrunched up as I was unable to identify the race of the last gatekeeper, the one that had shouted.

He wasn’t tall, but his physique was well defined, if I had to say he was the short but well built type. That along with his big fluffy ears and tail...his race was a mystery for me.

’And he is not the only one.’

I thought, as I scanned the crowd waiting in front of the gate.

’The races in this city are indeed a lot more diverse than Ellesmere. I can’t even name many of them.’

I thought till that, before the gatekeeper stepped forward and came near our carriage.

Following his movements, I too jumped down from the carriage and waited for him.

What I didn’t expect was, for him to be so polite.

"Aneles, the Head Gatekeeper of the South gate of Lueurre greets respected guest."

The gatekeeper said, and it was only when he opened his mouth that I saw them. His long front teeth, causing me to guess.

’A squirrel-man?’

I almost laughed out loud as I thought of this, but with miraculous self-control I barely managed to hold it in.

’Since he is being so polite, instead of lashing out and asking for an ID as I expected him to, I will humor him.’

I thought, nodding at his greeting as he continued.

"Resected Guest, you are about to enter the city of Lueurre. And though I know it is inconvenient can you please show me your IDs?", or so he said, not asking us a reason to cut the line.

’Maybe he was trying to discern something from my ID?’, I thought as I replied, "Of course, I can. This is your job after all.", my attitude not of some rich VIP but of someone who had just won a lottery.

A flash of understanding passed through the gatekeepers’ eyes as he heard my tone, along with subtle changes in his aura.

Though he still was polite, he wasn’t subservient anymore.

I watched all this silently, carefully observing the changes in this E-ranked, but experienced gatekeeper’s aura as I took out my mercenary card and gave it to him.

The gatekeeper’s brows scrunched up as he read the contents of my mercenary card but before he could ask anything, I took out a letter of introduction.

A letter of introduction from a noble of the Empire.

A letter written on gold while been etched with a basilisk’s blood. A A-ranked magic beast.

As soon as the said letter of introduction fully materialized, it released a subtle but powerful aura of the basilisk that froze all the people in place.

Correction, not all, but most of the people in place, including the gatekeeper.

Of course, I wasn’t among the frozen people.

No way, I would do anything that would show any of my weakness.

And though looking at the gatekeeper’s frozen face was quite funny; I was too busy taking note of the people who could still move to appreciate it.

A blonde elf, and a gruff looking adventurer of unknown species.

Only two people.

’To resist this effect both of them must be C-rank or above.’

For a big city like Ellesmere, this number may be less.

But mind you, Ellesmere was Tokyo’s equivalent of Rowen while Lueurre was nothing but a medium sized city.

So, two magic users of C-rank or above was quite a lot for a small city like Lueurre.

’Maybe other factions noticed that something strange was brewing in the city and sent magic users to investigate it.’

I guessed, before using my mana to suppress the basilisk’s aura.

With my mana being in the C+ range now, I could do so.

Though, there was no real need to...

Even without me doing anything, the remanent power of the basilisk would have faded away in a few seconds or so.

It was an remanent power after all, not an petrification artifact.

"Sorry for that, it was my blunder."

I said, with a innocent smile on my face. Offering the letter of introduction that was written by the Magus to the gatekeeper.

He didn’t take it though.

With his legs trembling the gatekeeper did a good job forcing a polite smile on his face as he said, "Its okay, there is no need to authenticate the letter any further."

Then taking the mercenary card I had given him earlier, he took out a stamp from his uniform’s belt, pressed it on the card and said, "Trouble-seekers verified.", before turning around and shouting, "OPEN THE GATE!!!", once again enhancing his voice with mana.

"I hope you enjoy your stay in Lueurre.", he said, about to return to his post.

"About that...", but I stopped him. "...how about we chat after your shift is over?"

I said, flashing my amulet in front of him.

The gatekeeper hesitated, but not for long.

Taking out his own amulet a second later, he tapped it against mine as the runes on the back of both of our amulets lit up for a second before going down again.

"Then, it was nice to meet you, Aneles. Looking forward to our little chat."

I said, finished with my business, as I returned to the driver’s seat.

"Good to meet you too, Sir Ray.", Aneles replied.

’Now, the news will spread and nobody will mess with us for a while.’, I thought, as the carriage passed through the city gate.

’Finally, I’m here in the city of Lueurre.’

***

After passing through the gate that wasn’t as majestic or as thick as the one in Ellesmere, but was still amazing in its own right, we followed the main road as we roamed the city.

Actually, Lueurre was a city like any other if you minus the Atlas tree from it.

In ancient times, millenniums ago when the main material realm didn’t actually have humans as its hegemon, the city of Lueurre was the capital city of elves.

A city that fell and was slowly added to the human domain.

As for the power I was searching, it wasn’t the legacy of elves of something like that.

No, it wasn’t something so small.

It was the power that the elves misunderstood and worshipped as their god.

As they say, the history repeats itself.

Just this time it was humans.

Laughing inwardly at the irony, I headed for the inn that I had already booked for us.

Obviously, a high class inn.

On the road to the inn, I observed the crowd.

In this day and age, Lueurre was nothing but a tourist city.

A tourist city, that was famous cause it had a safe and beautiful magical phenomenon to observe.

Magical phenomena were normally scary, terrifying and inexplicable. Being able to see one, being able to enjoy one, being able to appreciate one was a bait that worked better than one might think.

Especially for non-magic users.

Hence, hundreds of people flocked into the city to sight-see it every day.

And today was no exception, on main road lined with shops I could see a copious amount of tourists wandering around in big or small groups with a burst of excitement in their eyes as they looked at the Atlas in the center.

I didn’t blame them though, instead I myself was fascinated by the tree. By its majesty, its beauty and most importantly by its size.

And right now, we were headed right at it.

Though, it would take some time.

Currently we were in outer region of the city that covered almost all of the land in the city.

Only having a few noble houses here and there.

After all this wasn’t your normal city.

Unlike a normal city where the ruling or aristocratic classes occupied the city center, in the city of Lueurre they quite literally ruled from the top.

Right, from the second floor of the city.

While the first floor had all sorts of shops, markets, guilds, banks, inns, parks restaurants, and other services, the second floor was only for the rich.

The first floor too had the gardens, restaurants or parks but the finest of them could only be found at the top. Other than that, the only thing that the second floor contained were the noble houses and the governing bodies.

And though the second floor was still free to visit and roam, half of it was a restricted area that was forbidden to enter.

As for the Church of the Light, according to the novel it was situated somewhere in the western region of the city that mostly held the flea markets, the middle-lower class housing area and was thinly separated by the slums in the north-west.

Considering all other factors, it was supposed to be the best place in the city to hold a shady gathering.

Increasing the speed of the carriage, I swiftly drove it past the main road towards the central part of the city.

With our steeds being the aggressive demonic horses, people consciously made space for our carriage to move about, thus shortening our journey to an hour or so, before we finally reached it, the Skyline.

Essentially, it was a network elevators that was spread all around the city. Hundreds of circular platforms with a diameter of twenty meters moved back and forth between the upper and lower layer of the city facilitating the transport and communication between the layers.

And we boarded one such elevator, of course, after paying the fee to the bulky dwarf operating it.

Actually, there was another way up. The old traditional way of walking up the stairs that were carved along the tree trunk in a helical shape.

Of course, no one wanted to climb a thousand meters by stairs so the Skyline was generally preferred.

The ride was surprisingly smooth. With the speed this thing moved, I had half expected it to just zoom us to the upper floor.

But thankfully whoever made this thing had a brain. A invisible barrier was automatically deployed at the edges of the circle, along with a gravity adjustment spell that made it feel like you were standing on normal ground instead of moving up at a speed of 25m/sec.

Then, after a short ride of less than a minute, we were there, at the tree top.

Upon reaching the upper floor, the first thing I noticed to be different was the air.

It was fresh, natural and full of mana. Any magic user who trained here would definitely improve faster.

’Ellsworth Estate training room is still the best though.’

I thought, taking in the breathtaking scenery from the edge of the upper layer.

It was then that I heard a voice in my head, ’Big brother how long do we have to stay in the carriage? I am getting bored...’

’Oh fuck, I completely forgot about them.’

I belatedly remembered, as I picked up the pace. No longer dilly-dallying as I directly headed for the inn.

One of the only four inns in the upper city, Sunfish’s Pond.