Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 90 - 85: Gathering Pieces

[You will forget everything that happened. The old man never gave you that paper slip, you came here today because you wanted to eat something fancy. Now you will now go out, and do your duty as you were expected to.]

A voice that Cana spoke but didn’t belong to her, an ethereal voice whose words contained power, echoed in the room, as rose colored light swirled in Cana’s eyes.

Hearing her command, an absentminded Aneles, whose eyes also carried a hint of rose in their depths, rose and walked out.

"Ohhhh, scary.", I mock-shivered after Aneles left, earning Cana’s sharp glare as she said, "Huh? And who was the one who coerced me into doing this?"

"Okay, okay, I was joking, calm down.", I backed off, raising my hands in surrender. "Anyways, cool spell you developed there.", I continued.

"More like a nasty spell. Controlling people’s minds.", she replied in an instant.

"Hey, miss; already forgot what I told you?", I asked her seeing a hint of self-repulsion in her eyes.

"No, I remember...", she said in a low tone.

"You don’t want me to repeat it?", I probed.

"No…"

"Then maybe you can repeat it?"

"No…"

"Then I will-"

"I will repeat it!"

The girl admitted her defeat.

"Oh, good girl.", I complemented, "Now, go on."

"Y-You will bear my every sin, my mistakes, my horrors, my everything, until I accept that part of myself, that holds my power. Till that moment, I can use my power as much as I want."

(A/N: May sound a little odd, but when you turn it into a sentence Rayne would have spoken to Cana then it makes perfect sense.)

Smile.

With a smile on my face, I patted Cana’s head twice, and stood up.

Saying, "Then, let’s go back."

"And what about that squirrel-man? Are you not going to report him? He maybe responsible for smuggling the bombs used in today’s incident.", Cana questioned.

"I won’t. He is an excellent tool, I ought to use him before he loses his worth.", I said a little seriously.

"I- no. You are right, it would be better to reel in a bigger fish…"

I smiled at her thoughts, and said, "Good that you understand."

After that we paid the bill, with me giving the raccoon girl a huge tip, and then we returned.

***

[Upper City, Lueurre]

[Sunfish’s Pond, Night Time]

Taking the Skyline, both Cana and I climbed into the upper city, and returned to the inn.

Unlike the last time, Claire wasn’t on the counter. So, instead of asking for her, I directly called her communication amulet when I got into my room.

"Hello?"

-What is it, Ray?

She asked, her voice perfectly neutral, definitely not of someone who pulled a prank.

"I met the runesmith you referred me to, Gabber, right?", I told her vaguely.

-You did? So, how was the dwarf?

’Dwarf! She says…’, I sighed, somehow, getting that the fairy here, was a stranger to this whole matter.

Interpreting my silence in her own way, the fairy said.

-Wait, did you anger him somehow? I can’t help you if you did. He is a very temperamental person, even I can’t convince him to repair your equipment, if he decided otherwise.

"Really?", I said, matching the conversation.

-So, you really angered him? Damn, you have a talent for that.

"You, don’t have to tell me that.", I rebuked, maintaining my character.

-So, what do you want? I can refer you to another place, but finding a man with as much experience as Gabber is difficult.

"So, Gabber is the best runesmith in the city?", I probed.

-No, but should be the best you can approach.

"And why is that?"

-You are being too nosy Ray.

"Well, being nosy and hunting for information is a mercenary’s job.", I replied lightly.

-Hm, reasonable, but I’m a little busy now. You have my information network under you, look for things if you really want to know.

"Too bad."

-Anything else.

"Nothing, see you.", I said and disconnected the call so as to not look suspicious.

Meanwhile, Claire was confused, ’It’s not like him to back down so easily. Suspicious.’

Of course, it was only a lingering thought and she resumed to do her business the next second.

***

Looking at the now silent amulet, several thoughts were running through my head.

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But then, I took a deep breath, before I finally deciding on a course of action.

First, I deployed the goons of my information network, and told them to keep an eye on the [Gabber’s Runesmithing Hub].

Then, I searched for information in the stock of files that Claire had given me the access to. Looking for a man with features resembling the guy I met today in Gabber’s Runesmithing Hub.

Whoever he was, he wasn’t Gabber.

And with his unique set of features, I found him quickly.

Scheleth Matelija, a C ranked, a famous runesmith in the city, the best even.

Digging deeper, I found that he supposedly left the city a month ago for business purposes and hasn’t returned yet.

But I knew that that information was wrong.

This Scheleth guy, he was in the city. And he was hiding in the slums from the Travis and the Church. And now he thinks that they found him.

’Thank God, I didn’t call him Gabbers today.’, I thought as I sighed in relief.

With that out of the way, I called Mark.

"I want to meet with that girl. Now.", I said in a solemnly, shocking Mark.

-Huh? Out of the blue?

"Yes."

-Sorry, but I don’t have the authority to approve your request.

"I know. That’s why keep my visit under the wraps.", I replied, not taking no for an answer.

-What!? Are you insane Ray!? You can easily talk with the Baron, and get the permission to meet her. Why are you rushing?

Hearing Mark’s bewildered tone, I explained, "That will take days, Mark. With today’s incident the Baron will have loads of work to do. He won’t agree to meet me in a short notice. And I can’t wait that long, consider that as the favor you owed me."

-Is it really that important?

"Yes.", I confirmed.

-Okay. But you can’t visit now. I will squeeze your meeting in Baron’s schedule tomorrow. That is the most I can do.

’Goal’, I smiled.

"Okay. I understand."

-Good that you do, finally being reasonable for once...Wait! You tricked me! You scheming piece of shit! You aimed for this from the start!?

"Bye, Mark.", I simply said and disconnected the call.

I had a lot of things to think about on my plate.

First things first, the one who did the explosion today isn’t [Church of Light]. The C rank was using demonic energy, along with her fighting style, I can conclude that she was mostly likely from the [Demonic Cult].

As for [Church of Light], they are most likely working with the [Demonic Cult] or are being used by them. For what, I don’t know, but for now, I will assume that they are.

In the end, the [Church of Light] wants to be independent. It mostly consists of nobles who were oppressed, so they now want to use the Church as an banner to get rid of the oppression.

And they had already done the ground work for it. Now, if you asked any random child in the Western District about the [Church of Light], then they would say that they have at least heard about it, as an church who worships the Great Tree Atlas.

Meaning they had done enough for them to pass as an Church, but alas, in this particular case, it wasn’t enough.

The Empress would never allow that, not due to ethnic reasons but because she knows better than anybody else about how terrifyingly powerful the power sleeping beneath the tree is.

That is why she let the power be unexplored and never gave it any attention.

Giving it attention would mean, attracting others attention to it after all.

The church doesn’t know that though, and they will try until they fail.

Now, all I have to do is to find out is the physical location of the [Tree of Light]. Once I absorb it then there will be nothing to bind the oppressed nobles.

But this plan has a problem, the [Demonic Cult] is working with the [Church of Light], and though I don’t think they know about the special property of tree, considering how the girl I captured today imbued demonic energy in the tree.

They would definitely report it to their superiors after today’s incident.

So, before the higher ups of demonic church come here and compete with me for the power, I have to absorb it. Also, I have to see how deep the cooperation between the Church and the Cult was. That is why I wanted to talk with that girl soon.

As for finding the members of the Church?

It was easy, I knew where to look for thanks to the information Aneles gave me today. And though it would take some time, I would find it, I knew that. Plus, I also had this Scheleth guy to ask for information.

While Rayne was finally putting the pieces together, an intense meeting was going on the another part of the upper city.