Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 92 - 87: Meeting with the Tree Girl

[Upper City, Lueurre]

[Baron’s Mansion]

"…So, you want to meet her now?", The Baron asked with an edge in his voice, clearly not pleased.

Not to blame the man when I literally crashed his breakfast, but sorry Mr. Marek, I can’t wait for another week to meet the captive princess.

So, with a matching intensity, I spoke, "Yes, right now."

The Baron, who was moments prior peacefully eating his breakfast, paused, and eyed me, or rather, my whole party, before he uttered, "You have five minutes, go meet her. The rest can have breakfast while they wait."

Nodding, I agreed.

"I was planning to go alone anyways.", I stated, as I gestured Syrus with my eyes.

The meaning of the gesture was simple - keep everyone safe, which I think Syrus got, by the way he nodded imperceptibly.

Not that anyone would attack them or something, but you never know…

"Jack, show him the way.", the Baron ordered Jack, who was filling in for his twin brother, as Mark was still maintaining the persona of a mercenary.

Poor guy, had to handle a cranky Baron first thing in the morning.

Well, no one would like having their breakfast being crashed, especially when they were the lord of a city.

Not to mention that showing no dissatisfaction would mean silently inviting everyone to do the same thing.

So, Baron’s reaction was more or less justified, just - ’He was too lenient on me.’, I thought. ’Just like yesterday…I wonder why?’

Did he figure out my identity?

I questioned myself, only to reject it. Cause if he really did, then he wouldn’t just be cooperative, rather, he would be buttering me up from top to bottom for various reasons.

And thanks to my wild imagination, a picture of a fat half-naked baron, covering me up with butter, literally from head to toe, formed in my head.

With a shudder from the depths of my soul, I disposed of such thoughts, even going as far as using my skill to do so, and focused on the task at hand.

Jack led me deeper into the mansion. We climbed a floor, then another and then another, reaching the third floor of the building.

The one thing I noticed as I entered the third floor was the change in arrays. If the first and second floor could be equated to a detention center for underaged kids, then the third floor was a maximum security prison meant to contain mass murderers.

The difference was just that vast, and yet, there were an excessive number of knights guarding the hallways.

"That’s quite an excessive security arrangement.", I pointed out to Jack, who was walking ahead.

"That’s none of your business.", he huffed, quite irritated of being made the scapegoat.

’Well, not everyone’s Mark.’, I sighed internally, and kept following Jack who for some reason, got more irritated as we walked.

A few more doors, a few more steps, and we were in front of a massive white door, in front of which Jack finally stopped.

As a cultured person, I had seen all sorts of prisons and dungeons in anime and manga, but this didn’t look like any of those.

It was much brighter and sparkler, devoid of the dark vile vibe that a prison usually has.

Not to mention the huge number of gems etched on the door and the giant spindle sticking out of it. No matter how I looked, the place seemed more like a treasure vault rather than a prison. As for why Jack brought me here, I had a few guesses…

Meanwhile, Jack stepped forward and grabbed the spindle with his hands and rotated it in a specific order. The sound of turning gears was all that could be heard in the hallway for a while, before, with an overlapping clank of many gears, the door opened.

"Follow me.", Jack said, as he went inside the vault.

I followed, and as soon as I entered the vault, I was blinded.

Blinded by the golden glow of Coles laying in front of me.

A room full of Coles, an astronomical amount, was sitting right in front of me, separated only by a thin barrier.

Foll𝑜w current novℯls on ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm.

Had I not been the world’s richest Young Master, I would have stopped thinking and drooled at the sight.

But that was exactly who I was, so I kept my cool.

’This is the treasury, alright. And they are keeping her detained here…’, I cringed, even though I understood the underlying reasoning behind it.

"Don’t get any weird ideas, the pattern of the lock changes real-time, whereas the barrier here isn’t something you can breach.", Jack warned as he saw me rooted in place, staring at the coins.

To him, I replied, "I like to earn my money, not steal it."

"As if a mercenary would say no to money!", Jack mock-laughed and waved his hand, beckoning me to follow, which I did.

Then, out of nowhere, an explanation that I didn’t expect from him came, "The girl you captured has an attribute related to trees. Containing her in a dungeon, directly connected to Atlas, which is a tree would be risky, that’s why she is being held here."

"Hm, makes sense.", I nodded, as Jack confirmed my suspicions and turned to the right.

There, in the isolated right corner of the treasury, sat the same girl I fought yesterday.

Though she looked quite different.

Her long hair had been shortened, cut with a sword rather than scissors. Her black armor was nowhere to be seen…all she had on her was a single prisoner’s gown and blood…a lot of blood.

’Figured.’, I thought as I looked at her disfigured form.

She had two less fingers on each hand, stumps of charred flesh taking their place. While the ones she had were twisted in the wrong direction. Her skin was charred in some places, skinned to the bone in another few.

And right now, I could see a magic user working under Baron was about to burn her eye with her flames.

But before she could, Jack knocked on the barrier separating us, informing the C-ranked caretakers and the captive of our presence.

The ’caretakers’ stopped. The redhead with flames on her hand backed down a step, whereas the other one, a big guy with green mane-like hair, blue eyes and a long tail tweaked with the barrier to make it possible for us to hear them.

"Engliev, Rifa. How is it going?", Jack asked.

And in return both of them, just gestured at me with their eyes.

"It’s okay, Baron allowed it.", he informed them, and only then did the big guy, Engliev as Jack called him, spoke.

"Nothing much, we confirmed that she possesses demonic energy, along with the fact that her group was responsible for yesterday’s attack. But other than that, nothing."

"She is a tough nut to crack. We burned her, skinned her, broke her bones, even cut off her fingers, but nothing. Not a word about her accomplices location, not a word about their scheme. Hell, she hasn’t even told us her own name.", Rifa added.

Well, the magical world was cruel as I expected it to be.

And I had grown accustomed to it, for I didn’t feel a single bit of remorse for the broken girl in front of me.

She wasn’t a human for me anymore.

"Okay.", Jack nodded at them, before turning towards me, "You still want to meet her?"

"Sure, I do."

"Fine!", he grumbled, "Engliev let him in, he wants to ’talk’ to her."

In response the big guy fiddled with the barrier again, before he invited me in.

The chamber, as I called it, wasn’t actually a physical chamber. It was just a small room, with the treasury’s barriers forming its translucent walls. The room only had a small table with three chairs, one of them being occupied by the tree girl whose name I still didn’t know.

Her body was full of injuries, and her prison gown was torn in several places. If I didn’t know better, I would have mistaken for a rape victim, but I knew, she was anything but a victim.

Even with her hands cuffed to the table, with magical cuffs that made it impossible to use magic, and her body attached to the chair with a spell, the girl had a relaxed expression that made one question her sanity.

"We meet again, pretty lady.", I said as I took the chair in front of her.

To which, she laughed, "Haha~, you must be pretty twisted if you find me pretty."

-Smack…!

Rifa who was standing beside her, gave the girl a smack heavy enough to give a normal person a concussion, as she heard her mocking tone.

"Don’t spew bullshit.", she growled.

"It’s okay, miss Rifa. You can relax a little.", I said to her politely, as both she and Engliev were C-ranks, before turning back to the tree girl.

"Hmm, you won’t answer my questions, that’s what they said. So, instead of asking you questions…how about I tell you something?"

"…"

Instead of replying, the girl stayed quiet and didn’t say anything, only her now narrowed eyes indicated that she was listening.

So, I continued.

Taking out the crystal, the same one that I found after the battle in the forest, I placed it on the table.

The only reason I took this thing out was because I got this from the body of the demonic cult’s magic user.

I didn’t know what it was, but maybe she knew? After all, it looked important from how it was stored.

And in case she didn’t know, I had prepared a charade of a conversation to follow up my actions.

But as soon as I placed the crystal on the table, I knew, that I hit the jackpot.

Her pupils contracted, as she looked at the crystal on the table. Her pale face contorted, as she looked at me with an intensity that she didn’t have before.

"You…where did you get that!!??", she asked, her voice barely a whisper, but the hysterical look in her eyes betrayed how serious she was.

And that was her, when she was bound.

If not for the restrains keeping her in place she would have surely, jumped on me.

Now, how should I handle this…