Dance With the Nightingale - Chapter 3

While my maid’s voice kept resounding through the mansion, I was worried.

Why?

‘Cause I knew, this ain’t gonna be your typical family reunion.

Earl Reynold Von Ellsworth.

This name, this guy, was a problem.

Why?

‘Cause, Reynold, wasn’t your typical, old, potbellied noble.

Rather, he was a powerful one, in fact, too powerful to be a measly Earl.

An expert grade [Potion Master] and a silver grade [Swordsman], in the eyes of people, these achievements, were good, but barely enough, to keep an Earls title, if not for the great wealth Ellsworth’s had accumulated, over the generations, them being demoted to a Viscount was nothing but a natural action to be taken.

But those ignorant people didn’t know that they were poking a hornet’s nest, and how could they?

For, known only to a few eyes and ears, the Earl had another title, master grade [Poison Master], and another [Imperial Assassin], and another [Master of Poison Magic], and many more.

Reynold Von Ellsworth, is a heavy and powerful name, though, this name was only known to, [Her Highness, The Empress], the five Dukes, and few imperial officials, it was more than enough.

If the Earl wanted, being Marquis or even a duke, won’t be a problem, considering his lethality.

But, the Earl had enough of everything, and didn’t want to attract unnecessary attention, apparently, from the Earl’s Assassin point of view, it increased targets wariness, making it harder to extract information from them.

Leaving the Earl alone my situation was dire.

Clearly, there was no time to make a plan, nor was I confident in carrying it out, successfully, in front of such a man.

I wasn’t a trained lair, and even if I was, it is painfully obvious that, no amount of training could be used to deceive this guy, come on man, this guy is a certified [Magus], my lies may very well end with a ‘sorry, that’s a lie’ for him.

In fact, he wasn’t the only one to worry about, there was Amelia, the Countess, Earl’s second wife Latina Von Ellsworth, also their child, the guy, who was originally supposed to be, the only heir, Reonald Von Ellsworth.

The Countess, was supposed to be a typical noble lady, prim proper and perfect in all noble etiquettes and customs, though, this was the empire, a land of war and conquest, and the empire’s typical was far from normal.

While there were no combat scenes for the Countess in the original series, she did teach Reonald, how to fight, and was supposed to be a bronze rank [Knife Master] and [Magic Archer].

As the for the Reonald guy, too burdened by family’s pressure and expectations, along with his low talent in potions, he developed an inferiority complex towards one of the Eva’s few friends and was later turned into a Villain, or that was what should have happened, so, concluding, he was supposed to be a crooked prick, but right now, I had no idea what he was like.

Well, one thing I was sure of was, that, he wasn’t a threat, at least not now.

But, others were.

I can’t say lies nor I can tell them the truth, I won’t even get the chance to wash my neck, if I did, I would be dead before I could.

So, the only way out was, to tell half-truths.

I don’t know if that will work on them, but that’s my only bet, also, I had a bit of advantage here, suppose, if Count asked me, if I was Rayne Von Ellsworth, I could say yes to his face, why?

‘Cause I am Rayne Von Ellsworth, I acknowledge myself as such, so it isn’t a lie. (T/N: Yep, all that, it’s me this and it’s me that, was for this and a few other things I have on my mind.)

That, is my only chance to survive.

Just hope, that the Earl doesn’t have much interest in his son, who was in coma.

But, there was another problem to be addressed.

A major problem.

What?

I don’t know why, I was sleeping??

Yep, a major problem, indeed, but actually a blessing in disguise, how?

If, the Earl asked me, if I remembered how I got injured or what made me go into coma, I can simply say, I don’t remember, ’cause that is the truth, also use this excuse to tell him that I lost some of my memories, is perfect, actually a bit too perfect to be natural, as if someone wanted this to happen.

Just as goosebumps started forming on my body, I veered my thoughts elsewhere. (T/N: He was thinking about the entity thing again.)

To my maid, thinking what happened, like seriously, how was it taking her, this long to return.

Surely she didn’t notice something wrong, and is just calling everyone else, right?

Don’t tell me she is arming herself up, like she does every time, to put someone out of commission, and this time, that someone being me, now, isn’t she!!???

Cursing, my own negative thoughts, I bolted my eyes to the clock, only to be stunned.

42 seconds.

Not a single second more or less.

That’s how much time has passed.

My first thought was, surely the clock is broken, isn’t it!??

But that wasn’t it, ’cause, I noticed something else, something strange, and then something even stranger.

First, the clock, it was hung on the wall of this bigass room, and yet, I could see it, its small hand, down to the smallest detail, that I could easily tell those two seconds off forty. (T/N: The hand which indicates seconds, they call it differently in different countries, so I decided to add a note.)

As I reflexively turned my head, too stunned to keep staring, sideways, I noticed it,

The second something, I got slower, unnaturally slower, my head turned at a snail’s pace as if in slow motion.

I tried moving myself faster, but failed to do so, rather I instinctively knew, this was it the fastest I could move, the end result won’t be good if I tried to go forcibly faster.

My eyes wandered across the room, even my eyeballs, did not escape the fate of being slowed, as they moved in slow motion, only to be, stilled on my nightstand, specifically on the breaker placed above it, the beaker of medicine, no, not medicine but potion, my maid placed there, before running away.

It was nasty, like seriously gross, the potion in the beaker was bubbling, like a cola, but it wasn’t a smooth drink with even texture rather, it was silvery white and filled with small hairy filaments about 2 cm long, just looking at it made my mind go blank, my scalp got numb, as I imagined my unconscious self being forced to drink, that, that abomination of a potion.

As soon as my thoughts reached that point, the world got normal again.

I could, once again, move my head, my arms, and now even my shoulders to some extent, but, of course, I didn’t get to enjoy myself.

A sense of lethargy descended on me, as if I was student who crammed for an entire week for the exams, just not to fail.

And then, I understood, this, whatever happened now, wasn’t done by someone else, nor was it some surprise attack, rather it was me, it was my fault.

But, rather than being upset I was thrilled, thrilled, overjoyed even, if not for this bedridden body I would have jumped with joy, ’cause I knew what I did.

I used a skill, a [perception] type skill to be exact, I don’t know its name but, using it made my perception of time slower, at the same time it hastened my brain activity, seemingly giving the illusion that the world slowed down.

A great utility skill to have, though it consumes a great deal of [Mana], the cause of my lethargy, expanding those 40-ish something seconds into something much more, exact time, of which even I don’t know, is a great feat.

Actually, it’s not just the skill, but my whole body has changed, I didn’t feel it till now, but this body, is not human.

Though, I haven’t even moved yet, but I can tell, be it the senses, or the recovery speed, it’s not something a normal human can hope to achieve, like the thing with the clock, I can see the seconds apart, even now, the reason I didn’t see them earlier, is ’cause I didn’t try.

This isn’t my fault, though, as there was no time for me to adapt to this much weirder, much wider world, wrapped by the common sense of my previous world, I couldn’t help but miss it.

Well, I stopped my train of thought and once again looked at the clock, 55 seconds, just five seconds left from the time given to my maid by herself.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Tw-

-Click.

Exactly a second left, from the given time, my kitsune maid, returned, this time fully aware of my presence.

My eyes naturally found her, as she closed the door behind her, turned around and started taking small steps towards me, this time her steps gave me a different feeling, unlike the last time, her steps gave a, ‘this is how a maid should walk’, type of feeling.

Should I describe it as a maid’s grace?

Yeah, it felt like that.

She stopped at a distance of 2 step from me, not very close yet not very far, just right.

And spoke, like a dutiful maid would,

“Young Master, I have informed everyone, they will be here shortly, though, from your gaze it looks like you want to ask me for something, so what will it be, young master? For I’ll give you anything, I’m capable of~”

As soon as I heard her, I cringed inwardly, and I tried really, like really hard to keep my cringe inward.

For, my life was on line here.

I knew the Earl won’t be here, in under a minute.

He is an Earl and he can’t just run away, leaving all his work, to see his son.

The problem was this, ‘For, I’ll give you anything, I’m capable of~”

Those words and that tone.

Come on, you are an expert grade [Assassin], how can you say that to me?

It would have been okay if you were a normal kitsune maid, but you are not, so how can you do this?

Also, what can I ask you for, your blood-soaked daggers? Or the daggers you will actually soak in my blood, if I really asked you for a service?

As the culprit, the reason of my inner turmoil, and my stupefied expression, saw my face, she broke into a beautiful smile, and covered her mouth with her hand as she her laughter filled the room.

She stifled her laughter, still her hand covering her lips, as she spoke with a smile,

“Looks like young master is still too shy, and here I thought, you looked a bit different, now.”

She continued speaking as she came closer, and once again her eyes glowed but this time, they were not blazing, rather they were glowing with a gentle light, clearly different from before.

She turned her gaze to each part of my body, before meeting my eyes, her expression turning serious, as she said,

“But looks like you did change a bit now;”

And she paused giving me a look.

A Hard Look.

As a suffocating atmosphere was created by her aura.

No!!!

Don’t stop now, maybe you won’t kill me, but I’ll die of heart attack if you stop now!!!

I got terrified, and a shiver went down my spine, seeing that look gave me a feeling, that she won’t listen to any of my excuses, my only option was to say sorry and apologize,

And I complied.

Without hesitation.

Whatever it was, she noticed, it doesn’t matter.

“Sorry!?, Sorry!!, Sorry!, Amy, don’t get mad, I am sorry, I won’t do it again, sorry, please forgive me!!”

Amy looked at me, exhaled a bit, and nodded, maintaining her previous look, she continued,

“Since, someone is looking, sincere, I won’t tell this to my Master-”

As soon as I heard the the first part of her sentence, I sighed in relief, huuu, looks like whatever she noticed it wasn’t the transmigration thing, only to stiffen at the second part.

“- but, as compensation, Young Master has to drink the potion, all of it.”

She declared.

Potion she says, surely not the same potion as I was thinking, right?

Crushing my faint hope, reached out to my nightstand.

No!!!

Anything but that abomination.

Maybe my expression revealed my intent.

Or it never mattered in the first place.

The maid, without any delay picked up the silvery potion, which now had settled down, and came near me.

And, with a wave of her hand, an orange magic circle, no, it wasn’t a circle, rather was just a symbol, filled with lines, straight and curved, all floating and revolving around a core, emerged and promptly lit up, and my hands which were heading up to cover my mouth stiffened in place, with just enough force to stop them while not hurting them.

But that, was just the start, as another magic circle, appeared in front of my face, and my jaws betrayed me, that to seamlessly, opening my mouth for the abomination to be poured, of course, as the magic circle worked, my maid wasn’t idle herself, with practiced movement, she sat on the bed near me, placed her hand on the back of my neck and lifted me up.

Really, this maid was taking my firsts from me, come on, it was the first magic I saw, wasn’t I supposed to be awed, and all, like all other MC’s I read in the novels before, so, why is it that the first magic I saw, traumatized me, traumatized me so greatly, that my poor brain had no more juice to register my awe.

I’m not exaggerating here, the feeling of not being able to move, the feeling of not being able to do anything as others forced whatever they wanted on your body, is just that terrifying.

I closed my eyes, to avoid looking at the abomination, only to have my other senses strengthened, my sense of touch, especially.

I tried to concentrate on her hand’s texture which I felt on the back of my neck, trying to forget the harsh reality.

Her hand was soft, yet firm, with callouses filling her palms, those hands, were hands of an assassin, a murderer, and yet, they felt warm to me.

I don’t know if transmigration made me soft or something, but I could feel it, the warmth in her hand and the worry in her heart, slowly but surely, the terrifying feeling vanished and I was at ease again.

So, as the potion was poured in my mouth, I did my part, which was surprisingly easy.

It was poured in, quite slowly at first, and to my surprise, it didn’t taste gross, rather, it didn’t taste like anything, it was tasteless, as for the fibers I was worried about, looks like the potion maker took them into account, as, as soon as the potion was brought to my mouth, my throat opened up, due to the smell of the potion, letting it slip past my throat quite quickly.

And just like that I, finished it all.

And even though I wasn’t exaggerating before, it felt rather anticlimactic now.

Truly, the potion lived up to its name, I felt it’s effects as soon as it slid past my throat, not only that, it was made up in such a way that it was easy to consume, really it was perfect, that is, only if we forget about its appearance.

My maid looked quite elated, about the fact that I finished it, as she dropped that hard look of hers and smiled widely, showing her pearly whites.

Of course, I was a bit dumbfounded, and honestly you can’t blame me, the position was awkward, our faces were close and the damn maid was just that beautiful.

And clever too, as she quickly saw through what happened and put on her teasing smile, about to say something.

This time though, I cut her off, took the initiative, and asked,

“Sorry, Amy, but can you help me sitting up, I can’t meet father and mother like this now, right?”

Not even a least bit upset, or offended, she did as I asked.

For her, I was as light as a feather, so it was an easy task.

Just like one would pick up their little kids, she picked me up by my armpits and sat me up, against the headboard of the bed, once done, she quickly fixed the sheets to how they were supposed to be, covering my legs and straightening the creases.

Finished fixing, she turned her head to me, and was about to speak, with a smile on her face, only to be cut off by me, again-

“By, the way Amy, can you do something about my sore muscles, especially the back ones, they are so sore, that, I can’t even move.”

This time, not only did the smile on her face remained there, in fact, I felt that it even got thicker, I got an ominous feeling as she spoke,

“Of course, Young Master, I will give you a special massage treatment, after your meeting with Master is over, well, I also have a potion to remove soreness from muscles, but surely Young Master won’t choose a potion over me, right?

Oh, of course, I won’t force Young Master if he’s embarrassed, so how about it, Young Master??”

A bit stunned I was late to answer.

And before I could, she continued, this time a bit serious,

“Also, Young Master, don’t do that again, neither the thing you did now nor the one you did before.”

She sighed as she continued to rant.

“Really, Young Master, what were you thinking, using your skills just after waking up from a comatose, I don’t even know what to say, look here Young Master”

She said as she brought her face right in front of me,

“I don’t know what you trying to achieve, but the things you are doing right now, will only destroy you, so please stop.

There are people worried sick about you, my Master, the Mistress, the Second Young Master, me, and many more, so please, please share your burden with us and stop, for your sake and for your loved ones.”

Listening to her, the first thing in my mind was, ‘Is this something an assassin can say?’, but, I realized she was right I don’t know what that thing before she talked about was, but the skill I unconsciously activated back then, it was dangerous to do so, if I kept activated it for a bit longer, then there was a big chance that the mental drain, would have sent me into coma.

Actually, me, not even realizing that, till now, was just stupid.

Acknowledging my mistake, I apologized,

“I am sorry, Amy, my memories are a bit fuzzy, in fact I think that I lost quite a few of my memories, so I don’t know what thing from before, you are talking about, but I promise, I’ll try not to do anything dangerous.”

Hearing about my condition, Amy, was shocked, her eyes widened quite a bit, as she stepped in closer,

“Why, are you telling me this, only now, you should have told me sooner, wait a minute, I’ll use my magic to-“,

And tried to place her hand on my hand

Only to be stopped by me, this time clearly displeased,

“This is no time to joke Young Master, let me-”

I didn’t let her finish and simply said,

“He is here, and you know it,”

There’s no way she didn’t, even though his aura was suppressed, even though it was hidden, even with my weak senses I could feel him, so there was no way she couldn’t. So, I continued firmly,

“We shouldn’t keep him waiting, so really, Amy, this, is no time to do this.”

And that’s when the sound of a door knocking was heard, it wasn’t too loud, but it resonated in the whole room, followed by an equally resonating voice,

“Open the door, if you know I am here, Amelia”

Finally, my father, Earl Reynold Von Ellsworth has arrived.