Dance With the Nightingale - Chapter 55

[Fernsby Duchy]

-FLASSSHHHH!!!

-FLASSSHHHH!!!

-FLASSSHHHH!!!

In a large bustling hall, lights just kept flashing.

One after another, non-stop, going on and on and on.

And when these lights disappeared, people emerged, hordes of them. Walking out from these flashing chambers swiftly.

With hordes of people appearing and disappearing in with these flashes of lights, it was natural that a crowd formed inside the hall.

It was literally a sea of people.

A sea so vast that, that distinguishing individual drops was impossible.

Or it should have been…

Two individuals, just two of them, stood out.

Not because they were using magic or something. No, the use of magic itself was banned in the building.

Still the two of them stood out.

Why or how, no one knew, but people involuntarily cleared their path, making way for them to move forward.

Which they did.

Walking towards the exit, both of them placed their hands on the metallic gates, confirmed their identities, and left.

**

Walking out of the teleportation hub, Eva instantly felt better.

Honestly, she didn’t like how stuffy the place was, nor did she like the number of times they had their identities checked.

It isn’t like they are criminals, so why is the security checking them so many times?

She didn’t understand.

‘Is it because this is a Duchy?’

She wondered.

“No, this level of security isn’t normal even for a Duchy.”

The ‘old-man’ walking ahead of her answered.

“Then… something happened?”

Eva asked, a bit curious.

Not much, just a bit.

“Nothing you have to worry about. Just the former champion woke up.”

“Former Champion…?”

Now, who was that? And what does he mean by woke up?

Without even glancing back, Chris knew exactly what was going through his disciple’s mind. And being a no-nonsense person, he didn’t create any kind of suspense and just answered her unasked questions.

“The former champion of ‘Strongest of the Younger Generation’. Apparently, he was in comatose for a year and it’s just now that he woke up, right before his Coming-of-Age ceremony. A great timing to wake up.”

“‘Strongest of the Younger generation?’ What is that?”

“Just what is sounds. An Empire wide competition where all kids below 14 participate, and the one who wins gets the title.”

“Hmm… wait.”

“His Coming-of-Age ceremony is now, and he was in comatose for a year; So how old was he when he participated in the competition? Twelve?”

“Eleven.”

Eva eyes widened at that.

An eleven-year-old winning an Empire wide competition, where the participating limit was fourteen?

What does that mean?

It means he was strong!!

And what was her goal?

It was to find someone of her age who is as strong as her.

So, how could she not be excited.

“Is he strong?”

She asked with anticipation.

-Smirk

A smirk crawled up his lips as his disciple asked that.

“Yes, strong, very strong. The only reason I didn’t tell you about him till now, was because he was in comatose.”

“Mhm, I see…”

“So, are we here to fight him?”

She asked, her anticipation muting down a bit as she heard the comatose part.

‘After a year of comatose, surely, he would be lagging behind…’

She thought.

“No, we aren’t, and he doesn’t live here.”

And with that, her anticipation died down.

What’s the point in getting excited if she can’t fight with him?

But still,

“What’s his name anyways?”

She asked cursorily.

“Huhu~ His moniker is a funny one. The Crazy Young Master, Rayne Von Ellsworth.”

‘Crazy Young Master?’

Her nose involuntarily scrunched up at those words. And not without reason.

‘Young Master’

If someone asked her what kind of people she definitely didn’t want to run into, then she would instantly reply, ‘Young Masters’.

Her experience with them was as such, that she couldn’t help but do so.

During her time at the Flenial Academy and during the past three months that she spent travelling, she encountered a lot of them.

Those ‘Young Masters’.

Every place she teleported to, had one or two of them.

And she was just disgusted with them.

All of them, each and every one of them, were incredibly arrogant, and impossibly annoying.

They annoyed her so much that she almost considered if they were using a mind disturbing spell.

And most importantly, for some reason, they wanted her to be their personal maid.

Why would she be their maid?

Why would she service them?

She wanted to be strong, she wanted to find someone who could understand her, and…

And…

And…?

And she didn’t know, but she didn’t want to be someone’s maid, especially not those fat Young Masters who looked at her weirdly.

What she didn’t know was that – each time she encountered those Young Masters, her master felt thankful on the inside.

‘Thankfully, she doesn’t know what they really meant, or, heads would have rolled.’

**

[Late Evening]

If there was one thing, that she came to like in the past few months of travelling, then it would be sightseeing.

She really liked seeing all kinds of different places, different landscapes, and different environments. Visiting all kinds of unique shops, and eating various kinds of local specialties were next in the line.

And with her being in another new place, she just did that.

She explored the city of Cristalvale.

Visiting one place after another, going from this shop to that shop, seeing this place before quickly moving to another place, and so on.

Oh yeah, there was another thing she learned in the past few months, and that was talking.

She talked more in these last three months than she talked her whole life.

Naturally, not with her master, her master didn’t like to talk.

She talked with shopkeepers, venders, cooks, and so on.

At first, she thought it would be hard or something, but soon she realized that wasn’t the case, and she soon realized that she wasn’t all that bad in talking. My people talked like her.

No, not many, most people talked like her.

Wait, that wasn’t correct either, umm…

Not most people, most men talked like her!!

Yes, that was it!!

And that fact boosted her confidence.

Even though she was stiff and stuttered with each line she spoke, at least she didn’t have red cheeks nor did she fidget around in place like most men do!

Yes, she was better at talking than most men out there.

She psyched herself up, as she left another shop and walked along with her master through the flea market.

But not for long.

Only till the sun was up.

As soon as the sun went down, the time of her enjoyment ended. That was the compromise they agreed on.

On the first day of their arrival in any city, they would sightsee it.

So, as soon as the day ended and the evening came, it was her turn to follow her master.

Back to being serious, Eva walked through streets, following her master, moving towards the eastern gate of the city of Cristalvale.

And just after a few steps, she cried through their mink link.

‘Master, we have a tails, 12 of them.’

‘I know, ignore them as usual.’

He said calmly on the surface.

But on the inside, he was anything but calm.

His mental senses concentrated in a single direction, as his mind focused on a hidden aura.

An aura as vast as the sea.

And just as his mental senses touched that aura…

A female voice echoed in his head.

‘I won’t harm you.’

Buzzing his head as it sounded.

Before completely vanishing, as if it was never there.

Of course, he wasn’t fooled. Just from the aura of the other party and the buzzing in his head, he knew, that the other person was on a higher level than him.

-A Archmage.

If he was any other magic user he would be surprised, but now, he just sighed.

He couldn’t even be surprised, not after this scenario happened almost every time, they entered a new city.

Archmages weren’t cabbages, and from the E+ rank aura he felt at the Archmages’ side, he knew what was happening.

‘This girl is a trouble magnet, a powerful trouble magnet.’

Attracting the young princess’ attention on the first day of her arrival?

Really? What were the chances?

He couldn’t help but lament.

But of course, outwardly, he looked the same. Not a hint of his inner turmoil leaking out.

Walking on the snow filled paths of Cristalvale, a bit of nostalgia crept up to him as he remembered the old days. His days as a trainee, his days as a recruit, and his days as an officer.

He spent fifteen odd years servicing the army here, so while he won’t say he missed it, he still liked this place.

It was a paradise for ice mages like him.

Walking familiarly through the city, they soon reached the heavily guarded eastern gate.

And after having their identities checked, and using a bit of power that came with his noble position and military merits they walked past it.

They walked past the huge forty-meter-thick wall and entered the world of white, pure white.

*

-HOWWLLLLLL

-HOWWLLLLLL

The winds howled, carrying with them the piercing chill, characteristic to the North.

The ground was white, so was the sky.

The trees were white too, their leaves were all covered in snow while the lower half of the trunk was half buried in it.

The contrast between the outside and the inside was just too great.

Almost as if you stepped through a portal.

Only this time it was no portal, it was the location.

The city was Cristalvale was situated in a valley, a valley between two gigantic mountains, that were part of an even more gigantic mountain ranges.

Its location was also the reason that the city was so small.

It wasn’t actually small, but compared to all other noble estates, yes, it was a lot smaller.

While life was still possible, and made comfortable thanks to magic, on this side; The life on the other side was impossible.

On the other side of the mountain range was a wasteland, a land of extreme cold, a land covered in perpetual snow.

But that was only for humans, for beasts, for monsters, it was a perfect place. A place where human ambition couldn’t reach. A place only for them to grow.

And right now, exiting through the east gate of the city meant entering the small window of life that existed between the city and the wasteland.

Seeing the white plains, hearing the howling wind, and feeling the chill that he was used to, thought came into his mind.

‘I’m finally back.’

Feeling his powers growing a lot, thanks cold to the environment, the Monarch ranked mage listened to his disciple.

‘There’s still someone following us.’

‘Let them be,’

“And let’s go.”

He said, quickly moving through the rough terrain, as if it was non-existent, leaving Eva behind.

Not been someone who was left behind Eva channeled her Mana, reinforced her feet, and followed behind.

But alas, not a single thing her master told her to do was simple.

Though her master ran quickly, he wasn’t quiet, and she knew this was on purpose.

Thanks to that voice that was as good as an alarm in the dead of the night, all kinds of monsters present in the area were attracted to them, more specifically to her, her Master was long gone by the time they came.

Knowing this was another one of the many tests she had to pass, Eva didn’t flinch.

She lowered her center of gravity, summoned her gear, and weaved her spell, doing all that without slowing down.

And as soon as the first horde of monsters was upon her, she unsheathed her sword.

Unleashing the spell contained within.

-BOOOOMMMMM!!!!

-CRASSSSSHHHH!!!

Snow overturned, trees broke, and so did the beasts.

The white snow turned red, broken bodies flew everywhere but the girl didn’t bat an eyelid and kept unleashing her spell.

Sword energies colored green, that exploded with a blackish-blue flame.

A new spell that she came up with.

She knew that fire wasn’t going to work in the north, and ice wasn’t going to work well with the beasts who had adapted to the cold.

So, she came up with this, her new spell, Bitter Coldness.

The wind blades carried the spell and gave it the blunt force it needed to pierce outermost hide of the beasts; the darkness covered the fire, protecting it from the icy environment releasing it the exact moment the spell hit the beast, the fire rendered the monster’s defenses that were developed to counter ice useless, opening the path for the darkness to invade the its body and unleash the destructive wrath it kept suppressed, from within.

But it wasn’t the normal darkness, along with its destructive nature, the darkness held an icy edge to it, thanks to it destroying the ice element poured in the spell and assimilating its remains.

Be it the wolf type monsters, the one horned rhino type monsters, or the bipedal ogre like monsters, all of them had thick hide and were heavily resistant to ice, but on the inside?

The ice was still effective.

From the number of monsters, she had killed till now, it was very effective.

But that was just one of her spells, she kept using all kinds of different spells to decimate any monster that got in her path as she followed her master.

As fast as she could.

And after a struggle of half an hour she finally caught up to him.

He was leaning against a tree, reading some book as he waited, as if the chaos he caused was someone else’s business.

“Let’s go Master.”

Eva said, other than her breathing being slightly rushed, and her mana being half-empty she was totally fine, not a single bit of blood or gore covered her, as she slaughtered the monsters.

She was ready to go.

“The last tail is finally gone, so we can go where you want us to.”

Nodding, Chris said.

“At least you are getting smarter. Follow me, quietly.”

He said as he led the way.

“I will introduce you to your next target.”

Tilting her head Eva followed him quietly, as she thought.

‘All that travelling for a single target?’

‘Now who is that?’

She was curious.

‘Is it strong.’

Or maybe… she was just a battle maniac…

***

Author’s Note:

The chapter is late, guilty as charged, but this is all because of my fucking teacher.

She gave us two assignments and told us to complete them yesterday itself.

Talk about unreasonable.

So, till 11 at night, according to my country’s time I was writing those assignments. Then I continued writing the chapter, I had already written around 1k words day before yesterday, but after an hour and another 200 words my head just stopped working.

I was thinking of writing something and was writing something else, making simple mistakes and typos on each line I wrote.

So, I kicked the bucket, and that’s why it is late.

Anyways this chapter is longer than normal, and the next chapters continuing this will come, between volume two, normal chapters.

Also, keeping true to my schedule, there will be a chapter tomorrow.

That’s all, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it~