Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 105 - 100: The Night Before the Chase II

The Satan of Chaos died...?

A Satan was dead... that was very hard to believe.

Was he really dead or was he faking it?

No, the Empress and the White Dragon were right there so it shouldn’t be possible for him to fake it... He was a pure destruction type demon for god’s sake!

But his subordinate was pretty good with stealth and illusions, no, a S rank spell still can’t deceive them both.

Then again, like any S rank and higher class demon, he had conducted various life preserving rituals to prepare many failsafes and while the White Dragon’s attacks were able to directly attack a person’s existence, it may or may not have been him who finished off the Satan.

The Empress and White Dragon also knew this so they should have been careful about that, conversely the Satan also knew this, so he may have self-exploded to not be permanently killed...

"Fuck..."

I mumbled helplessly as these thoughts kept making their way into my head.

"That’s 46th time you cursed today, Young Master, only 4 more to go.", Amy, who was lazily laying on my bed, reminded me like a dutiful maid.

-Aahhhh! I don’t know anymore!

I screamed in my mind as I tried to acknowledge the facts as facts and plopped down on the bed, my head landing straight on her soft fluffy tail.

-Fluff

-Fluff

’Ohh, That’s better...’, I relaxed as her tail quickly coiled around my body, giving it a kind warmth and a female shampoo’s fruity scent…?

Whatever, I stopped caring about how I smelt and nuzzled deeply into her tail (it felt really good) as I thought about what I should do next.

First, I accepted that the Satan of Chaos was really dead or greatly weakened atleast. Then, I thought about the consequences about his death but there wasn’t much I could do other than try to predict Demonic cult’s and prominent demon’s moves based on how they behaved in the novel.

And next was finally the situation in Lueurre.

The situation was not the best but could have been worse. Mainly, we had three problems:

We didn’t have guide to take us to the ’Tree of Light’. We didn’t know if the demonic cult still had some trick up their sleeves. And lastly, the Church of Light still wasn’t completely in our grasp.

I didn’t worry much about the first two problems much.

Scheleth was already preparing the device to locate the ’Tree of Light’, it should be about ready tomorrow now that I had provided him with good materials. And just so you know, that was the only reason I was lazing around, definitely not because I was exhausted or anything, okay?

As for the 2nd problem, I knew how the Demonic Cult operated in a 4 man cell, so I doubted they had something new in their bag considering none of them were present in the city, also I had Amy as my ace in the hole. As soon as she appeared, this game turned into easy mode.

And finally, the third problem. It was already partially addressed. With the information we just got from those demonic cult chumps, we already identified a few nobles associated with the Church. So, finding them all would be more or less be a piece of cake thanks to Cana’s unique skill.

But, this method would take a little time allowing the lower level executors and workers to flee. And though I was reluctant to let go of them, I had no time to waste.

With the absence of the higher ups and the resources they provided, the Church would disappear in time.

’Ah! It was my first time fighting against a religion and there was no Church scene.’, I mockingly complained. ’If only I knew their gathering spot.’, I thought and as soon as I did, someone knocked on my door.

"That’s the third woman looking for you today. Aren’t you quite a womanizer, Young Master?"

Amy spoke before I could utter a word and dived into my shadow.

"Aren’t you proud?", I smirked, before unlocking the door with psychokinesis.

"Maybe, Madame would be?"

’Ugh, can’t say anything back to that.’

So, I forgot about the resident in my shadow and focused on my late night guest.

"Didn’t expect you to visit so late? What’s up Claire?", I said as I offered her a seat.

"Uh, no thanks."

The lady in question rejected my kindness and instead offered me a paper slip.

"This came in at urgent basis, I’m just here to deliver it."

"Okay…", I affirmed as I took the slip from her hands.

"So… I forgot to tell my informants to deliver info to you directly. They’ll do that from now on, so don’t worry. Since it was my fault that I didn’t inform them, I came to deliver it in person."

"That’s okay, no one asked for an explanation."

"No, it was my fault and we did a contract and all about it so I ought to be more careful about this stuff.", Claire shrugged as she explained.

"That’s something I can’t refute."

"Yeah, so I’ll get going.", nodding she affirmed as she turned around.

"Hey! Thanks for today. You helping out made things a lot easier for me!", I added before she left.

"Just add something to my reward rich guy.", she waved and closed the door.

’Guess she doesn’t wanna waste her time off shift. Anyways let’s see what’s this about.’

As I expected the paper slip has some encrypted message, a simple encryption nothing too complicated. So, using the decryption code I had with me, I easily decrypted it and this was what it said:

< There’s a lead, we have identified someone who works for Church of Light. At around 5:30 am everyday, he takes a detour around clock tower cross road. Follow him >

’Ah! Finally! Finally!!’

I was almost moved to tears at this moment!

Y’know it felt all cool and smart saying knowledge is power, but that was just saying it.

Honestly, I invested a lot in Claire’s information network, including precious resources such as second life potion or the ground work I had to do with Aneles and his connections, and it had yet to produce such results… that is till now!

It finally produced results! And some damn good results! Thank you, knowledge is power!

-Fuuuuuu

Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself down as my gaze slowly sharpened.

’Finally, this game of hide and seek ends today.’

***

[Zon’s POV]

The time just before dawn, it wasn’t a good time indeed, especially in this chilling winter. With each of his breaths forming a small cloud of mist, Zon walked down an old road which very few people used nowadays.

Tip toeing down the broken road, and passing through a few freeloaders who replaced their beds with the street, Zon stopped.

He had just reached a cross section that was clearly visible from the barracks where the city guards resided.

Normally, he would go around this cross section but today was different. Today, he was late. And thank’s to the Atlas Blessing, which made the believers all excited, that happened a few days ago, he couldn’t afford to be late!

Of course, this wasn’t his first time being late, nor was it the first time he had to go through this cross section but it didn’t change the fact that he was a coward and his heartbeat fastened whenever he did it.

Thankfully, the time was on his side, it always was.

At around 3 am, the city guards changed shifts. The new guards did a patrol of their area before relieving their comrades off their duty. Thanks to this arrangement, the city guards found themselves with a lot free time between 3 to 7 am, after which the businesses and stores opened and the crowd had to be monitored.

So, what did they do in their free time?

They recovered the hours of sleep they lost!

And that was not a coincidence, it was exactly due to this reason that the prayer time was chosen as such.

Taking a deep breath, Zon gathered whatever courage he could in a single breath (he didn’t have time to gather more), and quickly tip toed the way through, sighing in relief as he hid behind a wall.

Anyways, skipping past a few old buildings Zon took a turn, finding himself on a road full of shrubbery and weeds. Walking past it an old entry to an underground complex appeared in front of him. With no-entry signs hanging outside, the entry was almost completely closed with a sheet of metal.

Almost.

Squeezing past the tiny opening, Zon entered the underground complex in a hurry, completely unaware about the two figures stealthily following after him.

***

[Rayne’s POV]

’Hmm, he certainly looked suspicious but I didn’t expect this.’, I thought at I looked at the hall filled with believers getting preached by Zon, the guy we were following.

’I wonder what these people would do if they find out that their beloved priest is in fact just an actor doing his job.’, Amy said from my shadow.

Yes, the man we were following turned out to be the priest of Church of Light, or rather an actor acting as a priest!

As for Cana who was standing beside, she simply made a distasteful face, I guess she wasn’t thrilled either.

Well, I had enough of this preaching myself.

Being an actor, Zon didn’t directly badmouth the empire instead he created tales in which the empire was a powerful bystander and nothing else, while the Tree of Light or specifically its apostles, that the believers could become with sincere faith, were the protagonists.

This made the consequences of believing in Tree of Light trivial and undermined empire’s strictness in such matters.

Not for long though.

’Amy?’, I asked, deeming anymore words unnecessary.

’Three magic users, Young Master. A D+ ranked one behind the door on the left, another D ranked one in front of the crowd and the last D- ranked one who screened the crowd earlier is still in the corridor.’

And yes, she got what I asked perfectly. Since, both Cana and I were wearing artefacts to appear as ordinary civilians, we couldn’t use our magical abilities unless we wanted to get exposed.

But only three magic users, huh? And no C ranks among them… I knew that the repressed faction was low in magic users, but this was deplorable, even though it made things easier for us.

Then…

’Go Amy! I choose you!’

’…um? What Young Master?’

’Um, go capture those three magic users.’

’As you wish, Young Master.’

Just like that, Amy used ’quick attack’ and before I blinked the magic user in front of the crowd was gone, I am sure the other two would be the same.

’Done.’

’Thank you, my pika- I mean, my lady.’, I complemented her, feeling her sharp gaze from my shadow. Ignoring it, I turned to my side and said, ’Mind doing the honors Cana?’

’Hm. Yes.’

Drinking a middle grade mana potion, Cana closed her eyes for a bit as a huge amount mana flowed through her system, and then a few seconds later she simply uttered, ’Sleep.’

Nothing special happened if seen by mundane eyes, but with my eyes, I saw a rose-colored wave slowly engulfing the entire cathedral. And as it did, the 46 people in the cathedral, just like machines who ran out of power, slumped down, sound asleep.

I generated a gentle but strong breeze of wind to prevent anyone falling head first into the ground before turning to look at the priest who was standing on the stage, his mouth agape.

Cana had excluded him from her power’s influence; yes, after months of practice, she could do that now.

Just as our eyes met, the priest shivered and ran, bolting through the left as he shouted, "Ziek!! Ziek!! We have to escape! Now!!"

But only an empty corridor welcomed his shouts, or so he thought before he felt someone tapping on his shoulder.

"Hey, looking for someone?"

The priest, Zon, jumped in fright, turning around as he saw me right behind him. Commendably he didn’t give up, backing off while keeping his eyes on me.

"Ziek!! Ziek you fucker! Where are you!!?"

Though slowly, his shouts turned into curses.

"Damn! Don’t tell me he ran away without me! Damn that fucking coward, acting all tough in front of me when he ran with his tail tucked in his legs!"

And while I was surprised, he could speak so much while in panic, I thought that was enough playing with him.

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But apparently, he still hadn’t given up.

"Die, you fucker!!", he suddenly cursed as he threw a ball-shaped magical artefact towards me and ran for the entrance.

-Sigh

Even if, he thought he was being sneaky, with his hands behind his back… he was not, atleast not stealthy enough for me.

The ball shaped artefact, the one he used after the prayer, had a fireball stored in it that he used very slowly after each praying session, of course he should have set it to blow up at max power this time…

But it didn’t matter if it didn’t hit.

The ball exploded in a violent flame that engulfed the corridor but what Zon noticed wasn’t the flames but the wind blowing so fast on his face as a figure stopped right in front of him.

"Hey, actor. You were looking for someone called Ziek, right?", I asked as he stared at me in despair.

To him, I showed empty palm, which didn’t remain empty as shadows gathered on it like a portal only for a head to emerge from it.

"Is it him?"

"Aghgrhhh…"

To my surprise, not really, he fainted.