Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 71 - 70: Talking with Mark

"Yo, had a nice time?", I amusedly remarked, as I saw the split second visage of unfocused and utterly confused C ranked magic user.

My voice seemed to bring him back to reality though. Cause the next second his now sharp eyes met mine, and then, there was no need of words-

-Schwing

With one foot on the table and one foot on his seat, Mark stood on the table as his sword remained still, firmly locked with mine.

-Clang!!

A blast of wind accompanied by a loud clang caused a commotion, scaring the customers, most of them running away, not wanting to get caught up in a fight between magic users, but not all were like that...

From within the establishment, a girl wearing an apron over a casual day dress came rushing into hall, spotting both of us. Then pointing a finger at both of us, she fearlessly shouted, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, MARK!!?"

Mark flinched hearing her voice, maybe, only now, getting a hang of his surroundings, but still, he didn’t back down.

"Indeed, what the fuck are you doing, Mark?", I asked him. Beckoning at the girl, who was the owner, and lightly adding, "You sure you wanna do this here, with her present?", my tone borderline teasing at the end.

And surely, he didn’t like it.

Ignoring what I said, he directly asked, "You, why did you attack me?"

"Huh? Me? Attack you? What are you talking about mister?", I grinned.

And once again, he didn’t like that.

Mark swung his sword harder, two of his four hands each wielding a weapon making the exchange twice as deadlier. But still, I was able to face him, somehow getting the feeling that the sword wasn’t his main weapon.

-Clang!

-Clang!

-Clang!

-Clang!

Our bout continued, destroying more and more of the building, as once again our swords were locked.

"Don’t act clueless!!", he shouted, his face unprecedentedly serious as he pushed his swords forward.

In response to his seriousness, I questioned calmly, "Am I the clueless one? Shouldn’t the clueless one be the ’someone’ who investigated me and even sent men to keep an eye on my party? Or are you gonna act clueless now? Huh?"

With that Mark was stumped, taking a while to respond, but before he could do so, green runes of power etched on the building glowed around us. The green power coalescing together to form two massive hands.

Hands, that grabbed both of us and dragged us towards a very angry lady.

"DON’T IGNORE ME YOU BASTARDS!!", she outrageously shouted.

And with no nonsense, she clapped her hands, the green hands mimicking her hand movements, smashing both of us together.

Of course, there was no damage with how weak those hands actually were. In fact, the only reason we were still trapped in those was cause breaking them would bring harm to the owner.

So, even after being smashed, we just watched the lady as she said her piece, "AND DON’T YOU DARE RUN AWAY BEFORE FIXING THIS!!"

After that, the owner, better known as Elista, released the hands, or more like she couldn’t keep them activated any longer while she herself plopped down on the ground, roughly panting.

...And we did just that...not because we were intimidated or anything...just simple human courtesy...we did destroy did her place after all...

...

..

.

[Two hours later]

Two glasses of lemon margarita were served to us by an annoyed Elista. ’Not just the customers but the waiters and waitresses ran away too, those dumb cowards...just come back here tomorrow, I’ll teach you what fear is...hehe...’, she grumbled under her gritted teeth.

Thankfully, both of us were intelligent enough to stay silent and ignore her to the best of our abilities, and only when she was gone that we started, with me breaking the ice.

"Will she be alright?"

"Yes, she will."

"Honestly, she is too much of a busybody for a F-rank."

Yes, Elista was also a magic user, a F-ranked one. Someone who could only use cantrips at most.

So, how did she make those huge hands?

Obviously, by using the strength of magical arrays etched in the building, she was their master after all. But still, the burden was too much for her, as she could only use them like that for a few seconds.

"I know, but she is an old friend. That’s why I come by this place many times to check on her.", Mark said as he picked up the glass and took a sip of the margarita.

"I see...", I nodded, and similarly took a sip off mine.

"By the way, how were you able to track me?", he questioned, suddenly turning the gears of the conversation.

"Because of three things,", I remarked, showing him three of my fingers, "Your men are too unskilled for me, you were walking in broad daylight, or moonlight I should say...and lastly because...I am me.", I whispered with a smirk.

"..."

"Hehe~"

Silence fell on the scene as Mark stayed silent and just stared at me, while I looked back at him with a look that could be only described as a big shit eating grin.

"So, what now?", he finally inquired, "Surely, you didn’t just come to pull a prank on me, did you?"

"Prank, you say...", I smiled, tapping the edge of my glass as I continued, "...are you implying we are even?"

"That depends on what you have to say next.", he replied as he interlocked his fingers.

"Haha, I thought you weren’t smart, but it turns out you just needed to cool your head."

Veins bulged on Mark’s forehead as he heard that, but he held it in, simply replying with a quip, "And you are an annoying smartass, just as I thought."

"Correct~", I said playfully before finally going in the serious mode, "Now let’s talk about important things."

On my que, Mark created a sound barrier around us, after which I started talking, "Do you really believe that, the sudden rumors of a hidden religion flying around city, and the increase in the number of C-rank mages in the city during the same period of time, are a coincidence? If you do so then let me tell you – No, they definitely are not. Now let me tell you the reason for that."

I paused, giving him a bit of time to make sure he follows before continuing-

"You see, this city has some really, really unsatisfied people. People who have been pushed too much, too far. And when you push someone too far...they push back. No matter the cost. And that’s what happened."

I concluded.

"I see...I have an idea on who those people are...", Mark opened his mouth after a long time as he probed, "But what does our situation has to do with you?"

"An idea, huh?", I mused smiling mischievously as I revealed, "I sure the one you work for knows that all too well."

-Sigh.

"You know about that as well?", he tiredly replied, "Just how good is your information network?"

"Pretty good. As for what it has to do with me...It’s pretty simple if you think about it.", I blabbered, saying just two words, "Faction wars."

Hearing that Mark nodded as if he expected this before slowly asked, "’If we want your help or not?’, that’s what this is all about, right?"

"Mhm.", I nodded.

"But you can’t tell me the details about your ’help’."

"Mhm." I nodded again.

"So now, you want me to arrange a meeting between you and the one I work for?"

"Yup, you got it all right.", I said and before he could refuse or make excuses about how impossible that was, I took out a letter and gave it to him, "Have your employer read this letter then relay to him what happened, if he refuses to meet me even after reading this...then that’s good bye, I guess.", I giggled giving him a clueless smile.

Inwardly, I wasn’t smiling though, that father of mine hasn’t told me what he wrote in the letter. When I asked him he just smiled and said, ’I wrote letter just according to your requirements.’, giving me no chance to probe further.

With that our conversation came to an end as Mark who had already inspected and pocketed the letter inquired, "Is that all?"

"Yes, that is all."

In response he stood up, undoing the sound barrier as he remarked, "I hope you aren’t an annoying smartass the next time we meet."

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"The next time we meet..? You sure are confident about that."

"Chalk it up to my experience, I just know that we will.", he commented before walking out of the establishment…of course after paying half of the bill to a still very angry Elista.

With Mark gone, I decompressed a bit. It looked like I was playful and had it easy during the whole conversation, but truth is that it was incredibly nerve wracking.

Still, all went well, at least I think so.

Finishing my drink, I ordered another one as I fleetingly thought, ’I wonder what those two are doing...’