Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 123 - 118: Disagreements II

The sky had turned dark. Slowly a sound resounding through the town.

-Pitter, patter, pitter, patter.

Dark clouds blotted the sky, a passing winter shower greeting the town of Loana. As the cold droplets fell, they robbed the people of the hard accumulated warmth, scarce during this cold month.

And yet, a line of people refused to budge even in this warmth stealing rain, standing resolutely as they lined up in front of a tent, that seemed to glow golden.

The line of people consisted of a variety of men and women of contrasting qualities. Some seemed too fit, seemingly unaffected by the cold shower, with a variety of battle wounds on their bodies. In stark contrast to them, stood the other category of people, with bodies shivering due to cold, they stood, some lacking a limb others having a sickly physique, barely enduring the cold’s assault. Nonetheless, both groups refused to move, their resolve expressed through their actions, as the orderly moved forward.

Alas, the cold shower didn’t stop, icy cold raindrops continuing to descend without mercy on the feeble bodies of the second group. Noticing their peril, some kind ones of the first group willing gave up their place, allowing them to pass forward. Of course, the weak ones still had to endure, despite for a shorter duration.

It was then, that a towering man with brown hair and matching brown eyes stepped out of the tent, his voice booming as he announced, "All non-magic users, please leave the line and take shelter from the rain!"

"There’s no need!"

"Yes, there’s no need for that!"

"It’s just rain we can endure it!"

"Yes, we can endure the rain!"

Several such responses were given to Ruhr, who wryly smiled thinking, ’Is this how that monster brat felt when I interrupted him?’

Taking another breath, he continued, "Do not worry! Young Master Rayne has promised to treat you guys tomorrow! He’ll be treating the people at the Loana Imperial Hospital since tomorrow morning, so come and stop by then to get treated!"

"Is this real?"

"Are you sure he’ll treat us tomorrow?"

"Are you telling the truth, Ruhr?"

Several people asked and only after he announced, "I guarantee that he’ll treat you tomorrow, if you don’t get healed, I’ll personally pay for your treatment!", that people were pacified. The non-magic users among the queued up people leaving hastily under the shivering rain while the rest stood unperturbed.

As for Ruhr, he went back into the tent, watching in fascination as the monster brat healed the entirety of the attack party with a single touch.

"Oh, your back Ruhr, good job dealing with those people."

"Please, don’t praise me as if your my boss.", Ruhr scoffed.

"But ain’t I your leader?"

"A leader and a boss are different, Madam Rose is the one who pays me, so she’s my boss, not you, Young Master.", the gruff mercenary defended.

"Whatever you say, Ruhr. But isn’t it correct that Ruhr is my subordinate, Madam Rose?", Rayne asked.

The Mayor, who was the only person who remained seated in her place since the beginning of the healing session—while other mercenaries left to call for their subordinates, it was just that Ruhr had left early and returned first, spoke, "After such a display, yes, Ruhr and his mercenary band, Iron blooded Gentlemen, are your subordinates, along with 7 others till the disbanding of attack party."

"Hear that?"

"Yeah, whatever. You have just proved yourself to be an extraordinary healer, but who knows about your capabilities as a leader? You may even prove to be an incompetent leader, so keep that in mind, Young Master."

"Well, you’re wrong about that."

Yes, he was wrong, about both. I was a good leader, and my capabilities as a healer were not extraordinary. Rather, they were quite mediocre, even less than that, I suppose.

All I did was learn a powerful Advanced Class healing spell, while skipping all the procedures in between. So, from the perspective of healers, who really pursed efficiency as every bit of their mana kept was directly proportional to lives saved, I was really horrible.

Not to mention, I didn’t know the basic knowledge all healers did, as well as any other healing spells which were much more ’manual’ than [Vitae Restorare]. Such healing spells were usually much more efficient, relying of user’s knowledge and experience to do most in the least amount of expenditure. In fact, I didn’t even know a proper diagnostic spell, which was almost like a signature spell of all healers. So, yeah, I was a pretty bad healer, overpowering my way through with an Advanced Class spell, that worked on autopilot, and virtually infinite mana and mental power.

Anyways, the meeting or should I say the healing session, ended late into the night, but surprisingly, every seat of the meeting was still filled despite the late hour.

In the end, when every member of the attack party was healed, the leaders of the mercenary bands had to acknowledge my capabilities, atleast in healing and mana capacity.

In fact, during the start of my healing session, I did hear some of the leaders exclaim in disbelief about that, but hours later, they all had muted down, with a serious expression on their face, they looked at me as if I did something impossible. Which was somewhat true.

"So, who of us actually agrees with Young Master Rayne being the leader of the attack party?", Madam Rose asked eventually, as only three of the seven hands rose.

One hand belonged to Ruhr, which I expected, the other two caught me off guard as I was yet to speak with any other band leader. The first hand belonged to an elf and the other belonged to a beastman with large bunny ears.

It took but a second for me to guess their reasons for voting in my favor. First the elf, who was pretty curvy, and had a long blonde hair and green eyes, like most of the elves — her reason, from what I inferred should be simple. As an elf, she should instinctively be able to sense a trace of high level positive aura in my mana, that she shouldn’t be able to identify, but could still sense.

Note, the elves believed in Tree of Light, because their species naturally loved positive things, which the Tree of Light was the epitome and origin of, not the other way around. So, it would be one of the factors that accounted in her supporting me. Yes, only a factor cause there was a literal druid participating in the meeting, but she didn’t vote for me.

As for the second, the grey-haired rabbit-man, with his eyes being somewhere between orange and brown, voted for me simply because Ruhr did.

Yep, that was it. I could notice the closeness and friendship between the two band leaders who were seated together for the whole meeting, so I could tell. That guy simply followed the suit after his friend.

As for the other five, which consisted of a lycan woman with vermillion eyes and hair dressed in a revealing dress, a guy with pink hair and light brown eyes dressed like an assassin – he was the only one dressed for combat sans me, another woman with blonde hair and green eyes but unlike the elf’s she excluded a knightly aura that couldn’t be concealed even in her white shirt and pleated blue skirt, then there was a druid ’dressed’ in her leafy greens and a white robe cum dress that matched well with her green hair and eyes, and lastly there was another lycan with blue hair and eyes wearing a black shirt and a grey winter coat over it.

Having talked with Ruhr quite a bit, I knew their names atleast. The Rabit-man was named Haze Roden, leader of Voracious Spirit; the elf was named Liora Moonshade, the leader of Velvet Thorn; the lycan woman was call Zera Bloodfang, leader of Crimson Howl; the assassin was named Kade Thorne, leader of Silent Dagger; the blonde with knightly aura was Sirena Valebright, leading Iron Vow; and the druid was simply named as Elowen, who later picked up a family name after interacting with other species, a rather poetic one too boot – Leafsong. Then, years later she found herself leading a mercenary band – Song of the Forest. Lastly, the other lycan was named Garran Frostclaw, leader of Winterfang Pack.

Just like Ruhr and his friend, Haze, the others also shared some dynamics, the woman with the knightly aura, Sirena seemingly being their leader.

Sensing that, I directly asked, "Ms. Serina, we both know that decision has been made for Loana by the higher ups. So, why are you opposing this? And what would it take for you to truly accept me as your leader?"

It was necessary that they followed my every command, at least if I wanted zero causalities, which was my aim this time around.

"Yes, unfortunately, the decision has already been made.", Serina spoke, "Had I known earlier I would’ve argued with them."

"Why, Ms. Serina?", I asked with a knowing smile.

"Isn’t it obvious ’Young’ Master Rayne? You are too young for this."

"The battlefield is not a place for children, you should stay away from it as longs as you can. With your capabilities as a healer, I’d rather have you at the rear line, treating the injured limitlessly while the rest of us would fight."

She said, and I almost burst into laughter- "Hahahahahaha."

Sorry, it wasn’t almost, after a second of holding back, I did burst into laughter.

"Why are you laughing, ’Young’ Master?", the blond beauty’s face twisted into a frown as she asked. "Was there something wrong with my words?"

"Hahaha, sorry? Something? I’m very sorry Ms. Serina, but your very ideals are unrealistic. Atleast, they don’t fit this world. If this was some world with peace established, then I would support or even have the same ideals, but in this world that we live in? No, they prove to be utterly inadequate. And you who should be familiar with such bloodshed has such ideals? I don’t know if I should call you naïve or foolish.", I mocked and along with Serina, both the Lycan women, Zera and the druid, Elowen, seemed to dislike my words quite a bit, while other seemed unaffected.

"Say, according to your ideals, I’d stay away from bloodshed now, but what about years later? When I become an adult and actually have to command armies to battle demons? Would you rather have me lead legions of soldiers into battle, inexperienced? Just so that I could have a bloodless childhood? Is that what your ideals prove?"

"You maybe a special case Young Master but ordinary children, the future of the Empire shouldn’t-"

"No, you’re mistaken about that too, Ms. Serina. And I’m correcting you precisely because of that. These young children are indeed the future of the Empire, but did you know, what the Empire needs the most in the future?", I paused for a moment, then before she could answer, I resumed, "Its soldiers, lots and lots of them. Instead of shielding them, we need to expose the children, prepare them, train them. So that, rather than dying by the demons’ hand, the children can plunge their sword into the demon’s heart! After all, survival comes before innocence. And in this world, anything that comes after survival is meaningless."

After my ’heartfelt’ exclamation, the tent was again plunged into silence as with a grim look Serina just glared at me.

Then with a faint sigh, she said, "It seems my ideals and yours are the polar opposite, I won’t waste our time talking since we only have two days left. Instead, I propose a 4vs4 battle, tomorrow morning, since you have Ruhr, Haze, Liora supporting you. The one who wins, shall be the leader."

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"Hey, Serina, how’s that fair? We have only met for a few hours; how can our team defeat yours which has years to learn working together?"

"Won’t he have to work with all of us the day after?"

"Yea, but-", Ruhr was saying, but I simply patted his back and answered, "Hmmm, sure. I don’t mind."

"Hey, you-"

"Then it’s decided. Madam Rose, I hope you’ll be the witness of match."

"Sigh, sure, I’ll do that. It doesn’t matter who leads the attack party as long as my town is defended, so may the best one win.", Rose said. "This meeting has extended long past its due, and I’m sure everyone has presented their thoughts. So now the meeting is disbanded."

With that the mercenaries stood up, and went their way one by one. Though, Ruhr and Haze remained, to them, I simply said, "You remember the guy who was driving my carriage?"

Seeing both of them nod, I continued, "He’ll come visit you guys after 2-3 hrs, till then I want you guys to write down your abilities, those you are comfortable to share with me, as well as the abilities that you know about the rest of the leaders on a paper and give it to that guy. Understood?"

"Yea, that’s simple."

"Yes."

Slapping Ruhr’s back again, "Then, you can go, bye!", I took off.

And even though I heard Haze whispering, "Hey, Ruhr, is he really reliable?"

"Who knows, I just had a good feeling about him, haha."

"Don’t place my life on the line just because a good feeling."

I ignored them and marched ahead.

Outside the tent, I caught up with the elf who also left like it was no one’s business and told her the same thing as Ruhr, and when she agreed I asked a little curiously, "Why did you vote for me, Ms. Liora?"

"Hmm, I just had a good feeling about you.", the elf pondered with her finger tapping her lips. "But other than that, it’s mostly because of your face – it’s just my type."

"Hahaha.", I chuckled at her answer.

With a smile she asked, "Were you disappointed?"

"No, the exact opposite. I’m glad that someone could finally see the greatness of my appearance.", I replied with a matching smile.

We both chuckled for a while before I bid her farewell, running ahead to catch up with Mayor Rose, who was last to leave the tent.

Before she could alight her carriage, I ran up to the practical woman and stated, "Madam Rose, I have a favor to ask before you go back."

"Oh, sure Young Master Rayne, anything is fine as long as it is within reason.", Rose said with a pleasant smile, not showing a single hint of fatigue even after the long meeting.

"Of course, I just want your permission to heal the patients in the Imperial Hospital right now."

Yep, I planned to finish this healing session before midday today, so I had to heal all the patients in the night itself. It was feasible since my body and psyche really didn’t need any rest.

"Right now!?"

"Yes, right now."

"Ok, Roan, can you please inform the staff present there to co-operate with Young Master?"

"It will be done, Madam Rose.", the Asian man replied fluently, going somewhere to accomplish his task, I guess.

"By the way, you sure are amazing, Young Master.", Madam Rose suddenly spoke.

"I’m just trying my best Madam Rose.", I said humbly.

"Just try not to overdo it.", She said, and though she didn’t pat my head I got a similar feeling from her when she bent a little to match my eye-level and said, "Remember, you are still a child, free to enjoy your life."

Giving her an awkward smile, as I wasn’t really a child, I replied, "Don’t worry Madam, I do enjoy my life."

With that, I went to the hospital and spent my night there, healing patients while studying Ruhr Haze, and Liora’s capabilities, and before I knew it, the early rays peered on my face through a hospital window.