Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 97 - 92: A Charade

[Upper City, Lueurre]

[Sunfish’s Pond]

[Claire’s Living Quarters]

-Is that so?

A surprised voice came from the hologram Claire was talking to. Its next sentence causing her to furrow her brows.

-Well, it is good that I am not in the city for once.

The hologram of the well-built dwarf sighed in relief.

"Huh? You are not in the city?", Claire asked with clear surprise in her tone.

-Hm? You didn’t know? But I surely remember sending you a message…

The dwarf ruminated, causing Claire to check her civilian amulet that she rarely used.

And gods, there were loads of them.

Sweating a little, Claire did a quick search and found the message in question.

**

[10:30 am, 13/11/X953]

[Uncle Gabbers]

-Hey, Lad! I’m going to the next city for an order. It may take a while for me to return. Keep a watch on my shop, will ya? Then, see you! I will bring ya souvenirs.

**

"Oh! Right! I totally forgot that for a second.", Claire quickly covered her slip up. "It just slipped out of my mind since a lot happened yesterday.", she added in a demure tone.

Feeling a little bad, the dwarf consoled.

-It’s okay, it’s okay. Can’t blame you really. It must have been a traumatic event for you too, and here I am, only talking about business.

-Sorry, my bad.

The muscular dwarf apologized. After all, to him Claire was just a waitress in a good hotel, who brought him customers. A cute little girl, that he came to adore.

"No. It’s okay uncle, you don’t have to apologize.", Claire shook her head. "It wasn’t even that scary from the upper city."

-That’s good, that’s good. The shop will stay there anyways, there is no need for you to watch it. Just stay safe, okay kid?

"Yes, uncle.", Claire gave him a smile worthy of a fairy, before cutting off the call, her smile doing a 180 as she did.

’Either Ray is super dumb and fell for some stupid impersonation or…he is hiding something.’, the fairy thought.

’And why do I just know that it’s the latter.’

"*Sigh*, I’ll just go and check things for myself.", the fairy decided and soon a ninja-like armor materialized around her body. Something more oriented towards stealth rather than bewitching like Jinx’s armor.

So, just like that, Rayne got some unexpected backup that he didn’t ask for.

***

[The Abandoned Church, The Slums]

Churches were not common in the Empire. With Empire’s no God policy, all kinds of religious buildings were either demolished and reconstructed or they were abandoned.

Just like this one.

Being abandoned for decades, the engraved motifs had long lost their shine while the cracked glass windows were tangled with leafy vines, with few rays of the evening sun peering through them.

So, other than being a kid’s playground in the day and being a site for illegal dealings in the night, the church served little purpose.

Right now, though, it served another purpose. An exchange site of hostages or so it was supposed to be.

Cause when Mark walked into the church, with a captured Cana who surrendered and a bruised Syrus who resisted quite a lot, he didn’t see the hostage.

Inside the church sat a single man, sitting on the broken, moss-covered pedestal, as he eyed Mark walking into the church. He was wearing civilian clothes, nothing that you won’t see on streets, with his typically normal face bare for everyone to see. And though, Mark was sure that the man before him was using some kind of disguise spell, he didn’t try to pry, for now.

The good thing, or the bad thing if you saw things from a different angle, was that the guy here wasn’t a C rank or things would have become a little complicated.

The guy in question instead, made the first move, even though he was outclassed. He stood up, and walked towards the party, particularly towards Cana and Syrus.

And before Mark could ask him anything, his amulet beeped again.

-You sure care about the girl, arriving minutes early and all.

The voice coming through the amulet oozed with sarcasm.

-Now, let my man check the hostages.

The voice said, but the guy here was already doing that.

Cana noticed this and concluded, ’There is a time-lag. Meaning, he isn’t watching us directly, but he must be in the slums if he is hiding with Elista.’

"Everything is clear. They don’t have any artefacts on them and their mana flow is sealed.", the guy reported as he finished checking, he probably was on a call as well.

-Good. You have done your job. Now, leave.

The voice said to Mark.

"Leave? But Elista-"

-Your little girlfriend will stay with me for a while.

"This isn’t what we agreed on.", Mark growled. His aura leaking out, somehow much more aggressive than his usual one.

-Agreed? We didn’t agree on anything, you fool. You just deluded yourself.

The voice sneered.

-Now, stop scaring my man.

Enraged and resentful, Mark lost his cool. Summoning his sword in a flash, he placed it on the guy’s neck, "What if I don’t keep the end of my deal?"

-Go ahead.

But all he heard was an apathetic, logical reply.

-I have a lot of subordinates, losing one or two of my pawns doesn’t matter. Go ahead, if it’s the same for you.

"You can’t kill her. I won’t have any reason to listen to you if you did.", Mark wittily said, or he thought it was witty as he pressed his sword touching the guy’s neck.

-Try me.

The voice mocked. Then with a dark undertone, it added.

-Believe me, I am itching to break her. Break her so bad, that she will beg me for her death. So, just give me the reason to stop holding back.

"Fuck!", Mark cursed as he heard the maniacal spark in the voice.

Taking his sword back, he took a few deep breaths before asking directly this time, "What do I need to do for you to release her?"

-You have to do nothing.

The voice said almost professionally, the previous maniacal spark nowhere to be found.

Which dumbfounded Mark a little, "Huh?"

-You have done your part. Now, just lay low and do nothing and your girl will be back to you.

"How can I trust you?", he asked feeling more than skeptical.

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-You can’t, but you can trust the girl. I’ll let you hear her voice every day.

"Day? How many days are we talking about?", Mark asked, prying for information.

A move that caused, even the silent Cana and Syrus to raise their brows. For once their thoughts aligned.

’Is he stupid?’

’He is stupid.’

And just like they predicted, -You don’t ask me questions, punk. Just do as I say, or she suffers.

The voice rebuked in a grating voice, shutting Mark down for good.

-Now, leave!

The voice ordered before cutting off the call.

Begrudgingly, with an extremely anguished face, Mark left the building. Causing Cana to mentally roll her eyes. Mentally, because she still had to act like unwilling hostage.

The silver lining was that the guy here couldn’t read her mind, or he would know what she was thinking, ’Mark’s brother…he is a terrible actor.’

Syrus was having a different thought, ’So, that’s how you act…’.

Unknowingly, he was pursuing a really bad example.

And sure enough, the guy with them was also having a funny thought, ’Wasn’t he supposed to be smart?’

The same thought as the voice.

Cut him some slack though, he didn’t know that it was Mark’s brother, Jack, instead of Mark who came here.

Unfortunately, he never got to know that. Cause that was the last thought he ever had.

What happened you ask?

Mark happened, of course!

***

[A few minutes earlier]

Mark was in a difficult situation.

He wanted to rush, but he couldn’t rush. Well, he could actually, if he wanted to get caught that is.

And right now, he couldn’t afford to get caught if anything.

So, he was working. Working quickly, quietly and stealthily.

The plan was to use the home ground advantage.

The abandoned church wasn’t a place he was unaware of. In fact, it was place he had been to few times before. Mostly to monitor the illegal deals going on there.

Of course, he had never arrested someone there or anything like that. His job was to just provide information in secret, the rest was for the knights to do. If he went around arresting people, then eventually, his cover would be blown.

And thanks to this little precaution he took, along with little time the demonic cult had been in the city, he was invited to exchange the hostages there.

This made things a lot easier, but he still had to be careful, Elista’s life was on the line.

"I have no choice.", he said vocally, while explaining his plan through a mind link.

’I have a plan. The place that they called us to, the abandoned church, I know it very well. I think we can beat them if you play along.’

"Camilla, behind me.", Syrus said as he clashed with Mark, locking their swords.

(A/N: Her fake name, if anybody forgot.)

’What if they baited you knowing the fact?’, Syrus actually asked.

’That can’t be, I was very careful to maintain my upright mercenary image and a upright mercenary wouldn’t have any reason to go to a place like that.’, Mark convinced him, while continuing the show of a fight.

’Okay, elaborate.’, Cana interjected before Syrus could reply, deciding that there was no harm in hearing Mark out.

’If things took a wrong turn, then we still have some powerful artefacts that would allow us to escape atleast.’