Dance with the Nightingale-Chapter 119 - 114: Aftermath I

-Splash…!

"Wahh!"

I woke up with a startle, with cold water striking my face. And I was confused, very confused actually as I wiped the water off my face while looking around.

And what should I say… there were a lot of people in the room, which I recognized as my dwelling in Sunfish’s Pond.

My father, Reynold Von Ellsworth, sat at the bedside. Despite being a Magus, he wasn’t the highest ranked person in the room.

Wearing a white military uniform, cape and all, sat the Empress quietly observing me with her eyes glowing in seven colors. She stood out even when she was just sitting there, giving off the feeling that she was part of a different world.

Beside her sat another figure in a white hooded robe, I assumed he was an imperial Archmage. On the other side, sat the two Archmages of Ellsworth estate, Amy and Zuri, and beside them, on the far end sat Baron Marek.

Quite a solid lineup for a puny D ranked magic user like myself, I’d say.

I was quite confused why such a lineup had shown up in my bedroom, but first, "I greet, Her Excellency, the Ruler of the Central Realm.", I greeted the Empress, before asking, "So, dad, what’s going on?"

-Sigh

"That’s what we want to ask you, Rayne.", the Earl said with a sigh.

"What do you mean?", I asked innocently, while noticing that Earl called me by my real name, ’Oh, my disguise has been undone.’

"Young Master, there was a disturbance after your fight with the demon. Master wants to know if you know something about that disturbance.", Amy explained.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

"Disturbance? What kind of disturbance? Sorry, but I don’t remember much, all I can recall is that there was an explosion of light and… no, that’s it, I fainted soon after that.", I said, which was technically true.

"Are you sure you didn’t see anything else, Young Master? Like the cause of the disturbance, some sort of trigger, or even the presence of a demonic cult.", the Baron asked, but I couldn’t admit I was the trigger, right?

There was pause, where I thought what I should say. I noticed a few things, as I thought, like my clothes had been changed, I was probably bathed too, the sun was rising so a whole day, must have passed. But even after running out of these useless thoughts, nothing came to my mind. The silence just dragged on longer.

In the end, the Empress, Adeline Von Grey Jurgen Alexis, broke the silence.

"Everyone, leave. I need to talk to Rayne in private.", her eyes stopped glowing as she commanded.

"What is it, Adeline? Just say it out here; I’m not leaving before assessing his health."

"And you have already done that, three times at that. He is in perfect condition, be it physically or mentally.", she paused, giving the Magus a hard look. Earl wasn’t having any of it though, looking right back at the Empress until she sighed and explained.

"Something unusual happened with his soul, I want to confirm exactly what happened and explain it to him. Unless you want me to share your son’s secrets with everyone in the room, leave."

"But…", the Earl wanted to say something, but I took empress’ side on this one.

"It’s okay, dad. Her Majesty won’t harm me, even you know that."

The Earl took a moment to think, before he sighed, "Sigh, if you say so.", and left.

Everyone naturally followed, even the imperial Archmage, everyone except Amy, and surprisingly, Zuri.

Amy approached me, her expression a mix of concern and frustration. She gently kissed my forehead before speaking.

"I’m sorry, Young Master. I couldn’t protect you. I always fail when it matters the most," she lamented, her voice tinged with self-reproach.

"No, you don’t!", I involuntarily answered. She shook her head, a sad smile playing on her lips. "Thank you, Young Master. But I feel like I let you down," she said softly.

"Amy… I know you did your best.", I consoled, nothing else coming to my mind.

"I just have to improve my best then, Young Master. I’ll do better next time. I promise,", looking into my eyes, she vowed, her eyes blazing with cold determination, before she pulled back and left.

And this had me reeling, a little, ’What exactly happened when I was unconscious?’

I understood that something big happened, since both the Earl and the Empress had arrived, but I didn’t specifically know what.

That’s when I heard Zuri speak, "I don’t think entering Young Master’s Soulscape is a good idea, I tried it when he was asleep but it ended failure. Something is wrong with his soul..."

"That’s fine, I’ll be careful.", the Empress replied when he was still explaining.

"I know her Majesty is much greater than my puny self, but I still advice you to…"

Zuri still tried to explain, but the Empress patted his shoulder, "Don’t worry child, I know. I know you’re just trying to help. You’re quite skilled with souls, and I appreciate the warning. But don’t worry—I’m aware of what I’m dealing with.", With a soft tone she dismissed him, and he reluctantly left.

Unfortunately, when everybody left, the Empress scowled at me, "How the hell did you do it?", her tone anything but soft.

"Pardon?"

’Not why the hell, but how the hell?’, I thought.

"Don’t act dumb. You are not the first person who tried to acquire this power. Many have tried, including myself. But no one succeeded, until now. In the first place, why do you even know about this power? Weren’t you just a commoner who couldn’t even use magic in your past life?", she said looming over me, before she added, "Unless you lied to me.", and flicked her finger on my forehead.

"Ouch!"

I held my head, as it throbbed in pain, in fact I even heard a faint sound of my skull cracking.

"Stop acting, you’re healed already.", the Empress said as I kept acting as if I was in pain.

"Ahem, sorry, it’s an old habit.", I explained to her judging face, which seemed to have none of my nonsense, "Don’t try to dodge the question, brat.", the Empress said chillingly, this time her aura locking me in place as she forced me to answer.

"I didn’t lie! I really was a common man who couldn’t use magic!"

"Then how come you’re here, talking to me after successfully absorbing the elven deity?"

’Of course, she saw through that!’

"I… I…", I despaired as I tried to think of an excuse, but I knew nothing was going to work… so I just kept my mouth shut.

"…"

"Sigh, just say it while I’m asking nicely.", The Empress sighed, placing her hand on head as she asked for what seemed the final time, "Where did you hear about this power and just how did you manage to absorb it?"

"Okay, okay! I’ll tell you.", I spat, giving in before things got out of hand. "Just leave the part about how I knew about alone, I’ll tell you how I absorbed it."

"Ho, once again trying to make a deal with me, huh? You really tend to forget our standings, don’t you, brat?", The empress reprimanded me with another forehead flick, but instead of forcing me, she took a seat on the stool and said, "Well, I’ll leave it alone. I’m not interested in that anyways. I’m more curious about how you didn’t explode like a firework while absorbing it."

"Sure…", I said, offering her my hand as I explained, "Showing you would be much easier than explaining."

And without a word, the Empress placed her hand on mine, and… we were back there, into the world of white, in my soulscape.

The scene was distinctly different though.

The white walls, the unending expanse and the empty space, wasn’t so empty anymore.

In the center of my soul stood a tree, a giant, ethereal tree made of energy. It was the Tree of Light, or the elven deity as the Empress called it. Maybe because it was called as Tree of Light, and I perceived it as so, it took form of a tree in my soul. It was still pulsing with stars, galaxies and dim at hollows, but now it properly looked like a tree, with leaves rustling with the non-existent winds.

With its every pulse, the roots that dug into the white floor of my soulscape shone with a golden pulse, emitting a golden glow to my soulscape.

But that was not the most important change.

The most important change was, I who was sitting on near the Tree of Light, leaning on its massive trunk, didn’t have the black pikes on my back!

Yes, they were not on my back!

Of course, the weren’t just gone, such good things don’t happen in life.

Instead of my back, they were rooted on the floor as well, forming a irregular heptagon with the Tree of Light as its center.

It looked like they were placed randomly but that was not the case, each of those pikes pierced the major roots of the Tree of Light, a golden spark travelling through them, from bottom to top, before that spark returned, into the roots of the Tree of Light, carrying a hint of red.

Of the seven pikes that Rayne originally had, six of them, were completely black, while the last one, the one which was melded with his soul, which I didn’t see till now, was manifested in deep crimson.

Unlike the other pikes, this one seemed too alive, actively sucking in the Tree of Light’s energy as it dyed it crimson.

"What do you think?", I said loudly, finally catching the Empress’ attention who was too busy observing the crimson pike and the reddened parts of Tree of Light near it.

Funny, how I had to seek attention when this whole space was a part of me.

"It’s interesting…", the Empress said, not even bothering to look at me as kept up her observations.

Slowly, she walked around, from one pike to another as magical circles kept revolving around her. This kept on for a while, before she finally walked up to me.

No, screw that, she completely ignored me and observed the Tree of Light.

"Hm, so that’s how it is…", she mused, after another two minutes passed, the magic circles that surrounded her disappearing from view as she finally turned towards me.

"Well?"

"I don’t know if I should say you’re lucky or cursed.", she started, "You should’ve exploded like a fire cracker, but these pikes created some sort of formation to keep the power sealed and consolidated."

"Eating it slowly, devouring it steadily as if savoring each bite. Now here’s the thing that works for you, since you have one pike melded with you, you can use the power that this pike devoured, and all the passive effects that imply with using this power."

"Un huh, so what’s the bad thing?", I gulped as I asked.

"Since they are being served a five star meal every time of the day, if you fail reaching the required rank for your next pike’s integration. These pikes won’t be satisfied with small things, anymore. You’ll lose something really important to you. So, no matter what happens, try to reach to required rank, using any means possible."

"Anyways, the pikes have devoured around 0.1% of the total power, which is basically unlimited power for you, but remember that the real output is restricted by your soul. The stronger your soul the more power you can unleash, so try to do something to strengthen your soul. It is already quite stronger than average ones, but you can still pull out a puny amount of power with that.", she explained and I nodded. "Any questions about what you gained?"

"No…", I shook my head, "I can more or less feel them out. Perfect Condition, that what I decided to call it. It never lets my condition to deteriorate, be it mental, physical, spiritual or my soul’s condition."

"Yes, you’ve got something similar to unlimited stamina now and immunity to poisons and such. Remember though, you’re being healed, it not as if your stamina is actually unlimited. There’s a difference between the two. As for the second gain…"

"It is affinities. I’ve got maximum affinity with positive elements and a new attribute, [Lightbringer]."

"[Lightbringer], huh? Sounds great. Atleast, that power is being useful instead of just sitting there.", the Empress said, before asking again, "Anything else?"

"No, that’s all I can feel."

"Hm, well that’s more than enough. Here.", the Empress suddenly placed her finger on my forehead as a flood of scenes flew into my mind.

"That’s what happened when you were asleep.", the Empress said nonchalantly.

’W-What?! Something this big happened!? No wonder she is here!’, my jaw dropped as I went through these memories.

"How am I supposed to explain this to them!?", I asked, but, "That’s your problem, no?", the Empress said before she disappearing.