Chapter 50: A Date
Night arrived as quickly as the sun had risen, enveloping the royal capital, though it was far from quiet.
Night in the royal capital was just as lively as the day was, if not even more so due to the presence of the performers in the streets and some merchants that stayed open later than usual.
But Adrian was not interested in all that, instead, he was calmly waiting by the split path for Renelle.
He had changed out of his academy uniform and into a white shirt with a black tie and a waist coat combined with black pants.
It was a semiformal look, fit for both his date and as the lady’s butler.
He waited calmly for a few more minutes before he heard the sound of steps behind him.
"Did I make you wait for too long?"
Adrian turned around only to have his breath stolen when he spotted Renelle walking up to him.
She had on an off-shoulder white blouse with Puffy long sleeves, that were tucked into a long gray skirt made with multiple layers, with the topmost one being a light transparent fabric.
Completing the look was a pair of ankle high boots with golden patterns on them.
She looked so elegantly beautiful that Adrian was out of words for a couple of seconds.
That is, until Noctis thought that its contractor had embarrassed them enough, so it mentally muttered.
«Your mouth is open.»
Adrian snapped out of his mini trance and finally looked at Renelle’s face properly.
She was also looking at him with a small smile on her face, as if she was proud of the effect she had on him.
"You look incredible, my lady," he said, clearing his throat, "even the darkness of the night cannot overshadow your beauty."
"Is that so?" Renelle seemed to have gotten even better at hiding her embarrassment, "thank you."
He then extended his ungloved hand towards her and said, "let’s go?"
"Mmh," Renelle nodded and took it, again, feeling the sensation of a shock for a few seconds.
Before she could get the chance to think about it, they were both encased in a layer of shadow and the next second, they were gone, replaced by one of Adrian’s clones.
The clone looked around for a couple of seconds before melting into a pool of shadows as it was dismissed.
***
Meanwhile, the layer of shadow peeled away, and Renelle realize that they were not in their previous spot anymore.
The first sign of this was the sound of dripping water.
She turned around and noticed that they were in some sort of grassy plain, and just a bit ahead was a lake.
Under the light of the moon, it was a beautiful sight, no doubt, but what made it even more so were the little glowing figures floating both inside and above the lake.
Spirits.
Normally, spirits preferred to remain hidden, and one could only spot them with a magic tool like Adrian’s.
But here, they were light fireflies in the night, floating all around.
"Where are we?" Renelle asked.
"It’s a restricted zone," Adrian said calmly, stepping beside her, his gaze moving towards the lake, "hidden within the academy grounds."
He paused and turned back to her, before adding with a smile,
"The Spirit Lake."
Even without prior knowledge, the density of mana in the air made it obvious that this place was anything but ordinary.
She took a slow step forward with her eyes fixed on the water.
"...I’ve never seen this before."
Of course he knew this, in the manhwa, not even the two protagonists had come to this place.
It was one visited by only headmistress Evelina, and Adrian had spent hours using his shadow clones just to search for it.
"Well, the headmistress was keeping it hidden from everyone else," Adrian said, "I just happen to stumble upon it by chance."
"I see," Renelle nodded before turning back to the lake, "then does that mean she’s aware of our presence here?"
"That’s highly likely," Adrian nodded, "but she won’t interfere with our date, after all, even though she keeps this place hidden, she doesn’t kick out anyone that discovers it by themselves."
"..."
"You seem to know quite a lot about the headmistress," Renelle said with narrowed eyes, "how close were you two previously?"
"She’s just someone I respect a lot," Adrian answered, "after all, she’s one of the few that didn’t turn against you, even while you tried freezing the entire Avera."
"Is that so?" She muttered, seemingly satisfied by that answer... for now.
There was silence between the two for a while, as both Noctis and Crystal appeared on the respective owner’s heads, seemingly bathing in the abundant mana around.
Well, just Crystal anyway, Noctis only came out of the [Shadow Vault] because it was bored of the almost timeless space.
«What a fascinating place,» Noctis commented as it watched the spirits floating around, though they completely avoided where it was.
"You didn’t bring me here just to admire the scenery, did you?" Renelle spoke up again, watching as the spirits floated towards her.
"Of course not," he answered with a smile before walking towards the lake.
"You know, this lake holds a pretty big secret," Adrian started, "one left behind by the founder of the Imperial Spirit Academy, the headmistress’s father."
He paused and turned back to her, extending his hand, "would you like to find out what that is?"
Renelle looked at his hand then back at his face, this butler of hers seemed to have a lot more knowledge than necessary for an ordinary regressor, especially one that was only an observer in his past life.
This made her wonder if he truly was a regressor or something else, but still, that didn’t mean his obsession towards her was fake.
So she trusted him.
Walking forward, she took his hand and nodded.
"Then we’ll go for a quick swim," Adrian suddenly said, catching her off guard.
«Absolutely not!» Noctis protested but it was too late as the next second, the four were in the lake.
"Huh?" Renelle let out as they started sinking to the bottom.
They were very clearly surrounded by water right now, but they strangely were not getting wet.
Noctis’ hairs stood on end, that is, until it also realized that fact. It then calmly lay back down on Adrian’s head as if he wasn’t about to throw a tantrum.
Inside the lake was filled with as much spirits as those floating outside, lighting up the entire lake, despite it being nighttime.
They continued sinking for what felt like a few minutes before they suddenly slowed down, exiting the water as if passing through a bubble.
Their feet suddenly landed on a hard ground again and Renelle looked up, noticing that the water was still magically floating above them.
She didn’t even try wondering how that worked before looking at Adrian’s face that still held a smile, not even realizing that their hands were still locked together.
"What now?" She asked and he just pointed forward, leading her eyes towards some sort of stone door with a text on it, that wasn’t connected to any wall.
"Welcome," Adrian started, "to one of the Academy’s secrets..."
"The founder’s dungeon."