By Zephyria “Are you going to embarrass my hand?”
“Ah, no. It’s not.”
Theo hesitated a little, as if feeling a little uncomfortable with his actions of asking for a handshake with a feeling that was not at all like an apology. However, he was afraid that he would notice something strange if he was any later, so he carefully grabbed his hand.
The moment Terzio grabbed Hugo’s hand that was held out in front of him, Hugo grabbed Terzio’s hand and pulled him hard towards him.
At that sudden force, Theo was immediately pulled towards him without even having time to resist. The expression on Theo’s face, who suddenly faced the legion commander right in front of him, was full of surprise.
Since the distance between the two was quite close, Flynn, who was watching from the side, was also quite embarrassed by the commander’s actions.
Hugo, who was holding his hand tightly with a strong grip, stared at Terzio’s eyes in front of him. Theo, who was completely exposed to that persistent gaze, instinctively stopped breathing. His brown eyes shook as if quite confused, and his eyelashes fluttered.
The moment his piercingly blue eyes stared straight at him as if to penetrate him, Theo lowered his eyes slightly.
A large, cool hand gripped his hand tightly, and his breath brushed right in front of his nose. It felt like his whole body was being bound.
The gaze that slowly scanned him as if searching scratched his skin, but he couldn’t bear to look up and tried to avoid his gaze. He felt like prey that couldn’t move in front of a large beast.
Hugo followed his anxious eyes, and then began to slowly trace his hand while holding it.
A firm thumb pressed down on Terzio’s wrist. Theo was quite embarrassed by the act and tried to escape from his grasp, but the hand he was holding did not let him go.
“Raise your head.”
A low voice rang in his ears as if not allowing even the slightest resistance.
As if he had heard an irresistible command, Theo swallowed hard and slowly lifted his eyelids.
As he exhaled intermittently, his deep and heavy scent flowed into him and pressed down on him as if to bind him.
Theo felt that this time was longer than any other moment. He felt tremendous pressure in this situation where he was holding his wrist with a strong force and looking down at him with a cold gaze.
“Th-That… Commander?”
Flynn carefully called Hugo. It was because he felt a little sorry for Theo, who was quite frozen.
Hugo quietly met Terzio’s eyes and checked his pulse. Then, he shook his hand lightly a couple of times while holding his wrist, and then let him go. The red handprint was clearly visible on the spot where Hugo had let go of his hand, as if his wrist had been held very tightly.
Theo, who had barely escaped from the oppressive feeling that had been pressing down on him, took a couple of steps back and exhaled the breath he had been holding in. Hugo looked at him and put on the gloves he had taken off, and said to Theo as if nothing had happened.
“It seems that Flynn has been indebted to you in many ways. By the way, how did you know that the teleportation zone of the closed gate was alive?”
At Hugo’s question, Theo blinked his eyes several times to break the spirit that had been frozen for a while. Then, he tried to regain his composure and opened his mouth.
“Ah…. I learned about it while wandering around doing guild work….”
“Hmm, is that so.”
Hugo could have dug deeper, but he answered lightly as if he wouldn’t ask any more.
“Thanks to you, it was a great help. Thank you.”
Hugo smiled and nodded slightly to express his gratitude to him.
As a smile was placed on his cool and neat face as if it had been sculpted, all the members around him could not take their eyes off him. However, Theo still looked at the smile on his lips with a slightly wary look.
A moment later, Terzio, like the other members of the merchant group, moved to the waiting area after the investigation was completed. As Theo was led away by another investigator, Flynn said with a slightly disgruntled tone.
“Squad Leader, you’re too much. You had to talk about my misunderstanding in front of Theo… Do you know how embarrassed I was?”
Hugo, without taking his eyes off Terzio’s receding figure, opened his mouth.
“What exactly did you misunderstand?”
“Pardon?”
“Report all the suspicious circumstances and investigations you’ve done.”
Flynn, who had been puzzled for a moment, recalled that he had reported the investigation process from time to time, but had excluded the content about Theo because it was only a hunch. Soon, Flynn reported everything he suspected, the contents he investigated in the storage, and even the search of Terzio and his lodgings, which appeared late, to Hugo.
After listening to the report, Hugo crossed his arms and seemed to be thinking about something before asking Flynn.
“What’s the reason for moving items that don’t necessarily need to be refrigerated to the storage?”
“The merchant group has a custom of moving the remaining items after selling goods in the village to the storage. Of course, I also thought that the items moved with Theo were not necessarily items that had to be kept in the storage, so I suspected that he deliberately took me to check the storage.”
“But.”
“However, I confirmed the testimony that there was no time to check and classify the remaining items one by one, so they were put directly into the storage regardless of the items.”
“Then, did you confirm who instructed him to move the items there?”
“Yes. Isn’t there another member of the merchant group who was with us at the tavern besides Theo? According to him, the supply of goods from the neighboring village is all the work of the lower-ranking members of the merchant group, so he said he instructed Theo.”
“…The one wearing the hat?”
“Yes, that’s right. However, since these people are not formal members of the merchant group and were urgently recruited, they seem to be confused between the private storage and the storage owned by the merchant group. Other existing members of the merchant group also said that it was a mistake that the lower-ranking members sometimes make, so they probably moved it by mistake.”
“I see.”
Hugo didn’t think Flynn had made a pointless suspicion. It was certainly strange that Terzio appeared late at night.
According to Flynn, he knew the person impersonating Leonardo Blaine as the real Blaine. However, he was also one of the people who clearly saw Leonardo Blaine’s photo in the process of questioning by himself and Flynn.
He had to investigate further to know, but the head of the merchant group had not been found yet. In a situation where someone seemed to have noticed and conveyed a suspicious sign to her, it was not clear who that was.
In the meantime, the man named Terzio was also with them when they first heard the story of the demon beast at the tavern, and he was the one who gave credibility to the hypothesis that it was a demon beast when it was not clear whether it was a demon beast or an animal. Then, he subtly informed Flynn that Delberg was storing something underground, and even knew about the unused teleport zone.
“For a lower-ranking member… he knows too much.”
As Hugo muttered to himself, Flynn looked at him and asked.
“You were holding his hand for quite a while… Do you have any other suspicious circumstances about Theo?”
At that, Hugo looked down at his hand that had been holding Terzio’s hand.
“There are more than one or two.”
“More than one or two?”
“Yes, but none of them are decisive.”
“What… are they?”
As Flynn cautiously asked, Hugo glanced down at Flynn and said.
“Did he say he had been sleeping in his lodgings all along?”
“Yes. The owner of the lodgings clearly saw him going in and out. There is a window in the room, but even if you open it all the way, it’s not a size that a person can go out, and the height is quite high, about 4 stories. There is almost no chance that he went out in the middle.”
After listening to Flynn’s words, Hugo seemed to be thinking a little and then opened his mouth as if he had noticed something strange.
“But why did he smell like the sea?”
“Pardon?”
Flynn’s eyes widened. Hugo rubbed his chin and then said again clearly.
“Terzio smelled like seawater. As clearly as if he had just come back.”
Hugo Agrizendro, the Squad Leader of the Council Central Branch and the best ice mage in the Ice Realm, uses ice and water as his main attributes.
As such, his sense of water was sensitive and he could feel it well with his five senses. He could distinguish whether the source of the water was ordinary tap water, a lake, or the sea just by the afterimage, so there was no way he could have been confused.
Knowing that well, Flynn hesitated and asked Hugo again.
“Was he… at the sea?”
“That’s what I feel.”
“S, Squad Leader, did you feel any mana when you held Theo’s hand?”
At Flynn’s question, which was almost a guess, Hugo shook his head.
“No, I didn’t feel it.”
“Ah…. I see. It was the same when I held it. Very perfectly. He was a mana non-possessor with no mana at all.”
“There were no teleportation or movement magic tools in the lodgings, and he, who was said to have been in that room all the time, had not even a speck of mana to teleport, but strangely, he smells like the sea. Even though his lodgings are not near the coast.”
There were clearly contradictory parts, but there was no clear evidence to prove that he was lying. And even if they found out that his words were false, they needed more material evidence to support what role he played and what relationship he had with the head of the merchant group.
“You couldn’t find the head of the merchant group after all?”
“Yes, according to the testimony of the executives, they did not run away together. We controlled and investigated all the gates in the nearby areas, but we couldn’t find her. As of now, with Theo even attending the investigation, it seems that she has already left this area.”
“Flynn, did you say earlier that you suspected that Terzio was involved in the escape of the head of the merchant group?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“What if the head of the merchant group escaped to the coast?”
At Hugo’s words, Flynn rubbed his arms as if he had goosebumps.
“There is enough… possibility, but even if she escapes to the coast and returns to the south, won’t she be caught again at the gate before long? Besides, a nationwide wanted notice for the head of the merchant group will be issued soon.”
“…Right. I guess so.”
While the two were inferring all sorts of possibilities in the difficult investigation direction, a Council member hurriedly approached them and said.
“Ah, Supreme Commander. You were here.”
“What’s going on?”
“The Marshal… contacted us through our investigation headquarters communication channel. He said that the Supreme Commander’s personal communication channel is not working….”
At that, Hugo took out his communication magic tool, checked the records, and clicked his tongue. Then, he said to the member who brought the news.
“I’ll go and receive it directly. Where should I go?”
“This way, please.”
* * *
―It’s hard to get in touch with you.
“What did you contact me for?”
―Do I have to have a reason to contact you?
The communication channel at the headquarters was large in size, had more delicate functions, and was not portable, so the other person’s appearance could be confirmed. Hugo looked at the face of Abraham Lancaster reflected in the communication channel and answered coldly.
“I’ll hang up if there’s nothing else. And don’t contact the headquarters.”
―You’re so heartless. There are things. There are many things you need to handle directly. Including the work in your territory.
“…I was about to go back anyway. There’s a lot of work here too, and it’s just starting to get sorted out.”
―I received the interim report. Quite a big deal happened. So what happened to Leonardo Blaine?
Hugo let out a hollow laugh at Abraham, who was looking for Leonardo Blaine even though he knew a big deal had happened.
He had been chasing the guy’s tail with hope, but in the end, it turned out to be an impersonation, which made him feel deflated. Abraham’s words fueled Hugo’s frustration.
“I followed the traces, but it was someone who impersonated his name, and that person was involved in large-scale demon beast distribution. The guy you’re looking for, Marshal, well, he might not have been here in the first place.”
Hugo reported a little cynically. He blocked the name from coming out of him again, saying that Leonardo Blaine, whom Abraham was looking for, might not have been here in the first place.
―Hmm, I see…. I see. Thank you for going all the way to investigate directly. Well, I’m sure I’ll hear about that child again someday.
Abraham across the communication channel seemed a little disappointed for some reason. He seemed to have had high expectations for this matter. But soon, Abraham opened his mouth again as if there was another reason for contacting him.
―While the previous issue of dispatching to the peninsula is being discussed again, a sudden inspection schedule has been set for five branches in the south, and Shorendo has been sent instead of you. You know that it is not good in terms of the situation that all the Squad Leaders of the Central Branch are absent.
“……”
―You are the Supreme Commander, but you don’t have to handle all the work of the Northern Branch. If the work there is somewhat sorted out, come back now.
In short, it meant that he should not handle other work there, but come back and do his job.
Certainly, Hugo also felt that he had spent quite a bit of time trying to catch Leonardo Blaine than expected. He was thinking of wrapping things up here and going back because he thought he shouldn’t leave his seat any longer.
Originally, he was going to report the progress of the investigation into the missing head of the merchant group and return, but seeing that Abraham had contacted him directly, he thought he should move up the schedule.
Hugo agreed with his words and said.
“I will return tomorrow morning.”