BMD 38

“Leonardo, you…”

Hugo, who had been unable to speak for a long time, was unable to know what kind of eyes to look at him with, as emotions that could not be expressed were mixed together. The framework of thought that he had been building up steadily had completely gone wrong with the last words of the man as a starting point.

It had already been several times that he had closed his lips tightly, unable to speak. Hugo, who had been looking down at the messy dirt floor and organizing his thoughts for a while, met the eyes of the man in front of him again as if he had decided something. It was then that he slowly opened his mouth to confirm whether what he was thinking was correct.

A tree trunk that looked a little different from what he had easily burned so far pierced through the floor and soared up under Leonardo’s feet, wrapping around his legs. The speed was unusual, so before Leonardo could take a step, it had already risen to his calves.

He could have been careless in the sudden situation, but Leonardo, who looked down at his legs with an indifferent expression, shook his hand once as if the repeated pattern was ridiculous and stretched it down. Then, a flaming sword reappeared in his hand.

He lightly swung the sword he had grabbed to cut the trunk. But what he thought would be easily cut was only cut in half as expected. As a result, the sword he had struck was stuck in the middle.

In addition, the hardness of the trunk transmitted to his fingertips felt much thicker and harder than before. Leonardo, sensing the strangeness, immediately tried to pull out the sword.

At that moment, another trunk rapidly grew from the cut surface of the tree trunk, wrapping around the sword as if to absorb it and climbing up his arm. Leonardo, convinced that the movement was clearly different, immediately tried to incinerate the trunk by creating flames all over his body, but it didn’t burn properly, let alone burn.

As a matter of urgency, he grabbed the wriggling thing with his hand to tear it off by force, and at that moment, he felt that the surface of the trunk was wetter than before, as if it was full of moisture. Even the flesh inside had become tougher, and no matter how hard he pulled, only a few strands would break, and he couldn’t escape at all.

In the end, Leonardo, who had difficulty escaping, glared at Hugo, who was right in front of him, with his eyes wide open. But Hugo did not show any intention or action to attack even while he was being bound.

Before he could wonder, he felt a brutal energy approaching him from above, so Leonardo quickly bent his waist and lowered his body to the bottom while tightly bound to the trunk.

In the last field of vision he looked up at, two battalion commanders wearing Council uniforms were flying towards him at a rapid speed.

Thud―!

As soon as Leonardo twisted his body to avoid them, a strong force grabbed both of his shoulders and pressed down, slamming his head into the ground.

It was instantaneous that his hands, bound behind his back, were handcuffed, and swords were crossed and stuck above his neck as if they would be cut by the blade if he moved even a little.

From the ground, Andreas’ tree trunks continued to rise, soaking up the water that had soaked the plaza floor, tightening his body even more strongly. Once again, he was in a state where he couldn’t even move a finger.

“Hugo, you’ve become very soft.”

A cold-looking woman with wine-colored long hair fluttering in the wind said to Hugo. She was Loren Ophians, the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Council’s Central Branch.

The calm, low-pitched voice flowing from her was combined with her cold face to create an unapproachable atmosphere. The tone was closer to doubt than reproach.

“Leaving the target in front of you alone, it’s not like you.”

“……”

Loren said that and approached Hugo, but he did not answer Loren’s words. Hugo’s gaze was only directed at Leonardo, who was lying on the ground and being bound again.

Leonardo had a slightly resentful face, but he didn’t resist any more, perhaps because he thought there was no way out now, or perhaps because he had given up.

Meterion Kleinder, the commander of the 3rd Battalion who appeared with Loren Ophians, looked down at Leonardo and then raised his head and opened his mouth as if he was pathetic.

“You struggled with just this guy?”

“Just this guy? I was so careless that I couldn’t use my left arm at all.”

Meterion had said that to Hugo, but it was Andreas who responded to those words, walking leisurely from afar. He was quite happy to have caught Leonardo, so he lifted his shattered left arm and shook it in front of Meterion’s eyes as if it were a glorious medal.

“Look at this. It’s this guy’s work. It’s very scary, you know?”

“You’re bragging about everything.”

Meterion coldly retorted as if the swaying arm was not worth listening to. However, Andreas was familiar with Meterion’s attitude and didn’t care much, and slowly approached Leonardo, who was his original purpose, and slowly bent down.

“Blaine. Wood is a good fuel for fire, but it becomes quite strong when it eats water. You looked down on me a bit too, didn’t you?”

Andreas, who had been squatting next to his head for a while, looked down at him and said with a victorious smile.

Listening to their voices from above, Leonardo Blaine, still face down, glared at Andreas’s feet.

‘Shit, again…’

The disgusting memory he had experienced once before crawled up his body, wriggling vividly. Seeing the humiliating view where he could only see other people’s feet again, Leonardo Blaine bit his lip fiercely.

He couldn’t act rashly because of the cold blade against his neck, so he stayed still for the moment, but he muttered lowly towards Andreas, who was looking down at him with a murderous voice.

“Once I’m free, I’ll smash that mouth of yours too.”

Andreas, who had approached with a smirk at the twitching lips, was slightly frightened by the terrifying words that came back to him and stood up. He then took a step back and rubbed his arm as if to shake off the goosebumps that had risen.

“Geez, you can’t say anything nice with that pretty face.”

Loren, the 2nd squad leader, stared at Hugo, who had been silently looking down at Leonardo Blaine for a while, with strange eyes. However, since she had to do her job as support, she immediately took out a photo from her inner pocket, compared it with Leonardo Blaine’s face, and continued.

“He looks exactly like the photo in the personal information sheet. Can we take him into custody as is, Commander?”

In response, Meterion also checked the photo Loren was holding and Leonardo Blaine’s face alternately, and then opened his mouth.

“There’s no time to dawdle. All the Council members are in an uproar because a mere mage has turned the Imperial City into this state. Do you two even realize that you are the legion commander and squad leader of the Council?”

Andreas, who had been struggling hard until now, frowned unusually at his strong rebuke after he joined them late, and said with a displeased look.

“Hey, Kleinder. You don’t know because you came after everything was over, but this is really minimized. Can’t you see the scar under the Commander’s eye and my shattered arm?”

“Make excuses when you return to the Council.”

At Meterion’s actions, which coldly ignored him with a sharp retort, Andreas scoffed and turned his head away. A blatant grumble of ‘unlucky bastard’ was heard from behind, but Meterion didn’t care at all and turned his gaze back to Hugo.

“Agrizendro, you’ll probably have to write a report when you get back.”

At that, Hugo, who had been silent until now, slowly shifted his gaze towards Meterion. His eyes were calm, but the chill surrounding him exerted a strange pressure to stop there.

“Well, I don’t think my report is something you need to worry about.”

Meterion, who had been speaking without hesitation, responded with silence to the cold current. A tense and subtle atmosphere flowed between Hugo and Meterion, whose eyes met.

As always, Loren, unable to watch any longer, stepped in between them and mediated.

“Save the staring contest for when we get back. Let’s hurry back first.”

* * *

“What kind of commotion is this in the Imperial City? The Imperial royal guard and the military will laugh at us!”

“There hasn’t been such a disturbance in the Imperial City for the past few decades. Legion Commander Agrizendro, what excuse do you have to offer?”

Hugo and Andreas were being thoroughly scolded by the high-ranking officials and staff belonging to the upper echelons of the Council.

There were no deaths, but citizens who were fleeing pushed and fell over each other, causing a surge of injuries, and because a huge amount of magic was used in the middle of the Imperial City, facilities were destroyed and roads were paralyzed.

The culprit was none other than Leonardo Blaine, and Hugo and Andreas, who had captured him, had to take responsibility for it in the Council.

Andreas awkwardly hugged his shattered arm amidst the pouring rebukes and stood there with a bitter face. Then, he glanced at Hugo, who was silently bowing his head, before turning his eyes back to the front and carefully opened his mouth.

“But, don’t the staff members know? Leonardo Blaine is a mage who was classified as high-risk from the start. Commander Agrizendro tried to minimize the damage while dealing with him―.”

“Squad Leader Frederick, you are also subject to discussion by the disciplinary committee.”

At those words, Andreas’s mouth automatically closed. However, he was by no means convinced.

No, when they were making a fuss about how the Council’s prestige would fall if they couldn’t catch Leonardo Blaine. Now, instead of protecting the legion commander and squad leader who had captured him from the outside, they were asking why they had made such a fuss and told them to capture him, and were holding them responsible.

Of course, the sight of the northern plaza of the Imperial City, which had been half-destroyed due to the unprecedented scale of the battle, was quite terrible, but Andreas, who had directly experienced Leonardo Blaine’s abilities, was surprised that there were no direct injuries caused by the powerful attack magic.

Even so, as they were scolding him like this, Andreas felt a bitter taste in his mouth as he wondered what his injured arm had been shattered for.