By Zephyria As soon as Hugo came down to the investigation room and opened the double doors, the members who were working stood up and saluted him. He responded lightly and moved towards the interrogation room at the innermost part of the investigation room.
After passing through a few more doors, he could see quite a few armed members gathered behind the investigators who were monitoring at the desk in front of the glass window that illuminated the inside of the interrogation room. And in the middle of them, Loren and Meterion were standing with their arms crossed, quietly staring at the inside of the interrogation room.
The members who were holding capture guns immediately lowered their weapons and saluted as soon as they discovered Hugo. Meterion, who had noticed that he had arrived from the orderly movements, glanced at him and turned his head back to the front, and Loren said as if surprised.
“You came faster than I thought.”
Hugo approached her, narrowed his eyes, and asked.
“…Did you want me to be scolded more?”
“Looking at the state of the plaza when I arrived, I thought it was possible.”
At her words, Hugo smiled bitterly and replied nonchalantly.
“In the end, it’s all about money.”
Loren Ophians has been a close friend of Hugo’s for over 10 years since their days in the Imperial Army. Because of that, Hugo knew very well that she was speaking with a stiff face and tone, but in fact, there was concern for him hidden within.
And Loren also quickly realized the meaning contained in his short answer, so she could roughly guess the reason why he was able to come out earlier than expected.
However, like Andreas, she didn’t think it was a very good method, so she tried to say something, but soon realized that it was useless and closed her mouth.
Hugo knew that she was deliberately not asking any further questions and naturally changed the subject.
“What’s the situation outside?”
“Most of the disaster recovery team and medical team from the battalion remaining at headquarters have gone out. There are fewer injuries than expected, and the northern grand plaza is scheduled to be closed for a while.”
Hugo nodded at Loren’s words and stood next to her, looking at the glass window. The voices speaking inside the interrogation room were heard outside through the speaker, so they could all know what kind of conversation was being had inside.
Hugo, who thought it was unexpected to see Leonardo Blaine cooperating well with the investigation, contrary to his worries, carefully examined his slightly tired face.
He had ordered the medical team to treat his wounds as soon as he brought him here, but there were still some scars left on his face from the ice fragments that had splattered. Just like the mark he had left under his eye. It seemed that it had not been completely healed with recovery magic either.
The wounds they had left on each other were wounds that would disappear over time, but Hugo thought that it would be a mark that would remain in his memory forever, even if he didn’t know about the guy.
Loren suddenly looked at Hugo’s face, which was lost in thought, and asked.
“The scar under your eye, did that guy really leave it?”
At her question, Hugo answered while still staring at Leonardo Blaine.
“Yeah, he’s probably the only one who could leave it.”
Loren, who knew Hugo quite well, looked at him with puzzled eyes at his slightly ambiguous words before turning her head back to Leonardo Blaine in the interrogation room.
Hugo was listening intently to the interrogation, observing Leonardo Blaine’s eyelid movements, the end of his gaze, subtle gestures, and every action.
And then, even though he wouldn’t be able to see this side from inside the interrogation room, Leonardo Blaine seemed to briefly make eye contact with him through the glass window.
* * *
“In Perion, a large number of Kuamers I caught to make water-attribute protective gear suddenly disappeared. While tracking down the details, I heard rumors that the Delberg Merchant Guild was secretly distributing magic stones, so I followed them. I caught their tail in Keln, in the mid-north.”
The clattering sound of a manual typewriter busily followed Leonardo’s words.
“There, I heard that Delberg was replenishing its guild members, so I joined as a low-level member and reached the frost territory. However, low-level members couldn’t access information about the demon beast, so I conducted a separate investigation. Afterward, I found the demon beast buried underground, burned it so it couldn’t be traded, and left it out in the open for anyone to find.”
He unexpectedly cooperated with the interrogation. Thanks to that, the scribes’ hands were quite busy, and investigators, including Flynn, were listening intently to his words.
“But not long after people found it, the Count’s guards came and quietly collected them, and I guessed that there was some strange collusion involved. At the same time, I also learned about the existence of someone impersonating me.”
“…….”
“After that, as security was tightened, I judged that it would be difficult to investigate the place where the demon beast was buried alone, so I tried to involve the Council. Just as I was moving from Keln to the frost territory, I confirmed that the Council was chasing me in the nearby area, so I secretly slipped out and appeared before the pursuit team.”
“Wait, you deliberately appeared before the pursuit team to involve the Council?”
The northern branch investigator on the far left asked back in disbelief at his words. Leonardo Blaine nodded lightly as if it were nothing.
Flynn listened to Leonardo’s words, marked his appearances on the map, and connected them. The place where the previous pursuit team had discovered Blaine was a little above Keln in the mid-north, where he had joined the guild, exactly halfway between the frost territory and Keln.
When the most recently formed pursuit team was chasing Leonardo, he deliberately didn’t end the battle and repeatedly reappeared, and all those points were heading towards the frost territory.
That added credibility to the idea that Leonardo was really trying to lure the pursuit team to inform the Council about Delberg’s demon beast smuggling.
In the end, it meant that the Council hadn’t found him, but he had really deliberately shown himself to the pursuit team.
Moreover, he was a strong mage who could use teleportation, so he was free to move around, and knowing the portals of the closed gates, he was able to move in a very meticulous manner.
“I thought you guys would chase me so persistently that you would follow, but I didn’t expect the pursuit team to withdraw as it was. But for the commander to come after me next.”
Leonardo Blaine said as if he was dumbfounded the more he thought about it. If the pursuit team had come after him and learned the whole story of the demon beast smuggling, they could have quietly handled the case and taken down Delberg in one go. But Kajard of the Council came to catch him next.
“If that burned corpse was your doing, is the man who distinguished between that beast and the demon beast, whom you mentioned, also you?”
At Flynn’s question, Leonardo Blaine unfolded his crossed legs, leaned forward from his reclined position, and opened his mouth.
“Yes.”
Leonardo Blaine stared intently at Flynn’s eyes, which looked quite confused, and raised the corners of his lips slightly, saying once again clearly.
“I made up those words to give you and the commander a hint. Taking you to the storage room on purpose, bringing up the demon beast story in the tavern as if to show off. It was all done to inform the Council.”
“…Knowing that you could get caught, why did you do that?”
At the repeated question, Leonardo Blaine was silent for a moment. The investigator Ekison, who was sitting in the middle, thought that his silence was because he was thinking of an excuse, and urged him to answer so that he could not make up a lie.
“Leonardo Blaine, don’t think of anything else and tell the truth.”
Then, Leonardo Blaine did not look at the investigator Ekison, but stared directly into Flynn’s eyes and said.
“Because wrong things must be corrected. And I believed that you and the commander would do it.”
At that moment, Flynn felt as if he was suffocating and couldn’t speak.
In the meantime, he had been strangely separating Terzio and Leonardo Blaine in his mind. But as Leonardo Blaine was reciting the words that Terzio had said to him in the frost territory once again before his eyes, Flynn could no longer think of the two as different people.
“Besides, not only are they secretly taking and selling the demon beasts I caught, but they’re also committing crimes using my name. Wouldn’t it be satisfying to hit them back?”
Leonardo Blaine’s answer was simple, and Flynn felt that he had enough motivation to do so. However, the investigator Ekison seemed to have no faith in the answers so far, and roughly flipped through a few files and asked in a slightly sharp tone.
“Right now, it sounds like you’re desperately trying to prove that you have nothing to do with the Delberg Merchant Guild.”
Leonardo Blaine frowned as if he was annoyed that he had been nitpicking since earlier and said.
“What do you want to hear?”
“Didn’t you help the guild leader escape?”
Leonardo Blaine answered with a sneer at the investigator’s words, which were full of force and asked the main point.
“Why would I do that? Didn’t you hear me? My goal is to hit Delberg.”
Then the investigator glared at him and flipped through one more file as if taking out a hidden trump card. And he held it out in front of Leonardo Blaine and said.
“Information obtained this morning.”
The file he showed contained a photo of Briana Dixi, who was wanted, a list of people who had acquired civil rights in the southern territory of the Yulisia Empire, which borders Laina Rogia to the north, and their photos.
The list included a new name, ‘Elena,’ and the recent face of Briana Dixi, which Leonardo Blaine knew well.
‘She seems to have crossed over properly.’
Fortunately, she seemed to have settled somewhere after crossing the border well. Leonardo Blaine, who had no time to pay attention to her because he was caught immediately after helping her escape, maintained his composure so that there would be no change in his expression, but he was relieved inside.
Even though the Council had obtained this information, there was no risk that Briana would be forcibly deported again at the request of Laina Rogia.
Laina Rogia and Yulisia maintained friendly relations on the surface, but there was no obligation to exchange information or cooperate in arrests between countries, and if you looked into the details, they had planted a huge number of informants in each other.
So, even if there were suspicious circumstances, there was no way they could demand the deportation of a mere territorial citizen. That would be tantamount to openly admitting that they had planted informants.
Moreover, Laina Rogia was in a more cautious position because she had a history of having an informant discovered once.
Because Yulisia was a powerful country that succeeded Laina Rogia on the continent, the imperial faction forces of the empire, who were about to break off their friendship at the time, sent the empire’s second prince, who had a relatively weak support base, to Yulisia as a semi-hostage under the pretext of resolving this issue to resolve the situation.
In the midst of all this, the Council would never think of turning this incident into a national dispute, so it could be said that this side was safe for now. Because the leader of that imperial faction is in the Council.
But on the other hand, he was worried that the Yulisia Empire, which had learned of the wanted notice here, might impose disadvantages or deportation orders on her.
“The guild leader, Briana Dixi, is in Yulisia. She couldn’t have crossed into the interior avoiding the eyes of the military stationed in the border area of the frost territory, so the only place she could go is the coast. And Leonardo Blaine. You had enough ability and time to go to the coast.”
“…….”
“It has been confirmed that Briana Dixi has magic power, but not enough to cast flight or teleportation. Then there must have been someone who helped her. Weren’t you involved?”
At the investigator’s words, Leonardo Blaine leaned back again, having leaned forward to talk to Flynn. There is no physical evidence in the investigator Ekison’s logic. As always, he had never left any physical evidence.
‘Then….’
After a brief moment of contemplation, Leonardo Blaine shifted his gaze to the opaque glass window behind the people in front of him. He certainly didn’t feel anything, but a certain ‘feeling’ made him feel as if Agrizendro was watching him from beyond.
Of course, it could just be a feeling, but objectively speaking, Flynn Levernill’s original position was not an investigator but the commander’s adjutant, and he was here as a reference, so Leonardo Blaine thought that Agrizendro, who had directly caught him, would not be watching the interrogation process.
If he was watching this situation now, it was not something that could be resolved by simply denying it. He was a frighteningly quick-witted person, and if even a very small tone and action gave him suspicion, his tail could be stepped on in an unexpected place. That’s exactly why he’s here now.
Soon, Leonardo Blaine averted his gaze from the opaque glass window and slightly parted his lips as if trying to answer something to the investigator.
As the investigator Ekison stared at him with fierce eyes as if expecting his answer, Leonardo Blaine twisted up the corners of his lips and said with a subtle smile.
“If you let me have a cigarette, I’ll answer.”