By Zephyria Hugo, who had to listen to nagging about the reimbursement of the Imperial Capital facility claim at the meeting with his retainers throughout the holiday, took a break that was not like a break and went to the Council again.
He was worried about that fellow being alone in the Council without him, so he left the mansion earlier than usual and arrived at the Council courtyard, which was not very crowded at the early hour.
As he was heading straight to the Commander’s office, he felt a sudden, large reverberation from afar, and he rubbed his forehead, feeling tired from the morning. The strong vibration and the aura of strong magic, as if an earthquake had occurred, made him feel like he knew whose doing it was without even looking.
Hugo immediately moved his steps and headed to the dedicated hospital established inside the Council. It was built for the purpose of treating members who were injured in missions, but it also served to extract magic power and perform precise component analysis.
As far as Hugo knew, Leonardo’s magic component test was scheduled for today, and since a strong wave was echoing from that direction, the cause of this vibration was definitely that fellow.
It seemed that they were trying to extract Leonardo’s magic power but were having difficulties.
Hugo entered the hospital, which was noisy from the entrance. He saw medical personnel running around busily from the morning. One of the medical officers, who was running near the entrance, discovered Hugo and widened his eyes as if he had seen a savior, and hurriedly approached him.
“Loyalty! Commander, you must go quickly!”
“Loyalty. I came to see Leonardo’s condition, but it seems something is not going well.”
“He is resisting so violently that we cannot touch him.”
Hugo narrowed his brows as if he had expected it and said,
“Let’s go quickly.”
“This way, please!”
* * *
“The wave is too strong!”
“Increase the control more!”
“But if we raise it any higher, the magic power won’t come out!”
The medical personnel were wearing protective suits all over their bodies and struggling to withstand the extreme magic power emission.
The high-risk magic power collection room of the dedicated hospital inside the Council was in a state of chaos. Under the control of armed members, the medical team was firmly binding the resisting Leonardo Blaine and trying to insert a magic power extraction needle into his arm.
However, just bringing the needle close caused him to almost have a seizure and draw out an enormous amount of magic power, causing the needle to melt, making it impossible to extract the magic power.
They had been temporarily controlling his magic power by attaching patches with similar effects to magic stones to his body, but if they controlled it too strongly, the magic power that needed to be extracted would not come out properly. If they weakened the intensity again for collection, his magic power would explode, leaving them in a situation where they could neither advance nor retreat.
Thud! Thud!
Leonardo, with a gag in his mouth and his whole body tied up, glared at those approaching him and twisted his body. His eyes were fierce, and his neck and forehead were full of veins. Every time he moved, the special fixing bed that held him in the collection room and all sorts of medical equipment shook together.
Hugo hurriedly headed to the collection room where Leonardo was with the medical officer. As he got closer, the wave became stronger, and he could feel how chaotic the inside was from the outside.
In front of the collection room, which he approached with the officer’s guidance, were members in full armor. Beyond them, looking into the chaotic inside, he saw the bound fellow emitting an unmanageable power and resisting with his whole body.
“Where on earth does that kind of power come from….”
Hugo said as if he was dumbfounded and went inside. Then, the fellow who had been struggling so much felt Hugo’s magic power, and his fierce eyes instantly moved to that side. The armed members around him also discovered Hugo, saluted, and retreated in all directions.
Hugo came into their midst, looked down at Leonardo, who was lying on the bed and breathing heavily, and said,
“Stay still, Leonardo. Before I knock you out.”
As if he was rebelling against Hugo’s words, he struggled even more as if to show off. The medical equipment set up next to him shook once again from the impact, and the medical team almost wept, holding on tightly to prevent the expensive equipment from falling.
Hugo frowned at his appearance, like a ticking time bomb about to explode, not knowing that the more he rampaged, the more violently they would have to treat him.
Hugo then undid and rolled up the right sleeve button, concentrated cold air in his hand, and stared at the struggling Leonardo with cold eyes, saying,
“I think I’ve been too gentlemanly all this time.”
Soon, Hugo’s large hand grabbed Leonardo’s entire face with one hand and pressed down hard. The force caused Leonardo’s neck to be thrown back, making a loud noise.
Bang!
The cushion on the upper part of the bed where his head was located completely collapsed, and the steel part bearing the load was visibly bent. Leonardo became quiet as if he had fainted from the brief shock, and Hugo ordered the medical staff next to him.
“Proceed with the extraction quickly.”
“Yes, yes!”
The medical staff, who had been frozen stiff by the Commander’s ruthless actions, as if they would not bleed if pricked, hurriedly brought the extraction needle to Leonardo’s arm again.
Then, Leonardo, who had quickly regained consciousness, emitted heat all over his body and resisted strongly. Hugo went up onto the bed and pressed down hard on his head at the same time, pressing his entire body against him to prevent him from moving.
Then, as if to swallow the heat that the fellow was emitting, he strongly emitted frost-like cold air and overflowed it around him. The hot and cold energies met, and a hazy steam billowed and filled the space between the two.
“Eum, euueum!”
Leonardo tried to struggle, scratching his vocal cords as if screaming, even with the gag in his mouth. Hugo suppressed him with force, and then, he met the swaying golden eyes through his fingers, which were pressing down on the fellow’s small face.
Those eyes were glaring at him as if to kill him, and Hugo could see that there was a slightly different emotion in those eyes than the ones he had seen in the fellow’s eyes.
‘Is he afraid?’
Crash!
At the moment he thought so for a very brief moment, as if to mock it, Leonardo’s magic power burst out, and all the glass windows around the collection room shattered.
Glass shards poured down, and screams rang out from the outside, and the medical staff who were bringing the needle were staggered by the force. Hugo shouted loudly at them, who were hesitating.
“Proceed quickly!”
“Yes, yes! I understand!”
Taking advantage of the gap where the Commander’s cold air neutralized the fierce heat, the medical staff quickly inserted the needle into Leonardo’s arm. Leonardo’s eyes shook violently as soon as he saw the needle, as if he felt a creepy sensation of something entering his body.
The longer the long needle penetrated deeper into the thin skin, the more violent his movements became. Hugo warned him, drawing out even more cold energy.
“It’s dangerous if the needle melts inside your body. Stay still.”
Magic power moved through the hose connected to the end of the needle, and the value indicated on the magic power extraction equipment began to rise gradually.
Then, whether he understood Hugo’s words or it was his own will, Leonardo, who had been rampaging so violently until now, surprisingly stopped struggling and tightly closed his eyes.
Hugo felt the sensation of his trembling eyelashes tickling between his fingers. All the strength from just now was gone, and the fellow was lying limply, twitching intermittently, and lying powerlessly.
Hugo thought that he had understood his words and carefully took his hand off his head. But as soon as he took his hand off, Leonardo opened his eyes wide and tried to raise his body again, so he could not let go of his tension.
Leonardo, who had been suppressed again, stared fiercely at Hugo while trembling his eyelids. Hugo also looked down at him from above with cold, sunken eyes.
Unstable breaths intertwined between the fiercely colliding gazes. Before long, the medical staff, who had confirmed that the gauge of the extractor was almost full, shouted loudly so that everyone could hear.
“97, 98, 99, 100. Completed!”
“I will remove the needle!”
Another medical staff who had been waiting quickly pulled out the needle and rubbed Leonardo’s arm with a disinfectant cotton swab. At that moment, Leonardo’s breathing became more rapid than before. As his chest rose and fell irregularly and the interval of the vital signs shortened rapidly, Hugo stopped the force he had been exerting to suppress him and took his hand off his head.
“Measurement completed. Commander, thank you so much for your help.”
Listening to the medical staff’s words of gratitude, Hugo slowly came down from the bed. Leonardo was frowning with his brows furrowed and breathing heavily with his eyes closed, and Hugo, who found his appearance and the rapid vital signs strange, asked the medical staff.
“Is this fellow okay?”
“His pulse is faster because he is excited, but it is not to the extent that there is anything wrong. He is fine.”
“Is that so. Good work.”
After that, Hugo took a breath, watching the medical staff moving busily while tidying up the inside. He thought he had done his part and was about to leave, but Leonardo’s appearance of lying still bothered him, so he turned his head once more to check his complexion.
The fellow’s face was pale, and his already white skin looked even paler, and looking at it, he could not easily take a step.
Hugo, looking down with a troubled face, carefully reached out and released the gag in his mouth. Leonardo’s saliva stretched out, and he coughed as if exhaling the breath he had been holding back.
Hugo, who immediately took out a handkerchief from his inside pocket, wiped his sweaty forehead and wet mouth and said,
“…Since I extracted your magic power, you won’t have any energy for a while. I’ll put you in prison first in preparation for you rampaging, but it’ll be better than being tied up like this, so take a rest and have a meal first.”
At that, Leonardo, who had opened his eyes with difficulty, glared at Hugo and said in a hateful voice.
“I’m going to kill you.”
Whether he had developed immunity to his brutal words, Hugo withdrew his hand and just sighed softly and replied.
“Yes, if you want to kill me, recover your strength first.”
Leonardo Blaine’s expression twisted at Hugo’s calm words. With that sight as his last, Hugo turned and quickly left the collection room.
Stepping into the hallway, Hugo saw hospital staff busier than before, now cleaning up the shattered glass shards. Hugo called over one of the commander-level members of the armed unit assisting them and quietly instructed him.
“Let him rest for a while, and when the battalion vice-commander level personnel arrive, have at least two of them escort him to the prison. Don’t shackle his ankles, and make sure he gets enough to eat.”
“Yes, sir!”
Hearing the reply, Hugo nodded lightly and immediately left the hospital. Quite some time had passed, as the outside was now bustling with unit members arriving for work.
While receiving their greetings and heading back to his original destination, the Legion Commander’s office, Hugo couldn’t shake the image of the guy’s pale face from his mind.
‘Is he afraid of sharp objects? No, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have been able to fight with a sword.’
Those terrified eyes kept flashing before him.
* * *
Leonardo Blaine, now moved to the prison, sat with his back against the wall. He propped up one knee, rested his arm on it, and stared blankly at the meal placed before him.
The food was of much higher quality than what prisoners usually ate, but Leonardo Blaine couldn’t bring himself to look at it. His stomach churned, and his head spun, making him feel like he would throw up at any moment.
“Hey, what did you get in for?”
“Aish, why do you keep talking to a guy who doesn’t say anything?”
“Because he’s damn pretty. If you saw his face, you’d want to talk to him too, wouldn’t you?”
The front of his cell was open, and the right side was a dead-end wall. It wasn’t a bad location for a prison cell, but the sounds were constantly grating on his ears. From the cell directly to his left, separated by a wall, and the one opposite it, he could hear the continuous sound of people chattering and snickering.
Moreover, unlike Leonardo Blaine, whose range of movement was limited by the chain connected to his Magic Stone handcuffs being fixed to the wall, the prisoner in the diagonally opposite cell seemed to have relatively free movement, as he wasn’t bound by handcuffs.
He was stuck right up against the bars, staring intently at Leonardo Blaine across the corridor. He grinned and spoke to him.
Leonardo Blaine ignored the gaze and the sounds, leaned his head back, and slowly regulated his breathing. He tried to stay still as much as possible to regain his composure, but his tightly closed eyelashes fluttered. The nauseous feeling wouldn’t subside, and before long, he abruptly stood up.
It wasn’t that he lacked oxygen, but he felt like he was in a confined space, and a sense of anxiety washed over him, making him feel like he couldn’t breathe.
Leonardo Blaine hurriedly pressed his face against the small window at head height on the wall he had been leaning against and inhaled repeatedly, as if craving oxygen. He breathed roughly, shoving the outside air into his lungs, and only then did his breathing gradually calm down.
What he could see through the small, now clearer window were only the wall of the opposite prison and the other windows in it. Sunlight was coming down from the center, but he had been blindfolded when he was moved here, so he couldn’t figure out exactly where he was.
As he stared blankly out the window, gripping the bars, he suddenly saw a white butterfly fluttering down from above, where the light was coming in, drawing a fluttering trajectory. It was the only warmth in the quiet and desolate background, so his gaze naturally followed it.
The white butterfly gradually approached the window of the cell where Leonardo Blaine was imprisoned. Then, it lingered between the dense bars, fluttering its wings for a moment, and soon crossed the window frame and began to circle around him.
As Leonardo Blaine raised his hand, the butterfly landed on his finger, as if it had been waiting. Leonardo Blaine narrowed his eyes and quietly looked around at the faint wing movements that irregularly unfolded and folded.
Sensors were blinking red in the four corners of the prison ceiling, but he couldn’t yet tell whether they were detecting movement or sound.
He stared at them for a moment, then immediately sat down and quietly watched the sensors. He could see the lights that had been on turning off one by one as his movements stopped.
‘It detects movement, huh.’
He carefully raised the hand with the butterfly on it, so as not to be detected by the sensors, and whispered to the butterfly in a small voice.
“I’ll get out on my own, so tell him not to do anything unnecessary.”
At the quiet whisper that no one could hear, the butterfly moved its wings a few times regularly and then flew up again, fluttering out the window.
Leonardo Blaine gazed silently at the place where the butterfly had gone, bathed in the sunlight coming through the small window. Then, he rolled his eyes towards the sensors, checking to see if the lights were still off.