By Zephyria “Blaine-nim—! Waaah….”
“W-what?”
Leonardo was quite embarrassed when the new unit member suddenly burst into tears and clung to his trouser leg. Moreover, hearing the cheesy and even disgusting title of ‘Blaine-nim’ made the hair on his whole body stand on end.
Leonardo frowned and pulled away the leg he was holding, as if shaking him off, with an expression that said, ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’
“Are you crazy? Don’t grab me.”
“Hic—, I’m sorry….”
Leonardo frowned at his crying apology. He himself felt uneasy about leaving this clueless guy alone, but he never thought he would be in such a pathetic state. It was quite a mystery how this guy was in the 1st Division of the Council’s Central Branch.
“Stop sniveling and get up. We need to get out of here quickly.”
“Hic—, yes….”
The new unit member, who had been sitting on the floor crying and sniveling, got up. Leonardo looked at him disapprovingly, then suddenly shifted his gaze to the man who was standing awkwardly behind him.
The man was now cut off from escape and was watching for a chance to get out, looking around cautiously. It was good that he was out of the demon beast’s threat, but it seemed that the strong man who had defeated the monsters at once knew this Council guy.
Leonardo saw the man flinch when their eyes met and realized that he was an outsider who had been arrested for entering the peninsula without permission. Both this new guy and that outsider looked quite disheveled, as if they had been caught in the mysterious explosion that had occurred earlier.
Leonardo, who had heard a sudden explosion from outside and had been circling nearby before discovering them, was speculating that the explosion might have been caused by these two guys fighting.
But no matter how he looked at it, neither of these two guys seemed to have the magical power to cause that kind of impact, so he was wondering about it when the blue mineral in the man’s hand caught his eye.
In an instant, Leonardo’s eyes widened sharply, and he looked back and forth between it and the man with a fierce look. Then he immediately went to the man, snatched the mineral, checked it carefully with both eyes, and asked.
“Where did you get this?”
“H-huh?”
The man, who had the mineral snatched away in the blink of an eye, made a stupid noise and looked back and forth between his hand and him. But he didn’t answer and mumbled, and in the meantime, Leonardo’s gaze reached the bag he was carrying.
Inside the slightly opened bag were several blue minerals that the man was holding in his hand. And it was the mineral that Leonardo had been looking for under Flynn’s supervision on Hugo’s orders.
Since then, he had traveled to many places from time to time, but he had only found small ones and only two or three, but what this man had was much larger at a glance, and the number seemed to be at least 10 times more.
Sensing something dangerous, the man covered the bag and took a step back. But he hadn’t even taken a few steps before he felt the cave wall touch his back.
Realizing that there was nowhere to escape behind him, the man suddenly changed his attitude, grabbed one of the minerals in his hand, held it in front of Leonardo’s eyes, and said.
“Don’t come any closer. Do you know what this is? It’s a bomb, a bomb.”
The man swallowed hard, but still turned his head to the new unit member with a forced, cheerful smile. Then he said to him as if to confirm.
“Kid, you saw it earlier, right? How terrifying this is. Just try to come closer. I’ll throw it.”
The new unit member pulled slightly on Leonardo’s sleeve with a nervous look.
“Blaine-nim, a huge explosion happened as soon as that man threw that earlier. I think it’s a dangerous object.”
Leonardo narrowed his eyes and stared at the man after hearing the unit member’s words. The cause of the explosion earlier was that guy. And since he called it a bomb, it seemed that he knew very well how it could be used.
As Leonardo just stared at him without saying anything, the man, thinking that his momentum had worked, shook the mineral in front of him and continued.
“Just stay still until I get out of here. Unless you want to die together when this explodes.”
The man, who held out the mineral as if aiming it, cautiously passed by them.
The new unit member glared at the man trying to escape, but he couldn’t bring himself to think about catching the man, thinking that if an explosion occurred in this situation where they had entered so deeply into the cave, the impact would be even greater.
And that was the same for the man trying to escape. He also knew very well that he could really die if he caused an explosion here. But he was gambling, thinking that he was in control because only he knew how to make the mineral explode.
The man stared at them and the exit next to them in turn. If he got a little further away like this, he would run there immediately, and he was thinking of throwing a small mineral at these guys to cause a small explosion.
‘It’s not good to leave any trouble behind.’
He looked at Leonardo’s face and moved sideways little by little. The blond-haired guy was staring at him with fierce eyes and no expression, but since there was no particular movement, it seemed that there would be no problem escaping like this.
In the meantime, the man suddenly thought that Leonardo’s face was too good to die here.
As he was slowly moving away with such carefree thoughts, the corners of Leonardo’s mouth, who had been staring at him expressionlessly, went up and drew a parabola. The man stopped walking abruptly.
When he met that face that was clearly smiling at him, goosebumps rose up his spine for some reason.
Was this a situation to be smiling?
Just like feeling an unknown fear when seeing someone acting irrationally, his body felt instinctively that the situation was very dangerous. Just because that guy smiled….
Then, a sound like ridicule leaked out from Leonardo one after another.
It was a small laugh close to a snort, but it sounded very loud to the man because the cave was so quiet.
The man swallowed hard, turned his stiff head, and looked to the side again. He felt like he would die if he didn’t run away now.
But even though the exit was clearly right in front of him, suddenly the road to get there felt very far away.
The man, feeling a sense of dizziness, looked forward again, and the blond hair, which had been standing at a distance, was already suddenly close.
“Ugh—!”
He was startled and reflexively tried to throw the mineral, but Leonardo grabbed his wrist strongly. Then he lowered the corners of his mouth that had been raised diagonally and muttered coldly.
“I’m tired to death, and now all sorts of annoying things are bothering me.”
The man, who was clearly flustered, tried his best to break free from Leonardo’s hand, but his strength was not enough because he was so strong. And the golden eyes in front of him also seemed to know that fact very well. That he couldn’t escape.
Leonardo pointed to the mineral in the man’s hand with his chin.
“Throw it.”
In that instant, the man realized that he had been holding his breath without even realizing it. He thought he had seen quite a few dangerous guys, but when he met the clear golden eyes that were shining like crazy up close, his head sent a warning that he had gotten into something seriously wrong.
“Y-you, do you really want to die!? Do you think I can’t throw it?”
“So, try throwing it.”
The man threatened him by raising his voice even more. But Leonardo rather urged him on with an indifferent face. Then, instead of grabbing his other arm, he let go of the arm the man was holding the mineral with, as if to see if he could really throw it.
The man raised his voice in fear, as if that action had seen through that he couldn’t throw it.
“You, you bastard, do you know who I am? In Barmote, everyone knows my name if I just say it—!”
Leonardo grabbed the man’s arm, which was getting longer with useless words, and lightly twisted it behind his back. A scream of pain erupted from his fully opened mouth.
Following that, to block the sound that echoed loudly through the cave, he grabbed the back of the man’s head and slammed his face directly into the cave wall.
A faint groan of pain, in which his nose was crushed and his mouth was pressed and buried, was heard. The man’s body was constantly writhing as if he was suffocating.
Leonardo pressed his head down for a while with a cold face, and after some time, he pulled it back. The face that had come off the wall had blood pouring out of his nose, as if his nose was broken, and he was constantly gasping for air.
Leonardo grabbed his hair and pulled it harder, saying.
“Hey.”
The man, breathing irregularly as if he was about to suffocate, rolled only his eyes to look at the face of the brutal man who had twisted his arm behind his back and grabbed his hair. As the glaring golden eyes were staring at him right next to him, the fear of being right before death permeated his bones.
Leonardo, seeing the fear in that face, slightly twisted up the corners of his mouth and asked.
“Do you know who I am?”