By Zephyria Of course, he couldn’t just criticize Nero’s choice to somehow fix it.
If a colleague was stuck in the Council and unable to move, he himself would have disguised himself as one of the members to approach him. Then, if necessary, he would have suppressed him with force or cast a magic to silence the person whose face he had borrowed. In the end, there would be no difference from the method Nero had chosen.
From the beginning, he had also chosen dangerous means to control a suspicious guy like Alec Siles, and he had also disguised himself as a worker in the mining team to collect information about Etaid and rummaged through their hideout.
Looking back, the actions of himself and Nero were similar in the big picture. There was only a difference in caution or a slight difference in circumstances, but the way they solved problems was very similar.
As Leonardo retraced the situation, he felt his throat gradually tightening. Even if he planned and moved alone after careful consideration, gaps were bound to occur. But as he tried to guess the movements of two people, especially Nero’s movements that he couldn’t see, he felt as if the gaps he hadn’t grasped were slowly tightening his neck.
Perhaps that’s why Leonardo’s hand, which had been pressing his eyes, was now roughly groping around his neck. He sharpened his fingertips as if he was about to tear something off unconsciously.
At that moment, contrary to the expectation of touching a chilling control device, a soft handkerchief was entwined around his fingers. Leonardo, startled, glanced down at his neck. Though he couldn’t see it properly, the dangling end of the handkerchief came into view.
‘Ah, I had this.’
He belatedly remembered that the black Leash was hidden beneath layers of bandages and a handkerchief. At that moment, the surrounding air and his breathing, which should have felt more stifling, seemed to stabilize instead. Simply because the Leash, a symbol of obsession and fixation, was wrapped in a handkerchief and not touching his skin.
As Leonardo pondered this ironic phenomenon, he suddenly realized something.
Nero was clearly a member of the military special elite unit Dark Silver, and he possessed the corresponding strategy and abilities. Therefore, before leaving, he would have done his best to manage the situation in his own way. Yet, he was needlessly worrying about things that hadn’t even surfaced or happened, fearing they might become a problem.
Now, regardless of what Nero had done, he shouldn’t be blaming him, but rather inferring how far Nero had thought and acted for his sake. And then, he needed to figure out what he needed to fix, who he should be wary of, and untangle the mess one step at a time.
For Nero’s sake, who had suffered, and to free Felix Montero, who had been unfairly implicated. And for his own future, that was the better course of action.
‘Right, I can’t be doing this.’
Having made his decision, Leonardo looked at the newspaper on the side table that had been pushed into the corner. Putting strength in his legs and barely maintaining his balance, he strode towards the side table.
He unfolded the newspaper and began to carefully reread the article he had seen earlier.
‘Evidence secured of military surveillance network paralysis, recovery work underway but expected to take three to four days to fully restore. Suspected involvement of external forces, it says…’
The date of the report was recent, and three to four days from then would mean that the network should have already been fully restored as of today. Seeing this, he understood why Nero had left so urgently.
“He left at the right time.”
A sigh mixed with bitterness and relief escaped Leonardo’s lips.
He had been worried that Nero might be lingering around until he woke up, but he had also secretly hoped that he would still be around. But now, he thought it was better that Nero knew when to leave. Moving with other seniors was a much safer environment for Nero than being tied down here and attracting attention, unlike himself.
Nero, who had suddenly appeared during the battle and tried to run away with him, had said that his seniors were involved in the paralysis of the surveillance network. The seniors he mentioned were people he knew well. The dazzling main force of the brilliant Dark Silver 11th squad.
Pierce and Taylor were extremely cautious in every move they made. They were meticulous by nature, always thinking of multiple options when making plans. They would have handled things meticulously to avoid being caught, and even if there was a crisis, they would have had the ability to escape.
So, in fact, there was no need to worry about them. They were such excellent colleagues that they would protect Nero even for his sake. When he had glanced at the words ‘military surveillance network’ before going outside, the reason he was able to maintain some composure was because of that.
‘Then I just need to handle things on my end well.’
Leonardo, who had been looking down at the article, folded the newspaper back to its original shape and placed it neatly on the side table. First, he needed to review the situation one by one and organize any contradictory points.
It was almost a stroke of luck that the member of the 3rd Battalion whose face Nero had borrowed appeared before him after Agrizendro had left. The fact that the member’s real body had approached his vicinity meant that he had completely escaped Nero’s control. It was also the reason why he was certain that Nero was no longer here.
If Nero was still lingering around him using the member’s appearance, he would not have allowed that member to roam within the radius where he might encounter himself or high-ranking commanders. He had done too many noticeable things with that face, and there must have been some unavoidable suspicions.
Nero had kicked Dermokas in front of everyone, and afterwards, at his single word of help, he had flown without hesitation to the battle site with the core. Although he had moved hidden in dust and smoke, he had always been with him, whether it was when he was buying time for the Council’s plan 5 execution, or at the moment he opened the Subspace to eliminate the core, or when he hid near the turbulent stream.
Frankly, there were countless moments when someone could have noticed Nero’s suspicious behavior. Even when he lost consciousness, Nero was right in front of him, so Felix Montero’s face was practically connected to him.
In other words, if anyone who was at the scene at the time had seen that scene, they would have thought that the two of them knew each other. The fact that he and Felix were treating each other as if they were seeing each other for the first time, as they had done a little while ago, was clearly a contradictory action.
Leonardo, running his hand through his hair, plopped down on the deck. It was quite dangerous for him to face the member named Felix Montero any further. Unexpected contradictions could arise in his words and actions. However, it was necessary to reconfirm whether the magic that Nero had cast on him was working properly, and whether it would provide at least a minimum safety net.
However, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that someone was watching his relationship with Felix, so he couldn’t just approach him recklessly. The fact that Leonardo Blaine seemed to know a member of the Council was a sufficient reason for someone to be interested. Moreover, his gut feeling was telling him that the meeting with the member, which had been a little sudden, was somehow unnatural.
‘That member. He said he came on the orders of the battalion commander. If it’s the 3rd Battalion Commander… it’s Meterion Kleinder.’
Leonardo pressed his temples with his hands, as his head throbbed just from thinking of that name.
Meterion Kleinder. He was, without exaggeration, the person he should be least involved with in this situation.
When he came out of the barrier with Agrizendro, he had felt the Magic Power of the 3rd Battalion Commander at the scene, although he hadn’t seen him directly. In other words, Meterion Kleinder was also there. In the midst of all that, he couldn’t be sure that the moment when Nero, disguised as a member of the 3rd Battalion, and himself were facing each other hadn’t caught the eye of the 3rd Battalion Commander at the time.
Most of the commanders and members had immediately flocked to the Legion Commander, but it was much more like Meterion Kleinder to simply observe the situation from a distance. Furthermore, it was highly likely that his gaze was directed not towards the Legion Commander, but towards himself and Nero, as if he had been hovering around him lately.
Even if he hadn’t heard the specific conversation, he might have guessed that there was some subtle relationship. If so, it would lead to one suspicion.
‘At the time when Nero left, and when Agrizendro had just left his seat. Was it a mere coincidence that Felix Montero of the 3rd Battalion approached the tent where I was?’
Leonardo, pondering the situation, gradually furrowed his eyebrows.
It could be speculation. He might be going too deep into it. But the timing was extremely perfect.
Since he was the kind of person who would even secretly look after the illegal mining team during the subjugation of the peninsula, the other party was quite skilled at plotting things, so he couldn’t dismiss the situation a little while ago as a coincidence. Moreover, since he had come to him alone and even tested him by saying, ‘What if I could set you free?’, he couldn’t just gloss over this matter.