By Zephyria Before leaving for the territory with Hugo. Flynn was hastily processing his backlog of work while waiting for the press conference to end. He compiled the reports from other battalions, marked only the main items with a pen, and busily worked on the manual typewriter.
Flynn hadn’t been able to return ‘home’ for a long time either, so there was a lot to take care of at the mansion. He was worried about Gabe, who would be handling the work alone while he and the Legion Commander were away, so he had piled up handover materials. Although he didn’t think Gabe would read them….
Flynn mechanically flipped through the documents piled up on the wide wooden desk, and suddenly discovered a familiar word among the black letters.
“Huh?”
His busy eyes and hands immediately stopped. He picked up a document that was visible among the spread-out papers.
The document was a list of individuals who had been wanted in the past but whose statute of limitations had expired due to personal circumstances. It was a semi-annual report, so the case that had ended six months ago was only now being processed.
Flynn stared silently at one unforgettable name.
‘Terzio Dungray.’
The surname was different, but seeing the name Terzio again made him feel strange.
The scene of Leonardo introducing himself as a low-ranking merchant in frost territory and telling him to call him Theo comfortably was still vivid. In fact, what he had told him was an alias, so it was ambiguous to call it the real person’s name… but anyway, he never expected to encounter that name in such a place.
The name Terzio itself was not common, and his meeting with Leonardo was so intense that it was etched in his mind. However, the Terzio in this document was described as an assassin involved in a past gruesome noble assassination case. He had even attempted to escape from Mortares, one of Laina Rogia’s three major detention centers, so it was impossible to guess how bad his crime was.
“Is there something about the name Terzio….”
For a brief moment, he wondered if this was also Leonardo in disguise, but that didn’t seem to be the case. This incident occurred when he was making a name for himself as a war hero in the border conflict zone. It didn’t match the timeline, and Leonardo had been acquitted and released with an alias, but the fate of this Terzio was not so good.
Flynn stared at the bitter end of the name marked as ‘deceased’ and then inserted the document back into the pile of papers.
He organized the scattered documents, finished the summary for the Legion Commander, and carefully packed everything. Having completed the compilation, he picked up the bundle of documents, got up, and opened the door to the Legion Commander’s office behind him.
He immediately approached the empty desk and placed the prepared documents on the top, aligned. He noticed that the pens and office supplies were scattered differently than usual, as if the Legion Commander had left in a hurry, so he didn’t forget to put them back in their original places.
He usually kept the items he used frequently in the first compartment of the right-hand drawer, where they were easily accessible.
Today, he opened it as usual.
“Huh?”
He noticed a frame he hadn’t seen before next to the organized supplies. And the person in the photo was clearly Leonardo.
Flynn raised his eyebrows and leaned in to look at the photo. Amidst the wet, broken concrete background, Leonardo was staring blankly at something.
‘Why is this here?’ Just as he was thinking that, the sound of conversation grew closer from outside.
Startled, Flynn hurriedly closed the drawer. No matter how much of an adjutant he was, it wouldn’t be good to be caught staring at his superior’s belongings.
Click—
“Did the press conference end?”
He reflexively greeted the person who had opened the door without knocking. Hugo and Loren, in uniform, were talking as they entered, as if they had returned from the press conference.
Hugo nodded lightly to Flynn and continued to Loren, who seemed to have something to say.
“I plan to listen to all the briefings related to the report before leaving. If it’s an urgent matter, tell me right here.”
“It’s not that urgent. But you’re only focused on that guy, so I’m just checking to see if you’ve forgotten.”
Even though Flynn had only heard the conversation suddenly, he knew who ‘that guy’ in Loren’s story was. It must be that guy in the frame he had just seen. Hugo, perhaps feeling that Loren’s words were pointed, loosened his tie and readily agreed.
“I haven’t been able to pay attention to other things lately. So, what do you mean by needing permission?”
Loren handed Hugo a document she was holding.
“I’m going to be away for a week, so I’d like you to approve this in advance. I’m going to form an investigation team for the Magic Power smuggling case on my own.”
“Magic Power smuggling? Is that the case you mentioned to me before the expedition to the peninsula? It seems like you’ve caught a tail.”
Hugo naturally handed the loosened tie to Flynn and began to read the paper Loren had given him. Flynn quickly took the tie and straightened it, but his gaze and attention were focused on them.
“It’s far from catching a tail, but we’ve discovered evidence that Magic Power was being traded in the shadows. Like stacking blood packs in a freezer, Magic Power was stored in several cylinders. The storage date and number were written on the outside, and there were traces that some were being sent somewhere.”
“Quantity?”
“We found about 30 at the scene. Each cylinder has a capacity of over 5L. It’s definitely not a small amount.”
“…If it’s that much, it’s definitely not for self-sufficiency. Where’s the distribution point? What’s the exact location?”
“……”
Magic Power can also be used as an energy source in daily life, so it’s not difficult to find extracted Magic Power stored in dedicated cylinders. The chariots running around the Zodiac and the transport vehicles he had boarded when returning from the peninsula also used it as a power source. The same goes for Teleportation Devices and indoor lighting.
However, Magic Power without a Mage as a medium is close to an invisible energy that is not visualized, so it is difficult to store because it can scatter like a gas if handled incorrectly, and the process of using it as a practical energy source is also complicated. In other words, to make it possible, it must be refined through a systematic process, which means that an organization involving a large number of people is likely to be involved.
And if this is abused, it can cause great chaos in social order, so it is clearly illegal for private organizations or individuals, not state institutions, to extract and distribute Magic Power.
Hugo, frowning and scanning the contents of the paper, was about to sign the approval column with the pen Flynn had brought.
Loren, who had stopped speaking in the middle, was puzzled, and she raised her sharp eyes and asked again.
“Where did you find it?”
Loren stopped the pen tip and paused for a moment. Her attention was on the emblem symbolizing solidarity hanging on one wall of the Legion Commander’s office.
Loren, who had been biting her cheek, soon opened her mouth calmly.
“It’s related to the Imperial Faction among the two divided noble factions. Is it okay to proceed with the investigation?”
“……”
Hugo’s eyelids twitched slightly. It was Flynn who was noticeably surprised.
An indescribable uncomfortable silence lingered inside the Legion Commander’s office. But Hugo’s fingertips soon moved the pen tip.
“Of course.”
After signing, he handed the paper to Loren. Then, he urged in a low voice.
“Investigate more thoroughly than ever.”
There were several small Floating Islands floating around Celestia. They were small compared to the main island, but the land was large enough to accommodate three or four villages. There were hardly any people, though.
The strange thing was that these islands orbited in a certain trajectory according to the flow of the magnetic field, and the main island of Celestia was located at the center of the elliptical orbit.
In other words, the Floating Islands passed over the vicinity of Celestia a total of two times while orbiting the main island. This cycle occurred about twice every half year, and there was no other opportunity to move to another island unless one used flight magic directly or boarded a warship.
Leonardo, who had luckily timed it right, boarded a pulley-style Gondola that connected for two days and entered the third Floating Island, Solia.
“You have to be here by this time tomorrow and the day after! Otherwise, you might be trapped on the island for three months!”
The captain who had brought him shouted from behind with a worried tone. Leonardo, having already heard it more than five times, simply waved his hand to indicate that he understood.
The use of Teleport or Portal was prohibited on the Floating Islands around Celestia. This was not because the area was a Magic Power restricted zone, but because spatial movement was either completely impossible or there was a risk of falling into the wrong place.
Academics were largely divided into two reasons for this: the first was that the location of the Floating Islands was constantly changing. And the second was that the spatial movement coordinates used in places where gravity acts and the coordinates in areas where some anti-gravity acts are recognized differently.
Gravity is caused by the curvature of space-time, and the calculation of curvature commonly used on the continent does not apply on the Floating Islands.
In other words, these Floating Islands moving along this orbit were the perfect secret place to avoid the eyes of pursuers or surveillance networks.
However, perhaps because it was at a higher altitude closer to the sun, brilliant sunlight, far from being secretive, shattered over Leonardo’s brown hair.
The light particles were broken into small pieces and penetrated even the smallest gaps, creating the illusion that his hair, even though he had changed its color, looked blond at a glance. Scattering the sparkling gold into the air, he arrived at a cemetery located in the south of Solia. It was a neatly arranged cemetery with good sunlight and a refreshing feeling.
Originally, it was overgrown with weeds and tangled grass. However, if there were occasional visitors, they would tacitly clean up the surroundings.
Various names were engraved on the tombstones. The formats were all different. Some had only the surname, some only the name. And some only had nicknames.
The atmosphere of this cemetery was a bit special. It wasn’t just because it was a memorial space prepared on a sunny Floating Island. Among the irregularly but regularly arranged resting places, the reason must be that there was not a single tombstone where the body of the deceased was buried.
This was not a formally registered cemetery, but a secret repository of memories created by the deceased with different stories, or by the living in various situations who wanted to honor them.
Walking along the tombstones in that memory space, Leonardo stopped in front of one name located in the middle.
‘Hallid’
If he skipped three or four tombstones from there, he could see another name.
‘Ian’
They were always names that he missed and longed for.
Leonardo put his hands in his pockets and stared silently at the white flowers placed in front of the tombstone.
The fresh petals fluttered in the cold wind of the altitude. He placed a bouquet of white wildflowers picked from the nearby forest appropriately next to it.
He closed his eyes and apologized for not being able to visit on time this year. He also added that he had come here as soon as he was released, so he asked for forgiveness.
He stood in front of the tombstone for a while, only feeling the passing wind, when he soon felt a warm presence.
“…Boss?”
Leonardo naturally lifted his eyelids. He turned around reflexively at the familiar voice.
His brown eyes gradually revealed their original clear gold.
The corners of his lips turned up nicely. Leonardo greeted the other person with a smiling face.
“Hyung is here.”