By Zephyria The secret meeting that began at midday ended around the time the sun began to set in the west. Leonardo Blaine had a lot to sort out with his partners, but due to the pressure from the two women telling him to rest for today, he got up first and went up to the top floor of his residence.
The top floor was only the fourth floor, but it had more floors than the building in front, so it was a relatively well-lit place. Leonardo leaned against the window of his room, which he had returned to after a long time, and slowly scanned the interior.
He had been away for several months, but there were traces of someone using the room. Terzio must have been rolling around in this room again. He was often found on this top floor, leaving his own perfectly fine room.
It wasn’t as bad as the lodging he had stayed in with Nero, but this place was also full of a sense of age. It was even more so because the owner of the room wasn’t very clean. Was it because he moved his residence so often that he didn’t have any affection for it? This time, he had been living in this room for almost a year, but he left just as he was getting attached to it, so it was pushed back in line by Fidele’s cabin and the Legion Commander’s private room.
Leonardo, who lowered his eyelids in the afternoon light coming in through the window, took out a small backpack that he had put in the Artifact. He placed the items inside on the desk one by one, and picked out a top and bottom from the clothes that His Excellency had packed for him. He should have known from the moment the fabric was shiny, but after changing, he smelled the scent of new clothes.
The material was light and airy, and there were many delicate embroideries, making it look like something a youngest son of a noble family would wear. His impression looked quite weak in the clothes, and he tilted his head, wondering, ‘Does it suit me?’
At that moment, the mirror next to the desk reflected someone entering.
Knock, knock—
“I’m coming in.”
Terzio announced, leaning against the door frame. He already had one foot in, but the knock that imitated a gentleman was all the more affected.
“Get out. I have something to do.”
Leonardo looked at him in the mirror and answered nonchalantly.
Terzio nonchalantly came in and plopped down on the bed.
“Do it.”
He supported his head with one hand and lay down in a somewhat seductive pose, staring at Leonardo. Regardless, Leonardo ignored him and headed to the shelf, taking the items Hugo had given him.
“I haven’t seen those clothes before.”
He could feel the gaze behind him scanning the curves of his entire body.
“Don’t you like them?”
“Not really my taste, but you look like a prince, so it’s okay.”
Leonardo shook his head at the unnecessary remark.
Leaving aside his taste, it had been almost three years since he had heard that prince nonsense.
He said that he looked the most like a prince out of all the people he had ever seen. In fact, that was as humiliating an evaluation as ‘pretty’ among the strong who lived in the underworld. But Terzio, who gave the trivial reason that he ‘looked like a prince,’ had been calling him Prince ever since.
For the first three months after hearing that sound, he complained about the goosebumps on his arms every day. The problem was that the person in question didn’t even listen.
It seemed that he didn’t care about his shuddering expression today either. Terzio wiggled the tips of his feet that were sticking out of the bed and said.
“By the way, Prince, you’ve gotten better at dodging the question, haven’t you?”
“…….”
“Don’t make excuses about there being a lot of people. It’s true that you didn’t go all out against Kajard.”
He wondered why he had come, but it seemed that he still intended to nitpick.
“You can’t fool my eyes.”
The subtle gaze of the assassin sent a chill down his neck. But Leonardo continued to organize his things, willingly turning his back to him.
If there were two things that Leonardo had any affection for in this room, it was the safe on the shelf and the bed with the soft bedding. Normally, he would have threatened Terzio, who had climbed onto the bed with his shoes on, asking if he wanted to die, but Leonardo didn’t pay attention to that today.
He simply turned the dial of the safe to open the lock, and neatly filled it with the items he had taken out of the Artifact. Noticing that he was being ignored, Terzio deliberately messed up the bedding that he had organized with his own hands this morning. Leonardo focused on the communication Magic Tool that Hugo had given him, fiddling with the device.
For some reason, it felt like he could hear that person’s voice if he just pressed one button on this Magic Tool. But he hesitated with the tip of his thumb and ultimately couldn’t bring himself to do it, putting the Magic Tool in the safe instead.
Afterwards, he looked at a photo of the two of them that he had taken so that it wouldn’t be visible from behind for a while. He thought that he should get a sturdy frame so that it wouldn’t wear out, and just as he was about to put it in the safe,
He suddenly noticed a box that he had put in a long time ago. Leonardo reached out and took it out as if he were possessed.
“Why, did your heart soften when you saw his face?”
He stopped as he was about to open the box when he heard those words. He narrowed his eyes and rolled his pupils halfway, answering.
“What do you want to say?”
“Does Kajard even remember you?”
Leonardo returned his sidelong glance to its original position.
“…It’s been almost 15 years, there’s no way he’d remember. Even I’m hazy about it.”
“I guess so.”
Terzio rested his head on the pillow full of sunlight and lay down facing the ceiling.
“It’s about time he forgot. I heard that someone else has taken his place.”
“…….”
“So, how is it to meet him again?”
The troublemaker, who was touching the scar on his mouth, asked nonchalantly. Leonardo maintained his silence.
He firmly closed his lips, which were about to let out a sigh, and carefully held the leather case inside in his hand, finally opening the lid of the box.
“I don’t know, really.”
He stroked the luxurious surface and opened the top cover. Inside, there was a wristwatch that looked like it had been made with all the passion and sincerity of a craftsman at a glance, neatly stored.
The watch had a cold and sophisticated image with a harmony of silver and navy blue. The glass was still dazzling, with not a speck of dust on it, even though it hadn’t seen the light for a long time.
It wasn’t the exact same shape as the one he had seen on someone’s wrist a while ago, but the design was similar, so he could tell that it was made for only one person.
Terzio, who had silently approached in the meantime, put one arm around Leonardo’s neck from behind. Then, he rested his chin on his shoulder and whispered like a devil as they looked down at the watch together.
“He could become your enemy. Be wary of him.”
The watch had been stopped for a long time, and the second hand wasn’t moving. Leonardo closed the safe door and shook off Terzio, who was heavily pressing down on his shoulder.
He sat down at his desk with the stopped watch and looked at the parts. The reflected parts sparkled like a midday Milky Way, perhaps because the sunlight was particularly good.
“We agreed not to touch him.”
“That was when he had nothing to do with Vampires.”
“He has nothing to do with it. I can tell just by looking at his eyes.”
Leonardo’s brow was furrowed in displeasure as he answered firmly. Even so, he opened the drawer and took out tweezers and a small screwdriver, separating the glass and the back of the watch as if he were used to it.
He used an oil pen to delicately apply lubricant to the gear train and various parts. Then, he re-tuned the completely loosened mainspring and tightened the screws on the back.
Terzio, hiding his displeasure, asked at the back view of him absorbed in his work.
“How can you be so sure that he has nothing to do with it? He’s a cold-blooded man who would abandon even a begging child.”
Leonardo, who was wiping the glass with a soft cloth, paused his fingertips. It was because he knew that the child the other person was talking about was aimed at him. Terzio, who had been watching the slightly slowed movements, leaned his upper body over the blonde hair and added.
“Even if he came back later, it would already be too late. He doesn’t even remember you now.”
Leonardo silently fiddled with the crown of the watch. He slowly wound the protruding spring and let go, hiding his tension.
Then, the second hand, which seemed like it would be stopped forever, started moving again. It was the first time he had seen this sight since this watch had left its owner and come to him. Thanks to this, he had mastered watches for several years, but it took quite a bit of courage for him to make this watch move again.
“You resented him, didn’t you?”
Terzio’s voice scattered over his blonde hair. But Leonardo could no longer hear his voice well.
He simply watched the silver tip step on the scales one by one, feeling as if his stopped world was flowing again.
The sight of the small gears meshing together and turning in order made him realize that he had boarded the ship of time that he had missed for a long time.
Leonardo looked down at the watch with a dazed face for a while, as if he couldn’t believe it. The ticking sound echoed in the quiet room. Soon, a flower-like, radiant smile spread across his face, and an incomparably brilliant joy bloomed in his golden eyes and mouth.
Even the eyelashes that hung over his curved Gold Eyes sparkled uniquely, receiving the light at this moment. It was a smile so beautiful that Terzio, who was watching the scene in the mirror next to the desk, turned away with a hardened expression. It was as pure and innocent as if he had returned to being a young boy.
In his Gold Eyes, a man was reflected who had always returned to him every moment in the past, while he was waiting. Even in the cracks of an erupting volcano, even in a courtroom full of heat. Even in the moment when he was waiting endlessly in front of the gate looking at the sun, the man appeared in front of him without fail.
His red lips curved gracefully and pleasantly.
“Still, this time, you came without being late.”
Leonardo lightly kissed the glass of the watch that he had polished with care. His breath was thickly smeared on it, but it seemed like he didn’t care anymore.
In the quiet room where he was left alone, he indulged in the passing time for a while.