By Zephyria ‘This is an opportunity, you know? Anyone can see that winning is a sure thing! Besides, it’s not an illegal route, and it’s a prize paid by the Council, so there’s no reason not to do it!’
‘Beatrice, it’s not a problem that can be said so easily. Even though you can use a pseudonym during the game, the application itself is only possible with your real name from the beginning. The Council will immediately know that Leonardo Blaine has participated, and they won’t leave Leo alone.’
‘It’s not like the Council has been chasing him for a day or two, and you can just take the prize and disappear, so what’s the worry?’
‘Are you guys stupid? If you win there, do you think only the Council will stick to you? All kinds of organizations will be watching the game to scout you, so it’s just adding to the riffraff. You even got tailed on the train a while ago. What will happen if you go out to the league in this situation? I’m against it, absolutely against it.’
‘It’s too good to just throw away this opportunity. It’s a whole ‘Kardo’s Gemstone’. A pure crystal of expansive power with not even 1g of impurities mixed in.’
Leonardo, leaning against the pillar with his arms crossed, looked up at the scenery revealed under the brim of his hat. His gaze was on the clock tower in the middle of the downtown area.
It was just past 7:30 PM here, but it was 6 PM in the Zodiac time. It was almost time for the league participation application to close. There were more people in front of the already built league preliminary stadium than he thought. Street markets selling food and peddlers were lined up in the square with tents set up.
The savory smell of oil brushing his nose, the laughter of passersby, the lights of the market illuminating the dimly falling darkness. It was a bustling and romantic place, but those things didn’t catch Leonardo’s eye.
Only the scene of the heated debate that his Libertas partners were having floated in his head. The clearest voice was that of Mikhail, who was unusually raising his voice.
‘You’ll be lucky to see something like that once in your life. Besides, even though it’s a one-time thing, it only remains as an intangible tensile force when it explodes and disappears into the air. In a way, isn’t it a more powerful thing than the Etaid that can only erase traces with Kuamer’s Magic stone?’
Mikhail insisted that they must obtain ‘Kardo’s Gemstone,’ one of the final prizes of the League. The gemstone was a Magic Stone known in academic circles as ‘Exacore,’ a special energy crystal only found in the epicenter of seismic zones where tectonic plates meet underground.
It accumulated the rupture energy of rocks released from faults or convergent boundaries of the Earth’s crust during earthquakes into a thin, solid frame formed by magic. It was a Magic Stone created over a very long time through this repeated process. As it required the power of nature, it demanded a patient wait, making its price exorbitant and its rarity unmatched.
‘It’s been six months since the Aristocratic Faction’s coup. In the meantime, we’ve made no visible progress other than collecting minor information, raising funds, and procuring weapons. Even if we’ve dealt with a few members of the Imperial Faction, they were just insignificant pawns not even worth mentioning in the news, and we haven’t even been able to approach the people who hold the most important information. We still have time left, but if we continue like this, we’ll just be wasting our days. It’s time to stop worrying about the Council and make a bold move to gamble on a victory.’
Mikhail’s statement, which forced them to face reality, silenced the hideout for a moment. As he usually had a cool yet gentle personality, his serious and earnest advocacy was both unfamiliar and desperate.
‘During the Aristocratic Faction’s coup, we were lucky enough to succeed in eliminating the target, but the Gate, reinforced with Preservation Magic and a Magic Crystal Barrier, will be even stronger. We need a powerful blow that will turn uncertainty into certainty. Kardo’s Core is the answer. Isn’t that right, Miraile?’
Mikhail turned to Miraile, his twin sibling. She, who had been watching the fluttering of a Butterfly on her fingertip, fixed her gaze and replied dryly.
‘Yes, you’re right. But it’s not an easy decision to make.’
‘Hey, hey. I think you’re all seriously mistaken, but the League isn’t child’s play. It’s easy until the preliminaries, but it gets brutal after the round of 16. No matter how strong Leo is, how can you be sure he’ll win? He could be unlucky and get eliminated. Last year’s winner was an A-Class Mage who beat an S-Class Mage to get to the top.’
It was Gillian who poured cold water on the heated atmosphere. He was heavily drunk after downing three bottles of wine, but he always had a knack for throwing out a surprising remark.
However, the partners in the room looked at Gillian as if they were listening to the ramblings of a drunkard. Soon, they asked back in unison, as if dumbfounded.
‘If not Leo, who will win?’
Gillian couldn’t answer the unanimous question. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly and just chugged the wine straight from the bottle. Around that time, Judy, who had been fidgeting with her fingers, glanced at both sides, looking around. In the end, she shifted her gaze forward and muttered softly.
‘But what about Leo’s opinion…? Leo might not want to do it.’
The core of the discussion, carefully brought up, was once again followed by silence. After that, everyone’s eyes turned to Leonardo, the final decision-maker on this matter. Leonardo, who hadn’t opened his mouth once, met the many pairs of eyes directed at him.
The gazes of his partners, each with different opinions, were diverse, but all were intertwined with deep conflict, agony, and desperation.
Leonardo remained expressionless and couldn’t easily answer. Whatever he said, they would follow, but a leader always bears the responsibility for their decisions. If he gave up on the Exacore, he would have to find another way to plan for the future.
Just then, Terzio, who had been firmly opposed, softened his expression and asked.
‘Your Highness, what do you want to do?’
Leonardo, who had been leaning against the pillar, straightened up as soon as he finished reminiscing. After taking a deep breath, he stared at the hands of the clock tower, which were now pointing to 45 minutes past the hour.
Fifteen minutes until the registration deadline. It was time to tie up the loose ends of his long-standing worries.
He glanced at the Council’s temporary tent, where registration was being completed, after turning halfway around the huge pillar.
An hour ago, the front of the tent was crowded with applicants, but as the registration neared its end, the flow of people had stopped abruptly. The atmosphere of trying to wrap things up and withdraw earlier than planned made him anxious. Clicking his tongue, Leonardo reluctantly took a step forward. Even so, he pressed down on his hat and pulled the loose turtleneck up to his nose with one hand.
‘Is this really the right thing to do?’
It was a very contradictory situation for him, who had become accustomed to hiding and living in secrecy, to voluntarily offer himself as a sacrifice in front of everyone.
‘Even if I can participate in the competition with my face covered, someone might be able to deduce who I am if they see the type or form of magic I use. What if that happens? Should I just run away? …No, damn it, why should I run away? I even received a proper acquittal, and I’m participating officially.’
With each step towards the tent, all sorts of thoughts swirled in his mind. If he didn’t participate, he could escape this complexity, and he wanted to just ignore everything and turn back.
‘No…. Anyway, I’m in a position where I have to hide my tracks. There’s no point in attracting attention. I already lost the tail on the train, what if that tail turns into dozens of people? The guys at the hideout will be in danger, our kids are involved, and I’ve only just been forgotten by the public….’
Around that time, Leonardo’s steps came to a sudden halt.
‘Forgotten?’
The word felt foreign. No, he repeated it several times until it felt foreign. He repeatedly weighed its dictionary definition on the tip of his tongue.
A life where everyone fails to remember him, disappearing into the backwaters of history. Just crouching down, burying his head, and exhausting himself, screaming alone in indifference.
‘Is that what I wanted?’
Leonardo suddenly vaguely recalled himself shouting like a madman in the Legion Commander’s private room, and Agrizendro holding him tightly. Whatever the cause, what if that person hadn’t reached out to him when he was about to fall into the darkness?
What if he had been left alone with no one by his side, swallowed up forever by the calls of ghosts and loneliness?
Apart from the goal of winning the prize, which was the point of contention in the Libertas discussion, Leonardo agonized over the fundamental issue of this matter. Again, Terzio in his memory asked him.
‘What do you want to do?’
And the next moment, a white uniform approached him.
“Are you here to register for the competition?”
A Gold Eyes that had fallen at his feet rolled away. One of the Council members who was tidying up the tent looked at him and asked. Leonardo answered absentmindedly.
“Ah… yes.”
“You’re here just before the deadline, you barely made it. Come this way to fill out the application and show me your ID, please?”
The member guided Leonardo naturally, as if he was used to doing this for days.
Realizing that he was already standing in front of the tent, Leonardo stiffly looked inside.
About six or seven Council members had stopped tidying up and were looking at him. The member who had spoken to him first took out a few sheets of paper from a closed box and placed them on the table.
Leonardo stared blankly at the scene, then walked forward as if possessed. On the table, behind an outline summarizing the League’s schedule and procedures, various consent forms were stacked.
When he came to his senses, he was already holding a pen in his hand.