By Zephyria As the steady sound of hooves faded, the carriage stopped with a slight jolt. At the two knocks that followed, Hugo, who was about to get up, told Leonardo.
“There are servants, would you like me to dismiss them if you’re uncomfortable? There aren’t many.”
“It’s okay.”
After hearing the answer, Hugo winked and opened the carriage door and got off himself. The attendant, who had been waiting right in front, stepped back and bowed his head. The people lined up on both sides also bowed respectfully.
“Welcome, Master―.”
‘Huh?’
Leonardo hesitated for a moment at the unexpectedly large number of people. He quickly counted the number of people, and there were about twenty. It was certainly a small number for the servants managing the Duke’s villa. But when he received the key before, he had heard that he wasn’t planning to send anyone for the time being, so he had naturally imagined a time alone.
Of course, things might have changed since then, as it had been several months.
“Get out.”
Hugo, who had first stepped on the ground, reached out to Leonardo. His hesitant fingertips were placed on Hugo’s palm.
Leonardo, who had been escorted out of the carriage in a daze, quickly let go of the hand he had grabbed. He began to be conscious of the eyes watching, so this situation felt foreign.
It wasn’t that he was standing next to the Commander-in-Chief as a member of the subjugation force, but that he was being treated as a VIP as the Duke’s only guest, which felt unfamiliar. He wondered if he deserved such treatment in front of people of the same status as him, and he was also worried that his contact with His Excellency would be seen as strange.
Knowing Leonardo’s heart, Hugo clenched and unclenched his empty palm, but nonchalantly took a half step forward. Instead, he waved his hand as if telling the servants, who were still bowing, to leave.
As the people who had been standing like statues scattered in an instant, a gentle voice spoke.
“I’m glad the weather is nice today. It’s much warmer, isn’t it?”
Come to think of it, it was quite chilly when he got into the carriage, but now there was a pleasant breeze. It seemed that the saying that it was in the warmest place in the territory was true.
Leonardo, who had been looking up at the dawn sky, turned his eyes and replied.
“The shape of the clouds is similar to the south. I didn’t know there was a place like this in your territory.”
“I expected it, but it seems you really haven’t been anywhere near here.”
Ick. Gold Eyes, hit right on the mark, shifted slightly to the side.
“…That’s―.”
“Aren’t you hungry? You haven’t eaten anything since the match.”
Hugo, wearing a faint smile, smoothly changed the subject.
“Oh, well, I am…”
“It’s a bit late, but shall we eat first? Or would you like to wash up first?”
He had instructed them to heat the water, so it would be just right to go in now, Hugo added calmly. Leonardo rolled the words he had been harboring on the tip of his tongue, but couldn’t bring himself to utter them. With the servants’ gazes lingering behind him, how could he say, ‘Instead of that, how about you first’? He regretted that there were too many ears listening, so he couldn’t give a dry answer.
“…Wash up.”
“Then I’ll have everything ready for you to eat right after you’re done. Come this way. It’s not very large, but the interior is complex, so it’s easy to get lost.”
Hugo put his arm around Leonardo’s shoulders and slowly led him towards the stairs.
‘…Not very large, he says?’
Leonardo, following him, looked up at the open stone gate.
Entering the impressively sized entrance, a wide expanse of antique columns and ceilings made of white and bluish-gray stretched out. From the outside, the building itself didn’t seem to have many floors, but the ceiling wasn’t low either. The refreshingly spacious interior was so vast that voices echoed, making it objectively impossible to call it small.
Among them, the ceiling murals, marked by time, were faded and almost erased. It seemed no restoration work had been done. That alone made Leonardo guess that this sophisticated building had held onto its history for quite a long time.
“Is this place old?”
He asked unintentionally, feeling a sense of nostalgia that one might feel in a historic building or old house. He had heard it was acquired relatively recently, but someone’s longing lingered like an afterimage.
Hugo, turning to look at Leonardo, followed his gaze and replied.
“Probably a few hundred years, or maybe even more.”
In the corner of the large, steam-filled bath, a Stone Lion with its mouth wide open displayed its majesty. Hot water poured out of the lion’s mouth in a continuous stream. Leonardo, with his body submerged up to his chest in the bath, playfully disrupted the flowing water.
But soon, he furrowed his wet brow and clenched his fist, striking the rippling surface of the water.
Splash―
Small droplets of water splashed up, wetting his cheeks and forehead, which were flushed red from the warm air. His already wet and wavy blonde hair was also soaked with bathwater. Pushing back the strands of hair that were falling and dripping, Leonardo muttered to himself, sounding annoyed.
“This isn’t it.”
His plan had gone awry. Originally, according to his expectations, he shouldn’t be alone in this ocean-like bath, but someone should be with him on the opposite side. In His Excellency’s home ground, so to speak, he was supposed to pretend to lose a few times and then, in the blink of an eye, flip him over backwards.
But right now, all that was with Leonardo were two rubber ducks floating along with the ripples. As if mocking him, a yellow and a blue pair were swimming happily on the surface. He squeezed the soft rubber in his hand for no reason, and the duck cried out with a squeak.
The toy’s scream echoed like a reverberation in the dome-shaped glass ceiling where the night sky was draped. It was the perfect place to admire the starlight pouring down beyond the round hemisphere and to indulge in each other’s breathing. But what was the point, when there was no one to recite the origins of Taurus or what it meant?
Without even getting a chance to subtly suggest they enter together, His Excellency had brought him to the front of the bathroom and then turned away, saying he would check the condition of the dining area. Along with the words that he shouldn’t stay too long, as his blood vessels might dilate and cause a nosebleed.
He could tell that the perceptive man was pretending not to notice, so he refrained from saying anything, assuming he must have a lot to prepare.
“Shouldn’t have said I wanted to eat octopus…”
A voice full of regret leaked out like a sigh.
The important thing was to dine facing each other, it didn’t matter what the menu was. He felt a little regretful that he seemed to have created elements that His Excellency had to worry about.
‘It’s disgustingly large.’
Complaining about the unnecessarily vast space, Leonardo released the duck he had been holding. The two, having regained their original shape, flowed leisurely along with the current. They rolled down under the fierce waterfall and disappeared for a while, then floated up again and moved towards the wider bath.
Following their trajectory, he cynically surveyed the interior, which was nothing short of antique. Apart from the large central bath, stepped baths were arranged on both ends with different levels. A goddess statue, as if from mythology, tilted the jar she held in her arms, creating an endless cycle.
Thanks to this, the scent of natural oils filled the huge bath to the point of overflowing in all directions. Leonardo was intoxicated by the scent, then suddenly plunged his head into the water. Stretching out his body like a mermaid and kicking through the water, a streamlined golden stream was drawn in the middle of the bath.
Suddenly, he remembered what the owner of the supply store in Riverside Town had told him.
‘If you immerse yourself in clear water filled with the energy of purification, some of your distracting thoughts will fall away.’
‘Is this place like that?’
Strangely, his left shoulder, which had felt like something was pressing down on it, felt much lighter. However, that didn’t mean that the lingering attachment of passion that had settled in one corner of his heart had fallen away completely.
Leonardo held his breath and stared blankly at the sky from underwater.
Apart from losing his purpose, he felt strangely at ease.
When he washed up and came outside, a powder room, which he hadn’t noticed when he entered because he was distracted, stretched out. Filled with antique mahogany furniture, one side of the room was entirely mirrored, and his belongings and new clothes that had been left outside were neatly placed on the console table.
Leonardo, dripping water from his wet hair, picked up the clothes. It was a silk blouse with intricate embroidery. When he had grabbed any clothes that His Excellency had provided at the Libertas residence in the past, the design was similar to the clothes he had worn back then.
You know, the kind that a frail youngest son of a noble family would wear.
“Is it a preference?”
At this point, it was a plausible suspicion. Does he like the pampered prince style? That’s far from me.
Leonardo, who had dried his entire body in an instant, put on the prepared clothes over his steaming body. It fit perfectly, as if his measurements had been taken. There were no parts that were too tight or loose in the underwear and bottoms either, making him a little afraid of how he knew his size.
He covered his mottled neck with the handkerchief that had been prepared, and was about to pick up his belongings and go outside.
“…?”
The Artifact sent a signal and sparkled. He immediately opened it just enough to fit his palm and stirred the contents. Among them, he grabbed the communication Magic Tool and checked it, finding three connection attempts recorded.
The sender was all Terzio.
Raising one eyebrow, Leonardo was about to press the connect button, but hesitated. He was worried that he might hear unnecessary things at an important moment, whatever the matter was. He had known it for a while, but Terzio had always shown a very negative view of him remembering Agrizendro and keeping his belongings.
The reason that was outwardly revealed was clear. It was not to get involved with the leader of the Imperial Faction. He was too conspicuous, a being different from them from the moment he was born, and the feelings you have for him are a longing for another form of life that you could have lived, not entirely directed at him.
Since he was the type to even try to control the form of his emotions, he must have been very worried about his partner who hadn’t returned long after the end of the test match. He would probably be urging him to tell him where he was, fearing that he might be having some kind of meeting with the Legion Commander.
Leonardo stared blankly at the Magic Tool with sunken eyes, then threw it into the Artifact as if discarding his thoughts.
He then casually smoothed his hair, but Terzio’s voice continued to linger in his ears.
‘He could become an enemy. Be wary.’
Leonardo muttered to the mirror, sounding irritated.
“I know, I know that too.”
Just then, he sensed someone nearby outside the door. A polite knock followed twice.
Knock, knock―
“Excuse me. If you are ready, may I guide you to the dining area? The Duke is waiting for you.”