By Zephyria The existence of an informant.
It was also a problem that he always kept in mind. Although he didn’t really want to think about it, since the minerals of the Elder Millie Peninsula would be worth money, there was a possibility that someone inside the Council was cooperating to prevent them from being discovered. Someone with a fairly high position to hide this scale.
The managers’ escape and his arrival missed each other by a hair’s breadth, as if they had anticipated that he and the 1st Battalion would come here. If we assume that the reason for that was because an informant had leaked the information in advance, it was more persuasive than the trivial assumption of coincidence, at least.
He couldn’t be sure of the existence of an informant yet, but it was a hypothesis that couldn’t be ruled out if he considered even a slight possibility. However, the probability that the lower-ranking workers remaining here now knew their identity was extremely low.
The fact that only some of the superiors, not the entire group, had disappeared, and that the other workers were completely unaware that they had disappeared, made it feel like they were planning to abandon the lower-ranking workers from the beginning, or that they had gathered only the minimum number of people who shouldn’t be exposed and left in a great hurry.
Squad Leader 8, watching Hugo, who was lost in thought with a sharp look, hesitated slightly before opening her mouth.
“Ah, and… one of the Delta teams that was investigating the traces of the two has returned for an interim report.”
At the story of ‘the two’, Hugo’s gaze quickly shifted to her.
“Is there any news?”
Hugo, who had put down the hand that had been stroking his chin, asked as if he had been waiting. At his reaction, Squad Leader 8 hesitated how to convey the words.
“No, rather than news…”
Squad Leader 8 trailed off, as if it wasn’t something he would be very happy about, and continued her words.
“Following Kenneth’s footprints in a southwest direction from the last place he was seen, they abruptly stopped, making further tracking impossible.”
“……”
“So, we’ve withdrawn some of the team and sent two more Squad members specialized in Magic Power detection.”
Having finished speaking, she carefully observed her superior’s face. Hugo remained silent for a while. His expression didn’t change, but his face was filled with disappointment and worry.
He then lowered his gaze slightly and let out a small sigh.
“I see, so that’s how it is.”
Dark shadows fell under his eyes, followed by a heavy silence.
Squad Leader 8 quietly stared downwards, following his gaze for a moment. Then, she carefully raised her head again.
Looking at his face, she spoke in a calm voice, expressing the thought that inevitably came to mind.
“Should we consider it… a defection?”
Hugo’s eyebrows twitched slightly at her words. However, it was only a subtle movement, and his gaze and head, fixed in one place, didn’t move at all.
His eyelids, which seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, blinked a few times after a while. Soon, his blue eyes turned to her, and he slowly shook his head, saying firmly.
“No, I don’t think that’s the case.”
Even that was more of a guess than a certainty. Seeing Squad Leader 8 silently staring at him, Hugo repeated the words once more.
“It can’t be.”
It sounded more like he was talking to himself than to her.
The surroundings became briefly noisy. Inmates imprisoned in the cave were arguing about who had attacked whom from behind, but they were quickly silenced by the unit member guarding the front.
The Squad Leader glanced at them and then turned her head back to Hugo. Then, she nodded lightly once and said, just as calmly.
“Yes, it can’t be.”
Having finished her report, the Squad Leader bowed to Hugo to proceed with identifying the remaining hideout structures and conducting additional investigations, and immediately left the spot.
Even after she left, Hugo, lost in thought for a long time, unknowingly shifted his gaze to his left palm.
He repeatedly clenched and unclenched the hand he was looking at, eventually clenching it into a tight fist.
The footprints confirmed that the two were not unconscious. The length of the section where the footprints were found and the stride length didn’t suggest any difficulty in movement or that they were being chased by something.
In the traces left inside the cave, the ashes of a bonfire were found mixed with dirt. They had enough time and mental space to light a fire and rest. Moreover, it was a trace that was less than a day old.
But why? Why aren’t they coming back?
Kenneth couldn’t possibly be unaware that when a Council unit member becomes separated from their comrades while performing a mission in the wilderness, the most basic action to take is to immediately go to a high place and send a signal, whether by shouting or using magic, to rejoin them.
Rather, such basic regulations were something that new unit members knew by heart shortly after receiving training. Even if his judgment was clouded by being in an unfamiliar situation, the fact that he hadn’t acted according to the regulations even after this much time had passed meant that there was another reason.
Furthermore, Leonardo was more experienced and knowledgeable in practical combat and unexpected situations than anyone else here.
So, he would know the procedures for acting in such situations, and if he had fired even a single small fireball into the sky to signal his location, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed.
Hugo was certain. There was a certain instinct developed between Leonardo and himself to sense each other.
It wasn’t just because of fire and ice, but also because the intense Magic Power and energy that had threatened each other during the previous chase and confrontation were engraved on every sense of his body like an indelible mark.
Just as Leonardo felt him in the water, and he felt him in the middle of the canyon.
However, the current situation, where his energy couldn’t be felt at all, increasingly suggested the possibility that he was moving secretly to get away from him.
Besides, he was smart and quick-witted, so he might have quickly realized that this tunnel had some kind of function, and if he knew that and was still moving inside, it would be almost impossible to find him if he was deliberately hiding.
As his thoughts unfolded, Hugo’s hand clenched even tighter. He even thought about informing all the troops in the peninsula about the current situation to capture Leonardo.
However, after filling his head with all sorts of negative speculations, Hugo released the strength from his clenched fist after a while.
Because he suddenly remembered the promise he had made with him.
Not to jump to conclusions, not to judge.
“……”
Hugo slowly blinked his lowered eyes and erased the speculations he had formed.
Then, it occurred to him that Leonardo was always a much more mature person than he had worried about. He concluded that all further worries could wait until after he met him.
Hugo organized his complicated thoughts and let out a long sigh. Then, he tried to calm his mind.
He was worried sick about what he was thinking, where he was going, who he was meeting, and whether he was injured….
But for now, all he could do was trust him, search for him, and wait for him to return to him unharmed.
“Supreme Commander!”
At that moment, a voice called out from far inside the cave. Hugo turned his head in the direction of the sound, and a unit member from the 1st Battalion, who had gone out to find a messenger under orders, was hurrying back. But unlike when he left, he wasn’t alone.
Behind him, a unit member wearing the armband of a border area messenger was coming along. Seeing their rather urgent appearance, he quietly watched to see what was going on. Soon, the messenger, who had come straight to Hugo, planted his feet on the ground, saluted, and said.
“Loyalty, Aubrey Mason, messenger affiliated with the Eldermilli Peninsula Suppression Operation Temporary Headquarters. Bruno Amos, Deputy Commander of the Council’s Southern Branch, has used the command authority entrusted to him by the Supreme Commander to order the assembly of all commanders in the peninsula at coordinates 13, 206, 59 in the southern area of the Eldermilli Peninsula.”
Hugo frowned at the messenger’s words and asked back.
“He summoned all the commanders?”
“Yes. And he is coming to those coordinates himself.”