By Zephyria Leonardo, who had walked along the perimeter of the rocky hill to a place where the base camp was not visible, looked around and then Teleported somewhere. The place he moved to was about 5km away from the base camp, and this place was also densely packed with huge structures that were roughly erected.
Leonardo, who checked his surroundings again, confirmed that there was no one else and took something out of his pocket. A heavy metal lump that shone with a silver light. It was Nero’s Ring.
And with his other hand, he created a small sphere with no ability and sent it into the air. The transparent sphere naturally mixed into the air and disappeared. It was a small amount of Magic Power that he had sent out.
Soon, Leonardo raised the ring high and narrowed his eyes, carefully looking inside the ring. If the owner was nearby, a faint light would be visible in the intaglio engraved inside. The reason he had sent out his Magic Power was to call Nero, who might be nearby.
However, no matter how long he looked at it, the ring did not light up. He deliberately wandered around here and there, but there was still no reaction.
It had been three days since he had been looking for Nero in this way, and he had not been able to find any trace or energy of him since that day.
“…Is it a delusion?”
Leonardo muttered to himself and lowered his stiff arm. He still didn’t take his eyes off the ring and stepped onto the stairs of a structure that looked like a watchtower and went up.
When he came up to a high place, he could see the faint dawn far away. He wanted to shine the ring in the morning sunlight that was spreading subtly once again, but he soon put it back in his pocket. He felt a presence nearby.
He slowly counted to 10 in his mind. After that, he took a small deep breath and turned around, and someone was slowly walking up the stairs of the structure. The other person did not intend to hide his Magic Power and expressed his presence without filtering it. It was not Nero, nor was it Flynn.
Leonardo quietly watched him come up. The person was surprising, but also not surprising. Leonardo knew that he had been watching him closely lately.
The military boots that stepped on the last step stopped there. The person was Meterion Kleinder.
The two stared at each other in silence for a while. Silence, in which even the sound of breathing could not be heard, filled the space between them.
Then, Leonardo was the first to move. He thought about jumping off the watchtower, but when he tried to avoid it, a strange pride was triggered, and he thought about confidently passing by the person blocking the stairs.
Leonardo, who fixed his gaze on the stairs, went straight ahead. He walked briskly, intending to ignore whatever he said or asked why he was here.
When he safely passed him and took about two steps down, Meterion, who had slowly turned around, opened his mouth in a low voice.
“Why don’t you run away?”
It didn’t sound like something a Battalion Commander of the Council would say, so Leonardo unknowingly raised his head and looked at him. Soon, he frowned as if he had heard a strange sound, but the other person didn’t say anything else and just looked down.
Leonardo, who had been trying to figure out the meaning of his words for a while, calmly replied.
“I promised, not to run away.”
Meterion asked again at that.
“With whom? Agrizendro?”
Leonardo affirmed with silence. Then, Meterion, who had been quietly staring at him, moved his gaze elsewhere for a moment and chuckled. It was a clear sneer.
Leonardo’s eyebrows rose smoothly when he saw him. Soon, Meterion looked down with a face that still had a sneer and said.
“Why do you listen to the guy who caught you so obediently? Did he say that if you don’t run away and stay still, he’ll let you go later?”
“……”
Since it wasn’t a very different story, he responded with silence again. Then, as if he knew it would be like that, he heard a sound of clicking his tongue.
“I don’t know if you’re naive or stupid. Do you think that guy can let you go? He’s nothing without the Emperor, just the Emperor’s dog.”
The Emperor’s dog. A vulgar term that the aristocratic faction used to refer to the Emperor’s loyal subjects, a term that he himself had often heard in the past.
Leonardo could subtly understand the real meaning that Meterion was trying to say. He wasn’t just cursing the Legion Commander as a powerless dog. He was mocking him for why the abandoned Emperor’s dog was standing on the side of another Emperor’s dog.
To be honest, he wanted to cleanly smash his temporomandibular joint because he was the one who suddenly came and picked a fight, but he didn’t want to cause an accident when the subjugation was coming to an end.
Besides, seeing him openly disparaging the Duke of the Empire, he seemed like a guy who had no tomorrow even more than him, and he seemed too crazy to get involved with.
“I’m not in a position to be picky right now, so I have to stick to the person who seems the strongest. To someone who has strong power enough to let me go.”
Leonardo said with a smile only on his lips.
“But other than that person, I don’t see anyone else worth expecting.”
He was a Battalion Commander, but he always tried to be on par with the Legion Commander, so he stared straight at him and scratched him gently. He didn’t know if it worked, but the sneer that had been on Meterion’s face disappeared. A cold gaze collided in the air, and a tense tension continued.
How long had the silence lasted? Leonardo suddenly felt another presence approaching nearby. It seemed to be Flynn, and when he thought about it, he realized that he had been away for too long, considering that he had said he would be back soon. It seemed that he had come to find him because he hadn’t come back even after waiting.
Thinking that there was nothing to gain from being like this, Leonardo averted his gaze first. He went down the stairs, and the gaze that was piercing into the back of his head was stinging, but he tried to ignore it.
However, he couldn’t ignore his words that came when he had taken about three more steps.
“If I can let you go?”
Thud. Leonardo’s steps stopped abruptly. His eyes widened.
He stood there, wondering what he had heard, and soon another word came in succession.
“If I can give you complete freedom, will you stick to me then?”
“……”
His words were clearly clear, but he couldn’t understand them. He had no idea what the intention was for him to say these words to him.
When he slowly turned around with confused eyes, he was still looking down at him with an expressionless face. However, it was different from the way he had been sneering a little while ago. His eyes, which were more serious than ever, seemed to be saying that this was the main point.
Leonardo narrowed his eyes and looked at him. He was not sure if it was sincere or a trap. Regardless of whether he really had the power to release him, the biggest question was what he would gain by doing so.
It would be a lie if he wasn’t suspicious, so he was just staring at him when he heard Flynn’s footsteps rushing over.
“Blaine!”
Flynn, who had seen Leonardo standing on the stairs of the watchtower and rushed over, soon stopped walking when he found Meterion standing a little higher up.
Meterion also turned his gaze to that side at Flynn’s voice. He narrowed his brow and scanned his surroundings to see if Flynn had brought anything. Flynn, who had stiffened when his eyes met, quickly came to his senses and saluted him. Then, he barely opened his mouth.
“Hello, Battalion Commander Kleinder.”
However, even though he clearly saw that, the other person did not accept the salute.
Instead, he turned his eyes to Leonardo and stared at him in silence for a few seconds. When Leonardo understood the meaning contained in that gaze, Meterion soon began to slowly descend the stairs.
Leonardo was a little nervous at the sight of him getting closer and closer, but unexpectedly, he didn’t take any action and just passed by him. As if they hadn’t even exchanged words.
Soon, when he reached the end of the stairs and stepped on the dirt floor and walked away, Flynn, who had been frozen nearby, hurriedly stepped aside.
In a one-on-one situation, he couldn’t lower his arm until the superior accepted the salute, so Flynn had been saluting with the correct angle until now. However, Meterion, who had even glanced at him, passed in front of him with a leisurely pace. Then, he said a word as if to be heard.
“You better keep a close watch on him.”
Leonardo’s brow furrowed. It was because he knew who the target of that ‘watch’ was.
A moment later, when he had completely disappeared from the sight of the two, Flynn finally sighed and lowered his numb arm. Then, he looked up at Leonardo, who was still standing on the stairs, and asked in a complaining voice.
“Blaine, why are you here? I’ve been looking for you for a while.”
Leonardo jumped down from the stairs in one go and landed lightly in front of him. Then, he stared at the direction where Meterion had disappeared for a while and said plainly.
“Sorry, I was just taking a walk.”
Flynn made an unpleasant expression at the answer that seemed to be made up on the spot. He had been worried because he hadn’t come even after waiting for a long time, so he had finally come all the way here to find him. He wanted to hear a proper explanation, but he felt somehow annoying when he saw him answering perfunctorily.
As he was quietly glaring at him with that feeling, Leonardo, who had glanced at Flynn, who was silent, immediately noticed that he was not in a good mood and immediately put his arm around his shoulder in a friendly manner and smiled.
“I’m sorry. I was going to go back soon.”
“……”
“But why doesn’t that bastard even accept a greeting when someone greets him? Your arm must be sore. Let’s go quickly.”
“…You were really going to come back soon, right?”
“Of course, of course. Don’t you trust me?”
Flynn had nothing more to say when he said it with a smiling face. He usually doesn’t smile well, but when he only smiles like that at times like this, it seemed that Leonardo knew too well how he looked.
In the end, Flynn, who couldn’t ask why he was here any more, moved his feet together as Leonardo led him. Then, he suddenly remembered the scene of the two people standing facing each other on stairs of different heights and asked cautiously.
“But how did you meet Battalion Commander Kleinder? What did you talk about?”
“Huh?”
Leonardo turned his head straight at Flynn’s question. Then, he slightly raised the corners of his lips and said nonchalantly.
“We didn’t talk about anything.”