By Zephyria Cordelia, who had delivered the news while extremely tense, could only gauge the atmosphere in the ensuing awkward silence.
She had expected His Excellency to be surprised, or to question her back—to react in some way immediately—but he simply stared at her, motionless and silent.
Meeting his downward blue eyes, she trembled slightly as if feeling a chill. It was unclear whether it was due to the heavy silence filling the watchtower’s interior or the cold emanating from the man before her.
“…….”
Not even the slightest change in expression could be seen on his sharply defined face. So Cordelia was confused about what he was thinking right now. Could it be that her decision to deliver the message to him was a mistake? The prolonged silence, filled with all sorts of thoughts, made her take a step back.
As if answering her complicated feelings, Hugo, who had turned his head for a moment, rubbed his chin slowly and asked in return.
“So?”
A cold voice echoed through the secret room where only the two of them were present.
At the voice that sounded especially emotionless, Cordelia’s eyes momentarily filled with bewilderment.
“…Yes?”
Hugo, who had been slowly stroking the corner of his mouth, lightly scanned the lantern hanging on the wall with his eyes. Soon, his gaze returned to Cordelia, and he asked her calmly, seeing her somewhat startled expression.
“Is the royal guard coming here some kind of problem?”
Cordelia was speechless. Inside, question marks arose along with confusion. His response treated the matter as overly trivial, making all the time she had spent worrying and hesitating seem pointless.
“Y-Your Excellency. ……This matter—.”
Her wavering gaze turned toward the newspaper Hugo had put down. She quickly picked it up, turned a page, and held the article out to Hugo as if trying to persuade him of something.
“The atmosphere within the Zodiac is unusual right now. The news that Blaine is here has spread not only to major government agencies but also to the press. In the midst of this, the Imperial Army Headquarters’ surveillance network has been paralyzed. Don’t you think it’s strange that the royal guard is coming this way as soon as the report was published?”
Listening to her, Hugo crossed his arms with the same impassive expression. Yet, he slightly lowered his head and slowly read the article Cordelia was holding out.
The content stated that due to a certain incident, the military’s surveillance network was currently paralyzed, external intervention was suspected, and it would take about three to four days for a normal reboot. Given the timing, Hugo couldn’t help but associate the content with ‘him.’
‘Surveillance network shutdown? …Is it related to Leonardo?’
The military organization was inherently closed-off. Especially the Imperial Army of Laina Rogia was extreme in that regard. To ensure the confidentiality pledges of the managed active-duty soldiers and veterans were upheld, they meticulously tracked their movements through periodic surveillance.
Of course, for the majority, it ended with setting a period and inquiring about the veracity of their movements or contacts. But rumors were rampant that surveillance of those who had held key positions was far more thorough. They were tailed for every move, or in severe cases, tracking devices were even attached to their bodies.
So, at first, he had wondered if the choker around Leonardo’s neck was attached for such tracking and surveillance purposes. He was a member of the military special forces unit Dark Silver and a veritable war hero whose name was known to all.
But during the Council general assembly held while he was in the Zodiac, the published forensic results did not include such content. Leonardo himself had also said that the military couldn’t put something like that on him.
Anyway, the paralysis of the surveillance network, created to prevent leaks of classified information, was a serious matter and not a common occurrence within the military. The fact that it happened at such a time was no different from a red light flashing for Leonardo and the Council’s return. The military would suspect that the Council, who took Leonardo to the peninsula, was behind this incident.
He couldn’t be sure whether this was merely a coincidence or someone’s machination. But his ‘gut feeling’ leaned toward it not being just a coincidence. In short, there was a possibility that some agency or organization, targeting Leonardo, had intentionally tampered with the surveillance network to shift blame onto the Council and achieve their own goals……
As his thoughts developed, Hugo’s eyes twitched subtly for an instant.
‘Member of the military special forces unit Dark Silver.’
As he repeatedly chewed over that phrase, the image of a certain guy who had been lurking around Leonardo during the last battle came to his mind. The one who had dared to stage an abduction right in front of him, tore off the core’s foreleg with his bare hands, and used techniques with motions similar to Leonardo’s. A fairly strong and cold fire Mage.
He had hidden in the dust throughout the battle, assisting Leonardo, and though he pretended not to know, he was nearby even at the moment the core was slain. Moreover, when Leonardo collapsed, he was the closest.
He had shown a strange obsession toward Leonardo and hostility toward me.
The guy was wearing a Council uniform.
‘But if that guy is Dark Silver?’
“……I knew it.”
Listing them out one by one, everything seemed to tie together. As a slight change appeared on Hugo’s expression, Cordelia quietly lowered the newspaper and looked up at him.
Due to the nature of their work, Dark Silver would know the military’s top-secret information better than anyone, and the intensity of the accompanying surveillance and management would also be no joke. If they wanted to contact someone branded as an imperial criminal on the surface, they would surely have needed to evade the military surveillance network’s tracking.
While quickly organizing the situation in his head, Hugo placed his hand on the edge of the table and asked Cordelia again.
“Did the messenger’s news include anything about the reason the royal guard is moving?”
“…Yes? Ah, they said it’s to assess the damage situation caused by the demon beast appearances and provide relief… But you know as well, Your Excellency. The royal family, who had repeatedly ignored my requests for help all this time. And now, at this time, they suddenly say they’re coming to check the damage situation. To be honest…”
“It’s sophistry.”
As Cordelia trailed off, finding it awkward to say it outright, Hugo finished the answer for her. Cordelia cautiously nodded, watching his reaction. After that, another silence fell.
Tap, tap—
Hugo’s long fingers tapped the table rhythmically, as if organizing his thoughts. The sound felt like the sound of judgment upon herself, and Cordelia remained silent while tension built up in the back of her neck.
Thud.
Then, Hugo’s fingertips caught on a heavy bundle of paper. His blue eyes rolled slowly to look down at it. Seeing this, Cordelia pushed the spread-out newspaper aside and held up the bundle of paper that had been underneath it to Hugo, saying:
“These are petitions. I brought them just in case. …Because you might think what I’m saying is absurd.”
“…….”
Hugo gave no answer. But one of his eyebrows was raised as if asking what she meant. Cordelia watched his reaction carefully, pulled out the letter at the very front of the bundle, and handed it to Hugo, saying:
“It’s a petition appealing the dishonorable discharge verdict of Leonardo Blaine. Many military officers, including myself, drafted this petition along with a signed statement urging an investigation into the truth regarding his insubordination and submitted it to the military tribunal.”
“Petitions? …All of these?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Hugo, uncharacteristically, showed a somewhat surprised expression as he accepted the letter Cordelia handed him and the rest of the paper bundle. Putting aside the sudden appearance of petitions, the thickness and quantity were enormous enough to feel quite heavy. The dates stamped on the covers all pointed to three years ago. It was an extremely strange matter.
‘There were petitions?’
Hugo’s expression, which had been trying to maintain composure, subtly twisted. It was because he had learned a fact he knew nothing about at a completely unexpected timing.
Three years ago would have been around the time of Leonardo’s court-martial, but there was no mention anywhere that military personnel had sent petitions. On the contrary, it was the opposite. He had even been ridiculed, with people asking if there wasn’t a single person among all his comrades who would write a petition.
The signatures of military personnel written on the envelope covers were mostly from colonels and below who had directly been deployed to the field. In other words, it meant they had no power. It meant they lacked the authority to bring the existence of this many accumulated petitions to the surface.
“Huh—.”
Hugo let out a short laugh while staring sharply at Cordelia. As if anticipating the question to come, she immediately opened her mouth.
“As to why the existence of the petitions didn’t surface. Just as Your Excellency has doubts, we at the time felt the same. After the trial, no retrial was held, and the comrades who participated in the signing were assigned to the outer regions one by one for various reasons, or were suspended or dismissed.”
“…….”
“I had already taken off my uniform and left before that… but if I had still been serving in the military, I too would have been dismissed, entangled in absurd reasons.”
“Now that I’m telling you this, I believe the entire process leading to Blaine becoming a dishonorably discharged soldier was a shoddy play carried out swiftly without even a chance for any defense.”
The listening blue eyes narrowed. But Cordelia continued without hesitation.
“The fact that the petition’s existence was concealed from the world should have been enough for Your Excellency to surmise that some force was involved in this incident. The Imperial royal guard even made an unprecedented appearance at the military tribunal at the time. And now they are coming here, do you really think there’s no problem with that?”
Cordelia, who had been speaking without pause, heaved her shoulders as if breathless with excitement as soon as she asked the last question. Her emotionally charged eyes stared at Hugo desperately, as if there was nowhere else to retreat.
Hugo silently stroked his chin, looking down at her. To summarize her words, all the arrows point to one conclusion. But knowing that, Hugo had no choice but to remain silent for a moment. To cool his slightly complicated head, he swept back his falling hair.
“I should say your courage is commendable…”
Shadowed eyelids organizing the situation slowly closed and opened. He scanned the lamps hanging on the wall one by one, sighing softly and muttering to himself in an incomprehensible manner.
At his voice, which sounded rather cold, Cordelia flinched instinctively.
The blue eyes, in which the lamplight flickered, somehow looked subtly different from usual.
“Cordelia.”
Soon, Hugo’s gaze reached Cordelia again. The cold, resolute call made her body stiffen.
“Yes?”
There was something different about the atmosphere compared to the Excellency she knew. Feeling that, Cordelia took a half step back. But Hugo, on the contrary, took a step closer to her, narrowing the distance. Then, lowering his gaze to meet her eyes, he slowly opened his mouth.
“As someone who has been in this aristocratic circle a little longer than you… let me give you a piece of advice.”
A large hand was gently placed on Cordelia’s shoulder. Even though almost no force was applied, the pressure Cordelia felt at that moment was truly enormous.
Hugo lightly bent his waist to match her height. Then, gazing past Cordelia’s shoulder, he murmured softly.
“You’ve made a grave mistake.”