By Zephyria Nero was silent for a moment. It was because he couldn’t immediately understand the other’s words, which had poured out like water.
Generosity, and what not. He would have laughed it off normally. Because the generosity of the privileged is originally paltry.
But the strange aura felt in the Legion Commander’s words made him tilt his head slightly without realizing it.
There were also things he had missed and glossed over because of the infuriating words in between. But only ‘clean up what you’ve done’ remained as vivid as a lingering image.
Nero thought that the ‘deeds’ he was talking about meant the things he had done that had made some people suspicious while impersonating a Council member. But it didn’t make sense to clean that up and return to his original form and position. Just as he was mulling over what the other person meant, another ‘deed’ he had asked his seniors to do before coming here came to mind.
‘Could it be that they suspect me as the cause of the surveillance network?’
Nero’s expression hardened rapidly. He already knew that an article related to the surveillance network had been published because he had seen the newspapers piled in the corner by the territory residents to create temporary sickbeds.
Realizing that there wasn’t much time left until the surveillance network was restored, he decided to hurry back. That was why he had been biding his time, hoping for a chance to leave this place in a hurry, leaving only a final greeting to the boss.
But he didn’t think that he could be linked to it based on the contents of that article alone. That was why he wasn’t particularly interested in whether the Legion Commander had seen the article or not.
But thinking about it again, the man was the only one who had caught the hiding ‘Leonardo Blaine’. His investigative sense must be exceptionally good. Now that the suspicion that he was Dark Silver had arisen, there was a good chance that he would link the paralysis of the surveillance network and himself together.
‘Was I too naive?’
Nero gritted his teeth habitually. The boss’s words, that every being, every situation, was deliberately suspicious of everything about us, came to mind.
Of course, it could be that he was just feeling guilty about the Legion Commander’s sweeping threat. But if this ominous feeling wasn’t just his own paranoia, the situation would become much more complicated than it was now.
As soon as the man reported this, an investigation would be conducted within the military, and several lives involved, including his own, would disappear without a trace.
But instead of reporting it, the man was telling him to clean it up himself. Nero couldn’t figure out what the other person’s intention was at all.
Just as he was staring at the Legion Commander with suspicious eyes, the other person made the first move.
“Why are you standing still?”
A frosty voice brushed past him. The meaning of the disappearance of the Greatsword in his hand was clear.
Even though the situation had been sorted out in his head, Nero couldn’t understand it any better. The man was the Legion Commander of the Council, who valued principles and laws.
He said he didn’t want the boss to be in trouble, but were the two of them that close?
He couldn’t understand that the Legion Commander was letting him go even while abandoning his beliefs.
Saaa—
Just in time, a bleak wind swept past his hair. Nero felt the subtle Magic Power mixed in it.
Along with it, the blue eyes he was facing cut through the air. Then, they turned back to the front and shot back at him, calmly but fiercely.
“Leave if you care about your comrade. Don’t waste time.”
Nero, who had been sensing the direction of the Magic Power, woke up from his thoughts at that moment.
The Legion Commander’s appearance, which seemed to be in a hurry somewhere, was not the kind of behavior that someone who had come to catch him would show. It should be him who was anxious and uneasy, but the other person reflected in his eyes was clearly not relaxed.
“……”
‘It’s fortunate if you don’t get your identity exposed and become a hindrance’, ‘Take responsibility for removing everything that could be caught’, etc. He could see that the intention to hide this from a third party, so that they wouldn’t know about it, was the same for both the Legion Commander and himself.
If so, there was no need to make a fuss. However, the key was whether he could trust the man, going back to the beginning.
‘…If he hadn’t come after me, I would have already left.’
Nero frowned at the sudden thought.
He suddenly came and threatened him, and then suddenly told him to leave, he was a really incomprehensible person. But whatever the circumstances, this was an opportunity. He didn’t trust the Legion Commander, but he did trust his spirit, who had risked his life to bring the boss out of the barrier.
Nero turned his body to the opposite side, but didn’t take his eyes off Hugo, who was watching him. Then, he turned his head once more in the direction where he had felt the Magic Power, and opened his mouth, thinking that he should still ask.
“Why are you letting me go?”
Hugo’s eyebrows lifted slightly. His expression seemed to ask where he had been listening to what he had said so far.
However, instead of repeating what he had said, he paused and answered when the wind blew once more.
“Do you want me to change my mind?”
If he had said again, clearly, that it was for Leonardo’s sake, he might have really believed it. But Nero frowned and sneered at the Legion Commander’s words, which responded with threats until the end. It seemed that he had to return the favor once before he left.
“You can find me anytime and put me in the dungeon? You won’t be able to do that.”
Hugo was silent at the out-of-context words. Nero raised the corners of his lips and continued.
“I can find Legion Commander and kill him anytime. So don’t do anything stupid to Leonardo Blaine. If anything happens to him, then I won’t let you off.”
The sight of him smiling to himself as if he was proud of returning the words he had said was the spitting image of a proud and unwilling child.
Judging by his voice, he seemed to be about the same age as Leonardo or a little younger, and he didn’t want to argue with a kid who still had wet ink on his head anymore. Hugo only stared at him, closing and opening his eyes slightly instead of answering.
Then, Nero, disappointed by the lackluster reaction, added a word.
“Felix Montero.”
He tapped his left chest with his fist. It was where Felix’s name was engraved on his combat uniform.
“I’ve taken good care of him in the sickbed, so he’s probably more intact than the other guys. Give this guy a reward instead of me. This face is the number one contributor to the core hunt.”
Nero tapped his cheek with his palm and grinned. Hugo narrowed his brows at the sight. He was about to lightly ignore it and check his wristwatch as a habit, but he realized the absence of the watch and said with a low sigh.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
It meant that he knew, so get lost quickly. Finally, having heard a satisfactory answer, Nero closed his mouth and turned back with a blank expression.
There were more than one or two things that were unsettling, but as the Legion Commander had said, there were many things to deal with now. He still couldn’t understand the man’s intentions, but it was certain that the man didn’t want someone hiding in the forest to find out about this situation. Nero, who had been deliberately stalling for time and checking Hugo’s mood, came to the conclusion that he could leave the back to him and leave for now.
Chwaak—
Parting through the leaves, Nero instantly leaped into the darkness. He left the place without looking back, as if he had been wasting time until now.
As he stepped on the branches and leaped powerfully, a belated sense of self-reproach rushed in, and he hit his head several times.
“Ugh, you idiot. What are you going to do?”
If the seniors found out that he had been caught, he would be as good as dead. He had been acting tough in front of the Legion Commander, saying that he could kill him, but on the contrary, it was the opposite. It wasn’t logically easy to assassinate the Duke of the Empire, and in the current situation, it seemed that he would be going to the guillotine faster no matter how he looked at it.
‘How do I tell this to the seniors? I think I’m going to get hit with a club…. No, no. Still, I’ve saved the boss several times.’
Nero was rationalizing himself and organizing in his head what he would do in the future.
He had to go back much further than the planned route because he was being chased by the Legion Commander. It would be nice to go back the way he came, but it was too risky to go back in a situation where he didn’t know who was there.
Nero, who had been grumbling, raised his altitude and climbed up the tree to secure his vision. And at that moment, he saw the Gate’s flag fluttering vigorously not far away. Nero turned around with a puzzled look.
The direction in which the Legion Commander had been chasing him was always towards one place. It was towards the eastern Gate of Fidele Territory, the closest place to the escape route.
^
Hugo stared at the place where the troublesome guy had disappeared, then put his hands behind his back and slowly moved his steps.
Just one person had disappeared, but the sound of the grasshoppers, which he hadn’t heard, was clear. In the tranquility he had barely regained, he took a breath and melted all the ice embedded around him.
The ice, which had instantly turned into water and seeped into the ground, became another stream of water and straightened the tilted trees. Wherever his slow steps trod, the devastated scenes regained some of their original appearance.
The dug-up ground became flat, and the prostrate bushes stood up again vertically. But the already broken trees didn’t come back to life. It was like the current situation. No matter how much he tried to hide it as if it wasn’t true, it wouldn’t become something that hadn’t happened.
He would just graft the trees and set them up plausibly, but the cracked traces remained.
Hugo knew that well.
“Russell.”
Hugo, who had been moving his steps, suddenly stopped. He called out the name in the empty air where no one was. Then, after a period of silence, the sound of someone’s footsteps brushed against the dirt floor.
A figure hesitated and came forward from behind a thick tree trunk. It was Squad Leader 8.
Hugo, who had been staring at her with an indifferent gaze, said to her.
“I think I told you that there was no need to follow me.”
At the chilly voice of the Commander, Squad Leader 8 couldn’t raise her head properly. She was looking only at Hugo’s feet because it was hard to make eye contact, and she repeated the same words as before instead of adding another excuse.
“I’m sorry, Commander. I was worried….”
Hugo watched her with cold eyes. He had known her for a long time, and he knew that she wouldn’t lie.
She was more rigid than usual, but that was because she was much more incorruptible than he was. She wasn’t hiding or concealing anything.
Hugo soon moved his steps as if it wasn’t a big deal. As he brushed past her, Squad Leader 8 watched him carefully and naturally followed her superior.
“How long have you been here?”
“Yes?”
Hugo asked as the silence continued. Squad Leader 8 was flustered and momentarily asked back, then quietly looked up at the Commander, who was looking ahead. She hesitated for a moment whether she should tell him as it was.
As the answer was delayed, blue eyes glanced down at her. It was definitely the same eyes as usual, but if they looked particularly cold today, it would be her own delusion.
Thinking so, Squad Leader 8 quietly recalled ‘that guy’ she had encountered inside the 118th ward.
She soon composed her expression, turned her eyes away from her superior, and answered as calmly as possible.
“I came a little while ago.”