BMD 275

Creak―

“Blaine, are you ready?”

Flynn, who had opened the door halfway with his shoulder, poked his head in and asked. In his hands, he carried several backpacks crammed with various items, barely closed.

The shadow pushed in by the sunlight through the doorway reached Leonardo’s feet. Leonardo put the Artifact and communication Magic Tool he had been looking at into his pants pocket and nonchalantly pretended to straighten his clothes.

“Yeah, I’m leaving now.”

He bent down, grabbed the crumpled heel of his shoe, and properly fixed it. When he raised his head and gazed over Flynn’s shoulder, he occasionally caught glimpses of the members busily moving outside the door.

Even though it hadn’t been 30 minutes since the sun had risen, everyone seemed to have hurried from early in the morning, and the preparations for returning seemed to be nearing completion.

Leonardo slowly rubbed the wood grain on the deck with his palm.

Now it was time to say goodbye to this place too. He felt a mix of relief and regret.

He got up from his seat, stretched, and swept back the bangs that had fallen over his eyes with his hand.

With a hissing sound, the hair that had been swept back was temporarily fixed due to the heat. After carefully sweeping it back two or three more times, he approached Flynn, who was holding the door open.

“I’ll go carry some luggage, so wait around here for a while. Supreme Commander will be here soon too.”

“Want me to help you carry it?”

“It’s okay. Your arm isn’t fully healed yet. It’ll be over soon.”

Flynn refused Leonardo’s kindness and stepped away from the door he had been leaning on. Then, he slung the bundle of backpacks tied with leather straps over his shoulder and waddled off somewhere.

Leonardo, who had been watching his back, wondered if he should help him, but Flynn seemed to be conscious of his gaze and straightened his gait, so he decided to leave him be. Instead, he looked around the nearby cabins that had been emptied of luggage and people. It had been noisy since he opened his eyes, and it seemed that many people had already moved elsewhere.

He thought about closing the door and looking around a bit, but feeling a lingering regret about leaving right away, he looked into the empty cabin where he had stayed.

The interior, filled with the scent of wood, still had a warm atmosphere. It was noticeable that the deck had become smooth and shiny, probably because he had repeatedly spread out his bedding, sat down, and laid down.

‘A lot happened here.’

Leonardo gazed in turn at the bedside table pushed into the corner, the neatly folded bedding, and the window high up. Finally, he turned his eyes to the center of the deck and imagined an afterimage of himself and the large man embracing. But before long, his neck grew hot, and he quickly stopped.

“Ahem, ahem.”

With an embarrassed cough, he pulled the door handle and turned his body halfway back.

But then, he heard someone’s voice from above. It was the protagonist in his reminiscence.

“Did you leave something behind?”

“Ah, you startled me―.”

Leonardo, startled, quickly raised his head. Hugo, whom he didn’t know when had arrived, was standing right next to him.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Hugo lightly raised both hands to show he meant no harm and apologized, then glanced inside the door, which was still not closed. After confirming that there was no luggage left, he gestured to Leonardo with his chin.

“If you’re ready, let’s go. We should be leaving soon. Or, are you looking for something?”

Leonardo, calming his startled heart, was about to answer no, but he glanced at the doorway once more. Soon, he touched the back of his neck, which was about to heat up, and answered as if nothing was amiss.

“No, it’s just… I think I’ll miss this place.”

At the rather sentimental answer, Hugo’s eyebrows subtly rose. He gazed down at Leonardo and said in a rather affectionate tone.

“You can always come back.”

“…Come back here?”

“If you want to come, you can. But other territory residents will be staying here then.”

Come to think of it, it was time for this Encampment to be filled with the memories of others. He had heard that the existing refugees had given up their homes, so it was natural for the original owners to move in once the critically injured had left.

He didn’t know if someone had been living in this cabin either… Leonardo felt a sense of regret but nodded in agreement and firmly closed the door. Hugo, who had been watching his expression, casually asked.

“Should I order them to leave this place empty?”

“What?”

Hugo’s face was quite serious, so it didn’t sound like a joke. Leonardo replied as if it were absurd.

“No, it’s okay. There are people who abandoned their homes to relocate, what about them? It’s okay because I can just remember this place.”

‘And the important thing is right in front of me.’

Leonardo swallowed the last words. Then, Hugo smiled as if he were impressed and lightly touched Leonardo’s cheek.

“A wise answer.”

Then, Hugo swept back the Gold Eyes and round forehead that were half-covered by his bangs with his fingertips. Leonardo simply closed his eyes slightly and opened them, without particularly stopping him. Hugo, who had been caressing his eyes, withdrew his hand and said.

“Pretty.”

“……”

Leonardo looked at Hugo with eyes that seemed to ask if he had misheard.

“…What?”

He asked back in a voice that was barely audible due to his embarrassment, but Hugo only smiled instead of answering and casually checked his wristwatch.

Soon after, he pressed a few buttons on the communication Magic Tool he was holding and tried to connect to someone. Before the signal could go through even twice, the other person’s voice was heard.

―Yes, Supreme Commander.

“How is the overall preparation?”

―90% complete. The convoy of transport vehicles has almost all arrived at the rear.

“What about the support troops?”

―Currently, two battalion-level personnel are on standby and continuing to increase.

“I’ll be there soon.”

Hugo, who had ended the connection with a simple inquiry, put his arm around Leonardo’s shoulder and said.

“Shall we go?”

Leonardo had a dazed look in his eyes, but he composed himself and nodded. Hugo, while walking alongside him, tried to count the number of people remaining nearby, scanning his surroundings.

It didn’t seem like Hugo had meant anything special by it, so Leonardo tried to erase the words he had just heard from his mind. But his insensitive inner self kept asking himself.

‘Why… couldn’t I tell him not to?’

If you had experience serving in the military, where the proportion of men was relatively high, it was honestly difficult to take the word “pretty” in a good way. Guys who were handsome and had fine features often didn’t have large builds or muscles, so they were often treated poorly by fellow soldiers who acted as leaders or by bad superiors.

Of course, he had filled the mouths of those who evaluated him that way with gravel and beaten their faces with his fists, but when he was young, it was quite stressful in itself, so he still had an unavoidable aversion to those words.

But strangely… he didn’t feel so bad just now. Rather, he was just surprised by Agrizendro’s keen eye for noticing that he had swept back his hair.

“Hmm?”

When Leonardo looked at him with narrowly opened eyes, Hugo looked down at him, asking if he had something to say. But Leonardo shook his head as if it were nothing.

He simply stared silently at the two pairs of legs walking side by side, and then subtly raised the corners of his lips at the other person’s returned affection.

^

The two, who had been inspecting the Encampment, Teleported near the assembly point of the troops. Leonardo diligently walked between the rows of tents, recalling the empty space next to him when Flynn had woken him up, and asked.

“But did you get any sleep? I didn’t see you next to me when I woke up earlier.”

Hugo rubbed under his eyes with his hand and replied with a loosely relaxed face.

“I slept soundly for the first time in a while.”

Even for someone who said that, his face was still full of fatigue, so Leonardo blinked with a subtle gaze. He recalled Hugo suddenly talking nonsense last night, looking at him with a complicated expression for a while, and then inexplicably covering his eyes with his hand while he was sleeping.

At the time, he had been struggling to remove the hand that was blocking his vision, but he stopped resisting and tried to fall asleep quietly because it seemed that Agrizendro was tired but still awake because of him. But the other person’s body temperature and scent were so vivid that it wasn’t an easy environment to fall asleep in.

Eventually, Leonardo, who had barely fallen asleep about two hours before dawn, remembered Hugo’s breathing, which had been awake even when his consciousness was fading. So it was clear that he hadn’t gotten enough sleep either, but he didn’t know why he was telling such an obvious lie.

Of course, even while thinking that, Leonardo gave a subtle smile.

‘If I’m next to him and he can sleep well, that would be even stranger.’

He shrugged his shoulders and widened his stride a little more. At that moment, Hugo, who had been matching his stride, suddenly stopped walking.

“We’re here.”

Leonardo also stopped in his tracks. He removed the smile from his face and looked straight ahead. Beyond the tents, the Gate in front of the border area where the Central Branch troops had been waiting before entering the peninsula for the first time was faintly visible next to a huge tent.

The Gate, which stretched far into the distance, had been reinforced, and steel structures that had not been there before had been added. The voices of the enormous crowd gathered in front of it and the cries of the demon beasts mixed together and were occasionally carried by the wind, sounding clear.

Even though only a small part of it was visible before turning the corner, Leonardo could fully feel how many troops were gathered beyond this point. In addition, the large transport vehicles densely packed on the left created a newly overwhelming sight.

‘They said they were developing a new military vehicle… is that it?’

It was a new type of transportation that increased the maximum speed and load capacity by using a well-mixed gas and Magic Power as a power source. He had seen lower-end models in the military, but it was the first time he had seen the new model, and so many of them at once.

It was well known that the developer and major investors of those vehicles were all under the Agrizendro family. Since it was the Council he was involved in, it seemed that the support was exceptional.

Leonardo silently looked up at the man at the center of wealth and power. Just then, Hugo, who had met his eyes, said to Leonardo.

“There may be more people than before, but there’s no need to be nervous. Just stay by my side as always.”

“I’m not nervous.”

He had been a little stiff at the last Grand Council, but there was no reason to be nervous now. Leonardo replied casually as usual, and Hugo nodded and continued.

“Right. Oh, and. Paren’s General wants to meet you for a moment. I was wondering if you’d like to say hello before we leave, would that be okay?”

“Paren’s General?”

“He’s the highest commander of the Paren army camp that cooperated in the peninsula subjugation. Their military ranks are proportional to their political influence, so it wouldn’t be bad to get acquainted. Of course, I’ll refuse if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s just saying hello.”

Leonardo recalled the fleeting face and replied as if there was no problem. Hugo gave a gentle smile and softly rubbed his arm.

“Okay, let’s go.”

The two walked side by side beyond the tent. An endless formation of navy blue, aligned in perfect rows, stretched out.

The arms of those who spotted the two rose sharply. A thunderous sound of loyalty echoed in front of the Gate.