By Zephyria “Can’t we go any faster?”
When they entered the Magic Control Zone 2, Andreas, unable to bear it any longer, opened his mouth as if urging them. They had moved quite a bit even at this slow pace, but they still had a long way to go to reach the Council headquarters.
The control of citizens was becoming increasingly difficult and traffic was paralyzed as they entered the Imperial Palace.
So many Council personnel continued to come in droves to support them because of just this one guy, and even the time was being delayed much longer than expected. Even unrelated people were getting caught up in the commotion, and the voices of dissatisfaction were growing louder and louder.
However, Hugo shook his head firmly at Andreas’s urging gaze.
“The cage must not be subjected to any impact. We have to move as slowly as possible.”
“I understand, but… at this rate, we have a long way to go.”
Andreas, looking around, said, trying to suppress his frustration. In the early stages of entering the Imperial Palace, the members were lined up in one row on each side, but as they went inside, the pressure to push in became stronger, and now they were almost forming a human barricade in two rows.
The sight of the members struggling to stop the citizens was pitiful, but even in this situation, the Imperial Army Headquarters was still ignoring them and not even sending belated support.
“Do not throw things! Everyone, please step back!”
“It’s dangerous! Please cooperate for your safety!”
The struggling voices of the members shouting at the citizens, the cheers for the Council that had captured Leonardo Blaine, and the murmurs of criticizing and denouncing him echoed in the vast Imperial Palace plaza.
The sound was so loud that it bounced off the walls of the buildings surrounding the plaza, sounding like an echo.
And that echo violently shook the hearts of the people on the scene, and as the emotional turmoil gained strength, the people near the escort formation rioted as if they would rush into the cage transporting Leonardo.
In fact, they hardly heard any words of encouragement for the Council from them. They only poured out fierce criticism and curses towards Leonardo, filled with all sorts of emotions.
Flynn silently held the reins of the horse and walked towards the straight road. He looked ahead with a determined face, as if he couldn’t hear anything.
Flynn was in great shock that Terzio, with whom he had built up affection in a short period of time and whom he had tried to believe even while struggling with his inner self, was actually Leonardo Blaine.
He was still very dazed, and the disappointment in him for deceiving him was indescribable, but on the other hand, Flynn was lost in thought, wondering, ‘Did Leonardo Blaine do something wrong enough to deserve all this humiliation?’
“Die!”
“Kill him!”
“Execute him!”
As if possessed by collective madness, shouts of hatred and loathing for Leonardo Blaine rang out in the plaza.
“You murderer!”
“You devilish bastard.”
They pointed fingers at him as if he were the root of all evil and tore at his existence.
In the midst of the shouts echoing throughout the Imperial Palace today, Flynn was reminded of the morning when the war hero most beloved by the imperial citizens fell tragically. On that day, too, many people had come out to the streets, and they had given the hero who had betrayed everyone’s trust the most miserable ending.
The reason why the citizens of the Imperial Palace in particular cursed him so much, although other regions were relatively less, was different.
In the battle with the Turandos Empire, in which he last participated three years ago, he disobeyed orders due to personal feelings and failed to occupy the final stronghold that could have defeated the enemy, resulting in numerous casualties.
At the time, Laina Rogia was continuing a state of war with Turandos, which bordered its western part of the central region, repeating war and truce for nine years. Because of this, the imperial citizens near the western border suffered from air raids every time, were very poor, and did not even have enough food to eat.
Those who survived among gunpowder and rusty iron weapons lived with the smell of burning flesh and had to evacuate as a habit.
And during that time, the residents of the border areas, where the damage was most severe, had largely migrated to the outskirts of the Imperial Palace to avoid air raids.
Their only wish was for the war to end quickly.
The people who had to give all their food and clothes to the soldiers on the battlefield poured all their anger on him when it was revealed that the victory of the war was just around the corner, but it had failed due to the disobedience of the war hero they had believed in.
They reviled the soldiers who had met honorable deaths in the past wars, saying that death might be better, and drove him away with harsh abuse and rejection.
The public had no interest in what was the reason for his disobedience or what the disobeyed order was.
At that time, all institutions, newspapers, and media outlets did not mention anything about the order and only wrote sensational articles about Leonardo’s disobedience as a soldier, the defeat and casualties of the empire, and the never-ending war.
Flynn was sometimes curious about the inside story, but the incident was a top-secret military secret that no one but the military officials and executives at the time, and Leonardo Blaine himself, would know.
* * *
Many aristocratic children usually worked as soldiers for a certain period of time to prove the glory of their family and loyalty to the empire. And Hugo, too, had been in the Imperial Army for several years before joining the Council.
When he was in the Imperial Army, it was before the war with Turandos broke out, but since the relationship between Laina Rogia and Turandos was already at its worst at that time, Hugo knew how important the war that broke out later was considered between the two empires from the perspective of a soldier.
Perhaps that was why, when he heard that a member of the Imperial Army and the empire’s most brilliant Arm Silver had disobeyed orders in the most important battle and rioted and set fire to the place because he could not accept the verdict handed down by the military court. Hugo also came to view the protagonist of the story in a rather negative light.
His actions in the past were worthy of criticism. He was a soldier belonging to the military, and the military was a place that governed the hierarchical order with thorough command and obedience.
In such a place, disobedience was an act that shook the very foundation of the military, and for whatever reason, he should never have acted on personal feelings in that battle that day. The end of the war that all the imperial citizens so desired was in his hands.
Of course, his thoughts had not changed much even now. The fact that Leonardo had committed a crime in the past was still unchanged, but at least Hugo could see that the citizens were now under some kind of delusion.
He was dishonorably discharged from the military court three years ago, imprisoned, and then paroled six months later. The reason why his imprisonment period was not so long was that his disobedience was not intended to intentionally harm or betray allies, and above all, he had made countless remarkable achievements in previous battles and various missions.
But as the end of such a hero was now being showered with the public’s anger, people always remembered only the end, and he was ultimately left as a sinner.
Although he had been bound so strongly in preparation for any situation during the transfer, the real reason why the Council was transporting Leonardo Blaine now was. It was to allow him to live as a legally registered general magician, not as a fugitive, and to conduct additional investigations into the frost territory demon beast smuggling case that had not yet been completely concluded.
But the citizens were under the great delusion that he had not yet paid for his crimes at that time.
And Hugo, listening to the people’s hateful voices towards him from right behind the cage where he was, was directly realizing why he had to hide his magic power, hide his appearance, and hide his appearance from the world and live as if he were dead.
Creak—
The clanging of the iron bars gradually subsided as if the one inside had grown tired of listening. Hugo stared at the bars with cold, sunken eyes, thinking as if speaking to the one inside.
‘You must have thought your debt was paid the moment you were released from prison. But from the start, you, especially as someone from Bermuda, should never have disobeyed the Empire’s orders.’
Verbal abuse, a flood of screams, hatred akin to madness.
All of this was too harsh for young Leonardo to endure. And no one had the right to definitively say he deserved to endure all of this.
But at the same time, Hugo thought that only when he stopped running from the past and took responsibility could a new path forward open up.
Public opinion of Leonardo Blaine was extremely polarized. This was because he was from ‘Bermuda,’ a place that had been both a subject of interest and promise, and of persecution and contempt, throughout history.
Now, it wasn’t difficult to find people from Bermuda around, and their numbers had increased compared to the past, so they seemed to have integrated as full members of society. However, discrimination and baseless hatred against people from Bermuda still existed.
And the public’s excessive anger towards Leonardo Blaine was providing an excuse to express that hatred. Some people added to the hatred of Leonardo Blaine, openly revealing their hatred for people from Bermuda.
“Acting high and mighty because you’re from Bermuda, serves you right!”
Amidst the screams echoing from all directions, a few voices pierced Hugo’s ears. He turned his head with a cold expression, but the speaker had disappeared into the crowd, making it impossible to find them.
Hugo’s expression hardened rapidly. It was because it sounded as if those words applied not only to Leonardo Blaine but also to himself.
But saying that people from Bermuda were acting high and mighty was something only those who knew nothing would say. Among the people from Bermuda, there was no one who could ‘act high and mighty’ with that background.
Hugo then looked back at the now-silent iron bars. There was no more clanging.
‘People are easily swayed, believe, and are easily incited by the anger expressed by emotional people. The stones they throw without thinking are the weight of your debt.’
That’s what he thought, but feeling his mood worsening, Hugo tried to manage his expression.
The atmosphere was overheating, and the people’s excitement was escalating.
At that moment, a member of the Council was pushed by the citizens, and the barrier he was holding collapsed.