By Zephyria The firm mouth, which still had a laugh on it, slowly erased its expression. Along with it, the pupils in his blue eyes dilated slightly. It was a fairly meaningful reaction to Andreas, who had captured the moment.
“What did you say?”
A much colder question came back. As if he had misheard, Andreas added as if it were nothing.
“No, well. I was thinking of settling down soon, and you told me to start dating seriously now. Honestly, that guy’s looks are no joke, you won’t get tired of seeing that face even if you meet him for the rest of your life. I think I could even live with him?”
“……”
“And even if the trial ends well and he’s released, he’s still young, so he won’t know much about the world, right? At times like that, if he has a handsome and reliable older lover like me, it would be good for him to live in this harsh world, right? Huh?”
Andreas added reasons that he thought were logical, rattling on with nonsense as if it would be a good thing for Leonardo if he met him.
That’s right. It was literally nonsense. From Hugo’s point of view, who roughly knew Andreas’s dating history, it sounded like the gibberish of an incurable person with a strong tendency to wander. Rather, when he thought of Leonardo next to him, he pictured a scene where the innocent guy was caught by an old man and asked him for help.
As unwanted imaginations were added, Hugo’s expression became colder than cold. Even a chill ran through the surroundings, but Andreas patted his arm and giggled as if he didn’t notice.
“So don’t just protect him in your room, won’t he be bored? Take him out often. It would be nice if I ran into him naturally, right?”
“Frederick.”
Andreas paused at the title that suddenly reached his ears. Since they usually called each other by their first names, hearing his last name from the Commander after so long made his spine tingle for some reason.
A blue light, tinged with subtle contempt, stared intently at Andreas. Soon, he furrowed his brow and let out a small sigh.
“What did you hear of what I said until now?”
“…Huh?”
“Didn’t I say he has many scars?”
Andreas blinked blankly. His tone wasn’t loud, but he looked like he was suppressing even greater anger than when he was holding old-fashioned handcuffs and shouting in the conference room.
No, no matter what, there was no need to look at a colleague with eyes that looked at trash…. Meanwhile, Hugo, who had been resting his arm on the railing, lowered it, turned around, and tried to enter the room first. Andreas, with a dumbfounded expression, took his back off the railing and hurriedly called him.
“Hey, Hugo―.”
At that moment, sharp icicles like prison bars soared from the terrace floor, which was soaked with rainwater. Andreas, startled, hurriedly took two steps back. The icicles reached the ceiling as they were, isolating him like a prison.
“What, what is this!”
If he hadn’t dodged, his groin would have been crushed. Just as he wondered if it was intentional and quickly raised his head, it didn’t end there.
Thick icicles soared from each wall, and sharp tips flew towards him? They drew jagged lines in the space, restricting his movements like a spider web. Andreas, with a bewildered look, dodged here and there as if dancing, lifted one foot, and tripped with it.
Like a mayfly that had become prey, he was trapped in the icicles and couldn’t move. Andreas, flustered, hurriedly shouted.
“H, hey, Commander! What are you doing?”
“Three hours of confinement.”
“What? Confinement? No, w, wait―. What did I do wrong? Are you doing this because of him?”
Andreas tried to pull the ivy to break the icicles, but it was no match for the Commander’s ice. He asked the reason as if he was wronged, hanging like a doll in a ridiculous pose, but Hugo didn’t say anything.
Instead, he pulled out another thick Ice Pillar from below Andreas’s legs.
“Hugo―!”
Andreas, horrified, jumped up and convulsed his body in an unsightly manner.
Fortunately, the sharp tip passed his groin and pierced the bulging pocket on his chest. The cigarette case, which was miserably pierced at the end, came out through the pocket. Hugo turned his steps, approached Andreas, and grabbed the cigarette case in his hand.
Soon, he frowned and gave a fierce threat.
“Don’t smoke this anymore. That’s an order. And stop paying attention to him.”
He showed him the cigarette case in front of his eyes, froze it into powder at once, and then opened the terrace door and went inside. Andreas, left alone, was speechless with absurdity. He just stared blankly at Hugo’s disappearing back.
Then, when he looked back at his ridiculous state, he let out a hollow laugh. At the end, he looked down between his legs, which were almost crushed.
“Ha―.”
Andreas muttered as if he was dumbfounded.
“That bastard, he was really trying to stab me.”
The bathroom door burst open, and hot steam poured out as if escaping the enclosed space. Leonardo, who had roughly put his arms into a shower gown, came out of the bathroom, dripping water from the steam.
He had been showering for too long, and he felt dizzy for a moment. He leaned his hand on the door frame and sighed for a moment.
When it rained on a gloomy day like today, his whole body became low-pressure, and his limbs became limp. However, his wet soles left traces as he trudged towards the window. Heavy rain was constantly throwing itself against the new glass that had been replaced in the meantime.
“The rain has gotten heavier.”
Even though he knew it in his head, his hands loosened the belt of his gown. Soon, without hesitation, he threw open the window and welcomed the pouring rain.
Cold air mixed with the smell of rain came in and roughly explored the bare skin of his face and chest. Only when his body, which had been heated by the hot water, cooled down did it feel like oxygen was entering his lungs. Leonardo took a deep breath. It felt like the fog in his head was clearing.
When he listened to the outside sounds, a familiar yet shitty requiem slowly invaded the room. That’s why he had been trying to keep the door closed all day, but his conscience wouldn’t allow him to just pretend not to know and hide.
As always, he clenched his right hand into a fist and brought it to his heart. His eyelids, covered with raindrops, closed on their own, and he lowered his head.
‘Rest in peace.’
He didn’t know their faces and had no acquaintance with them at all, but the fact that they had experienced the same battle aroused a strange sense of camaraderie. When he repeated his regret for them, he sometimes fell into a state of ecstasy. Did they even know they were dead? He hoped that the process of death was instantaneous. If they were still alive even when they were torn apart by demon beasts, they would have died too painfully.
In an instant, several scenes flashed through his mind. Leonardo opened his eyes wide.
“Ha.”
He didn’t even realize that he was holding his breath. He frowned and ruffled his wet hair. It’s been like this lately. It’s dangerous.
He had a brief conversation with Agrizendro in the morning and promised not to have bad thoughts all day. He seemed increasingly worried about him, and he silently nodded because he knew what kind of concern was making him say that. However, he felt himself becoming more and more edgy today, so he suddenly said that he wanted to be alone, which he didn’t even mean.
Then, he thought that he had taken his words as nagging, so after a moment of silence, he left the words to eat well and left early in the morning as if avoiding the place. The conclusion was that he had kicked out the owner of the room. That’s not what he meant. Ever since he showed him his bare face, their relationship had been ambiguous like this.
There was a subtle lump left in his words and actions. On the other hand, the Legion Commander was ridiculously ready to accept even the smallest complaint as if he were a criminal. So, he didn’t want to be spoiled by a mature person for no reason, so he became more careful with his words. He was also avoiding conversations because he was afraid that he would ask him something deep.
‘But I don’t want to be alone….’
Like yesterday, he would check in every two hours even if he had work to do, but today he was late, so he must be very busy on the day of the funeral. He sighed and looked down at his feet, and saw the marble floor that had become soaked. It was a relief that he had removed all the carpets to clean up the broken glass, and he wondered what kind of nuisance this was.
Leonardo leaned his waist against the window frame to close the window again. He thought that if he closed it with the wind, the rain would come in, so he struggled to put his hand on the doorknob far away. Just as he was pulling the window open by hand, something caught his eye. A white fluttering that was flying precariously through the rain looked somehow familiar.
“…Huh?”
It was occasionally hit by thick raindrops and fell down, but it struggled to fly up again and gradually approached the window. Leonardo, who was staring blankly, reached out his arm as if possessed. Then, a white Butterfly that was flying precariously barely landed on his palm.
Leonardo, who had taken a step back and entered the room, covered the Butterfly with both hands and looked around for no reason. Then, he opened his palm again and looked down at the whitish creature. It was flapping its wings incessantly while sitting, trying to dry its wet body. But the movement seemed irregular, yet strangely regular.
Leonardo focused and counted the tempo and number of wing flaps.
‘D.’
The Butterfly showed short and long wing flaps alternately at a constant rhythm that could not be missed. Leonardo quickly calculated the sign, using the damp window as a memo pad.
‘1…, and 0.’
Before long, as if it had finished its business, it stopped fluttering and only fiddled with its water-soaked antennae. Leonardo stared silently at what he had written on the window.
‘D―10’
It was a reminder.
Knock knock―
At that moment, a knock was heard from outside the door at a bad time.
“……!”
Leonardo, startled, hurriedly rubbed the traces he had left on the window with his wet hands. The Butterfly, which had fluttered and flew up along with him, couldn’t get out in front of the window where the rain was pouring down and was circling around.
‘Go quickly, quickly!’
Leonardo surrounded the Butterfly with an air barrier so that it wouldn’t get wet in the rain, and then created a wind to send it far away. Around that time, the door opened with a click, and the voice of the owner of the room was heard. Leonardo hurriedly turned around. It seemed he wasn’t alone.
“Put them in order on the left bookshelf… wait here for a moment before that.”
“Yes, I understand.”
There were several figures flickering through the slightly opened door. Leonardo froze and stood blankly in front of the soaked window. His gaze was towards the door, but his nerves were all focused on the back of his head. He didn’t think that just one Butterfly would arouse strange suspicion, but he still hoped that it would fly away as soon as possible.
Just then, Hugo, who was opening the door and entering, paused when he saw Leonardo standing by the window. The two people who made eye contact couldn’t move from their respective positions for a while. They just looked at each other silently with slightly embarrassed eyes.
Hugo’s gaze first reached Leonardo’s face, which was dripping with water droplets, and then moved to the shower gown that was hanging precariously as if it would fall off. He scanned the body with small scratches revealed in between, and then turned his gaze to the loosely tied waist tie that seemed to come undone at any moment.
He stared intently at that place, then slid down to the bare legs that were revealed below. Water droplets trickled down the inside of his smooth calves. Hugo’s eyes narrowed as he watched it fall to his feet and disappear into a puddle.
“Commander, may I come in?”
The members who were waiting outside asked towards the inside. They were waiting with thick books like encyclopedias.
Even though he didn’t show it, the difficulty was buried in his voice. Hugo answered calmly without looking back.
“No, leave them in front of it.”