By Zephyria The empty hallway was extremely quiet. Normally, his stride was wide, so he would have arrived at the Legion Commander’s office in about 10 minutes without having to walk fast.
But now, Hugo was walking down the long hallway with a stiff expression for a much longer time. As he went down the last steps leading to his office, he rubbed his furrowed brow.
‘Unnecessary words….’
He had heard that he couldn’t abandon his lowly origins and had sympathy for those who were similar. Those were the words he had heard from his godmother when he first entered the mansion holding the hand of Flynn, whom he had brought from the orphanage.
She had said that you shouldn’t take in people carelessly, and that you had to be prepared to take full responsibility for the life you had taken in. He remembered being humiliated in front of the servants, being told that someone who couldn’t even take care of his own position was trying to take responsibility for someone else.
Of course, he was very different from himself at that time, but the fear beyond obsession in front of ‘responsibility’ became even worse after that incident. So, regardless of Leonardo’s will, if he was going to bring up the story of the mansion in front of him, he should have been more careful than he was now.
Instead of acting impulsively like when he brought in the young Flynn.
“Hoo….”
Hugo sighed deeply with complicated feelings, descended the stairs, and walked down the hallway. He left the room earlier than planned to give Leonardo some time alone. Regardless of what he had said, the other man, who had suddenly received his comrade’s Artifact, must be just as confused as he was right now.
The story that Flynn had found it in the luggage was a convenient lie. He was the first to discover the Artifact in Leonardo’s inner pocket, or rather, in the pocket of his combat uniform that he had dressed him in.
Of course, it was true that he hadn’t been able to check the contents. At first, he wondered what kind of nerve he had to leave traces in someone else’s clothes, but seeing that it wouldn’t open no matter what he tried, it seemed he was confident that no one else would be able to snoop.
‘What if I was someone blinded by success?’
If he took this to the military Headquarters, the investigation would narrow down to the two of them having contact, and he would receive a reward. The more he thought about it, the more gaps there were in that bastard’s actions, and his judgment was poor. That would endanger not only himself but also the life of his precious comrade.
He was almost amused that he had once mistaken that reckless fool for Leonardo’s lover. Even if he was a little unlucky with comrades, the intelligent Leonardo wouldn’t be blind to people.
Anyway, no matter how he would take it, he had handed over the Artifact, pretending not to know, out of a sense of moral obligation. Hadn’t he said that he had finally met a ‘comrade who wouldn’t die’ only to be separated from him? Although it was just an object, he hoped that the token left by his comrade would comfort the lonely man.
Lost in thought, Hugo passed through the central door and turned right. The members standing at regular intervals in the hallway saluted silently. He responded with a light nod and headed straight for the work area where the adjutants would be.
Gabe would surely have piled up new documents, so he thought it would be better to pick them up himself. The Legion Commander’s office and the adjutants’ work area were adjacent to each other, with a door in the middle, allowing them to move from one room to the next without going through the hallway.
Hugo stood in front of the antique wooden door with a sign that read, ‘Please knock,’ and knocked a couple of times.
Knock, knock, click—
“Legion Commander—.”
“Legion Commander, you’re here.”
As soon as he opened the door without waiting, Flynn and Gabe’s voices broke the silence. Gabe seemed to be in the middle of work, sitting at his desk and flipping through documents, while Flynn looked like he had just gotten up from the reception sofa.
Their reactions were quite fast, as if they knew he was coming. Just as he was wondering, a figure across from Flynn bowed at a 90-degree angle.
“L-Legion Commander. Greetings.”
“We had a guest.”
Hugo replied formally, scanning the other person up and down. The silhouette and voice were strangely familiar.
This was a member who had been deeply imprinted in his mind thanks to the recent Peninsula subjugation.
“Kenneth Weaver?”
Kenneth, who was still wearing his funeral attire as if he hadn’t had time to change, raised his head.
On the table in front of the sofa where he and Flynn were sitting, there was a cup of cold tea. It seemed he had been here for quite a while.
“This friend said he had something to tell the Legion Commander. I offered to pass it on, but he said it would be better to tell you directly.”
“To me?”
It was very rare for an ordinary member to come to him without a prior appointment, so Hugo turned to Kenneth with furrowed brows. Kenneth flinched noticeably when their eyes met. He seemed quite nervous for someone who had said he would deliver it himself.
“I’m sorry for coming so suddenly. I didn’t know I had to make an appointment first…”
He was holding a cream-colored document envelope in his hand. The bottom was thick, as if something had been put inside.
“Does Russell know?”
“…Squad Leader doesn’t know.”
That meant he had ignored the procedure and come directly. He didn’t know the exact intention, but he had a guess, so Hugo glanced at Flynn. Flynn, who met his gaze, had the same expression. Hugo gestured with his chin toward the heavy door behind the two of them.
“Let’s talk inside.”
“Ah, yes!”
Occasionally, when commanders came to request an interview, it was about a resignation about 80% of the time, but this was the first time a low-ranking member had come, so only one thing came to mind as to what he had to say.
“Come this way.”
“Yes, yes!”
“Don’t be too nervous.”
As Hugo followed into the Legion Commander’s office, Flynn deliberately gave Kenneth a kind smile. But inside, from the moment Kenneth had come here, he had been closely watching every detail of his eyes.
The reason was simple. Hadn’t he strongly suspected Kenneth Weaver as the mole who leaked information to the 3rd Battalion Commander in the Peninsula?
Whether this guy had come to confess or to find out something else on Meterion Kleinder’s orders, he wasn’t sure. But the fact that he had come on his own meant that he was definitely not an ordinary person.
Gabe, who was watching the three people heading inside, quickly organized the documents in his hands. The papers he inserted into the leather document folder were Kenneth’s personal statement and unit placement request that he had submitted when he joined the unit. He had prepared them just in case, and Gabe, covering the leather cover, quietly got up from his seat and followed into the Legion Commander’s office.
“Let’s talk here. Take a seat.”
“Understood!”
As soon as he entered, Hugo, who had turned on the lamps and lights, gestured to the sofa on the left. In the case of private talks or one-on-one meetings, they were often held inside the Legion Commander’s office, so there was also a reception area.
Kenneth was stiff in the neck and waist because it was his first time in this space and he could feel the strong scent of a man. He creaked as he approached the sofa and sat down in a tense posture. Hugo also slowly sat down across from him.
Flynn found a notepad and pen on the desk, placed them on the table, and Gabe, who followed in, placed the leather document folder in front of Hugo and bowed silently.
“Would you two like a cup of tea?”
At Flynn’s question, Hugo gestured to Kenneth. It meant to tell him if he needed it.
“N-No, I just drank some so I’m okay! Thank you.”
Kenneth politely declined with an awkward smile. Flynn nodded and retreated with Gabe, saying they would leave them to talk, and closed the door.
Click—
The air in the Legion Commander’s office, now with only the two of them, was suffocatingly silent. Hugo silently opened the document folder that Gabe had given him and roughly flipped through it so that it wouldn’t be visible from across the table.
‘Was this guy really the mole…?’
Closing the cover again, he put down the document folder, raised the internal temperature with Magic Power, and opened his mouth naturally, pretending to be comfortable.
“You must have been busy since morning. You haven’t been here long, but you must be tired from all the things that have been going on.”
“…Yes? Ah, no. It’s a good experience… No, it’s not good… It was a new experience.”
Kenneth stuttered, tapping his lips, and then shyly lowered his hand as if embarrassed. Given the situation, even that looked like acting to Hugo.
“I’m glad to hear that. Did you eat properly? I heard there were a lot of visitors, so you were on rotation for access control.”
“Yes, I was a little busy… But the seniors took good care of me, so I ate first. Did… Did the Legion Commander have a good meal too?”
“Um, well. I did.”
In fact, he had skipped it due to various circumstances, but he didn’t bother to mention it. After exchanging a few words of small talk about the weather, the two of them fell silent at some point.
Hugo thought that Kenneth seemed to have loosened up a bit, so he decided to slowly get to the point.
“So, what did you want to say?”
Kenneth’s eyelids fluttered. He lowered his eyes like a guilty person and bit his lip.
Soon after, he looked around and handed over the crumpled document envelope with his sweaty hands. Hugo, instead of asking what it was again, simply looked down at it with his hands clasped together as it was carefully placed on the table.
Kenneth rummaged through the envelope and then took out a black device about half the size of his palm, an Artifact, and several sheets of paper.
As the suspicious objects were lined up one by one, Hugo leaned his upper body forward slightly. Just as he was about to look at the paper with something densely written on it, Kenneth stood up from his seat, came to the side, and knelt down on the floor.
“Legion Commander, I’m sorry.”
He clenched his fists in both hands and pressed them tightly against his legs. His face was already red, and his eyes were filled with tears. He seemed very afraid of the future that was coming before him. His upper body and voice trembled. He hadn’t even started anything yet.
Hugo looked at him indifferently, not particularly surprised. He was just relieved that he had been able to prepare in advance thanks to Flynn’s words.
However, the pile of paper on the table was far from what he had expected. The paper was scribbled with brief notes in cursive. The writing was squiggly like earthworms, as if it had been written in a hurry.
But the content was a little, no, very strange.
Jun/22/999
B deserted the base camp at dawn. A went to find him.
A told him to refrain from acting alone, they argued.
Heard the word voyeurism. Asked if B was coming in.
Something loud, B moaned as if in pain. Got annoyed.
A told him to come out/ Sound of water. It seems A used magic.
To the cave entrance~ B took a cigarette. A, B went out of the cave together.
B’s cigarette is a mixture of Lambers leaves and Burknill cigars, not sure. But it matches the existing information.
Still seems to be smoking the same thing.