By Zephyria “The identity verification process is currently delayed. Please prepare your ID card and pass in advance before entering the checkpoint.”
Agrigento Territory, Gate 3-2 in the southwest. The Portal to Celestia, located in the Central sky above Laina Rogia.
Based on the local time in the territory, it was already past midnight, but people were lined up in front of the checkpoint, waiting to go to the aerial city. Celestia was a city built on a huge Floating Island, one of the areas where special magnetic fields generated near the equator and Magic stone in the geology conflicted to form an anti-gravity effect.
Therefore, in order to prevent metal substances possessed by individuals from interfering with the magnetic field flow, there was a regulation that immediately prohibited outsiders from entering if the number of people that could be accommodated was exceeded.
Leonardo, wearing a black hood and cloak, was also buried in the crowd gathered in front of the Gate. His appearance was that of an ordinary man, so ordinary that he wouldn’t be remembered even if you brushed past him. Holding his ID card and pass, he peered at the sign at the front of the waiting line.
‘I wonder if I’ll be able to get in.’
If he entered Celestia, it would be impossible for a large-scale chase team to follow him for at least a day. It was a suitable place to erase his tracks and hide immediately. However, he wasn’t sure if he could pass under the name ‘Leonardo Blaine’, and the number of people currently allowed to enter seemed to be precarious.
“Am I going to get cut off in front of this?”
“Hey, there’s not much left.”
Before he knew it, there were only three people in front of him in the waiting line to enter the checkpoint. The people in front and behind him were constantly anxious, worried that they might be unlucky enough to be cut off in their turn.
Leonardo, biting his lip among them, pondered until the end.
‘Should I just go now?’
He still hadn’t decided whether to stop by His Excellency’s mansion or not. To be honest, he wanted to stay for a while, considering his sincerity.
But he shook his head and steeled his heart. There was no point in staying here for a long time, it would only create lingering feelings and rumors. The word had already spread to nearby territories.
“Did you hear? Leonardo Blaine…”
“Oh, I heard he was finally released?”
Looking down at the two people in front of him who were quick with the news, Leonardo tightened the hood he was wearing.
Just then, a guard with sharp eyes came out of the checkpoint. She counted the number of people in the waiting line and announced in a solemn voice.
“One, two, three, four. These four, please enter the checkpoint.”
She scanned the last man with a suspicious appearance and added in a loud voice.
“Please take off any items that cover your face, such as hats, hoods, or masks, in advance. And from this point on, Celestia will not be accessible today. Please visit again at midnight tomorrow.”
A sigh full of disappointment erupted from the people who had been waiting. Leonardo glanced back at the people lined up behind him and felt relieved.
Surprisingly, it seemed that his turn was the last one. Leaving behind the people who were lingering, hoping for a chance, he followed the guide into the checkpoint.
Inside the checkpoint, which was made of wood, there were four screening stations separated by partitions. The earlier numbers filled the seats from the inside. Leonardo went to the very last seat.
Taking off his hood and revealing his fake face, he kept his original Gold Eyes. This was not to use magic in preparation for eyewitness accounts leaking out later, but to make it look like he was disguised using a wig or a mock Guise.
“Please put your belongings here and present your ID card and pass.”
The guard recited the usual lines. Leonardo put his backpack down on the screening station, then hesitated for a moment with the prepared ID card in his hand. He wondered if he should just present the fake ID card he had been using, but he carefully unfolded the Magician registration certificate he was holding, wanting to use it properly at least once.
The glamorous face in the photo that was immediately visible was covered by overlapping the pass. He would have to check it all anyway, but he was reluctant to show it openly.
Swallowing hard, he handed the documents to the other person. The guard received them as they were and began to scan the destination and length of stay written on the pass and transcribe them manually into the checkpoint log.
Meanwhile, another guard approached and picked up the small backpack placed on the screening station.
“I’ll check your belongings for a moment.”
They were trying to see if he had any dangerous items or more metal than allowed. Leonardo watched what the two people were doing with an indifferent expression.
At that moment, the guard who was examining the documents paused and asked.
“Sir, are you a war veteran? Veterans are subject to priority screening and passage without waiting, didn’t you know?”
He seemed to be asking after seeing the ‘War Veteran’ phrase in the other details. Leonardo was unusually flustered, but he tried to answer calmly.
“Ah, yes. I didn’t know.”
‘I wouldn’t know unless I’d been treated this way.’
The guard looked at him strangely, as if he didn’t know at all, but soon smiled kindly and gave him friendly guidance.
“In the future, when you visit areas with limited floating populations, please give the guards in front of the Gate a heads-up in advance, and they will guide you to the checkpoint first. Still, you’re lucky, you’re the last one to pass. Are you going to perform a mission for your visit? Uh, stop the luggage check at that point….”
The guard gestured to his junior, who was checking his belongings, to do it moderately, saying this and that. Then, he took out only the pass that had been checked from the overlapping documents and placed it in front of him.
“Do you have an affiliated guild? You must tell us even if you are a short-term mercenary.”
Leonardo finally stared intently at his revealed photo. He lowered his voice more than necessary and answered indifferently.
“No, I don’t have an affiliated guild. It’s a personal schedule.”
“I see. Then—”
Soon, the guard’s gaze reached the photo shining in gold. He blinked as he looked down at the assertive features, then suddenly raised his head.
“Oh, but this is….”
He looked back and forth between the person in the photo and the face in front of him, and then began to hold up the registration certificate to compare them.
In fact, there was no need to compare. Unless he had been covered in gunpowder on the battlefield, it looked so different that it couldn’t be explained.
“……”
Leonardo, while maintaining the Guise of another person, stared silently at the guard with a chilling gaze. He hadn’t done anything wrong, but for some reason, he felt like he had to escape from here. The guard, who then found the name, looked at the registration certificate with a serious expression.
After checking ‘RANK: S4’, he took a small breath as if he was convinced.
The guard, who was gradually pulling his upper body back, whispered urgently to his colleague next to him.
“Quickly, bring the chief here.”
The atmosphere was somehow strange. The wary Gold Eyes rolled slowly.
The local time in Celestia was around 3 a.m., which was about a two-hour time difference from Agrigento Territory.
The time when Leonardo came out of the Gate was a quiet dawn with moonlight hanging over the dim sky.
Here, too, the front of the Gate was crowded with people trying to go outside, but since it was the outskirts of the city, there was not a single light except on the main road if you went a little further away. He quickly slipped through the crowd and headed for a secluded forest path. He was wearing a medical mask that he had previously stolen from the Council ward to cover his face.
It had been more than three years since he had presented his real ID card at the checkpoint, so he was actually a little scared that he would suddenly be arrested. But the chief of the checkpoint, who had rushed over, suddenly raised his hand and saluted, and even notified the Celestia checkpoint in advance, so after that, it was a quick process.
When he left, all the guards came out and gave him a salute. The only downside was that the people who went in with him were whispering about who he was.
Anyway, since this was the first time he had this kind of experience in a public place alone since that day three years ago, Leonardo couldn’t hide the smile that spread across his lips, even though he was dazed.
‘He’s a person who always keeps his word.’
Recalling the kind His Excellency who had been considerate of him until the end, he moved his steps, which were unusually light due to the anti-gravity area.
Leonardo hummed a song as if he wanted them to hear it on purpose. He chose a terrible military song for the melody so that they wouldn’t confuse him with someone else.
Slowing down his pace, he suddenly stopped in the middle of the forest path.
‘Did they all follow?’
The sound of hurried footsteps stopped abruptly.
In Leonardo’s opinion, it was embarrassing to even call it a tail. After holding his breath for a moment, he counted the direction of the footsteps.
In fact, he had noticed that about two or three people had been following him since Agrigento Territory, but he thought they had been cut off due to the population limit before entering Celestia. But as soon as he crossed the Portal and came out here, he felt about a dozen people, who had been positioned like scenery in the square, secretly moving around him.
Due to the nature of the area with limited floating population, it was unlikely that they would have rushed in people as soon as they grasped his destination. That meant that no matter where he went in Celestia or nearby territories, the followers would have been waiting in advance.
‘Five in the front, six on the rear left, and seven on the right.’
As a result of bringing them along like the Pied Piper. A total of eighteen people were now following him.
‘They sent them with a purpose.’
Gold Eyes shining in the darkness flashed like a beast. Whoever it was, it didn’t seem like they had attached this many people just to poke at him once.
It couldn’t be the bodyguards that His Excellency had attached. In that case, he had to cleanly deal with what he had brought along in this forest for the sake of his future actions.
Leonardo cracked his knuckles, making a popping sound. He had already erased his smile and moved behind a thick tree trunk.