By Zephyria His lowered Gold Eyes narrowed.
‘A glass bottle?’
Immediately, what flashed through Leonardo Blaine’s mind were the two prisoners giggling in the Council’s underground prison.
The guys said that the reason the horses pulling the cage in the Grand Square were startled and ran wild was because a glass bottle flew in from somewhere and broke. One of them evaluated Leonardo Blaine’s escape as ‘lucky.’ He guessed it wasn’t a coincidence, but he never imagined that Terzio was hiding in the crowd.
Leonardo Blaine scratched the inside of his cheek with the tip of his tongue and cautiously asked.
“Were you in Zodiac back then? You haven’t set foot there for years. You were playing it safe.”
“I’m already a dead man, so what can’t I go? Besides, I can’t just sit still when our Prince is caught.”
Terzio curved the corners of his mouth, where scars intersected, gracefully. It was a strange but quite fitting smile. Judy saw him like that and interrupted.
“You’re the only one acting cool. You would have just slept here if it weren’t for me. I was the one who told Terju as soon as I saw the newspaper that Leo was arrested!”
“Ah, well. That’s true.”
Judy, who had infiltrated Zodiac to get poisonous herbs at the time, claimed that she was the first to discover the first newspaper published in the morning. Everyone was making a fuss as if something good had happened, so she kicked the newspaper box in front of the roadside store out of spite. Afterwards, she explained that she contacted the people gathered here with a Magic Tool for communication and immediately conveyed the situation.
Leonardo Blaine, who was listening, smiled in disbelief and asked back.
“You kicked the newspaper box? Didn’t people stare at you? You hate being noticed.”
“But I was so angry back then….”
Judy pursed her small lips as if she was angry again when she recalled the time. Leonardo Blaine laughed in disbelief, but he put his hand on the back of her chair, who was angry for him.
“Good job, thank you.”
Judy’s eyes widened at the unexpected words of gratitude. She rubbed her nose as if she was embarrassed.
Leonardo Blaine smiled and then turned his gaze to the empty cup on the table without meaning.
“It’s true that Judy contacted him, and Terju threw a glass bottle to create an opening. Thanks to that, I was able to unlock the handcuffs and shackles and get out of the cage.”
He stroked the smooth surface and then returned to the main point.
“…But there were a lot of people there. Even if I had succeeded in escaping if I had attacked as soon as I escaped, it would have been a major disaster. You don’t want me to become a real criminal, do you?”
Leonardo Blaine asked jokingly and shifted his gaze to Terzio. Terzio, who was still lowering his upper body and looking up at him, relaxed the corners of his mouth and made a strange expression.
Everyone here knows that he, who has cut off more lives than anyone else, doesn’t like meaningless slaughter. However, the tolerance he shows even to the public who curse at him was somewhat incomprehensible to Terzio, who has lived a life of constantly removing obstacles.
“A wanted man is no good. It’s very tiring.”
Terzio replied naturally, stretched his upper body on the table, and stared at Leonardo Blaine. Leonardo Blaine, who glanced at him, who was almost lying down, stroked the groove on the table with his fingertips and said.
“In the first place, tens of thousands of people were watching me, so it wasn’t a situation where I could try to escape. And you guys saw it too, didn’t you? I fought against the Council’s battalion commander-class in a 1-on-2 fight.”
Leonardo Blaine unusually boasted that no one but him could have endured that much.
“If you fight those two in the Magic control zone, anyone would be pushed back by pure strength. Almost 2m tall guys were attacking… First of all, the difference in size is huge. Besides, in the end, two battalion commanders came to support and were ambushed.”
He calmly appealed that it was a clearly unfavorable situation and added some memories of the time. Miraile, who had been quietly watching, added a word.
“You knew the situation was unfavorable, but you deliberately went out of the cage.”
Silence flowed for a while, starting with her words. It was Miraile who broke the silence again.
“You tested it.”
Leonardo Blaine stroked the edge of his lips and fixed his gaze on her. Soon, he slowly nodded.
“Half right. But I didn’t just make a fuss to test it. I don’t like being dragged away quietly….”
He turned his head slowly and leaned back on the back of the chair. His eyes scanned the only sunlight from the window that entered the dark room.
His Gold Eyes, which had become noticeably sentimental, recalled the scenery of that day and time.
“I wanted to see the outside after a long time. Zodiac, which I returned to after 3 years.”
Leonardo Blaine recalled the moment when he was still struggling in the cage, staring at the front that was dyed with darkness, and made a resolution.
‘Even if I fail to escape, it’s worth going outside once.’
He still doesn’t know whether that one value is for achieving the goal or for useless emotions. One thing is certain, after saving the child, he looked at the familiar alley where the two mothers and daughters were moving away, and he thought that it was a good thing he came out.
The four people sitting around the table waited silently for Leonardo Blaine, who seemed to be lost in thought. The past few months must have been a period of great upheaval for him. He needed time to calm down.
After about 1 or 2 minutes of silence, he soon stretched out his right hand and created a red sphere with Magic Power condensed. It was the predecessor of the Red ray, which he often used for Attack Magic. He had used this to shoot down the clones of the 4th Battalion Commander who were confronting him in the Grand Square and to estimate the firing speed.
Leonardo Blaine rolled his eyes and looked around at the people sitting around him.
“I’ve explained the general situation, so shall we get down to business now?”
As soon as he finished speaking, Andrew was the first to get up from his seat. He drew the curtains on the window where the light was coming in and turned on the dimly lit indoor lights.
Miraile lifted the screen cloth hanging behind her and moved her seat to the side. On the wall revealed behind her back, there were papers like a kind of investigation board plastered all over.
Terzio, who had raised his upper body, pushed the groove in the center of the table top to the left and right, and a huge map with circles marked on specific areas appeared between the opened wooden table tops.
Judy, who had hurriedly run to the inner room, opened a cabinet and carried out a large amount of paper bundles, groaning. It took less than 30 seconds for the four people to gather back on the table.
As everyone seemed ready, Leonardo Blaine rolled the red sphere floating in the air with his fingertips and continued to speak.
“2 seconds, the time it took to attempt a one-time attack in the middle of the Grand Square is about 2 seconds. In the Zodiac Magic control zone 2, the casting speed of magic is 10 times slower than usual.”
“10 times as much?”
“Yeah. My average casting speed is 0.2 seconds. And the attack range is also reduced to 1/10. That means it’s half as weak as we expected. In other words, we need to collect at least three times more Etaid than we have now.”
Leonardo Blaine, who raised his eyebrows, smiled and muttered.
“Isn’t this pretty high-end information?”
There were several purposes mixed in when he broke out of the cage and caused a riot in Zodiac. But the most primitive reason was, of course, because it was a golden opportunity. It was an opportunity to test the impact of Attack Magic and explosions in Zodiac, which had been called a sanctuary for the past few decades without any conflict. He had the ‘justification’ of resistance.
“Still, if it’s that much impact in the Magic control zone 2, you can easily destroy the Gate in Zone 1. When I came out of the frost territory and the Legion Commander confronted me, he deflected the fireball I threw towards the Gate. It collided with the Magic Crystal Barrier spread out in the sky and made a scratch. Of course, the magic disappeared, but I think it’s meaningful that the barrier was scratched itself. It means that the shock absorption rate is not 100%. Physical explosions would be more effective.”
“If it wasn’t for this incident, it’s information that we really couldn’t have found out anywhere. Usually, you would have been arrested on the spot before you even attacked the Gate.”
Andrew, who likes ‘information,’ muttered with an interesting face. He was annoyed that he was treating his hard work as just collecting information, but Leonardo Blaine just frowned slightly and nodded.
“This incident was unbelievably lucky. I washed away the charges and became a legal free man, and I even got internal information from the Council. If there’s one problem, it’s that Etaid has been exposed to the Council―.”
“Etaid has been exposed? Did they find out what we were collecting?”
Judy asked in surprise, and Leonardo Blaine slowly waved his hand.
“No, it’s not that far. But the ‘existence’ of Etaid must have already been mentioned within the Council. There was a period when I was moving individually during the Bandit Subjugation, and I ran into a guy who was carrying a large amount of Etaid in a bag. That guy was one of the workers belonging to the illegal mining team, and later I heard that the Council seemed to have arrested some of the mining team. Etaid was taken away by the executives of the mining team and fled.”
“Did those mining teams also enter the peninsula for the purpose of Etaid?”
“Other minerals were piled up, but Etaid was the main purpose. And let me tell you one amazing fact. Those guys who have been sweeping Etaid in the black market until recently, I think they are people from the aristocratic faction. The person in charge of the illegal mining team I saw in the peninsula was the 3rd Battalion Commander of the Council’s central branch.”
“Meterion Kleinder?”
Judy and Terzio asked back in shock at the same time. Miraile, who had been maintaining her composure, said in a rather solemn voice.
“Then their purpose is similar to ours. That’s why they swept Etaid.”
“Aristocratic faction’s plan… I knew it. Leo, good job.”
Andrew leaned his upper body, covered Leonardo Blaine’s hand with his hand, and smiled. Leonardo Blaine gave him a look as if to tell him to move it away and added.
“Anyway, it’s better to stop securing additional Etaid for the time being, starting with this incident. One of the squad leaders belonging to the 1st Battalion, who accompanied me in the peninsula, was caught in the explosion and was injured. Now that the Council has recognized the explosive function of Etaid, they will probably secretly chase after the traders. For the sake of safety, we have to erase the traces of us buying Etaid. In the worst case, we may have to give up securing additional Etaid.”
“Then do we have to find another explosive substance again? Ha… How hard did we find it….”
Judy slumped on the chair as if she was losing strength. Leonardo Blaine patted the top of her head and comforted her.
“Still, don’t be too disappointed because we’ve collected quite a bit so far. We can somehow get the rest of the explosives from the military supply company. We decided to go slowly.”
“Speaking of that explosive supply, I think it’s better to be careful for the time being. During the monthly report held inside the Council when you were caught, Leo, the embezzlement of military supplies procurement companies was raised as a major agenda item.”
At Miraile’s words, Leonardo Blaine raised one eyebrow and asked her.
“…How do you know that?”
“I hid a few Butterfly near the Council’s conference room to figure out your situation. I couldn’t hear the beginning because the window was closed in the middle…. Anyway, explosive supply is also dangerous now. Now that Kajard has returned, all the people involved in the military supply company will be summoned and interrogated soon.”
“…….”
“I want to figure out the additional situation, but I’m being careful because one of the battalion commanders cut the Butterfly in half.”
“Battalion Commander? Who?”
“The 2nd Battalion Commander of the central branch.”
Loren Ophians. Leonardo Blaine muttered silently. The impression of her, who was as cold-hearted as the Legion Commander, quickly flashed by.
They’re old friends, so that guy seems to have a good sense.
“…Okay, we should stop supplying explosives for a while too. Then, let’s focus on the plan that the aristocratic faction prepared first. It’s a good opportunity to get information without us having to move. Check the power of Etaid, and figure out the purpose of the aristocratic faction. And take a spoon… How much is left now?”
“5 days.”
Terzio answered, resting his chin on his hand. His gaze, which had been staring at the calendar with the D-Day marked on it, had already reached a place circled on the map.
The information that Andrew had been collecting for several months happened to include a flyer that the aristocratic faction was preparing for a plan. At the time, everyone didn’t pay much attention to it, but as Leonardo Blaine confirmed the other side of the illegal mining team and Meterion Kleinder with his own eyes, that information soon became a huge turning point.
“5 days later, at 6 p.m…. Until the morning of that day, Miraile, you contact Mikhail, and just tell the guys who are out now to go to the location in advance. We can talk about the details when we gather on the day.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, and don’t send the Butterfly out for a few months. That battalion commander you mentioned, I think he has an incredible sense.
“You can’t find out anything with just the corpse of the Butterfly. Don’t worry about that.”
“I know. But what I’m worried about is….”
Leonardo Blaine bit his lip and thought to himself.
‘Being the 2nd Battalion Commander means he’s definitely strong. I don’t know what that person’s ability is.’
After thinking for a while, he lowered his eyes and shook his head.
“No, anyway. It may have been exposed that the Butterfly is acting as a messenger while we exchange information. The Council’s 6th Battalion Commander can control inanimate objects, although the field is different from yours. We can open up the possibility to that side as well, so let’s be careful in many ways.”
The three people except Leonardo Blaine and Miraile showed a nod of agreement. Miraile reluctantly nodded as well.