By Zephyria The corner of Leonardo’s twisted mouth hardened in an instant. Then, he erased his bitter smile, narrowed his eyes, and glared at Hugo. As if trying to grasp the meaning of his words, Hugo said as if to confirm the kill.
“Andreas was careless at that time. So if you, who I know, had attacked with all your heart, he wouldn’t have just had his bones broken, but his entire arm would have been torn off and he would have been seriously injured. But after receiving treatment, he’s just wearing a cast and walking around perfectly fine now. He said that as long as the bones are attached, there will be no problem with his activities.”
Leonardo remained silent for a while, just staring at him. After a while, he snorted and opened his mouth.
“Are you trying to say that I deliberately controlled my strength?”
Hugo nodded lightly at his question.
“That’s how it looked to me.”
“…….”
“When I put you in the transport cage in the frost territory, you immediately became docile after scratching my eye while fighting back.”
Leonardo was silent. At that, Hugo began to list what he had felt in the meantime, as if to prove his words.
“Also, in the Imperial City, you only fired all long-range attacks at the ice wall. And when people were in danger of getting hurt, you blew away all the ice walls with strong magic. That means you could have used that much magic in the first place, but you deliberately didn’t.”
Hugo stared straight at Leonardo.
“You said I had no murderous intent, but that was the same for you. I also didn’t feel any murderous intent from you that would really kill me.”
Hugo, who had taken a step closer to the bars, grabbed the bars with his hand and looked down at Leonardo’s face in front of him.
“You didn’t have any intention of harming us, the people, in the first place.”
At the confident words, Leonardo’s Adam’s apple moved slowly.
His eyes looking at Hugo were bloodshot and gradually turning red, as if some change of heart had occurred. After a deep breath to calm his excitement, his shoulders rose and fell, and his breath, trembling slightly in the quiet place, lingered.
Leonardo did not deny Hugo’s words. Instead, he held up the handcuffs tied to his hand and said.
“If you know, let me out of here. You’re the commander, so you can do that much, right?”
Hugo blinked slowly a few times. It was because Leonardo’s softened momentum and his voice that seemed to be choked up were affirming all the words he had said, and he was filled with mixed emotions.
“…Because I’m the commander, I set a condition to let you out.”
“What condition?”
At his question, Hugo briefly recalled the conversations that had taken place in the Council Hall.
‘I will go. With Leonardo Blaine, to the peninsula.’
‘You’ve thought it through well.’
‘However, there is a condition.’
‘…Condition?’
When he first met him, Hugo thought he was a dangerous being with uncontrollable and destructive magic.
However, after seeing his actions after arriving in the Imperial City, he felt that he was not an evil person who would harm people for no reason, although he had disobeyed military orders in the past.
The fact that he wanted to protect the child in the square at that time, and that he said it was his job, was clearly his sincerity.
When he faced that sincerity, Hugo’s thoughts about Leonardo were completely shaken.
‘After this is over, please allow Leonardo Blaine to be released.’
Hugo looked back at the atmosphere of the Council Hall, which had been noisy since his statement, and refocused on the guy in front of him.
He said that he was the only one who could protect himself. When he heard those words that flashed by in an instant, Hugo thought that his strength and arrogance were like a shield to protect himself.
All kinds of expectations and greed, praise and fear surrounding him, who possessed powerful magic. The surroundings that forced sacrifice by wielding that strength, and the excessive distrust that arose because of it.
He didn’t trust others very much. Just like he used to be.
Was this what Abraham Lancaster meant when he said that Leonardo and he were alike?
Hugo seriously looked back at Abraham’s words for the first time and said to Leonardo.
“The Council’s prestige is at stake in this Eldermilli Peninsula subjugation. It’s a problem that everyone has been eager to solve for a long time. Leonardo, if you help solve this, I will forgive everything that happened in the Imperial City and release you and never look for you again. That’s the condition I set. Isn’t that a good condition for you too?”
Leonardo’s eyes widened at Hugo’s words. His eyes also changed a little.
As he said, if he could escape the Council’s pursuit that had been tormenting him for three years with this, it would be an extremely good condition for him.
But that was only for a moment, Leonardo looked at Hugo suspiciously as if to judge the truth of his words. The Council guys, who had even extracted his magic, didn’t seem like they would let him go so easily. On the contrary, he might be dragged into another matter.
“…….”
However, as he faced his jewel-like blue eyes, he somehow felt that there were no lies in them.
Leonardo frowned and asked again in a low voice.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Can you really swear that if I help you this time, you will never look for me again?”
At the voice filled with earnestness, Hugo looked at his sparkling golden eyes, smiled slightly, and replied.
“I swear in the name of Agrizendro.”
At the serious voice, Leonardo stared blankly at him. The weight of the words that he was even betting his own name on was quite heavy.
Hugo put his arm deeply through the bars that were blocking Leonardo and himself. Then, he held out his hand in front of him.
Leonardo looked back and forth between the large hand that was being held out to him and Hugo. After hesitating like that until the end, he gently took his hand and stared into the other’s eyes.
The light that seeped through the small window stretched out long and flickered at the feet of the two.
Golden eyes shining as if containing the sun and blue eyes hanging down as if containing the sky met, and they contained each other entirely within them.
* * *
“Agrizendro, get me out of this prison. I’ll be good.”
Hugo, who had promised Leonardo that he would let him go if he followed the subjugation force and solved the problem on the peninsula, turned back again at his voice calling him as he was about to return.
“I’m sorry to say this, but there are still many people who are worried about you. Just be good for one more day. I’ll take you out then.”
“What’s the difference between taking me out now? I don’t want to be here.”
Leonardo made the most pitiful expression he could and sat on the prison floor, looking up at Hugo. However, he was ice, so it didn’t work at all, and he said clearly once again, even with a kind face.
“I’ll take you out tomorrow.”
As Agrizendro, who had spoken firmly, was about to leave as he was, Leonardo pouted his lips and muttered as if to be heard.
“But… that guy keeps telling me to do it with him.”
His fingertips pointed to the prisoner in the upper left diagonal direction.
That prisoner had been quietly cowering in mental shock since he had been knocked out by an unknown blow earlier.
But suddenly, the commander of the legion came to the underground prison and was talking to the guy he had been flirting with so hard. Instinctively sticking to the wall and watching the two, the prisoner soon realized that he was Leonardo Blaine and covered his mouth with both hands, holding his breath as much as possible.
The lewd words and actions he had said to him quickly flashed through his mind, and suddenly, at Leonardo’s action of pointing at himself with his finger, the prisoner was startled and stammered in a pale face.
“No, that, that’s―.”
He hurriedly tried to make some excuse, but his tongue stiffened and he couldn’t continue speaking as the surroundings suddenly became cold and a chilling chill crawled up to his bones. Trembling, he slowly raised his head, and there, Kajard of the Council was shining a blue light as if to freeze everything and fiercely looking down at him.
“You still haven’t come to your senses.”
A terrifying shadow loomed over his head and a chillingly gruesome voice pierced his ears. The prisoner, who was unable to move because he was suddenly suffocated, hurriedly lowered his eyes in fear that he would pee his pants. Beyond his long legs, he could see the face of the blond guy in the opposite prison.
Leonardo, who had completely washed away his pitiful expression as if nothing had happened, smiled at the prisoner and stuck out his red tongue as if making fun of him. Then, he raised his middle finger and pretended to cut it off with his other hand.