By Zephyria 
Screeech—
The door to the private room, created by erecting a few modest partition walls, opened. The boisterous noise and the laughter of drunkards spilled in from outside. From within that gap, two men wearing deep black hoods revealed themselves.
“Oh, look who it is.”
Gillian, who had been about to gulp down some beer, paused and turned his head. He immediately wiped his mouth and waved his hand with a chuckle.
“Alright, everyone, snap out of it. The busy man has arrived.”
Behind the man leading the way, a familiar face peeked out. Ero, who had gone to escort his senior, pushed Leonardo’s back and shouted toward the team members.
“We’re here—!”
“Finally arrived?”
Orca, who had been lounging on the sofa, bolted upright at the sound of his voice. Beatrice, who had her head buried on the table, also lifted her head unsteadily.
“Leo—, mmpf!”
Sensing a crisis, Gillian clamped his hand over her mouth once again. However, Beatrice bit down hard on his thick fingers to shake him off and shouted irritably.
“Why are you only coming now?!”
“Ugh, you girl. Are you a dog? Stop biting so much.”
Frowning, Gillian shook his hand and scolded her after seeing the clear tooth marks. Judging by the several existing bite marks, it seemed he had been doing a good job of preventing any potential slips of the tongue. Morbang, who was sprawled beside his master, barely lifted his neck to give a small nod.
Stepping into the alcohol-scented scene, Leonardo scanned his lounging team members and removed the hood he had been wearing.
“What’s this, is it over already?”
“Over? It’s only just beginning—!”
Beatrice raised the glass in her hand and shouted loudly. The sloshing beer overflowed and spilled onto the leftover food, but no one cared. Watching the spectacle with a smirk, Ero closed the door and whispered suggestively to Leonardo.
“They’ve been like that for a while. They’re practically zombies.”
“What a sight.”
“Hehe, thanks to that, it’s quite lively. Senior, please sit over here!”
He intentionally guided Leonardo to the seat of honor in the center of the table. It was an attempt to keep him away from Orca, but just then, the Orca rushed out on bare feet to greet the lion.
“I thought you weren’t coming. Did something happen?”
“Geez, Brother Orca! Didn’t you promise not to cling to him?”
Whatever promise had been made, it quickly became useless. This was because Orca grabbed Leonardo’s wrist firmly and pulled him toward himself.
“I’ve waited a long time. Sit next to me. I have many things I am curious about regarding the lion.”
“Making a lady wait… you’re a failure as a man… hic.”
“Hey, hey! Don’t vomit here!”
Swept up in the chaotic situation, Leonardo eventually found himself plunking down in the middle seat of the sofa. Orca and Ero took the seats to his left and right, respectively. In the end, they had reached a tacit agreement for the three of them to sit side by side. While sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with other men wasn’t particularly pleasant, it was tolerable.
Around that time, a waiter who had been monitoring the increase in personnel from outside opened the door with ghostly timing to take their order.
“Uh, one bottle of orange juice here and… Senior, what would you like?”
“Any meat.”
“The pickled herring is also delicious. I’ll pay, so you must try it.”
As if to prove the fact, about a dozen soft backbones of salted herring were piled on the plate in front of Orca. Thus, with the addition of juice, roasted chicken legs, mashed potatoes, six glasses of beer, and pickled herring, the second round began.
Because the order volume was so high, the owner of the establishment personally came to serve the room, which had effectively become a provisional VIP room. Empty plates were taken away and replaced with full ones. As soon as the door that had been swinging open and shut closed, Gillian snatched three beer glasses in front of himself.
After emptying one glass in a single shot, he asked as if making a joke.
“Kuu… if you’re at Ryan’s level, I bet the officials grovel even if you rent out the entire shower room, right?”
Whether he was serious or not, the two men flinched at his sharp question. Beatrice, resting her chin in both hands, nodded her head and chimed in.
“I thought you’d been taken by the Council… you could have at least told us!”
While Leonardo remained silent for a moment, searching for an excuse, Ero, whose eyes were rolling around beside him, intervened appropriately, showing his gums in a wide grin.
“Ah, well—. Senior mentioned earlier that his arm was stiff… He was a bit late because he had to take care of that. Sniff, our senior, not letting it show to his team members even once…! He told me not to say anything, but I simply must! Aren’t we on the same team?”
“What, was that it? You should have said something if you were hurting—.”
“Lion, did you sustain an injury?”
It wasn’t entirely false, but thanks to Ero’s soulful acting, a plausible alibi was created. Beatrice, dragging out her words with slurred pronunciation, and Orca, with a worried expression, each added a word. Observing the shifted atmosphere, Leonardo opened the conversation with a dry cough.
“Ahem… well, it won’t affect the match.”
“Oh, Senior. That’s not what’s important right now! Everyone was worried about you!”
Empowered by the team’s reaction, Ero spoke up as if he were distressed. Then, claiming they were one team, everyone began chattering together from all sides.
“Right, right.”
“You don’t have to hide it. An Orca does not ignore an injured comrade.”
“The condition of the main force is important.”
At the quite natural behavior of the Wind Manipulator, Leonardo turned his gaze toward Ero. The way he was leading the atmosphere now made him seem like someone who had seen and heard nothing at all.
Meeting his eyes, Ero gave a mischievous wink. Then, he asked back triumphantly.
“You saw that, Senior?”
About 30 minutes ago. After finishing changing in the locker room, Leonardo had sent Hugo away first, as Hugo had an important schedule. Following Hugo’s request, Leonardo waited for ten minutes before heading out. At first, he thought it was a diversion to avoid suspicion that the two had been together. However, a person was actually standing guard in front of the door.
“Huh?”
The one he encountered through the gap in the door, looking highly alert, was Ero with an awkward smile.
“Senior—.”
Startled for a moment, Leonardo had hesitated over what to say first. Perhaps noticing his bewilderment, Ero quickly changed his expression and greeted Leonardo naturally.
“Let’s go quickly, I’ve come to escort you. Everyone is waiting!”
Even as they boarded a suspiciously luxurious carriage and left the stadium, Ero did not ask a single awkward question. It was only when they reached the back alley of the tavern where the team members were that he preemptively spoke, as if he understood everything.
“I didn’t see anything, so you don’t have to worry at all. I should have delivered the medicine… but suddenly my stomach started hurting. I couldn’t exactly become a Kidult right there on the spot.”
A guy who didn’t seem to have a single connection to the nobility had climbed into the carriage frozen and silent, and now he claimed he saw nothing. It was a highly believable story. Sitting opposite him in the ownerless carriage, Leonardo let out a deep sigh.
He had told him not to step in, but it seemed His Excellency had made the first move.
“Um, you know…”
“Am I not your errand boy? In this business, one sees and hears so much, but everyone is like a safe. All their tongues have been cut off. Haha, so please be at ease! I am the Combi who has sworn loyalty to you, after all…”
As Ero rambled on, he was clearly smiling, but it seemed he was struggling just to survive. That was evident from how his face had turned bright red from maintaining an excessively bright tone. Knowing that he was trying, Leonardo unconsciously reached out.
“Anyway, without the team members knowing—”
“Hey.”
As a warm heat touched the back of his hand, Ero flinched and stopped talking.
“Ye-yes?”
Leonardo quietly patted him and gave a short, concise remark without further elaboration.
“Thanks.”
For a moment, Ero’s wavering pupils dilated. Being a quick-witted fellow, he seemed to understand the meaning immediately without needing a long explanation. Following that, he beamed a bright smile and answered energetically.
“Just trust me!”
“The thorns are soft, so it’s fine to eat it whole. The sauce is delicious too, so try some.”
“Uh, the owner said earlier that the secret is putting distilled liquor in the sauce! No alcohol!”
“Isn’t this amount fine?”
“The next match is absolutely! A mind game… Sigh, how am I supposed to climb up with these idiots…?”
“I think you’re the biggest problem. Why don’t you fix your wig?”
Leonardo’s consciousness returned to the ripening celebration feast. Everyone was talking incessantly, each saying only what they wanted to say, and that willful atmosphere suited this team quite well. That was why his heart felt much more at ease and he felt happy. To the point where he thought it was a good decision to come, even if late, after sending His Excellency away.
“Oh right, my wig! Aaargh, Orca, just die. What if it makes the news?”
“What now, is it starting again?”
As the arrow turned toward him, Orca protested in a tone that was uncharacteristically fed up. Morbang wiped the lady’s mouth and shook his head. Then, he held up five fingers.
It meant they would be suffering for at least five more months. The way the curved doll acted as if it had a separate ego was quite amusing. Perhaps because of that, Leonardo, observing the already tipsy team members, let out a short laugh.
“You guys, did you play like this even when I wasn’t here?”
“Don’t even get me started. When Senior wasn’t here, it was even wor—”
Ero, who had been shuddering playfully, trailed off as he tried to continue.
Because Leonardo, speaking in a laughing tone, naturally took off the hat he had been wearing and pulled down his mask.