By Zephyria Hugo and Meterion, who were at the head of the column, stopped in front of a huge entrance divided into three branches. They had not yet reached the second objective spot, but they had encountered a fork in the road sooner than expected.
Meterion, who had floated a light ball in the air, scanned the high entrance and opened his mouth.
“It seems we’ll have to split up from here.”
Hugo agreed and replied.
“Let’s split up by battalion first.”
Dellua, who was immediately called by radio, approached the front of the column with Marlene, and Hugo gathered the commanders, held a brief meeting, and determined and distributed the routes to enter.
Of the three paths, the ones on the sides had the possibility of leading to other paths, such as the foothills and the outside, so the 3rd and 6th Battalions would each enter, then split again into company size to move. Hugo decided to enter the center with a small number of members from the 1st Battalion.
As the meeting was coming to an end, Dellua looked up at the large entrances in front of her and said.
“Then shall we move right away?”
“Yes.”
At Hugo’s answer, Dellua smiled brightly and asked in a confident voice.
“Commander, Blaine is coming with me, right?”
Hugo simply stared at her and did not give an immediate answer this time. After a while, just as he was about to open his mouth, an unexpected voice was heard from elsewhere.
“I’ll take Leonardo Blaine.”
Everyone turned their heads toward the speaker. The owner of the voice was Meterion.
Hugo and Dellua looked at him with faces that said they were hearing the strangest thing. Then Dellua, who had been dumbfounded, broke the silence first.
“Meterion, do you have any conscience? Blaine wouldn’t want to go with you.”
Meterion frowned and stared at Dellua with a cold gaze. However, Dellua, as if she didn’t care about such a gaze, rattled off about ten reasons why Leonardo would hate to accompany Meterion.
And the company commanders belonging to the 3rd Battalion, who had argued that Leonardo should be shackled earlier, agreed with her words. They also seemed to have no idea what their battalion commander was thinking when he said such a thing.
As Dellua poured out the facts without hesitation, Marlene and Flynn, who were next to her, quietly smoothed their lips to avoid laughing.
Hugo also narrowed his brow and looked at him as if he didn’t know his intentions at all, then looked back and forth between Meterion and Dellua and said.
“Leonardo will go with me.”
Dellua, who was startled for a moment, asked back as if she couldn’t understand.
“Yes? Commander, you’ve been leaving Blaine with me all along. But why…”
Hugo glanced at her and gave a light gesture to the surrounding commanders, signaling them to dismiss first. Among the retreating commanders, only Meterion remained in his place, and Hugo moved about three or four steps away from him instead of giving a painful order.
Then, looking at Dellua, he calmly asked.
“Dellua, I wouldn’t mind in other situations, but his control is unstable right now. You must have felt it a few times while being with him today. When a situation comes where you have to face his unstable magic head-on, can you be sure that you can control it?”
Dellua paused at his words. Hugo spoke calmly, but his expression was quite cold and serious. Seeing that, Dellua couldn’t open her mouth easily.
Regardless of whether she could control Leonardo’s magic or not, Dellua had actually deliberately reported as little as possible, even though she had sensed several times today that his magic control was unstable, because she was afraid that he would be shackled again.
However, Dellua could tell from Hugo’s question just now. That the Commander already knew everything she hadn’t said.
The report between the Legion Commander and the Battalion Commander was not just a simple situation report, but literally a matter of trust, so Dellua’s actions were a major mistake that she should never have made as a Battalion Commander.
However, Dellua knew that the Legion Commander knew about her mistake but didn’t bother to mention it in front of others, so she lowered her head slightly and answered.
“…I’m sorry. I can’t be sure.”
Meterion, who didn’t know the conversation that had taken place between the two, scoffed and turned his head, seeing Dellua, who had been pushing him, become quiet at Hugo’s question.
Hugo, seeing that Dellua seemed to be discouraged, relaxed his stiff expression and patted her shoulder lightly a few times.
“I’m entrusting the rightmost entrance to the 6th Battalion.”
“…Yes, I understand.”
* * *
Leonardo quietly watched the back. In fact, it wasn’t the first time he had felt like someone was following him.
When he went to look for minerals with Flynn a little away from the column, he heard strange noises coming from inside the cave and guessed that there was something there, but since then, he felt that someone was following him, subtly maintaining a certain distance.
‘Surely there aren’t any crazy people trying to attack the column led by Kajard.’
While he was speculating about the identity and purpose of someone lurking in the darkness, the members moved little by little, and the entire column began to move forward.
Leonardo wondered why the column was moving when the commanders of the 6th Battalion had not yet returned, but he intuitively thought that they had encountered a fork in the road, and he also moved along the rear.
As he gradually walked forward, a large entrance with three branches appeared before his eyes as he had expected.
The members each entered according to the divided column where they were assigned, and just as Leonardo reached almost right before the fork in the road, about 20 people were waiting for him in the central entrance.
Hugo, who had been crossing his arms, gestured to him to come this way when he saw Leonardo. Leonardo looked at the gesture with displeasure, then suddenly stared at his flickering hand. He used to wear black combat gloves on both hands, but today he was only wearing gloves on one hand.
Hugo felt the gaze on his hand and hid his palm by clenching his ungloved left hand into a fist. Then he said to Leonardo, who had come forward.
“As you can see, the road is divided, so the column has decided to split up and move. You’re going to the center with me.”
Hearing his words, Leonardo glanced at the members lined up behind Hugo. Even if you counted the people who went into the entrances on both sides, there were easily hundreds of people, but the number of people left here now was only about twenty.
“Isn’t that too few people?”
Hugo answered Leonardo’s question, which showed his bewilderment, as if there was nothing wrong.
“The members who are left now are members of the 1st Battalion of the Council’s Central Branch. The 1st Battalion is made up entirely of combat personnel, and each individual’s abilities are outstanding. Perhaps compared to the other battalions that went on other paths, the people here can be said to have the best mobility.”
The Council’s Central Branch 1st Battalion did not have a separate battalion commander. The 1st Battalion consisted of several squads that existed independently, and those many squads gathered to play the role of companies and battalions. And as it was made up entirely of combat personnel, many of those who were considered elites within the Council were affiliated with it.
Because the authority to command such a 1st Battalion was only held by the Legion Commander and the Vice Commander, it was almost a direct battalion concept.
As if to support Hugo’s words, the twenty or so members gathered had a different spirit from ordinary members at first glance.
Leonardo also knew that the Council’s 1st Battalion was the Legion Commander’s direct battalion, and as expected, the atmosphere of the affiliated members followed the feeling of the commander. If the 6th Battalion had a round and friendly feeling, the 1st Battalion all had cold faces, and the gazes they gave him were not very friendly.
Leonardo was slowly scanning their faces when he made eye contact with the woman he had seen at dinner last night.
Narrowing his eyes and watching her, she glared fiercely at Leonardo as if she was also engaged in a war of nerves. Leonardo soon realized who that familiar face was and chuckled and said.
“We’ve met before.”