By Zephyria Silence fell for a moment after Leonardo’s words.
Hugo stared at his curved lips before shifting his gaze to his eyes. The golden eyes visible between his slightly curved eyes were seductive, but full of mischief. Facing those eyes, Hugo wondered for a moment what to do with this disobedient fellow.
Leonardo saw Hugo’s hardened face and slightly raised the corners of his lips. In fact, what he wanted to see was the flustered look on the face of the ice-cold man who had come to catch him so persistently, but he knew that was impossible, so he was satisfied enough just seeing his hardened expression.
However, due to Hugo’s subsequent actions, Leonardo had no choice but to lose his relaxed smile.
This was because Hugo took a step closer, bent one knee, and sat down, lowering his body.
With a smile on his lips, he stared intently at Hugo.
Hugo, still with a cool gaze, slowly brought his hand to Leonardo’s wet cheek.
‘…What?’
Leonardo was rather flustered when the large, cool hand wrapped around his cheek. It was because he had never expected Hugo to act like this.
Hugo scanned each of his beautifully sculpted eyes, nose, and mouth with calm eyes, and covered his small face that could be held in one hand, gently stroking the spot where he had been cut by the ice with his thumb.
At the touch, Leonardo only rolled his eyes, glancing sideways at the large hand, then forced himself to hide his embarrassment and turned his gaze back to understand Hugo’s intentions.
As soon as his blue eyes met his, the touch stopped after a moment, and soon his face came closer and closer.
In the midst of the strange atmosphere, Leonardo blankly stared at him. Then, he silently sneered and thought.
‘In the end, this person is no different…’
Bang!
In an instant, the large hand that had been covering his cheek flicked his forehead right in the center.
“Ah!”
A short scream echoed inside the cave. Leonardo felt the extreme pain spreading across his forehead and reflexively curled up into a ball. It was just a flick, but he felt an intense pain as if his skull was splitting in half.
Furrowing his brow and grimacing, he clutched his forehead with both hands, then immediately turned his head and glared at Hugo with resentful eyes.
“Ah, why did you hit me!”
A red mark was clearly visible in the center of his white forehead. When Hugo brought his hand close again as if to caress him, Leonardo hurriedly pushed it away and distanced himself from him.
Seeing his wary expression, Hugo unknowingly let out a chuckle. Soon after, he straightened his bent knee and stood up, saying to the fellow who was glaring at him as if he had been wronged, in a voice mixed with laughter.
“Don’t be cheeky.”
Leonardo looked up at him with a face as if he had misheard something. It didn’t seem like something the noble Duke would say.
Besides, his forehead was throbbing with pain as if his skull was shaking, but the man in front of him seemed to be quite enjoying his pain.
As Leonardo was dumbfounded by the smile on Hugo’s face, Hugo erased his smile and returned to his usual cold face.
“That’s the punishment for leaving without permission without reporting.”
“……”
“I’ve played along with your whims, so come out now.”
He couldn’t understand at all where he had played along. Leonardo sighed as if he was at a loss, rubbing his throbbing forehead. It seemed to hurt more and more, as if he had been hit with a hammer.
Feeling unfairly angry, he tried to splash water at Hugo, but the splashed water fell to the floor as if blocked by a wall, even though Hugo didn’t put up a barrier.
Seeing Leonardo’s face contort, Hugo shook his head and turned to walk away. Before long, the water in the pool where Leonardo was immersed wriggled as if it were alive, wrapping around his arms and legs and forcibly lifting him up.
He was very embarrassed to be standing up against his will, and he nervously shook off the unpleasant streams of water that wrapped around his body. However, the streams of water passed through his arms without any impact, and scattered with a splash, as if teasing him, and returned to the water in the pool.
Hugo, who was walking ahead, heard the sound of water falling and rubbing, and a grumbling, dissatisfied voice.
Soon, Hugo stopped walking and waited for him, hearing the hot air blowing from behind and the sound of him picking up and putting on his clothes.
Then, Leonardo, who had quickly put on all his clothes, brushed back his shimmering blonde hair as if he had never been wet, and strode past him.
The fellow who originally didn’t make a sound was walking past him with heavy steps as if he was angry, so Hugo let out a dumbfounded laugh and followed him.
* * *
When they returned to the entrance of the cave, the sentry who had been dozing off earlier was now wide awake and guarding his post with a fully disciplined appearance.
Seeing Leonardo, who seemed to be trying to return to his tent quietly, Hugo also tried to go back in, but Leonardo rummaged around inside for a moment and came back outside.
Hugo’s eyes turned disapproving when he saw that he was holding a pack of cigarettes in his hand.
Leonardo went out of the cave with a brazen face, as if he didn’t care at all. Then, after sensing the direction of the faint breeze, he walked far away to a place where the smoke would not go towards the cave.
A moment later, he sat on a low, flat rock and took out a cigarette, putting the filter in his mouth and trying to light it.
However, seeing Hugo approaching again, he frowned and put the cigarette he had been holding in his lips back into the pack.
“Are you following me again? Are you still worried that I’ll run away?”
Despite the question that seemed to be bored, Hugo stood nearby at a certain distance without saying anything.
Seeing that he didn’t answer but didn’t seem to be thinking of backing down either, Leonardo glared at Hugo and pushed the cigarette he had taken out back into the pack. Hugo asked.
“Weren’t you going to smoke? Why are you putting it back?”
“You’re not a smoker.”
Hugo’s eyebrow rose slightly. It sounded as if he wasn’t going to smoke in front of him, who wasn’t a smoker. He had been smoking just fine yesterday, so Hugo was puzzled by his sudden change in attitude and said.
“You can smoke. Only if you promise to smoke it all and go back in quietly.”
However, Leonardo didn’t take out the cigarette again. Instead, he changed his posture slightly, crossed his legs, put his elbow on them, and stared at Hugo with his chin propped up.
“I’ll just get some air. I can’t sleep right now.”
Hugo’s eyes sank at his completely selfish behavior.
It seemed that the fearsome Kajard’s mood had become quite unpleasant, but for some reason, Leonardo didn’t feel very scared even when he looked at his face.
He didn’t know why, but he had come to realize that Hugo was lenient with him, and he had a strange belief that he would let him do whatever he wanted.
Besides, it was a pretty big mistake in terms of discipline that he had left without permission without the sentry knowing, but looking at Hugo’s actions, it seemed that he was going to end it with just a flick on the forehead and didn’t intend to ask him about his mistake any further. But if he left without permission one more time, it seemed that it wouldn’t end with just a flick on the forehead then…
And as Leonardo thought, Hugo sighed softly instead of forcibly dragging him away, who didn’t seem to have any intention of going in.
“It’s going to be a forced march when the sun rises, so it’s best to get some sleep. It seemed like you hardly slept yesterday either.”
At the admonishing tone, Leonardo’s face was tinged with a slight tension as he blinked a few times.
“…Did you know? That I wasn’t sleeping?”
Hugo didn’t answer. But it seemed to mean yes.
Leonardo asked him again, just in case his uneasy assumption was true.
“You, when did you wake up yesterday?”
Hugo, who had been silent for a while at the question that sounded rather cautious, took a few steps forward.
As the distance narrowed, Leonardo reflexively leaned back, perhaps because of the lingering effects of the forehead flick.
Seeing him sitting uncomfortably as if trying to distance himself as much as possible, Hugo didn’t approach any further, but instead bent down and waved his hand in front of his face.
“From when you were doing this.”
The large hand flickered briefly in front of his eyes before moving away.
Leonardo felt embarrassment rushing in from within. It seemed that Hugo had been awake from the beginning.
Remembering that he had been staring intently at Hugo, who he thought was asleep, and inwardly appraising him, Leonardo tried to avoid his gaze. Then, he moved his lips with a face that was suddenly filled with embarrassment.
“No, why… why pretend to be asleep when you’re awake?”
Hugo chuckled and opened his mouth.
“I thought you might have a voyeuristic side, so I was going to pretend not to know.”
“…What?”
Leonardo’s face gradually became filled with shock and shame. Then, after a while, he glared at Hugo with a frowning face as if trying to deny something.
However, he couldn’t say anything, only slightly opening his mouth, at the sight of Hugo returning his words as they were and looking down at him with a relaxed expression.
He didn’t seem like he would, but Agrizendro often teased him well with that cold face.
Thinking that he was subtly lenient but never easy, Leonardo closed his mouth and lowered his gaze slightly. He rolled his eyes here and there, wanting to change the subject, and suddenly saw Hugo’s palm in his sight.
It was the opposite hand from the one he had waved in front of his face, and it was also the hand that he had wondered about earlier because he wasn’t wearing gloves.
As Leonardo’s gaze turned to it, Hugo clenched his fist slightly again. Leonardo, who had been watching, raised his head and silently met his eyes.
Before long, he got up from his seat and immediately started walking towards the cave. Hugo also tried to move, following him, but Leonardo stopped and blocked his way.
“Just wait a moment. I’ll be right back.”
After saying that, Leonardo tried to move again, but then stopped once more and turned around to say clearly.
“I’m not running away.”
He immediately teleported to the front of the cave and quietly went inside. Hugo was just silently staring in the direction he had gone.
A moment later, Leonardo came out with something in his hand. He quickly returned to his original position and grabbed Hugo’s arm, leading him to the rock where he had been sitting earlier.
Hugo naturally sat down next to him on his right at the rather strong force pulling his arm. Leonardo suddenly held out his hand to him, sitting side by side.
“Give me your left hand.”
Hugo reflexively looked down at his left hand. It was because he seemed to know why he was asking for it.
However, feeling that he couldn’t hide it any longer from the persistent gaze directed at him, he obediently held out his left hand to him. Leonardo took his hand and slowly began to examine it.
There was a wide bandage on his large palm, and his golden eyes glanced sideways before taking it off without asking for permission. Leonardo’s expression contorted at the red mark that was revealed underneath.
“Why didn’t you tell me you burned your hand?”
“……”
“This was from grabbing my wrist, wasn’t it.”
Hugo’s hand had a burn mark that seemed to have been treated to some extent with recovery, but still looked painful.
It was the burn he had gotten last dawn when he grabbed Leonardo’s wrist to stop his unstable attack. It had happened so quickly that he hadn’t been able to summon the cold air to protect his hand from the heat he was emitting.
Since it was a burn left by ‘Leonardo Blaine’, there was no way it could be treated with normal recovery. But Hugo didn’t want him to worry even more because he seemed to be feeling down about it, so he deliberately didn’t show it.
As Hugo remained silent, Leonardo stared at him with frustrated eyes. But only for a moment, he took Hugo’s hand and placed it on his thigh, then opened the lid of something he had brought from inside the tent.
It was a flat, round container about the size of Leonardo’s palm, and it contained a thin, white cream. It smelled strongly of menthol, so it seemed to be a type of burn ointment.
Leonardo took a generous amount of it with two fingers and spread it on Hugo’s red palm.
Hugo just left his hand in his care, glancing sideways at Leonardo’s profile. His beautiful brow was furrowed, but the touch of his hand on his was quite careful. As if he was worried that it would hurt.
A cool sensation spread from the area where the ointment touched, and the pain disappeared. Perhaps that was why the area where Leonardo’s hand touched was hot, as if a fire was flickering.
As a mage who mainly used ice as his attribute, Hugo didn’t really prefer warmth.
However, Hugo felt that the warm and unfamiliar sensation that roamed over his always cold palm was not as bad as he thought, and he quietly stared at Leonardo’s face, which was focused.