BMD 80

Leonardo, who had spread a generous amount of ointment on Hugo’s hand, began to wrap his hand with the gauze he had brought with him.

“This is breathable gauze. So don’t take it off if you can help it.”

Leonardo said that, wrapping the gauze with a slight pressure, and quickly tied a tight knot.

It looked like he had a lot of experience, seeing how perfectly it was attached to his hand and carefully wrapped. Perhaps he had naturally become accustomed to it because he often had to perform first aid himself in a hurry on the battlefield or on dangerous missions.

After finishing the treatment, Leonardo looked at Hugo again with sullen eyes.

“I told you, who told you to grab my wrist? It’s crazy…”

Hugo’s brow furrowed slightly for a moment.

Leonardo watched him carefully, then touched Hugo’s hand again, and finally carefully placed it on his leg as if moving a fragile object. He seemed sorry for the wound he had caused.

Leonardo lowered his head and kicked the gravel and dirt on the ground with his foot for no reason. Then he raised his head and cast a meaningless gaze toward the lake.

“I’ll take care of my own problems, so you don’t have to take responsibility and control even this. If a problem arises from my lack of control, it’s my problem, not yours to take responsibility for.”

Hugo quietly stared at him as he spoke in a calm tone that felt a little unfamiliar. He seemed to be speaking quite seriously, but unfortunately, his words sounded like a kind of bravado to Hugo.

Hugo was certain that he wouldn’t intentionally harm anyone. However, if it wasn’t intentional and even Leonardo himself hadn’t anticipated the situation, the story would be different.

If Leonardo were to injure someone here with his unstable magic, it would be difficult to let him go, even though he had been brought to the peninsula with the condition of release, and he might be left as a criminal again.

Just as the result of his disobedience, even if it wasn’t intentional, had brought defeat to the empire and caused numerous casualties.

However, knowing how foolish it would be to bring up that story in front of him, Hugo thought for a moment and then opened his mouth in a calm tone.

“From the beginning, bringing you here was based on the premise that I would prevent and take responsibility for anything that might happen because of you. So, I will continue to try to control you while you are here. So that I can take full responsibility for you.”

Leonardo sighed with a bored look at the firm answer.

“Wow…. Isn’t it hard to live?”

Hugo thought that his words were a reaction to his attempt to control him.

“If you try to take responsibility for everything like that, isn’t it hard to live?”

However, Leonardo’s following words were completely different from what Hugo had thought.

“You’re the Supreme Commander, so you’re responsible for everything that happens on the peninsula, from planning the operation to executing it, the progress, and even the variables. But what a pity, this time there’s even me, who’s called a person of interest?”

“……”

“If you live taking responsibility for other people’s affairs and then a situation arises where you can’t take responsibility for your own, who will take responsibility for your affairs then?”

Hugo looked at him with surprise as he asked, “Isn’t that right?” It was something he never expected to hear from him, and at the same time, it was a story he had never thought about himself. So, it took him a little time to fully accept his words.

Hugo pondered the words he had conveyed, and suddenly felt himself falling into self-deprecating thoughts. So, he turned his eyes away from Leonardo’s face and shifted his gaze to the far end of the lake.

Leonardo also stopped talking for a moment and looked at his profile, lost in thought. He seemed to have a lot on his mind.

How much time had passed? After a long silence, Hugo opened his mouth with a faint smile on his lips.

“Well, I’ve never thought about it. Someone taking responsibility for my affairs, huh….”

Leonardo frowned slightly. He thought it was the most foolish thing he had ever said.

But strangely enough. Listening to the self-deprecating words of the esteemed Duke and commander of the Council, he felt a strange sense of kinship, as if he had something in common with him.

Perhaps because of his title or position, Leonardo could vaguely feel through his words that he had never relied on anyone in his life, and didn’t even expect to.

Seeing Hugo’s appearance, as if even the sentence itself was unfamiliar, as if he was really thinking about it for the first time, Leonardo carefully examined his rare face and thought.

‘He can make that kind of expression too.’

The expression on his handsome profile was the first he had seen from him since he met him. As Leonardo took in that sight, he fell helplessly into strange thoughts.

He was dumbfounded that he, the most pitiful person in the world right now, was daring to pity someone, but ridiculously, the emotion that was rising in his heart right now was close to pity, as if he was looking at himself in a mirror.

Leonardo hated himself for feeling that way and sighed, but conveyed his feelings of pity as if he were speaking to himself.

“You really do live a tiring life.”

Hugo turned his head toward him at Leonardo’s words, which sounded like he was mocking him, but also like he was pitying him.

It was a word that could have been taken offensively, but the moment he saw his expression, those thoughts completely disappeared. He looked quite complicated.

Silence flowed for a moment as their eyes met.

Hugo slowly opened his mouth, as if showing him a part of himself, to him, who seemed as complicated as he was, for some reason.

“Leonardo, I am in a position to take responsibility. The reason I can live the life I’ve been given and enjoy the things I have is because I take responsibility for many things. So, it may seem like I’m living a tiring life to you, but this is the work I’ve been given, and it’s what I have to do.”

“……”

“Just like you have your work.”

Leonardo silently watched him as he spoke of his ‘work’ as if it were a destiny for him to live.

Hugo’s words felt strangely heavy, so Leonardo could no longer make the same bored expression or frustrated face as before.

Besides, his gaze toward him also felt strangely heavier than before.

He had vaguely thought that it was a position with a heavy responsibility, but hearing it directly from the person in question made him feel the weight of it indirectly.

Because of that, Leonardo couldn’t easily open his mouth and tried to find words to say to him.

However, he felt that he himself was confused right now, so Leonardo, who was conscious of the prolonged silence, spoke lightly as if he were throwing out his impressions, even though he couldn’t find anything else to say.

“Cool.”

He wanted to say it lightly, but the voice that came out of his mouth was by no means light.

“I don’t hate people who take responsibility. No, who would hate them?”

Hugo smiled slightly at the gaze that was steadily fixed on him. Leonardo looked into his blue eyes, then lowered his eyes as if lost in thought and said quietly.

“And I didn’t mean it in a bad way when I said you live a tiring life. I do too.”

Leonardo turned his gaze to the lake. Then once more, he murmured to himself in a self-deprecating manner.

“I really do… live a tiring life.”

Hugo had many questions arise at his desolate face, as if he were reminiscing about something, but he tried hard to swallow them. This guy was young, but he seemed to have a deep story, so he couldn’t easily ask him anything.

So, instead of saying anything, Hugo looked at his beautiful profile with his eyes on the lake, and then gently placed the hand he had healed on Leonardo’s shoulder. This time it was the right one, not the left.

Leonardo looked back and forth between Hugo’s hand on his shoulder and his face and asked.

“Why?”

Hugo tapped his shoulder a couple of times, seemingly not very wary.

Knowing that Agrizendro usually tapped people on the shoulder or back a couple of times when encouraging them, Leonardo stared at the hand for a moment and then chuckled.

‘The right one’s okay.’

Seeing his crooked smile, Hugo slowly lowered his hand.

Following the retreating encouragement, Leonardo’s gaze suddenly fell on the watch on Hugo’s left wrist.

He had caught a glimpse of it earlier while healing his hand, and it looked quite elaborate, so it seemed like a very expensive watch.

For a moment, a buried memory vaguely surfaced, but now it was a useless distraction, so he quickly shook it off by blinking a few times.

Agrizendro had been wearing that watch almost all the time since he came from the Imperial City, except when he came to Frost Territory to capture him. And it was the same when he grabbed his wrist and got burned.

Seeing that it hadn’t been shattered, it seemed that the watch had been enchanted with a high level of enhancement magic.

Leonardo wondered just how strong the magic was that it had withstood his magic power, so he naturally reached out to touch the watch. And then, Hugo’s hand gently moved away from his hand. As if to prevent him from touching it.

Leonardo paused and looked up at Hugo’s eyes. Many thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, but he nonchalantly said.

“You’re always wearing that watch.”

There was no change in the expression he faced, but somehow he seemed to be telling him not to touch it.

As the outstretched hand was withdrawn as if regretting it, Hugo looked down at his watch and said.

“It was given to me by someone precious.”

When the words ‘someone precious’ came out of his mouth, Leonardo widened his eyes slightly and looked at him as if he was unfamiliar. Everyone must have someone precious to them, but it felt different when those words came out of his mouth. Leonardo, feeling a strange feeling, asked cautiously, wondering who the person was.

“Who, a lover?”

Hugo just smiled faintly. It was impossible to tell whether it was affirmative or negative, but Leonardo scanned his handsome face and thought.

‘Well, it would be strange if he didn’t have one.’

Hugo stared at the watch for a moment, then got up from his seat without saying anything. Leonardo’s gaze also followed him upward.

“Let’s go in now.”

At his words, Leonardo turned his eyes to his watch one last time, realized that it was quite late, and nodded obediently.

When the two returned to the cave entrance together, the night watchman was pinching his thigh and struggling to keep his eyes open. He flinched when he saw Hugo and Leonardo return and straightened his disheveled posture again. Seeing his pitiful appearance, Hugo approached the soldier and said.

“Go in and sleep. I’ll take your place.”

“Yes? B-but….”

“It’s okay, go to sleep.”

The soldier seemed flustered when the commander told him to take his place, but he was quite tired to refuse, so after a moment of hesitation, he saluted and cautiously slipped into the tent.

Hugo sat down in the seat where he had been sitting, then threw a few more pieces of firewood into the dying bonfire. Leonardo went into his tent inside the cave and glanced at him over the bonfire.

The sound of the firewood crackling could be heard, and when his gaze beyond the flames seemed to reach him, Leonardo put his body inside the tent and closed the door completely.

In the meantime, he frowned, displeased with Hugo for replacing the soldier on night watch.

‘He hardly slept himself.’

Hugo looked at the closed tent, then turned his gaze away and looked down at his hand wrapped in gauze. The cool feeling of the ointment and the warm feeling that the guy’s touch had given him still remained and coexisted on his palm.

Beyond his palm, the bonfire with the firewood was burning fiercely. Hugo stared at the flickering flames for a while, then turned his gaze to the crater lake outside the cave.

A very subtle ripple was rising on the calm lake where nothing could be seen in the darkness, and it was spreading quietly.

“What to do now….”

And so, he waited for the morning to dawn.