BMD 555

“――!”

Leonardo snapped his eyes open. As he gasped for air, cold wind rushed deep into his lungs.

His hair fluttered wildly, brushing against his face. A sharp breeze seeped through the gaps in his clothes, awakening every sensation in his body. Leonardo, whose head had been tilted back as if he had lost consciousness, realized he was at the center of a violent gale.

He tucked his chin and surveyed his surroundings with a still hazy mind.

‘…?’

His feet were floating in the air. To be precise, he was hovering above a large pond, giving him a fairly high vantage point.

“…Captain!”

A tingling, unpleasant sensation spread faintly across his palms. Looking at his arms extended forward, it seemed as though he had been emitting Magic Power. A golden sphere glowed between his grip, and he realized now that this was the source of the gale.

Just as he wondered if he had gone berserk, a booming voice pierced through his eardrums.

“Captain—!”

Startled, he reflexively turned his head and saw a woman with long, fluttering hair on the shore beyond the pond.

“…Taylor?”

Beside her were Nero and Finder. Their faces looked desperate as they reached out toward him. They seemed wanting to approach immediately, but they were being held back by a small figure clinging to their waists. The person enduring the wind and creating a barrier with a wooden ladle was undoubtedly the ‘child.’

The moment he saw them, everything he had experienced flashed through Leonardo’s mind like a panorama.

Grimbleton’s letter, the Swamp of Thoughts, the giant ash tree, the mysterious child.

The aged-down dragon, the Dimensional Boundary, the bermuda-born, another ego.

‘Nomon from the past, the blue Canaria.’

And the name of the one who resembled a dazzling radiance was certainly….

“Theodore.”

The moment he murmured the name blankly, the fiercely raging gale stopped as if by magic. The light from the glowing sphere faded, converging into a single point. Then, from that center, a familiar object slowly revealed itself. It was the gold bracelet that Theodore had given to this body—no, to Nomon.

However, as the airflow vanished, the bracelet began to fall under the pull of gravity. Panicked, Leonardo immediately reached out, chasing the token left for him. Fearing he might lose it, he dove into the pond without a second thought.

Splash—!

“Captain!”

A violent spray of water surged up, instantly swallowing Leonardo’s shadow. The three shocked companions shook off the child’s restraint and rushed toward the pond.

The child, who had been holding them back, no longer obstructed them; she withdrew the barrier and wiped away beads of sweat with a weary face.

As he sank into the water, all sound was completely cut off. Leonardo descended, pushing through the white bubbles.

The pond was unexpectedly deep. No, it wasn’t just deep—the bottom was nowhere to be seen.

It felt as if he were moving toward a black-stained deep sea. Had the light descending from the surface not illuminated his bubbling breath, he would have struggled to even discern his direction.

Nevertheless, the bracelet, imbued with a faint light, sparkled clearly. Holding his breath in his mouth, Leonardo swam with wide strokes of his arms, focusing solely on that one object. Yet, strangely, his body barely moved forward. Unlike normal water, it felt as if he were swimming through mud; every movement of his limbs required double the effort. Meanwhile, the speed at which the bracelet sank grew faster.

Just as he tried to grasp the water and pull the bracelet toward him using Magic Power, a whitish silhouette flickered in the deep abyss.

‘…?’

Though he continued to kick the water, he instinctively grew wary. He feared it might be one of those unpleasant creatures he had seen in the Swamp of Thoughts.

However, the feeling was different. The mysterious silhouette wrapped around the bracelet in an instant and rose quickly to where Leonardo was struggling. It gently pushed the bracelet forward, as if sending it along the current.

Not missing the opportunity, Leonardo snatched the nearby ring. He then brushed back his waving hair and stared directly at the figure before him. Now that he looked closer, it seemed like a human shadow.

Just as he thought the figure was trying to help him, the silhouette stopped in place and whispered without moving its lips.

“Go on, hurry.”

Leonardo’s movements came to a dead halt. The silhouette, which looked as if it might vanish at any moment, and the voice echoing in his head were familiar.

‘Old man?’

It was Grimbleton, the owner of the letter that had guided him here. He looked the same as the last time he had seen him, but in the expression and gaze that felt strangely tender, Leonardo saw another person.

A youthful face, absorbed in staring at the river in front of the field camp under a moonlit night sky.

‘Nomon.’

It was before the direction of life and the stubbornness of years had been etched into his face. He had certainly seen that face before, but he had been unsure who it was. But seeing him again like this, the drooping eyes were so identical that he wondered why he hadn’t remembered.

Consequently, he realized why he had felt a fatherly vibe from him, and why he had been so depressed over the death of an old man he had barely known…

‘Blaine.’

The puzzle pieces began to fit together one by one.

Leonardo opened his mouth, wanting to ask many things. But no voice came out. Only stray bubbles filled the space between them.

Grimbleton gave that characteristic mischievous smile, as if he knew everything. Because it felt like a final farewell, Leonardo urgently reached out his hand.

At that moment, he was grabbed by the scruff of his neck by another force and pulled upward.

“Puh—!”

As soon as his upper body was halfway onto the shore, Leonardo released his held breath.

“Captain!”

“Taylor—”

At the same time, the person panting beside him held Leonardo’s collar with one hand and gripped the stems of the dense vegetation with the other. It was Taylor.

“Pull him up, quick!”

At her command, her entire body drenched, the two waiting companions grabbed Leonardo’s arms and dragged him out of the pond. Only after seeing the Captain completely on land did Taylor crawl up herself. Though she ended up lying flat on her back immediately after.

“Ah, seriously! What is all this!”

Taylor shouted with an irritated tone, her voice echoing across the pond. A considerable amount of time had passed, yet the Captain hadn’t returned, and she had been wandering the child’s house, pushed by Nero. Upon discovering a strange Dimensional Passage filling one wall of the corridor, they had felt the Captain’s energy within it.

Though they had hesitated, it didn’t take long for them to dive in together, claiming they had never been afraid of such things.

What they found afterward was the pond located in the center of this beautiful garden, and the Captain appeared to be losing consciousness again, as if possessed, in the middle of it. The strong energy emanating from his two hands, his tilted-back head, and his closed eyes felt like something unusual.

Meanwhile, since the child had merely been observing the situation, Nero and Taylor, who had trusted the child and sent the Captain in, couldn’t help but feel their blood pressure rising.

Her shoulders and chest heaving, she pointed with a broken fingernail and sneered fiercely.

“You brat, I told you I wouldn’t let it slide if something happened to the Captain, didn’t I?”

“Do you no longer know your place? If you had waited, he would have returned at the Read on Read BL Novelsappropriate [stolen content]time, but because [Read on Read BL Novels]you lot pestered, his consciousness was forcibly dragged back.”

The child clicked her tongue with a dissatisfied face at the tone that had completely discarded etiquette. Taylor snapped back sharply.

“I told you we didn’t have time for that! And we couldn’t even get close because of the barrier, so what do you mean ‘forcibly dragged back’?”

“Captain, are you okay?”

Meanwhile, Nero asked worriedly of Leonardo, who was lying face down and coughing. While patting his back, Nero closely examined his complexion and pupil response. Having barely calmed his breathing, Leonardo sat down heavily on the grass of the garden with help.

Leaning obliquely against a broken stone pillar, he rubbed his eyes vigorously with a wet sleeve. Even in his disorientation, he wanted to survey the surroundings. The garden, like a secluded island bathed in sunlight, was in full bloom with grass and flowers. The occasional drifting dandelion seeds and yellow butterflies gave an impression of being uncannily beautiful, making him wonder if he were still dreaming.

“What happened? You weren’t subjected to anything strange, were you?”

“It’s not like that. Ha, I don’t even know what’s what right now….”

Answering haltingly, Leonardo clutched his head with one hand and asked in return.

“Where is this?”

“That’s what we want to ask. What’s that in your hand?”

The keen-eyed Finder asked, gesturing toward the object gripped in Leonardo’s hand. Following his gaze, Leonardo looked down with a pale face and lifted the bracelet to his eye level.

“This….”

“You fell into the water because of that, right? That was also what was emitting power when you lost consciousness.”

Blinking slowly, Leonardo tilted his head ambiguously.

“…Probably.”

Just then, the child, with hands behind her back, walked toward them with steady steps.

“That bracelet is a medium. Thanks to it, I have come to understand properly as well.”

Leonardo shifted his gaze to the child. Perhaps because she had struggled to hold back stolen contentthe three of them, [Read on Read BL Novels]the child also looked quite [unauthorized copy]tired. However, calmly straightening her clothes, she approached Leonardo.

“Did you see it clearly?”

Because the question lacked an object, Leonardo couldn’t answer immediately. That one sentence implied a great deal. However, the moments he had experienced were incredibly vivid. So vivid that he wanted to shower Theodore, whom he had sat across from, with questions right this instant.

Leonardo answered blankly, rubbing his forehead.

“Yeah.”

Was the reason he felt strangely sad because he knew that the man was no longer in this world? Even though the sensations he left behind were so vivid upon his skin.