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Bermuda Chapter 121
🕑 Added 2024-05-27 11:57:20 +0000 UTCChapter 121
When putting all the situations together, there was a high possibility that the outsider's claim of not knowing the egg was in the bag was true. He had it because he didn't know what was inside the bag he was carrying or what it attracted.
The scholar continued with a grin.
"It would have been neater and better if he had died just like that, but unfortunately, it seems he's still alive. I attached a small tracking device to that fellow's clothes, and the location keeps being detected differently. Ah, or has he already been eaten by a monster, and I'm detecting the location of the monster that ate him?"
He had no interest in whether that outsider lived or died, but he thought it was still too much to speak so confidently about treating human lives like ants.
Leonardo, who had been listening quietly, made a slightly disgusted expression.
"He was really a nutcase."
Even at his heartfelt exclamation, the scholar smiled and spoke without caring.
"You're quite smart, so how are you going to threaten me with this?"
Whether he was pretending to be relaxed or genuinely unaffected, the scholar's face looked rather intrigued. Leonardo smoothed out his furrowed brow and calmly replied,
"There's a lot to threaten you with. I can just return to the Council ranks right now and report to the commander, and it'll be over."
"The threat was just tattling on me?"
"...The things at that location you want me to take you to. I can shatter them all so you can never find them again."
"Do you even know where that is?"
"A place not marked with an X on the map. It'll be one of those."
"Wow, you saw that too in the meantime? Impressive."
The scholar grinned as if it was quite something.
"Alright, let's make a deal. Of course, with the additional conditions that you also won't disclose anything about me and won't harm me even after the contract is fulfilled. This is the basics of the basics, right?"
Leonardo, who had been about to recite more things to threaten him with, hesitated. It was because he hadn't expected him to give in so quickly. As if reading his thoughts, the scholar added,
"I was originally going to make a deal. I just wanted to hear what you would threaten me with out of curiosity."
"..."
"Now that I see it, there were so many things to be threatened with, so it was a more advantageous deal for me?"
Feeling strongly as if he had been played with, Leonardo glared at the scholar with a murderous face. The scholar looked at him and grinned, then soon began rummaging through his backpack.
"Let's see, the contract... Where did I put it..."
"You must have something to threaten me with too."
When the cold voice was heard, the scholar's hand momentarily paused. However, it was a fleeting moment that one wouldn't notice unless paying close attention.
Earlier, when Leonardo was telling Kenis about his comrades, all his attention had been focused on the scholar who had been too quiet, not on Kenis in front of him. It was because he had deliberately lured him to listen. Since the guy seemed to want something from him, he thought that if he knew something he shouldn't, he would approach him in any way and threaten him with that information.
However, the scholar finished pulling out the things inside the backpack and said nonchalantly,
"Hmm? I don't have anything like that."
"..."
"If I had to think of something to threaten you with... It would be the extent of knowing that Leonardo Blaine is trying to take a little detour with me instead of returning right away?"
The scholar said that and hummed a small tune. Leonardo, who had been standing with his arms crossed, quietly stared at the scholar, then took his back off the column he had been leaning on and stood properly.
Then, with his palm facing upward, he stretched out his arm forward and said,
"Let's use this for the contract."
At those words, the scholar stopped rummaging through the backpack and turned to where he was. Then, he let out a silent exclamation.
A dazzling light gathered above Leonardo's outstretched hand, and a golden magic circle unfolded within it. As a gentle breeze blew, the hair of the two men swayed slightly. In the center of the rotating magic circle, a golden metal plate and a pen slowly emerged as if rising from the surface of the water.
The scholar looked at the magic circle shining in the darkness with slightly surprised eyes and Leonardo's distinct golden eyes visible behind it.
The flames floating in the air gathered around the metal plate and began engraving letters at a fast speed. Soon, the terms they had agreed to deal with were densely filled, and Leonardo's signature was scribbled in the lower left corner.
Eventually, the metal plate and the golden pen floated up and were pushed in front of the scholar. The scholar naturally grasped the pen and briefly scanned the contents of the contract. Then, he looked at the very last clause and smiled.
"It's a scary magic. Isn't this a forbidden magic? I thought it had disappeared."
"Stop the bullshit and sign quickly. We don't have time."
Leonardo glanced in the direction where Kenis was lying and spoke in a slightly lowered voice. The scholar shrugged his shoulders while finishing scanning the clauses, and without much contemplation, he wrote his name in the signature field in the lower right corner. The part where the name was engraved as the pen tip passed glowed even more vividly.
When the scholar finished writing his name and put down the pen, the metal plate and the pen retreated from in front of him and flew to Leonardo's eyes. Leonardo's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he immediately checked the signature field.
'Alec Siles'
As expected, although he had anticipated it, the name Simon was indeed an alias. He glared at the scholar through the metal plate, but the other party just kept grinning as if he had no intention of making excuses at all.
Wondering if making a deal with such a guy was really the right thing to do, Leonardo let out a small sigh.
However, the self-mocking sigh was short-lived. As Leonardo placed his palm on the metal plate, the letters written there began to distort and be absorbed into his hand. The letters wrapped around his hand and emitted an intense light, and the contents gradually disappeared from the metal plate.
Leonardo stretched out his right hand, which contained all the clauses in a golden glow. The scholar, who had been watching with amusement all along, grasped his hand with a smile. Eventually, the golden light spread from their hands, and a golden ring appeared on each of their wrists and then smoothly disappeared.
The scholar stared intently at the spot where the vanished ring had been. Leonardo released the scholar's hand as if brushing it off and spoke while looking directly into his eyes.
"Contract established."
*
"But what are you going to do with that friend?"
Alec asked while putting the items he had taken out to find the contract back into the backpack. He was referring to Kenis.
Leonardo fixed his gaze there for a moment, then soon turned his head.
"I'll have to leave him. That kid is also from the Council anyway."
"I thought you were quite close, but unexpectedly heartless?"
"...The Council will come and find him soon. I deliberately left footprints near the swamp without erasing them."
Alec paused for a moment upon hearing that. Then, rolling his eyes, he asked again.
"Didn't you two go out earlier during the day?"
If they had left footprints at that time, the Council would have already barged in long ago. Or they would be lying in ambush nearby. Seeing Alec looking slightly tense, perhaps because of that reason, Leonardo sneered as if it was amusing.
"You think I just left them? I hid them so they would only be revealed after a certain amount of time, so they'll probably show up soon. If they search the vicinity, they'll find this place in no time, and it's better to send that kid back to the ranks like this."
Alec let out a strange smile.
"But then, no matter how well that friend makes excuses, it'll turn out that you escaped."
"..."
It wasn't that he hadn't thought of that.
He had also considered leaving only Kenis's footprints in the swamp and erasing his own, but in the end, he left both. He thought he should at least let them know they were alive.
If it took too long to ascertain their life or death, it would spread as guilt for someone for not being able to protect them, and Leonardo knew all too well that it would create a huge trauma.
Of course, becoming a fugitive would worsen the treatment he would receive in the future.
'I'm someone who was caught after running away for 3 years, so what's going to happen just because I ran away for a bit? And it's still within the peninsula anyway. I'll just quickly go back and join them. Two days will be enough.'
Leonardo, who had thought that way, glanced at Alec, who was still packing his luggage, and spoke as if annoyed.
"Fuck, that's why I'm telling you to hurry up. I need to finish my business quickly and join them before I'm branded as a fugitive too. Do you know how sharp the commander's senses are? Ah, I'm going to get caught before we even leave."
"Okay, okay. I'm done packing now, so let's go."
At the continued urging, Alec stuffed his luggage into an artifact and then into the backpack, and slung the small backpack over his back. Then, he spoke with a slightly awkward smile.
"I'm a bit scared of that guy too."
As the guy who had been grinning the whole time suddenly said he was scared of someone, Leonardo's eyebrows slightly rose. Alec, thinking he hadn't understood, added,
"I mean the commander of the Central Branch."
While thinking that even this nutcase was afraid of that person, Leonardo simultaneously had an absurd thought as he looked back on Alec's behavior so far.
'Then is this bastard constantly being cheeky because he's not afraid of me? Fucking hell, seriously.'
Alec leisurely brushed past Leonardo, who had a contorted face, and headed towards the passage leading to another cave. Leonardo glanced back at where Kenis was once more, then likewise moved his steps silently. While doing so, he recited a threat to the back of the scholar's head that would be completely ineffective due to the contract.
"If you don't move as swiftly as me from now on, I'll drag you in front of the commander you said you're afraid of, contract or not, so watch your behavior."
"Hey, cut me some slack. I'm not Armsilver, so how can I move that fast?"
At the term that suddenly came up, Leonardo abruptly stopped walking. The annoyance and irritation that had been present in his eyes until a little while ago disappeared. Instead, a probing gaze and fierce bloodlust flowed.
The gaze that held its breath slowly and tenaciously followed the movement of the silhouette moving away. Thanks to that, Alec, who felt a chill rather than just an itch on the back of his head, quietly walked and then abruptly stopped and turned around.
"Ah, don't worry."
Alec said with a grin.
"I'm not so lacking in morals that I would touch family."
The footsteps that had finished speaking trudged away again. Leonardo stared at the other party's back with a creepy face devoid of expression.
Then he soon let out a hollow laugh.
He had thought it was unlikely, but as expected, he had known but pretended not to.
That guy was smart.
He seemed to know that if he had brought up that story before the contract under the pretext of a threat, he himself could have died.
*
When the two people moved away, silence fell upon the huge cave with the structure. Because of that, the sound of insects chirping and birds singing was particularly loud.
Kenis, who had become accustomed to the darkness, slowly blinked his eyelids and gradually sat up.
His gaze was directed towards the direction where Leonardo and the scholar had disappeared.
Kenis rubbed his eyes hard with his sleeve, feeling like he was about to cry. Then, sniffling, he tidied up the spot where he had been lying and packed his luggage.
Comments
Yudrain
aww kenis 🥹
Jesse Gibson
Ah Kennis 🥺
Mkslushi
Ohh I hope Kenis was awake the whole time so he knows Leonardo plans on coming back and not deserting. It’d be rough if Hugo and his relationship goes back to square one cause if that 😅
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