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Bermuda Chapter 79
🕑 Added 2024-04-30 11:26:13 +0000 UTCChapter 79
A brief silence followed Leonardo's words.
Hugo stared at the curved lips, then shifted his gaze to his eyes. The golden eyes visible between the slightly curved eye lines were seductive but filled with playfulness. Meeting those eyes, Hugo pondered for a moment on what to do with this disobedient fellow.
Leonardo raised the corners of his mouth slightly upon seeing Hugo's stiff face. In fact, what he had wanted to see was the flustered appearance of that icy man who had persistently come to catch him, but knowing it was impossible, he was quite satisfied just seeing the stiff expression.
However, with Hugo's subsequent action, Leonardo had no choice but to lose his leisurely smile.
It was because Hugo took one step closer, bent one knee, and lowered his body to sit down.
He stared intently at Hugo with the smile gone from his lips.
Hugo, still with a cool gaze, slowly brought his hand to Leonardo's wet cheek.
'...What?'
As the large and cool hand cupped his cheek, Leonardo was rather flustered. It was because he hadn't expected him to act like this at all.
Hugo, with tranquil eyes, scanned the beautifully crafted eyes, nose, and mouth one by one, and with one hand, he cupped the small face that could be fully grasped and gently stroked the spot where it had been cut by ice with his thumb.
At that touch, Leonardo only rolled his eyes to glance at the large hand, then tried to hide his bewilderment and turned his gaze again to discern his intentions.
As he met those blue eyes like that, the touch stopped after a moment, and soon his face gradually came closer.
Leonardo blankly stared at him in the strange atmosphere. Then, he soon thought with a silent sneer,
'In the end, even this person is no different...'
Smack!
The large hand that had been cupping his cheek flicked the center of his forehead in an instant.
"Ah!"
A short scream echoed inside the cave. Leonardo felt extreme pain spreading across his forehead and reflexively curled his body. It was just a flick, but it felt like an intense pain as if his skull was being split in half.
Frowning and making a pained expression, he grabbed his forehead with both hands, then immediately turned his head and glared at Hugo with resentful eyes.
"Ah, why did you hit me!"
The red flick mark was vivid in the center of his white forehead. As Hugo brought his hand closer again as if to soothe it, Leonardo hurriedly pushed it away and distanced himself from him.
Seeing his vigilant expression, Hugo unintentionally let out a chuckle. He soon straightened the knee he had bent and stood up from his spot, speaking in a voice mixed with laughter to the fellow who was glaring at him as if he had been wronged,
"That's what you get for being 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.
Moreover, his forehead was burning fiercely with a pain that felt like his skull was shaking, but the man in front of his eyes seemed to be quite enjoying his suffering.
As Leonardo was dumbfounded seeing the smile etched on Hugo's face, Hugo soon withdrew his smile and returned to his usual cold face.
"It's punishment for leaving without reporting."
"..."
"I've played along with your tune, so come out now."
He had no idea where he had played along. Leonardo let out a sigh as if dumbfounded and rubbed his throbbing forehead. It seemed to hurt more and more as if he had been hit with a hammer.
Feeling annoyed by it, he tried to splash water at him with his hand, but the splashed water fell to the ground as if blocked by a wall even though Hugo didn't put up a barrier.
As Leonardo frowned deeply at the sight, Hugo, who had been watching, shook his head and turned to walk away. Before long, the water in the puddle where Leonardo had been submerging his body began to wriggle as if it were alive, and it wrapped around his arms and legs, forcibly making him stand up.
He, who had been made to stand up against his will, was utterly dumbfounded and irritably shook off the unpleasant water streams enveloping his body. However, the water streams passed right through his arms without any impact, and as if provoking him, they scattered and returned to the water in the puddle.
To Hugo's ears, who had been walking ahead first, the sound of water falling and rubbing and a grumbling voice mixed with dissatisfaction could be heard.
Eventually, at the sound of warm air blowing from behind and clothes being hastily put on, Hugo stopped his steps to wait for him.
Then, Leonardo, who had gotten dressed in an instant, swept his shimmering golden hair back as if it had never been wet and strode past his side.
The fellow who originally didn't even make a sound when walking was now passing by his side with heavy footsteps as if he was angry, so Hugo let out a chuckle as if dumbfounded and followed behind him.
*
When they returned to the entrance of the cave, the night watch who had been dozing off earlier was now wide-eyed and in a tense posture, guarding his post well.
Seeing Leonardo, who seemed to be trying to return to his tent obediently, Hugo also tried to go back in, but Leonardo rummaged through something inside for a moment and came back out.
In his hand was a cigarette pack, and Hugo's eyes turned displeased.
Leonardo, with a brazen face as if he didn't care at all, shook the cigarette pack in front of his eyes and went out of the cave. Then, after feeling the direction of the faint wind, he walked a good distance away to a place where the smoke wouldn't go towards the cave.
A moment later, he sat on a low and flat rock, took out a cigarette, put the filter in his mouth, and tried to light it.
However, seeing Hugo approaching again, he frowned and took the cigarette he had been holding with his lips back into his hand.
"You followed me again? Still worried I might run away?"
Even at the question that sounded fed up, Hugo stood nearby at a certain distance without any particular words.
At his appearance that seemed to have no intention of backing down despite not answering, Leonardo glared at Hugo and pushed the cigarette he had taken out back into the pack. Hugo asked,
"Didn't you come out to smoke? Why are you putting it back?"
"You're not a smoker, are you?"
One of Hugo's eyebrows rose slightly. It sounded like he was saying he wouldn't smoke in front of him, a non-smoker. He had been smoking just fine yesterday, so at his suddenly changed attitude, Hugo said with puzzlement,
"You can smoke. As long as you promise to finish it all and go in obediently."
However, Leonardo didn't take out the cigarette again. Instead, he changed his posture a bit, crossed his legs, put his elbow on top of them, rested his chin, and stared at Hugo.
"I just want to get some air before going in. I can't sleep right now."
At his completely arbitrary behavior, Hugo's eyes sank.
It seemed that the mood of the fearsome Kazad was quite displeased, but somehow, even seeing his face like that, Leonardo didn't find it very scary.
For some unknown reason, he had a strange belief that he knew Hugo was lenient with him, so he would let him do as he pleased.
Moreover, the fact that he had left without permission, sneaking past the night watch, was a considerably big mistake in terms of discipline, but judging from his actions, it seemed he had no intention of further pursuing the mistake after ending it with a flick. Of course, if he left without permission one more time, it probably wouldn't end with just a flick...
And just as Leonardo thought, instead of forcibly dragging him, who didn't seem to have any intention of going in, Hugo let out a small sigh.
"We'll be marching hard once the sun rises, so it's better to sleep soon. It seemed like you barely slept yesterday too."
At the admonishing tone, Leonardo, who had been blinking a few times, had a slight tension on his face.
"...You knew? That I wasn't sleeping?"
Hugo didn't answer. But it seemed to be an affirmation.
Leonardo asked him again with a doubtful feeling, wondering if the anxious assumption he had been thinking about was true.
"Since when were you awake yesterday?"
After a brief silence at the question that sounded quite cautious, Hugo soon took a few steps forward.
As the distance got closer, Leonardo reflexively leaned his upper body back, perhaps due to the lingering effect of the flick.
Seeing him sitting uncomfortably as if trying to distance himself as much as possible, Hugo bent his waist instead of approaching further and waved his hand in front of his face.
"Since you were like this."
The large hand waved briefly in front of his eyes, then moved away.
Leonardo felt embarrassment welling up from within. It seemed he had been awake from the beginning.
Remembering how he had been staring at him, thinking he was asleep, and inwardly appraising him, Leonardo tried hard to avert his eyes. Then, with a face filled with sudden awkwardness, he moved his lips.
"No, why... did you pretend to be asleep when you were awake?"
Hugo, who chuckled, opened his mouth.
"I thought you had voyeuristic tendencies, so I tried to pretend not to know."
"...What?"
Leonardo's face gradually turned to shock and shame. Then, after a while, he glared at Hugo with furrowed eyes as if trying to deny it.
However, at the sight of him looking down at him with a leisurely air, returning his own words verbatim, he only slightly opened his mouth but couldn't continue his words.
Despite not looking like it at all, Agrizendro often teased him well with that cold face of his.
Thinking that he was strangely lenient but definitely not easy, Leonardo closed his mouth and slightly lowered his gaze. As he rolled his eyes here and there, wanting to change the subject to anything, he suddenly saw Hugo's palm flashing 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 he had found strange that he wasn't wearing a glove earlier.
As Leonardo's gaze turned there, Hugo clenched his fist slightly again. Leonardo, who had been staring, raised his head and silently made eye contact.
Before long, he got up from his spot and immediately moved his steps towards the cave. Hugo also tried to follow behind him, but he stopped and blocked the way.
"Wait here for a bit. I'll be back."
Having said that, Leonardo tried to move his steps again, then hesitated once more and turned back to say clearly,
"I won't run away."
He immediately used teleportation to move to the front of the cave and quietly went inside. Hugo was just silently staring in the direction he had gone.
After a moment, Leonardo, who came out from inside, had something in his hand. He quickly returned to his original position, grabbed Hugo's arm, and led him to the rock where he had been sitting earlier.
Pulled by a fairly strong force tugging his arm, Hugo naturally sat down to Leonardo's right side. Leonardo abruptly held out his hand to him, who was sitting side by side.
"Give me your left hand."
Hugo reflexively looked down at his own left hand. It was because he seemed to know the reason he was asking for it.
However, unable to hide it any longer under the persistent gaze directed at him, he obediently held out his left hand to him. Leonardo took that hand and began to examine it slowly.
On the large palm was a wide band, and the golden eyes glanced sideways, then removed it without asking for permission. Following that, at the red mark revealed underneath, Leonardo's expression crumpled.
"Why didn't you tell me you got a burn on your hand?"
"..."
"This happened because you grabbed my wrist, didn't it?"
On Hugo's hand, although it seemed to have been healed to some extent with recovery magic, there was still a burn mark that looked painful.
It was a burn that had occurred when he had grabbed Leonardo's wrist to stop his unstable attack that early morning. It was because it had happened in an instant, so he couldn't draw up the cold energy to protect his hand from the heat Leonardo was emitting.
Since it was a burn left by 'Leonardo Blaine', there was no way it could be healed with ordinary recovery magic. However, Hugo had deliberately not shown it, worried that he, who seemed to be feeling down about the incident, would unnecessarily be more concerned.
As Hugo remained silent, Leonardo stared at him with frustrated eyes. However, that was only for a moment, as he pulled his hand and placed it on his thigh, then opened the lid of what he had brought from inside the tent.
It was a flat, circular container about the size of Leonardo's palm, and inside was a white cream with a thin consistency. Judging from the strong fragrance wafting from it, it seemed to be some kind of burn ointment.
Leonardo scooped it up generously with two fingers and spread it on Hugo's reddened palm.
Hugo just quietly entrusted his hand and briefly glanced at the side of Leonardo's face. His pretty brows were heavily furrowed, but the touch on his hand was quite careful. As if he was worried it might hurt.
A cool sensation spread where the ointment touched, and the stinging disappeared. Perhaps because of that, the part where Leonardo's hand touched felt hot as if a fire was flickering.
As a mage who mainly used ice as his attribute, Hugo wasn't particularly fond of warmth.
However, feeling that the warm and unfamiliar sensation roaming his always cold palm wasn't as bad as he thought, Hugo blankly stared at Leonardo's face as he was focused.
Comments
Monmon
Agreed agreed
Bernie Jay
I appreciate that Leo is getting to read Hugo better and realizes that he is being far more lenient with him versus literally everyone else. I’ll take a slowly growing indulgence on Hugo’s part as some kind of progress!!!
Jesse Gibson
I just… really don’t like him. I’m trying, but he’s super frustrating
