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Bermuda Chapter 40
🕑 Added 2024-04-07 13:38:38 +0000 UTCChapter 40
Hugo, who had immediately come down to the investigation room, entered through the double doors, and the members working inside stood up and saluted him. He lightly responded and moved his steps towards the interrogation room located at the very back of the investigation room.
Passing through a few more doors, he saw quite a large number of armed members gathered behind the investigators monitoring at the desk in front of the glass window that showed the inside of the interrogation room. And among them, Loren and Meterion were standing with their arms crossed, quietly observing the interior of the interrogation room.
As soon as the members holding capture guns spotted Hugo, they immediately lowered their firearms and saluted. Meterion, who had noticed his arrival due to their unified movement, glanced at him and then turned his head back to the front, while Loren spoke as if surprised.
"You came faster than I thought."
Hugo approached her, narrowing his eyes, and asked,
"...Did you want me to get shattered more?"
"Seeing the state of the square when I arrived, I thought it would be enough."
At her words, Hugo replied with a bitter smile, as if it wasn't a big deal.
"In the end, it's all about money."
Loren Opience was a close friend of Hugo's, having known him for over 10 years since their days in the Imperial Army. Because of that, Hugo knew very well that even though she was speaking with a consistently stiff face and tone, there was actually concern for him implied in it.
And Loren also quickly grasped the meaning behind his short answer, so she could roughly guess the reason why he was able to come out earlier than expected.
However, like Andreas, she also didn't think it was a very good method, so she tried to say something but then closed her mouth, realizing it was pointless.
Knowing that she deliberately didn't ask further, Hugo naturally changed the subject.
"What's the situation outside?"
"Most of the disaster recovery and medical teams from the battalions remaining at the headquarters have been dispatched. There are fewer injuries than expected, and the northern square is scheduled to be closed for a while."
Hugo nodded at Loren's words and stood beside her, looking at the glass window. Since the voices speaking inside the interrogation room were transmitted outside through speakers, they could know everything that was being discussed inside from there.
Seeing Leonardo cooperating well with the investigation, contrary to his concerns, Hugo carefully observed his slightly tired-looking face.
Although he had the medical team treat Leonardo's wounds as soon as he brought him here, there were still some scars left on his face from the ice shards. Just like the mark he had left under Hugo's eye. Perhaps that also couldn't be completely healed with recovery magic.
The wounds they had inflicted on each other were ones that would disappear with time, but Hugo thought that even if he didn't know about the guy, they would remain as long-lasting traces in his own memory.
Suddenly, Loren asked, seeing Hugo's face lost in thought.
"The wound under your eye, was it really left by that guy?"
At her question, Hugo answered while still staring at Leonardo.
"Yeah, probably no one else could have left it."
Loren, who knew Hugo quite well, looked at him with puzzled eyes at his slightly ambiguous words, and then turned her head back to Leonardo in the interrogation room.
Hugo was observing Leonardo's eyelid movements, the end of his gaze, subtle gestures, and each action while intently listening to the interrogation.
And at that moment, even though the room where he was in shouldn’t be visible from inside the interrogation room, he had a feeling that he briefly made eye contact with Leonardo through the glass window.
*
"The large number of Quamares I caught in Perion to create water-attribute protective gear suddenly disappeared, and while pursuing the trail, I heard rumors that the Delberg Merchant Group was secretly distributing mana stones, so I tracked them down. The place where I caught their tail was Köln in the central-northern region."
The clacking sound of a manual typewriter busily followed Leonardo's words.
"There, I heard news that Delberg was recruiting members for the merchant group, so I joined as a low-ranking member and reached the Frost territory. However, low-ranking members couldn't access information about the monsters, so I conducted a separate investigation. Afterward, I found the buried monsters, burned them so they couldn't be traded, and left them in plain sight for anyone to find."
Unexpectedly, he cooperated with the interrogation without resistance. Thanks to that, the hands of the clerks were quite busy, and the investigators, including Flynn, were attentively listening to his words.
"But not long after people discovered them, the security forces from the Count's family came and quietly collected them, and I suspected there was a strange collusive relationship involved. Along with that, I also learned about the existence of someone impersonating me."
"..."
"After that, as security was strengthened, I judged that it would be difficult to investigate the places where the monsters were buried alone, so I tried to draw in the Council. Just in time, when I was moving from Köln to the Frost territory, I confirmed that the Council was chasing me in the nearby region, so I secretly slipped away in the middle and revealed myself in front of the pursuit team."
"Wait, you're saying you deliberately revealed yourself in front of the pursuit team to draw in the Council?"
At his words, the investigator from the Northern Branch, who was sitting on the far left, asked back in disbelief. Leonardo lightly nodded his head as if it was no big deal.
Flynn listened to Leonardo's words and marked his locations on a map, connecting them. The place where the previous pursuit team had spotted Blaine was slightly above Köln in the central-northern region, where he said he had joined the merchant group, precisely halfway between the Frost territory and Köln.
When the most recently formed pursuit team was chasing Leonardo, he deliberately didn't end the battles and repeatedly revealed himself, and all those points were heading towards the Frost territory.
It added credibility to the fact that Leonardo had indeed tried to lure the pursuit team to inform the Council about Delberg's monster smuggling.
In the end, it meant that the Council hadn't found him, but he had deliberately revealed himself in front of the pursuit team.
Moreover, he was a strong mage who could use teleportation, so his movement was free, and knowing the portals of the closed gates, he was able to move in a truly meticulous manner.
"I thought you guys would persistently chase after me since you were already following me, but I didn't expect the pursuit team to withdraw just like that. But of all people, the one who came after me next to catch me was the Commander."
Leonardo spoke as if it was absurd the more he thought about it. If the pursuit team had chased him and learned about the whole story of the monster smuggling case, they could have quietly handled the case while also striking Delberg. But of all people, the one who came to catch him next was the Council's Kazad.
"If that charred corpse was your doing, then the man you mentioned who distinguished between beasts and monsters was also you in the end?"
At Flynn's question, Leonardo uncrossed his legs, leaned his body forward from its reclined position, and opened his mouth.
"Yes."
Leonardo intently looked into Flynn's eyes, which seemed quite confused, and slightly raised the corner of his mouth, saying once again with certainty,
"It was something I made up to give a hint to you and the Commander. I deliberately took you to the storage room and conspicuously brought up the topic of monsters at the tavern. Everything was done to inform the Council."
"...Why did you do that, knowing you could be caught?"
At the repeated question, Leonardo fell silent for a moment. The investigator Eckison, who was sitting in the middle, thought his silence meant he was thinking of excuses, so he urged him to answer so that he couldn't fabricate a lie.
"Leonardo Blaine, don't get distracted and tell the truth."
Then, instead of looking at Investigator Eckison, Leonardo precisely gazed into Flynn's eyes and spoke,
"Because wrong things need to be set right. And I believed that you and the Commander would do it."
For a moment, Flynn felt as if his breath was caught in his throat and couldn't continue speaking.
Until now, he had been strangely thinking of Tergio and Leonardo as separate individuals. However, as Leonardo recited the words Tergio had said to him in the Frost territory once again right in front of his eyes, Flynn could no longer think of them as different people.
"Moreover, not only are they secretly taking the monsters I caught and selling them, but they're also committing crimes using my name. Wouldn't it be satisfying to strike them at least once?"
Leonardo's answer was plain, and Flynn felt that he had sufficient motive to do so. However, Investigator Eckison seemed to have no trust in the answers so far, so he roughly flipped through a few pages of the file, read them, and asked in a slightly sharp tone,
"Right now, your words sound like you're deliberately struggling to prove that you have no connection to the Delberg Merchant Group."
Leonardo, who had been frowning as if he was annoyed by the investigator's constant nitpicking, said,
"What do you want to hear?"
"Didn't you help the grand master of the merchant group escape?"
At the investigator's question, which was asked with great emphasis on the main point, Leonardo responded with a sneer,
"Why would I do such a thing? Didn't you hear me? I said my goal is to strike Delberg."
Then, the investigator glared at him and flipped one more page of the file, as if pulling out a hidden trump card. And pushing it in front of Leonardo, he said,
"This is information obtained this morning."
The file he showed contained a photo of the wanted Brianna Dixie, along with a list of people who had acquired residency in the southern territory of the Yulisia Empire, which bordered the northern part of Raina Logia, and their photos.
The list included a new name, 'Elena,' and the recent face of Brianna Dixie, whom Leonardo was familiar with.
'Looks like she made it across properly.'
Fortunately, it seemed that after successfully crossing the border, she had settled somewhere. Leonardo, who had no time to pay attention to her after helping her escape due to being captured right away, inwardly felt relieved while maintaining his composure to keep his expression unchanged.
Although the Council had obtained this information, there was no risk of Brianna being forcibly escorted back due to Raina Logia's request.
While Raina Logia and Yulisia maintained an alliance on the surface, there was no obligation for information exchange or arrest cooperation between the countries, and looking into the inside story, they had an enormous number of informants planted in each other's territories.
So even if there were suspicious circumstances, there was no way they could demand the escort of a mere resident. It would be like openly admitting the fact that they had planted informants.
Moreover, Raina Logia was already in a cautious position as there was a precedent of an informant being exposed.
Since Yulisia was the next great power on the continent after Raina Logia, the imperial factions of the empire, who had nearly had their friendship broken at the time, resolved the situation by sending the empire's second prince, who had a relatively weak support base, to Yulisia as a semi-hostage under the pretext of resolving this issue.
In the midst of that, the Council would never intend to escalate this incident into a national conflict, so it could be said that this side was safe for now. Because the leader of that imperial faction was right here in the Council.
However, on the contrary, the concern was whether the Yulisia Empire, upon learning about the wanted notice here, would impose any disadvantages or expulsion orders on her.
"The grand master of the merchant group, Brianna Dixie, has gone to Yulisia. She couldn't have crossed into the inland while avoiding the eyes of the military stationed in the border zone from the Frost territory, so if that's the case, the place she could go is near the coast. And Leonardo Blaine, you had sufficient ability and time to go to the coast."
"..."
"Brianna Dixie possesses mana, but it has been confirmed that she doesn't have enough mana to cast flight or teleportation. Then, there must be someone who helped her. Weren't you involved?"
At the investigator's pressing words, Leonardo leaned his body back again, which he had leaned forward to talk to Flynn. There was no physical evidence in Investigator Eckison's logic. As always, he had never left any physical evidence.
'Then...'
Leonardo, who fell into thought for a very brief moment, shifted his gaze to the opaque glass window behind the people in front of him. Clearly, he couldn't feel anything, but some kind of 'intuition' made him feel as if Agrizendro was watching him from the other side.
Of course, it could just be a feeling, but objectively speaking, even Flynn Levernil's original position was not an investigator but the Commander's adjutant, and he was here as a reference. Leonardo thought there was no way Agrizendro, who had directly captured him, wouldn't be observing the interrogation process.
If he was watching this situation right now, it wasn't something that could be resolved by simply denying it. He was a terrifyingly quick-witted person, and even if a very small tone or action planted suspicion in him, his tail could be stepped on in unexpected places. That was precisely why he was here now.
Soon, Leonardo withdrew his gaze from the opaque glass window and slightly parted his lips as if to answer the investigator.
As Investigator Eckison stared at him with fierce eyes, as if expecting his answer, Leonardo twisted the corner of his mouth into a subtle smile instead of answering and said,
"If you let me smoke a cigarette, I'll answer."
Comments
Jesse Gibson
Ah I want him to punch that f-er in the face so bad 😩, how can my boo escape??
