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Bermuda Chapter 8
🕑 Added 2024-04-07 13:14:30 +0000 UTCChapter 8
Hugo and Flynn stood in front of the main building of the count's residence, waiting for the door to open out of courtesy. Even without peering inside, they could sense the chaos within.
After a few minutes had passed, just as Hugo was about to force the door open and enter, the central door opened, and the count personally greeted them with an awkward smile.
"It's an honor to have Your Excellency visit us from such a distant place."
At the count's words, Hugo stared intently at his face and then spoke.
"Today, I have come as the commander of the Council's army, so please refrain from using that title."
"Pardon? The C-Council, you say...?"
Count Servia was extremely polite in front of Hugo. Flynn, being well aware of his superior's position, was accustomed to nobles groveling before Hugo. The count, visibly flustered and at a loss for what to do, stood before them who had suddenly visited his mansion.
"Haha, what brings the commander of the Council's army here..."
He spoke while sweating profusely, almost on the verge of losing his mind. He was already on the brink of a nervous breakdown upon hearing the news that the Council had entered the neighboring town, and now, Hugo Agrizendro, who could be considered the head of the Council, had abruptly barged into his mansion.
According to the etiquette among nobles, visiting someone's mansion without prior notice was considered quite rude, but it was a different story if it was done while bearing the title of the Council.
Count Servia, in a state of panic, fervently hoped that the grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group and the mage who resembled a hooligan, who had been here with him until just now, would not show up nearby. He nervously rubbed his hands together and forced a smile, then guided them to the reception room.
As Hugo picked up the cup on the table, the steaming teacup instantly turned cold. After taking a sip of the chilled tea, Hugo set the cup down and asked bluntly,
"My adjutant and I stopped by the neighboring town on business. And this morning, we arrested a mage who was tailing us."
"You arrested... a mage?"
The count felt dizzy. The mage they had arrested was most likely the one he had sent. He had instructed the mage he had been using to find out the identity of the suspicious outsiders who had appeared recently to monitor them.
However, he had never dreamed that the outsiders the mage was following would be Hugo Agrizendro himself. Who would have thought that the outsiders who had entered the neighboring town would be from the Council, let alone the commander and his adjutant?
"So, do you know anything? About that mage."
"..."
As the count closed his mouth, Hugo leaned back and silently stared at him. Although Hugo wasn't saying or doing anything, the pressure the count felt was truly immense. It felt as if Hugo already knew everything, and the count racked his brain incessantly but couldn't come up with a proper answer.
As time passed, the sound of the fireplace crackling slowly died down, and the fire gradually extinguished. As the interior quickly turned cold, Flynn quietly shivered.
The count, who had been greatly intimidated by the cold air emanating from the commander in front of him, finally managed to open his mouth with difficulty. He thought they had already come with conviction.
"That mage was indeed sent by me. I heard that outsiders were inquiring around the neighboring town, so I had them followed for investigation, but I never dreamed that it would be you, Commander."
"Do you want to say that you sent a mage just to investigate outsiders? I think that's going too far."
Hugo spoke, poking at the loophole in what the count had just said. Once again, silence fell upon them.
"Is the reason you reacted so sensitively to outsiders because you have something to hide? Something that shouldn't be discovered."
"N-No, that's not it!"
As Flynn casually asked, the count was visibly startled and subtly displayed an unpleasant expression. Noticing his reaction, Flynn thought he was responding this way because he was hiding something related to the disposal of the monster corpses.
Hugo thought the same. He speculated that the count was hiding something, which was why he reacted sensitively to outsiders and even had a mage spy on them. And he guessed that what he was hiding might be related to the monster corpses.
However, what came out of the count's mouth after a long pause was a completely unexpected story.
"The reason I sent a mage to follow you was that I heard the two outsiders were looking for Leonardo Blaine. I thought that if they were searching for such a dangerous person, they might be even more dangerous themselves, so I wanted to investigate discreetly."
"...Leonardo Blaine, you say?"
Flynn, who had been looking at the count with surprised eyes, turned his head towards Hugo. Even Hugo had a puzzled expression, not expecting that name to come up here. Soon, Hugo asked Flynn,
"Flynn Levernil, did you ever mention his name while conducting the inquiry?"
"Absolutely not. I swear. I only showed the photo without revealing the name."
Flynn answered firmly, as if he was truly swearing.
"...Then that means."
A faint smile spread across Hugo's lips. As a smile appeared on his cold face, his handsome features stood out. However, to the count who couldn't grasp what they were reacting to, it was a more brutal smile than any other.
"There is someone who knows his face."
At Hugo's words, the count sensed that something was wrong with what he had said.
"How do you know that fact? That the person we are looking for is Leonardo Blaine. When we conducted the inquiry while showing the photo, we never once mentioned that the person in the photo was him."
Count Servia rolled his eyes. His mind had turned completely blank, and he was trying hard to think about what he had said wrong.
The one who had told the count that the outsiders seemed to be looking for Leonardo Blaine was the water mage he had sent to follow the outsiders.
The mage had mentioned that the outsiders were going around showing a photo, but he hadn't mentioned that they didn't reveal the name of the person in the photo, so the count was completely unaware of that.
Moreover, since he had never seen the photo they were carrying around, he didn't realize that the Leonardo Blaine they were talking about was a different person.
Therefore, the count was terrified that if it was revealed to them that the mage who had informed him knew Leonardo Blaine's face, everything that had been going on until now, including the fact that the hooligan-like fellow had been here until just now, might be exposed.
As the crisis loomed, the only thing that kept echoing in his mind was what the grand master of the merchant group had said earlier.
'If we leak information about that guy first, we might be able to negotiate with the Council by handing over Blaine.'
However, what she had overlooked was that the person she would be negotiating with was none other than Khazhad of the Council. 'Khazhad' was one of the nicknames for Hugo Agrizendro, the commander of the Council's army, referring to his reputation as a strong principled and cold-hearted individual.
However, the person behind that nickname greatly disliked that name, so hardly anyone used that word in front of him.
Count Servia was well aware that Hugo Agrizendro was not someone he could negotiate with. He was a person who highly valued principles and righteousness, and attempting to negotiate with him would only provoke him.
In the end, the count, who had been pondering over this problem, decided to shift the crisis to the grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group, who was directly involved with Leonardo Blaine.
"Currently, the Delberg Merchant Group has entered the territory. The grand master of the merchant group told me about it."
"The grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group?"
"Yes, when the merchant group entered Frost territory, the grand master of the merchant group visited my mansion to pay their respects. At that time, they hinted at it, saying that outsiders had come to the area looking for Leonardo Blaine, and since they seemed to be dangerous individuals, it would be best to pay attention to them."
The count lied to the best of his ability to avoid the crisis. The grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group would be furious if she found out that this matter had been passed on to her, but he thought she should take some responsibility since she was the one who had brought Leonardo Blaine.
And he believed that the most urgent and best course of action was to find the grand master of the merchant group and coordinate their stories before the people in front of him left.
Hugo closely observed the count as he spoke. If what he said was true, it meant that either the grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group was among the people they had asked while showing the photo, or there was someone who had relayed the information to the grand master of the merchant group.
Hugo naturally thought of the two young men among those he had shared drinks and conversations with the previous night. They had introduced themselves as low-ranking members of the Delberg Merchant Group and said they were just doing their job without knowing the purpose of the merchant group's visit to this place.
If they knew Leonardo Blaine's face but pretended not to...
As his thoughts reached that point, Hugo realized that there was something he needed to do before determining the truth of the count's words. If the low-ranking member of the merchant group he had seen at the tavern had deliberately hidden the fact that he knew Leonardo Blaine's face and reported it to the grand master of the merchant group... why had he mentioned the monster corpses, which could raise suspicion about the merchant group?
"Then let me ask one more thing."
"Wh-What is it?"
"I heard quite an interesting rumor in the town. About a fortnight ago, burnt monster corpses were discovered on the mountainside. And I heard that the lord of Frost had them collected."
"That's...!"
"I'd like to hear an explanation about this story."
When the topic of monsters came up, the count's face turned pale, and he showed visible signs of panic. After moving his lips for a moment, he seemed to think he still had an excuse to escape the situation and hastily answered,
"Those weren't monster corpses! They were just animal corpses."
"...Animal corpses?"
"Well... as you know, Commander, Frost territory has a dry climate and barren land. It's unsuitable for livestock farming. So, while importing slaughtered livestock meat through the merchant group, a fire accidentally broke out, and that's what happened. Monsters, that's absurd. Haha."
There's no way such a thing could be here... The count awkwardly added, wiping his cold sweat. Flynn was slightly puzzled by that plausible sophistry. Hugo, who had been listening quietly, asked the count again,
"A fire broke out by accident? What's the reason for the sudden fire?"
"Isn't the climate here extremely dry? So, forest fires occur naturally quite often, and there are many dry branches, which also makes the spread faster. From what I heard, a member of the merchant group accidentally dropped a cigarette butt while smoking, causing the fire to spread. There were a lot of dry trees and grass around, so the fire quickly spread. That's why, as soon as I heard the news, I sent the water mage I employ to suppress the fire."
Flynn, who had been listening to the smooth answers, cautiously opened his mouth.
"Well... I know that Frost territory is an area where forest fires occur frequently due to the dry climate. But then, are you aware of the fire that broke out in the neighboring town last night? At that time, it took several hours after I contacted the Council branch for the guards to arrive."
"Ah... I'm aware of that. It seems that last night's fire broke out near the town rather than in the mountains, so the detector's detection was delayed."
The count said, taking something out of his inner pocket to show them. It was a type of thermal detector.
"I have installed these temperature detectors throughout the mountains so that we can immediately know when a fire breaks out. However, since fires rarely occur near residential areas, we haven't installed many detectors there, so it seems we couldn't properly detect it."
"May I take a look at that detector for a moment?"
"...Go ahead."
Although the count was a bit reluctant, he thought they wouldn't be able to find out anything with just that and handed the detector to Flynn.
What he said about the detector failing to detect was true. In fact, regarding the fire that occurred last night, the devices connected to the count's residence did not immediately sound the alarm, so they found out belatedly.
Flynn began to examine the object he had received from various angles. Count Servia glanced at him with a slightly uneasy feeling, then wiped his sweat again and gave an awkward smile to Commander Agrizendro, who was intently staring at him.
"By the way, was it you, Commander, who extinguished the fire last night as the water mage?"
"That's right."
"Oh, I can't express my gratitude enough...! If it weren't for you, Commander, it would have turned into a big fire. On behalf of the townsfolk, I express my deepest gratitude."
As Hugo nodded his head in response to the topic the count had desperately brought up, the count made a fuss as if he had met his savior. Then, carefully rubbing his hands together, he gently said with a look that he would try his best not to go against Hugo's mood.
"By the way... when do you think that mage I sent will—"
"We will conduct an interrogation, and if there are no issues, we will send him back immediately."
"Ah, thank you."
Although the mention of an interrogation was a bit concerning, the count was relieved, thinking that the mage would not spill the truth, as he knew that the Council's interrogation was not sadistic but merely a matter of asking a few questions.
Watching the count, Hugo had a feeling that the water mage he had caught earlier would know a lot.
