Bermuda

"Use whichever side is comfortable. I don't mind either way."

Looking around the inside of the tent, Leonardo sat down on the cot on the left without much thought in response to Hugo's words. Although it wasn't exactly the same arrangement as the first night on the peninsula, he felt more at ease on this side, perhaps because he had used the left side then as well.

As if anticipating his choice, Hugo, who had firmly closed the entrance to the tent, immediately headed to the right. Then he neatly placed small items such as a portable radio and gloves on the side table.

The metal buttons of the protective gloves clattered as they touched the wooden side table. Outside, it was still noisy and chaotic, but the inside of the tent felt like a separate space, disconnected from the outside. With only the two of them, there was hardly any movement or sound in the air.

The only noise that spread in the quiet space loosened the tense atmosphere quite a bit. Thanks to that, Leonardo's neck and shoulders belatedly complained of the stiffness he had been unaware of all along.

Leonardo decided not to bother distinguishing whether the source of the comfort he felt was from escaping those gazes or from being with that person.

Leaning his body diagonally with the head of the cot raised, he rubbed his left shoulder with his right hand. As he blankly lost focus due to the fatigue that came over him, his eyes met Hugo's, who had already finished organizing.

With drowsy eyes, he tilted his head slightly, conveying a gaze that asked, "Why?" It seemed to be a trigger, as Hugo, who had taken a few steps with his long legs, was suddenly right in front of him. Leonardo's hand, which had been touching his shoulder, moved to his stiff neck after looking up at the tall figure.

Hugo's gaze briefly lingered on that hand, then met his eyes again and spoke,

"Thank you, Leonardo."

It might have felt like a sudden expression of gratitude, but Leonardo could instantly understand what he meant.

However, he deliberately pretended not to know.

"For what?"

Guessing that the conversation would be long, Hugo pulled a wooden chair and placed it next to the cot where he was sitting. Sitting face to face at a suitable distance, perhaps because their eye level was lowered, Leonardo's hand that had been holding his neck moved back to his left shoulder. That posture seemed to be much more comfortable for him.

A few minutes ago, there had been quite a commotion outside.

Liner, who had been looking at the affiliation engraved on the armband handed over by Kenis, smelled the stench of rotten blood from the stain, and his eyes changed. He immediately confronted Kenis, asking where he had found this.

Kenis replied that he couldn't remember well as he had wandered here and there as if he were dead before finding it, but Liner persistently asked him to at least try to remember the direction in a somewhat coercive manner.

Hugo and Bruno, who had turned their heads at his raised voice in agitation, mentioned that Kenis Weber was also one of the missing persons and stopped Liner, saying it was discourteous to a survivor who had brought back a comrade's belongings.

At that, Liner immediately looked back at his own behavior and apologized to Kenis for acting rashly, but he also asked Hugo and Bruno to allow him to dispatch a search team to find the location.

Seeing the tattered clothes and the bloodstains that had been there for quite some time, Bruno seemed to have judged that there was no hope and suggested that it would be better to proceed with the search after dawn as it was dangerous now that the sun had set. However, Liner stubbornly insisted that his subordinate might be dying at this very moment.

And at that moment, it was Leonardo, who had been quietly standing there, who told him the location where the personal belongings were found.

Amidst the puzzled gazes directed at him, Leonardo mentioned to Liner the exact coordinates and the approximate time it would take to get there, specifically describing the location. He also described the scene he had seen and finally added that he shouldn't get his hopes up.

Liner, who had been quietly staring at him with a mix of doubt and belief, offered him a word of thanks with a stiff face. Then, he disappeared from the spot for a long time.

Hugo's thoughts, which had been briefly recalling the situation, returned to the inside of the tent. Then, looking at Leonardo's shoulder, which seemed emptier than before, he opened his mouth.

"I was wondering if you had lost your cloak, but it turned out to be wrapped around our member's belongings."

"..."

"...It means thank you for bringing our comrade back. Whether it's Kenis Weber or the owner of those belongings."

At Hugo's words, Leonardo's eyebrows slightly rose.

This person seemed to already be convinced that Kenis and he, who had been found separately, were together at that point. It was sufficiently inferable since he had mentioned the location where the personal belongings were found in his own words, but it was unexpected that he had also noticed that the black cloth was his cloak.

Although he was worried that the story might get tangled later, Leonardo didn't think he needed to make excuses and pointed out something else.

"I couldn't bring back... the owner of the belongings. I told you. Don't expect them to be alive."

"I'm not expecting it, as you said. You, who saw the scene directly, would know best about their survival. But there is a clear difference between losing a comrade without knowing anything and finding even a trace. I'm just grateful to you for making that difference."

Blinking slowly, Hugo stared straight ahead.

"Not just me, but all of us will be grateful to you."

The lamp hanging on the wall flickered, and the blue eyes under Hugo's brow shone softly in the deep shadows. Leonardo's eyes narrowed as he looked at the blue color that seemed both gentle and bitter today.

Honestly, he didn't do it to hear words of gratitude. He hadn't known the situation would turn out like this and was simply acting out of moral obligation.

However, if the traces of death he had discovered had alleviated even a little of the sadness contained in those eyes, he suddenly thought that he was really glad they had caught his attention. At the same time, he now understood why he was a respected commander who could express calm sadness at the death of his subordinate.

However, this atmosphere of mourning and the depressed air that seemed to penetrate the ground were not very pleasant. Leonardo turned his eyes slightly and habitually rubbed his left shoulder and collarbone. He wanted to give an appropriate answer and get over this moment.

"Well..."

"Is your shoulder in a lot of pain?"

Seeing that, Hugo abruptly changed the subject and asked. It was because his habit of constantly caressing his shoulder had been bothering him all along.

In the past, he wouldn't have even thought of asking, assuming he wouldn't get an answer, but this time, he decided not to beat around the bush. He was worried that he might have been injured in the process of holding onto the two unconscious people, putting a great strain on his arms at the ravine collapse site.

Hugo immediately sat on the edge of the chair as if to examine Leonardo's condition, leaning his upper body slightly forward. As he approached, Leonardo, who had been rubbing his shoulder, pulled his body back as if trying to move away.

However, as he was sitting, he couldn't go back as much as he intended, and for a moment, he felt something touch his legs. Leonardo reflexively looked down.

One of Hugo's troublesome long legs had slightly wedged between Leonardo's two legs. Although it was just a light touch around the knee, the feeling was quite unfamiliar. Even though they had rolled together in the forest, it felt sensitive, as if it were a place that shouldn't be touched.

Feeling a bit flustered, Leonardo hurriedly lowered the hand that had been touching his shoulder. Then, he supported his body with one arm behind him and blocked Hugo's approaching chest with the other hand. He answered with a calm expression on his face, pretending to be at ease.

"No, it's not to the point of being unusable."

Hugo paused for a moment at the action that seemed to say, "Don't come closer." His handsome brows furrowed at Leonardo's words, which described his body as if it were a machine part.

"I saw a big scar on it before. Leonardo, if there is any place you are injured, you must tell me right now. The longer the treatment is delayed, the slower the recovery will be."

"I told you it's nothing. And everyone has one or two of these."

Seeing him even curling his upper body as if trying to hide it afterward, Hugo couldn't tell if he simply didn't want to show it or if he wanted to conceal his weakness.

So, more decisively, he reached out his hand without hesitation towards Leonardo's left shoulder. Of course, he was stopped before he could go far.

Hugo's action without warning made the tension inside the tent, which had loosened, tighten again. Leonardo's sharply contracted pupils fiercely stared at Hugo's hand that had come close, then slowly moved to his blue eyes.

The golden eyes that had turned cold after a long time looked up at him and spoke,

"I didn't say you could touch it."

The low voice clearly warned. As the strong grip that seemed to break his wrist if he came any closer squeezed, Hugo stopped his outstretched hand ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) and blankly looked down at him.

When he thought they had gotten a little closer and took a step forward, he would move away again. When he thought his guard had loosened a bit, he would bare his fangs again. He had no idea how to deal with him.

However, he couldn't just maintain the distance he wanted and leave him alone, as he had a recklessly foolish side that made it impossible not to pay attention to him. He acted like a young child left by the water.

Hugo, who had been quietly staring at the fiercely opened eyes, let out a small sigh that was barely audible. Then, he slightly changed the direction of the hand he had stretched out.

"Then how about here?"

The fingertips lightly tapped the fluffy cheek. He even gently rubbed it, feeling the soft texture that he hadn't known until he touched it. The touch that carefully caressed the skin was filled with a kind of affection.

As the long, cool fingers suddenly brushed his face, Leonardo made a dumbfounded expression. Not only was it strange for him to abruptly change course, but it was also abnormal for him to instinctively block his shoulder yet fail to stop the hand reaching for his face.

He couldn't judge how to react to the hand that now approached him without hesitation after being docile once. So, as he remained still, the hand that touched his face lingered for quite a long time, as if leaving a mark that it could go there.

Unable to understand what the touch, which seemed to become more and more persistent despite the cold and indifferent face, wanted from him, Leonardo looked up at him with slightly furrowed brows and laughed.

On the verge of crossing the line. It was when that precarious touch lingered and was withdrawn that the medical team outside the tent announced their arrival.

*****

The medical team came all the way to the tent where the Commander was staying, but other than providing simple contusion treatment and spraying muscle pain relaxant for Leonardo, they couldn't do much.

It was partly because he didn't like the touch of others on his body, but also because his condition was surprisingly fine.

The medical officer examining his body exclaimed that this could only be called a stroke of luck, but instead scolded the Commander, asking how he got more injured than the members. It was because the right arm that had been stitched before had not fully recovered, and this time, he had returned with a dark bruise on his abdomen.

Leonardo, who was a bit surprised to hear that Hugo had stitches on his arm, soon realized that he was also the one who had caused the bruise the officer was talking about, and glanced at him with a slightly apologetic look.

Perhaps that face was quite a sight to see, as Hugo smiled while receiving treatment, and the medical team thought that the Commander must be very tired and quickly left after a simple treatment.

Taking advantage of the fact that they were alone again, Leonardo tried to apologize for kicking him, but Hugo put his clothes back on and left the tent, saying, "Don't go anywhere and rest here."

Although he hadn't heard anything specific, Leonardo intuitively predicted that there would be a meeting among the Council commanders gathered earlier, based on his somewhat hurried appearance. And he thought that there might be someone in it who would question his whereabouts during the period of his disappearance.

Left alone in the huge tent, Leonardo flopped down on the cot with his hands clasped behind his head. Various doubts and anxieties crept in about whether his words of not putting handcuffs on him would still be valid after the meeting and whether they could overlook it since he had returned safely.

Honestly, he wanted to stop thinking now, but his current situation didn't allow for that. Closing his eyes for a moment and sighing, he decided to organize his jumbled thoughts while he was left alone. Now was not the time to rest comfortably.

'I've moved around too much in the past few days. When there is a lot of movement, gaps are bound to appear.'

As he opened his eyes slightly again, the first thing he saw was the lamp attached to the center of the hexagonal ceiling. Staring blankly at the light from that lamp, Leonardo blinked slowly.

'Let's think. What needs to be sorted out first, what will become an obstacle.'

The light spreading from the lamp illuminated the inside of the tent softly, but it made the support poles extending from the center of the ceiling to the six corners even more distinct. Staring at it quietly, Leonardo began to retrace his actions, the things he had experienced, and the things he had learned, assigning them one by one to those lines.

He was rescued from the collapse site by Nero, and after regaining consciousness, he met Alec Siles and made a contract. Next, to inform them of his survival, he left footprints in the swamp and headed to the mining team's hideout to find etaide, and in the process, he discovered that a Council battalion commander was involved in illegal mining.

After escaping from there, in the forest, he heard about the hidden secrets and history of the Elder Millie Peninsula and the hypothesis that it had been intentionally neglected. And after that...

His brows furrowed slightly as he blinked and pondered deeply. Although he had listed them in order, he felt like he was missing something.

'What is it? There was something bothering me.'

Leonardo, who had been glaring at the one remaining line out of the six in front of him, suddenly rolled his eyes toward the entrance of the tent. A shadow was flickering in front of it.

For a moment, he wondered if Agrizendro had already returned, but judging by the size of the shadow and the bustling movement, it was definitely not him.

Leonardo narrowed his eyes and slowly sat up on the cot, making sure not to make a sound. He also looked around to see if the medical team had left something behind, but there was nothing noticeable.

As he quietly observed the figure outside the tent again, he heard a familiar voice.

"Mr. Blaine, are you there?"

Contrary to his previous wariness, Leonardo's expression quickly softened. The owner of the voice was Kenis.

He immediately got up from his seat and walked quickly to the entrance of the tent. He grabbed the cloth that was closed like a curtain at the entrance and slightly pulled it aside. Then, Kenis appeared, looking around as if to say, "I have business here," in a way that anyone could see.

"Hey."

When called in a small voice, he was startled and turned his head, then immediately showed a delighted expression.

"Mr. Blaine!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Ah, I... Can I come in and tell you?"

Kenis seemed to know that only he was inside the tent right now. At his words, Leonardo could sense that he had deliberately waited for this moment to come and have a secret conversation. It was a good thing, as he had also been looking for an opportunity to talk to him alone.

"Wait, before that, do you know where your Commander went?"

"He's in a meeting with other battalion commanders right now. I think it will take a while."

He wanted to see the meeting site with his own eyes, but unfortunately, this tent was heavily obscured by other tents, so he couldn't properly see the outside situation. However, thinking that other people's gazes wouldn't reach here either, Leonardo looked around and soon nodded.

"Come in."

In principle, it was the Commander's tent, and for various safety and security reasons, an ordinary member should not enter, but Leonardo thought that this was the only place where he could meet Kenis alone in secret while Agrizendro was away.

With the thought of finishing the conversation as quickly as possible and sending him out before he returned, Leonardo slightly lifted the entrance and gestured with his chin for him to come in.

Kenis, who had been very tense, hurriedly went inside at that sign. As he entered, Leonardo took one last look outside and closed the entrance of the tent.

It was right after he had firmly secured the entrance that he realized Kenis was the last of the six lines that he couldn't recall.