Bermuda

‘Uh...?’

Although he didn’t want to show his surprise, against his will, his eyelashes fluttered faintly.

The strength in his neck and shoulders suddenly drained. His half-raised head collapsed onto the pillowcase a moment later.

Frozen like that, staring at the other, the half-open blue eyes blinked slowly several times.

The room temperature was warm, almost to the point of drowsiness. However, an inexplicable coolness brushed past his skin.

‘Since when?’

Leonardo’s mind became incredibly complicated. An indescribable tension hung heavily in the barely a hand-span of distance between them.

He couldn’t understand why this person always pretended to be asleep, letting him lower his guard, only to surprise him like this. He wasn’t sure exactly when the other had woken up, but he felt that at least his touching of the other’s face must have been noticed.

At this distance, he had no confidence in calmly explaining why he had stroked the other’s jawline while lying side by side. He could choose not to explain at all, but somehow, at the point of meeting eyes while sharing a pillow, it seemed an excuse was needed.

So, as he racked his brain and swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple, which had become prominent due to weight loss over the past few days, bobbed up and down noticeably.

Hugo’s languid gaze, his thoughts unreadable, tracked that movement, dipping slightly. At the same time, his long legs, shifting minutely, touched Leonardo’s thighs, which had been heating up for a while.

‘...!’

Leonardo’s pupils dilated as if shocked. All his thoughts up to that point flew away in that brief instant.

The heat between his legs made itself known, making his efforts to sever the causal connection feel futile.

“W-Wait—!”

A shrill sound he’d never heard from himself burst out. Thinking he might touch the other if he moved even slightly, Leonardo abruptly straightened his curled-up upper body.

However, as if the crisis had blown away even the memory from just before, he once again put his weight on his left arm as he pressed against the floor.

“Aaagh!!”

As # Nоvеlight # the pain that felt like it would tear him apart speared his shoulder once again, Leonardo let out a short scream and lifted the hand that had been supporting him. His body, which had sprung up like a startled beast, instantly lost balance and fell backward.

“Leo!”

Hugo, equally startled, sat up abruptly, still not fully awake. He managed to catch the golden head that was about to hit the hard deck with his palm. As he did, he grabbed Leonardo’s arm as he grimaced in pain and asked, visibly flustered.

“Why—does your arm hurt? Let me see.”

Despite his husky voice, his grasp of the situation was remarkably quick. Hugo supported Leonardo’s back and shoulder with one arm, while with the other hand, he massaged his left arm as if to soothe him. Leonardo, half-embraced by Hugo and trembling in his shoulders, still managed to grab the fallen bedding and pull it up to his abdomen.

Although the pain was certainly curse-inducing and brought tears to his eyes, the lower part of his body was reacting to this situation in its own way, as if it were a completely different entity. Whimpering in pain, yet feeling quite self-loathing about it, Leonardo deliberately turned his body away, avoiding the other’s gaze and touch.

At that moment, Hugo’s hand, which had been caressing his arm, moved up and started working at Leonardo’s collar. Glancing down to see what he was doing, he saw the large hand undoing the small buttons one by one.

“Take it off for a moment. I need to check your condition.”

“...W-What?”

With his serious face, he probably really did intend to check his condition, but from Leonardo’s side, it didn’t feel that way at all. When Leonardo belatedly questioned it and grabbed Hugo’s forearm, it was already half undone, showing how quick he was.

“No, no, it’s fine. I’m fine!”

“What’s fine? The wound might get worse. I need to check now.”

“No, really, I’m fine, I tell you?”

Leonardo broke out in a cold sweat and resisted with all his might. His instinct was telling him that if any new stimulation was added in this already highly conscious situation, an uncontrollable sensation would rush in, doubling his self-loathing.

Moreover, he was already very confused, not knowing the cause well himself, so how much more confused would the other be if he found out about his situation?

The calm atmosphere of midday was gone, and the two engaged in a battle of nerves, grabbing each other’s collars as if grasping at the scruff of the neck. There was some light scuffling as one tried to undress and the other resisted, but for someone who had just woken up after being unconscious all this time, exerting force was nothing more than a cute act of defiance to Hugo.

“Let go, Leonardo. I’ll just take a quick look—”

Hugo tried to completely open the battle-uniform top he had put on Leonardo and pull down the undershirt inside to check his shoulder. At this, Leonardo, who had been struggling in his arms, pushed hard against Hugo’s chest and escaped, just as he had done once before.

“Don’t touch my body!”

Curling his legs and rolling away, he wrapped the blanket around his entire body and pressed himself against the wall, glaring at the other with fierce eyes. As Leonardo bristled, seemingly cornered, Hugo looked at him as if bewildered, not understanding the reason. However, seeing how wary he seemed, he didn’t reach out any further.

Instead, without moving from his spot, he stared blankly at Leonardo’s left shoulder with a hardened expression.

Only Leonardo’s rough breathing hung between them in silence. Hugo waited quietly for him to calm down, his eyes narrowed against the pouring sunlight.

As the silence settled again, Leonardo’s scattered reason gradually began to return. Only then did he notice Agrizendro’s expression, which seemed somewhat hurt. His uncharacteristically disheveled hair and tired-looking complexion subtly drew his attention.

“...”

Belatedly, regret washed over him as he remembered the words he had unconsciously thrown at the person who was trying to check his physical condition. Leonardo cautiously looked up at Hugo with an apologetic expression. Hugo, seeming to think he had calmed down somewhat, asked again in a calm tone:

“Is your arm okay?”

His voice was so sincere, as if he was truly worried, that Leonardo inwardly cursed the insensitive part of his body even in this situation.

His conscience pricked him. Feeling awkward about facing him, he lowered his eyes and slowly nodded instead of answering.

Still, he bit his lip hard, debating whether to speak or not, and then finally muttered in a small voice:

“I want to wash...”

It was a roundabout excuse, but Leonardo’s body was indeed soaked with sweat. So Hugo, who had initially found the statement out of place, could suddenly understand his desperate behavior a little.

*****

Hugo understood that Leonardo had desperately resisted because he thought his body was dirty. Because of this, he tried to lift Leonardo and carry him to a place where he could wash. However, Leonardo strongly refused and insisted on going by himself.

But even just standing up on his own while leaning against the wall was not easy for him in his current state. His legs trembled like a newborn foal. Moreover, he had wrapped the bedding around his entire body under the pretext of being cold, making it impossible to take a step in that state.

In the end, Leonardo, whose body was so heavy that movement was difficult, was teleported to a nearby shower facility with Hugo’s help. After shaking off the well-meaning Commander who offered to help him bathe and the medical officer who said water shouldn’t touch the affected area, Leonardo was finally able to have some time alone. Although he felt dizzy a few times during the process, his mind became much clearer as his body became clean.

Afterward, Leonardo was moved back to the accommodation and, now much fresher, was surrounded by the Council’s medical officers. Although he felt uncomfortable with strangers touching his body, he yielded to Agrizendro’s insistence and obediently extended his wrist when told to do so and opened his mouth when instructed, receiving the examination.

As he listened until his ears rang about his physical condition, he realized that he had been unconscious for quite a long time and that the wound on his shoulder had been very serious.

“This is an unbelievable recovery rate. I thought the treatment went well because the Commander himself participated in the surgery, but if an ordinary person had been poisoned to that extent, he would have been unconscious for at least ten days. The fact that he woke up in three days, and not only that, but his neural responses are currently very good... I can only say it’s a stroke of heaven-sent luck. This is a case that would make headlines if reported to the academic world.”

The medical officer, speaking with great excitement, added that they had even been considering amputation when mentioning the condition just before the surgery. Since the possibility of necrosis had been raised even at a glance at the time, Leonardo finally understood the pain in his shoulder that had hurt so much earlier.

At the same time, he glanced at Hugo as he heard that the Commander had personally participated in the surgery. He knew that Hugo could use Recovery, but he didn’t know he was skilled enough to participate in surgery.

“By the way.”

Curious all of a sudden, Leonardo interrupted the officer mid-sentence. At this, Hugo, who had been sitting next to him listening attentively, and the medical team members all shifted their gaze to him.

Although he felt a bit burdened by all the attention suddenly focused on him, Leonardo, undeterred, asked bluntly:

“Why is my voice like this? Is this because of the poison too?”

Leonardo’s voice had already been hoarse since the moment he woke up. His throat itself felt swollen and stinging, and due to his extremely hoarse voice, there were times when it sounded metallic.

At first, he had vaguely thought his voice was just rough from waking up after being asleep for a long time, but the gravelly voice, to the point where he worried about his vocal cords, seemed too extreme to chalk up to simple hoarseness, no matter how he thought about it.

When Leonardo asked this nonchalantly, the medical officer hesitated to speak and suddenly turned to Hugo. At that, Leonardo’s gaze also fell on Hugo. As their eyes met, Hugo asked Leonardo:

“Don’t you remember?”