Leonardo, who had walked along the perimeter of the rocky hill to a place where the base camp was not visible, looked around, then teleported away. The place he moved to was about 5 km from the base camp, and it was also densely packed with huge, jagged structures.
After checking his surroundings again, Leonardo confirmed that no one was nearby and took something out of his pocket. It was a heavy silver-shining lump of metal. Nero's ring.
With his other hand, he also created a small sphere without any ability and sent it into the air. The transparent sphere naturally blended in and disappeared. It was a small amount of mana he had released.
Eventually, Leonardo raised the ring high and narrowed his eyes, carefully peering at its inner surface. If the owner was nearby, a faint light would show from the engraved intaglio inside. He had sent out his mana to call Nero, who might be close.
However, even after looking for a long time, no light came from the ring. He deliberately wandered here and there, but there was still no reaction.
It had been three days that he had searched for Nero like this, and no trace or energy of him had been found since that day.
"...Is it my imagination?"
Leonardo muttered to himself and lowered his stiff arm. Still not taking his eyes off the ring, he set his # Nоvеlight # foot on the stairs of a structure that looked like a watchtower and climbed up.
When he reached a high point, he could see the dawn faintly breaking in the distance. He wanted to shine the ring in the thinly spreading morning light once more, but soon put it back in his pocket. He had felt a presence nearby.
He slowly counted to ten in his mind. After taking a small, deep breath and turning around, someone was walking up the stairs of the structure. The other person had no intention of masking his mana, openly broadcasting his presence. It wasn't Nero, and it wasn't Flynn either.
Leonardo quietly watched him climb. The military boots that stepped on the last stair stopped there. It was both surprising and unsurprising. Leonardo knew he had been watching him recently.
The one who had climbed the stairs was Meterion Clinder.
The two of them just stared at each other for a while without a word. A silence that barely allowed even breathing filled the space between them.
The first to make a move was Leonardo, who was about to jump off the watchtower; but when he actually tried to avoid it, a strange pride stirred, and he decided to walk past the man blocking the stairs with dignity.
Fixing his gaze on the stairs, Leonardo strode forward. Whatever the man said, or asked why he was here, he would walk on, intending to ignore him.
When he had safely passed and taken about two steps down, Meterion, who had slowly turned, spoke softly.
"Why don't you run away?"
It didn't sound like something a Council battalion commander would say, so Leonardo unknowingly raised his head and looked at him. He frowned slightly, as if he'd heard something odd, but the other man said nothing more and simply looked down at him.
After parsing the words for a moment, Leonardo calmly answered.
"I promised not to run away."
At that, Meterion asked again.
"With whom? Agrizendro?"
Leonardo affirmed with silence. Then Meterion, who had been quietly staring at him, shifted his gaze aside for a moment and chuckled. It was a clear sneer.
Leonardo's eyebrows lifted at the sight. Soon after, with ridicule still lingering on his face, Meterion looked down and said,
"Why do you obediently listen to the man who caught you? Did he say he'd let you go later if you stayed put and didn't run?"
"..."
It wasn't far off, so he answered with silence again. As if he'd expected that, a tongue-click followed.
"Are you naive or stupid? Do you think he can let you go? He's just the emperor's dog—nothing without the emperor."
The emperor's dog. It was a vulgar term the aristocratic faction used for the emperor's loyalists, and one Leonardo had often heard in the past.
Leonardo could grasp the real point beneath Meterion's words. The man wasn't simply insulting the Commander as a powerless dog. He was mocking him for standing with another emperor's dog after being abandoned by his own.
Honestly, since the other side had come to pick a fight, he wanted to shatter his jaw cleanly, but he didn't want trouble when they were at the end of the subjugation.
Moreover, hearing him openly disparage a duke of the empire, he seemed even more hopeless than Leonardo himself, and getting involved with someone that far gone didn't seem wise.
"I'm not in a position to be picky right now, so I have to stick with whoever looks strongest. Someone with power strong enough to let me go."
Leonardo said with a slight smile.
"But aside from that person, I don't see anyone else worth relying on."
Since he was a battalion commander who always tried to match the Commander, Leonardo looked him straight in the eye and gently needled him. Whether it worked or not, the mockery faded from Meterion's face. A chilling gaze met in midair, and a taut silence held.
After some time passed, Leonardo suddenly felt another presence approaching nearby. It seemed to be Flynn, and now that he thought about it, he'd been gone too long for someone who said he'd be right back. Flynn must have come to find him after waiting.
Thinking nothing more would come of this, Leonardo was the first to avert his gaze. As he went down the stairs, the stare burning into the back of his head stung, but he forced himself to ignore it.
However, after about three more steps, he couldn't ignore the words that followed.
"What if I can let you go?"
Thud. Leonardo's steps halted. His eyes widened.
He stood there wondering what he'd heard, and soon another line followed.
"If I can give you perfect freedom, will you side with me then?"
"..."
The words were plain enough, but baffling. He had no idea what intent lay behind the man saying such things to him.
When he slowly turned with confused eyes, the man was still looking down at him expressionlessly. Yet it felt different from a moment ago when he'd mocked him. The extremely serious gaze said this was the main point.
Leonardo narrowed his eyes and studied him. Was it sincere, or a trap? Setting aside whether the man truly had the power to free him, the biggest question was what he stood to gain by doing so.
As he stared, skeptical but not dismissing it as a lie outright, the sound of Flynn's hurried footsteps came.
"Mr. Blaine!"
Flynn, who had rushed over upon seeing Leonardo on the watchtower stairs, soon noticed Meterion standing slightly higher and abruptly stopped.
At Flynn's voice, Meterion also shifted his gaze that way. With furrowed brows, he scanned the area to see if Flynn had brought anything. When their eyes met, Flynn, who had been frozen, snapped to and saluted. Then he barely spoke.
"Hello, Battalion Commander Clinder."
But though he clearly saw it, the other man did not return the salute.
Instead, he turned his eyes back to Leonardo and stared for a few seconds. When Leonardo caught the meaning in that look, Meterion began to slowly descend the stairs.
Leonardo tensed a little as he drew closer, but surprisingly, he passed without any move. As if they had never exchanged a word.
Soon, when he reached the bottom, stepped onto the dirt, and walked away with heavy strides, Flynn, who had been frozen nearby, hurriedly stepped aside.
In a one-on-one situation, a subordinate could not lower his arm until the superior accepted the salute, so Flynn had been standing at attention the whole time. But Meterion, who barely glanced at him, passed in front of him at an easy pace. Then he tossed a line as if for them to hear.
"It would be better to guard him properly."
Leonardo's brows knit deeply. He knew who that "guard" was meant for.
After a while, when he had completely vanished from sight, Flynn finally sighed and lowered his numb arm. Then, looking up at Leonardo, who was still on the stairs, he asked in a grumbling voice,
"Mr. Blaine, why are you here? I've been looking for you for a while."
Leonardo jumped down the stairs in one motion and landed lightly in front of him. After staring for a moment in the direction Meterion had gone, he spoke plainly.
"Sorry, I was taking a walk."
At the answer that sounded hastily made up, Flynn's expression soured. He had waited a long time, and when Leonardo didn't come, he'd worried and come all the way here. He wanted a proper explanation, but hearing a half-hearted reply only annoyed him.
While he was quietly glaring alone, Leonardo, who had glanced at the silent Flynn, immediately sensed his mood, slung an arm over his shoulder in a friendly way, and grinned.
"I'm sorry. I was going to head back soon."
"..."
"But why doesn't that bastard even return a salute when someone greets him? Your arm must hurt. Let's go too."
"Is it true you were really going to come back soon?"
"Of course—obviously. You don't trust me?"
Spoken with a beaming face, there was nothing more Flynn could say. Seeing someone who rarely smiled give blatant eye-smiles only at times like this, it felt like Leonardo knew him too well.
In the end, unable to press further about why he was here, Flynn moved along as Leonardo led him. Then, suddenly remembering the sight of the two standing face to face on stairs of different heights, he casually asked,
"But how did you run into Battalion Commander Clinder? What did you talk about?"
"Huh?"
At Flynn's question, Leonardo turned his head. Then, slightly curling the corners of his mouth, he said offhandedly,
"We didn't talk about anything."
