Working his jaw muscles that stung from the wound, Nero asked with the face of the world’s greatest villain:
"Well, what do you think happened?"
Originally, he had planned to insist until the end that he was the owner of these clothes, but he knew such lies wouldn’t work anymore. It was obvious that pushing forward shamelessly would only backfire, with the other asking who he was trying to fool.
Nero tried to use Felix, whom he had left on the sickbed, to somehow escape this crisis. If the other side could bring up the Captain, he could do the same, and he thought that someone rumored to be a righteous, principled person wouldn’t easily overlook an issue involving a member’s life.
Because of this, Nero, twisting his lips like a crazed murderer, decided to try to scare the Commander a little—someone who seemed to have only heard refined talk.
"He kept resisting, so I cut his Achilles tendon a bit. Then, would you believe it, he was crawling on the floor making animal-like noises? You should have seen it, Commander."
As if he couldn’t hold back because it was so amusing, Nero continued with a grin.
"It was so noisy I was about to cut his throat, but it was hilarious how he begged for his life. I roughly threw him somewhere in the forest over there, so by now he's probably barely clinging to life..."
Although it was all lies, Nero deliberately recited cruel lines to create maximum crisis. However, he couldn’t continue the act to the end. The Commander’s unexpected lack of reaction, and his own tone being awkward for a vile blackmailer, were the reasons.
Doing something he wasn’t used to made his intonation unnatural, and above all, it lacked style. Style.
He had risked his life to save that guy from inside the barrier, but saying the opposite made him feel oddly empty.
"..."
He wondered if what he was doing now was right. He had pride as a soldier, and putting on airs like the terrorists he had subdued in the past, then using hostages, was a shameful act.
Thinking that if the Captain were here, he would have scolded him severely while smacking his head, Nero suddenly felt conflicted and bit his lip with a displeased expression.
As he abruptly seemed lost in thought mid-sentence, Hugo, who had been watching, calmly opened his mouth.
"It seems he's safe."
"...?"
At the Commander's words, drawing his own conclusion, Nero’s face instantly clouded with bewilderment.
'What?'
He was startled at how the other knew, since he hadn’t hinted at safety anywhere. Wondering if his expression had given something away, Nero momentarily forgot he should be refuting it.
His unstable gaze and awkward gestures were completely transparent to Hugo, who had years of interrogation experience.
Nero tried to insist belatedly, thinking it might have been a bluff, but Hugo, judging it not worth hearing, immediately followed with his second question.
"Then what's your purpose for coming here? To rescue your old comrade?"
At the other’s question, specifically mentioning 'comrade,' Nero’s jaw stiffened again. The difference in experience was this enormous. Afraid the other might read something else from him if he misspoke by even one word, Nero couldn’t answer easily.
However, as if to say that continuing to exercise the right to remain silent would be disadvantageous, Hugo, who had been waiting, furrowed his brow and coldly warned:
"If you keep your mouth shut, I'll send you to the Council's Southern Branch on charges of attempted rape of an unconscious person. Answer obediently before that."
"...What? No, where is this coming from—"
Nero protested, as if wronged by the sudden measure. However, he soon recalled a certain 'act' he couldn’t bring himself to do inside the cabin.
As his expression stiffened for a moment, like a thief caught red-handed, Hugo, who had been watching, delivered the finishing blow with an even deeper look of contempt.
"Does Leonardo know that you harbor indecent feelings for him?"
With his blue eyes twisted as if looking at someone not even worth a bug, Nero's eyes widened in shock and the corners of his mouth twitched. With a frustrated look, he ran his hand through his hair and gesticulated with his whole body to express his innocence.
"Ha, what are you saying? I was just worried. It's not me—it's you who harbors indecent thoughts, isn't it? I have every right to!"
"If you're talking about the right to sneak in and undress an unconscious stranger... There's no one more shameless."
"How can you twist my words like that...!"
Nero growled, ready to strike, saying what kind of pervert would dress an unconscious person in all their own clothes. Not only did he feel hot again thinking of that scene, but he also felt he should seriously reconsider whether it was okay to leave the Captain like this.
But even in that moment, with the other getting worked up, Hugo narrowed his eyes and mulled over the meaning of Nero's words.
'He has the right?'
Judging from his statement about being worried, it was certain that their relationship was at least that of comrades, or more.
Their combat techniques matched, and even their ability to use the forbidden illusion magic that was presumably passed down secretly within Armsilver was the same, so the assumption that the two had belonged to the same unit in the past was quite reasonable.
But when he so brazenly said he had 'the right,' Hugo thought their relationship might be a little deeper. Looking back, the strange obsession toward Leonardo and the hostility shown toward himself in the fellow's past behavior led to one conclusion that made his actions understandable.
In other words...
'Lover?'
"..."
...Feeling not very pleased, Hugo found Leonardo very pitiful either way.
To have such a naked ape who couldn’t even hide his emotions as a comrade, or a lover. His combat ability was quite useful, but leaving that fellow as he was—someone who kept falling for leading questions—would be of no help to Leonardo's position in the future.
Even though he wanted to clean it up neatly, the problem was that he couldn't judge whether this was the fellow's independent action or if he had come on orders from superiors. If it was the latter, he thought it was rather unnecessary at this point, but it was unreasonable to completely rule out the possibility.
Cordelia Hareth had argued that the purpose of the Imperial Knights coming here could be 'that'. In other words, it meant that even the Imperial Army side, which had seemed uninterested in Leonardo, might have sent a spy targeting 'him'.
But that conflicted with his own speculation that this fellow, presumed to be from Armsilver, had paralyzed the military's surveillance network. If so, it lent more credibility to it being an independent action, but whether he had given up after trying to rescue Leonardo alone and failing, or whether he had other purposes, he couldn't let this guy keep walking around pretending to be a Council member.
Considering all possible scenarios that could unfold in the future, the existence of this fellow who had independently caused so much trouble was a bottleneck that exponentially increased uncontrollable variables.
Hugo wanted to pressure the fellow with a few more questions and consider his treatment, but he wasn’t given that leisure.
Suddenly, he felt a ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ faint presence from behind, which he had been aware of all along.
'...?'
Hugo immediately turned his head and sent a cold gaze into the darkness. At the same time, Nero, who had sensed the presence of others even before him, lowered his posture and took a step back while holding his breath.
If any more Council personnel got involved in the incident, the situation would worsen to the point where he couldn't resolve it at his own level.
The two, having the same thought, immediately took offensive stances. Hugo grasped the greatsword he had planted beside him and deployed a huge magic circle at his feet that covered a certain radius. Blue strokes that spread widely over the dug-up ground drew up fierce ice pillars in all directions—front and back, left and right—with Hugo as the center point.
Kwaaang-!
Suddenly, as if an earthquake had struck, the ground shook, and sharp icicles pierced up through the earth. As they rose as if to spear through bodies, Nero, startled, swung his arm and shattered the ice approaching his abdomen in one blow.
However, as he kept dodging the relentlessly advancing sharp tips, he was forced to retreat more and more. While chasing after the withdrawing Nero, Hugo kept watching the presence behind. When it seemed the mysterious entity was no longer approaching, he stopped pursuing and threw three ice spears in front of Nero.
At the attack flying as if to nail his feet to the ground, Nero hesitated and leaped into the air. Then, after staring at the fierce warning stuck in the ground, he glared at the Commander with fierce eyes.
"Ambush seems to be your strategy? You use it habitually."
Hugo, who had no time to play along with the sarcasm, flicked the tip of his greatsword toward Nero. Then his low voice, calm and cold-faced, reprimanded him as if to make him understand the seriousness:
"We're both tired, so I won't beat around the bush. Get out of here right now. While I'm asking nicely."
Nero's expression crumpled at his fierce declaration. But at the same time, he tilted his head slightly, as if puzzled. After chasing him as if to kill him until now, he couldn’t understand why he was suddenly telling him to leave.
"You should know well that the atmosphere in the imperial capital is not normal. The more attention you draw here, the more inevitably difficult Leonardo's position becomes. And I am now in the position of a guardian with the duty to protect him."
The word 'guardian' grated on Nero's nerves. Who was whose guardian? Before he could argue back in disbelief, Hugo pressed on:
"Don't think I've forgiven you for impersonating our member just because I'm letting you go. I can find you again anytime and put you in an underground prison on any charge."
"..."
"The reason I'm not pursuing you further is purely because of Leonardo. I have a duty to protect him as he approaches freedom, and I don't want him to be in trouble. The same should go for you. There's nothing more you can do for Leonardo here. It would be fortunate if you don't get in the way by having your identity exposed."
Nero, who had been staring straight at Hugo, flushed red and blue the moment he heard the last sentence. Hearing about his own powerlessness from the enemy's mouth scratched his pride so much that his blood almost boiled backward for a moment.
But regardless, Hugo stared into Nero's eyes and recited reality in a cool bass voice:
"So return to your original form, your original position. Go and clean up everything you've done without a trace. Take responsibility for removing anything that could leave a trail, so it doesn't tarnish your comrade's triumphant return. If any problems arise in Leonardo's future path because of what you've done, then I won't let you off easily."
Hugo, who had been putting Nero down with his fierce voice as before, fell silent for a moment, then completely dissolved the greatsword in his hand. Seeing this, Nero's eyes narrowed, as if trying to grasp his intentions.
Hugo lowered the arm he had extended toward him and said with a small sigh:
"This is the maximum leniency I can show to both of you."
