"..."
The shocked golden eyes couldn’t blink for a while. The situation he had heard directly from the Commander had sounded quite hopeful—like everything had ended well.
He had heard they had succeeded in minimizing the damage from volcanic ash by completing the barrier repairs, and that the locals were eagerly offering accommodations to the members who had returned from risking their lives in battle. Nearby regions had sent relief supplies, and the injured were receiving timely treatment and recovering quickly.
Just hearing about it, it had sounded overwhelmingly positive. What a beautiful and brilliant epilogue it had seemed.
It was like the ideal image Leonardo had hoped for in his heart. But the scenes reflected in his eyes now were not so ideal.
Sorrow for lost comrades, crushed limbs, the indelible fishy smell rising from rusted metal and dried blood.
Darkness had already descended on the exhausted bodies, making the pain in his left arm feel shameful in comparison. The panting of those who had returned alive from that horrific scene lay thick on the twilight ground. Amidst it all, Leonardo couldn’t bring himself to fathom what thoughts hid behind the keen eyes flickering in the lamplight as they looked at him.
'I should have used the amplifier... earlier.'
He didn’t regret using the amplifier. However, when the glass vial in his inner pocket had fallen out like a revelation, it had taken quite some time to pop the lid and put the pill in his mouth. It had been difficult to overcome the fear of not knowing what would happen afterward.
But recalling that someone had died—or nearly died—even in that moment while he was hesitating, he regretted not using it sooner. If he had, the scene he was seeing now might have been a little less devastating.
'No, if only this hadn’t existed in the first place...'
Leonardo clenched his teeth and wrapped his right hand around his neck. He clenched his fist with his left hand, which had no strength.
If the survivors looked like this, the number of casualties couldn’t be small either. Facing the full reality, his heart began to beat faster and faster. As that heartbeat began to distantly invade his mind, the people who had been murmuring all around took a step forward.
Since having people rush toward him wasn’t exactly a good memory, Leonardo instinctively stepped back. At that moment, a high-pitched voice cut through the depressed air. It was familiar.
"Blaine!"
Leonardo flinched at the loud call of his name. As he immediately turned toward the sound, he saw a familiar face.
"Blaine—!!"
Before he could react, another shout followed, and a weight pressed against his chest. As his body was pushed back and he barely kept his balance, Leonardo looked down, dumbfounded, at the figure that had flung itself into his arms.
"...Battalion Commander Rivera?"
Delua, who had suddenly appeared from nowhere, abruptly hugged Leonardo’s waist tight. It happened so quickly he had no time to stop it, so instead of blocking her, Leonardo spread his arms wide. It was an instinctive move to avoid jarring his cast arm, but as a result, it looked as if he had welcomed the Council’s battalion commander with open arms.
It was quite an incongruous yet natural scene—though the person involved was extremely flustered.
"Ha, am I seeing this right? This isn’t a dream, is it?"
Delua expressed a fairy-tale delight as she rested her forehead against Leonardo’s neck, wrapped in a handkerchief. Squeezing his waist as if she might crush it, she kept muttering in a choked voice.
"Thank goodness. Really, really thank goodness..."
Leonardo, who had been looking down at her awkwardly with his arms still raised, just blinked, his mind at a standstill.
It wasn’t because a woman had rushed in and embraced his lower back in front of everyone. Her voice, mixed with her breathing, was full of moisture.
'Is she crying?'
Confronted with another person’s intense emotions, Leonardo was confused all over again—just as he had been when Flynn’s eyes had gone wet.
"Haa... Do you know how worried I was?"
He wore an expression of not knowing how to react. It wasn’t a bad thing that someone was worried about his well-being. It was, rather, the warmth he had longed for for a long time. But when someone he had no real relationship with was crying and saying she’d been worried about him, he felt more bewildered than grateful or happy in that moment.
He hadn’t expected to face such deep emotions in this group, having been more accustomed to stones thrown by strangers.
But Delua’s heavy breathing let him feel how anxious her heart had been. Leonardo lowered his raised right hand and carefully patted her back. His fingertips hesitated for a moment when he felt the hard pressure bandage beneath her battle uniform.
Soon, Delua, who had buried her face, lifted her head at his awkward patting. She grabbed Leonardo’s face with both hands and turned it this way and that with somewhat rough movements. Then a regretful sigh and a flood of questions came one after another.
"Oh my... Look at half your face. What can we do about this... How did this happen in just a few days? No, more importantly, is it okay for you to be out already when I heard you just woke up? Are there no problems with your body? Can you move your arm well? Are you not in pain? Can you speak properly?"
Leonardo, almost being attacked with questions, didn’t even know what expression he was making as his face was increasingly squished between Delua’s palms. His cheeks were so scrunched his lips were about to form a fish mouth, when the thought that the Council bastards were watching this ridiculous scene made him feel increasingly embarrassed.
Snapping back to his senses, he grabbed Delua’s wrists and craned his neck back as far as he could, saying:
"Wait, wait! I’m fine, so first, step back a bit and slow down."
"Huh—and why is your voice like that? Is it because you’ve been sick for a while? What did the medical officer say? Is it okay?"
Delua’s relentless questions drained Leonardo’s spirit. Faced with this déjà vu-like situation that felt like it had happened once before, Leonardo showed a troubled expression but lifted his head slightly, aware of the gazes around him.
However, when the dense crowd came into view a moment later, he couldn’t help but be surprised all over again.
"...?"
Several people who had somehow crept quite close were looking at him with the same expression as Delua.
Among them, some were rubbing their eyes vigorously, making Leonardo wonder if he was seeing things wrong. As he raised one eyebrow with a look of cognitive dissonance, as if it were a signal, the people around him began to rush in all at once.
"Blaine!"
"Blaine—!"
The wave of people calling his name and surging toward him like a tide made him feel a fear he’d never felt even in front of the mother body. Leonardo stumbled backward at the press of them, but Delua, clinging to him, wouldn’t let go. And with the crowd pushing in from behind as well, he was squeezed between bodies and swept along, unable to do anything.
With his retreat blocked, he frantically turned his head, and the voices of the people surrounding him from all sides hit him like a hundred words.
"Blaine, are you okay? Why did you come all the way here?"
"Oh no... Is your arm injured?"
"They say you’re the one who killed the mother body?"
"I saw it up close, I tell you. It was chilling."
"The war hero hasn’t gone anywhere."
"Wait, don’t crowd too much! Everyone here is a patient!"
"Move aside, let me get closer too—"
"I’ve only heard about it, how strong was it?"
"I survived thanks to you."
"Isn’t this the Commander’s battle uniform?"
"When did you wake up? It seems like you should still be resting..."
"But is it okay for you to be walking around like this? Did the Commander allow it?"
"Come on, it’s rude, ask one at a time."
"Hey, is this the time for that? Let’s give him a lift—lift him!"
"Yeah, yeah, let’s do it!"
"Are you crazy? What lift for an injured person?"
"Hey, you all. Return to your positions!"
Hands blooming like flowers reached toward Leonardo as if they really meant to lift him. They weren’t the white hands from a nightmare, but the hands of living people—full of vitality and warmth.
Leonardo, who still hadn’t fully grasped what was happening, couldn’t avoid their hands. Against his will, one of his legs was lifted diagonally. Just as he felt his whole body being hoisted up, the voice of a commander who had come to stop the members rang out.
"What’s going on here? It’s not even maintenance time yet—who’s acting on their own?"
Leonardo, buried in the crowd, couldn’t hear well, but the commanders on the side sternly intervened. Of course, they were quickly dispersed by the surge of members, but Leonardo’s body, which had been about to fly helplessly into the sky, dropped back down.
As his feet touched the ground, Leonardo staggered, losing his balance. It wasn’t important that strangers had just touched him. It was fortunate Delua was hugging him and holding him up—otherwise he might have fallen already.
However, although they had stopped trying to lift him, the members were far from backing off. On the contrary, even people passing by, unaware of the situation, gathered more and more, asking what was going on.
Although he had received various kinds of attention since entering the peninsula, this was the first time he had received it so directly and fervently. Leonardo’s stiff heart softened at their crying and laughing faces, but his body shrank, his eyes spun, and his head whirled.
As carbon dioxide built up, breathing became difficult again. As dizziness set in and heat rose to his face, the faces of some nearby members who had been speaking to him suddenly tensed and hardened.
"Stop."
At that moment, the heat that had been swallowing even the commanders’ orders instantly subsided. A few murmurs still drifted here and there, but the noisy voices fell silent in an instant.
A low voice pierced his ears as a cool palm ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) covered Leonardo’s vision. As a dark shadow settled over his eyelids, Leonardo, overloaded, naturally exhaled the breath he had been holding.
As his loosened body was about to tilt, a broad chest firmly supported his back. Then a large hand gently pressed his face, tilting his neck back to rest on the person’s shoulder.
"Hah... I told you not to let go."
A rough breath, as if he’d fought his way over with difficulty, murmured above Leonardo’s head. Leonardo, fumbling for the other’s forearm as if searching for a lifeline, gripped Hugo’s collar tightly in response.
