Creak–
“Blaine, are you ready?”
Flynn, who had half-opened the door with his shoulder, poked his head in and asked. In his hands were several backpacks, barely closed after being stuffed with various items.
The shadow pushed by the sunlight entering through the door gap reached Leonardo’s feet. Leonardo put the artifact and communication magic tool he’d been examining into his pants pocket and answered nonchalantly, pretending to tidy up his clothes:
“Yeah, I’m coming out now.”
He bent down, grabbed the crumpled heel of his shoe, and put it on properly. When he raised his head and looked past Flynn’s shoulder, he caught glimpses of members moving busily outside the door.
Although not even thirty minutes had passed since sunrise, it seemed the return preparations were nearing completion, as if everyone had been hurrying since early morning.
Leonardo gently rubbed the wood grain on the deck with his palm.
It was time to say goodbye to this place, too. He felt bittersweet.
Standing up, he stretched and brushed back his bangs that had fallen over his eyes with his hand.
With a sizzling sound, the hair pushed back temporarily stayed in place from the heat. After doing this two or three more times with care, he approached Flynn, who was holding the door open.
“I’ll go carry some luggage, so wait around here in the meantime. The Commander will be here soon too.”
“Want me to help with the moving?”
“It’s okay. Your arm isn’t fully healed yet. I’ll be done quickly.”
Flynn refused Leonardo’s offer and moved away from the door he’d been leaning on. Then he shouldered the bundle of backpacks tied with leather straps and walked away, wobbling.
Leonardo, watching his retreating figure, considered helping him, but decided to leave him be as Flynn seemed to have noticed his gaze and straightened his gait. Instead, he looked around at the nearby cabins, now empty of luggage and people. He’d thought it was noisy since he woke up, but it seemed a considerable number had already moved elsewhere.
He was about to close the door and look around a bit, but feeling regretful, he peered into the empty cabin where he’d been staying.
The interior, filled with the smell of wood, still had warm air circling around. He noticed the deck had become shiny, probably from repeatedly spreading out bedding, sitting, and lying down.
‘All sorts of things happened here.’
Leonardo looked in turn at the side table pushed into the corner, the neatly folded bedding, and the window high up. Finally, he turned his eyes to the center of the deck and drew an afterimage of himself and the large man embracing.
“Ahem, ahem.”
Feeling heat rise to the nape of his neck, he quickly stopped that train of thought. With an embarrassed, fake cough, he pulled the door handle and half-turned his body.
But then he heard someone’s voice from above his head. It was the protagonist of his reminiscence.
“Did you leave something behind?”
“Ah, you startled me—”
Leonardo, who had flinched in surprise, quickly raised his head. Hugo was standing right next to him, though it was unclear when he’d arrived.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Hugo lightly raised both hands in apology and glanced inside the still-open door. After confirming there was no luggage left, he gestured to Leonardo with his chin.
“If you’re all ready, let’s go. We need to start leaving soon. Or is there something you’re looking for?”
Leonardo, his startled heart settling, was about to answer no but glanced at the door gap once more. Then, touching the nape of his neck that had nearly warmed, he answered casually:
“No. Just... I think I’ll miss this place.”
Hugo’s eyebrows lifted slightly at the rather sentimental answer. He looked down at Leonardo intently and spoke in a quite affectionate tone:
“You can come again.”
“...Come here again?”
“You could if you wanted to. Though other territory residents would be living here then.”
Come to think of it, it was time for this gathering place to be filled with other people’s memories, too. Since the existing refugees had given up their dwellings, it was natural for the original owners to move in after the urgent injured were evacuated.
He didn’t know if someone had lived in this cabin too... Leonardo glanced inside with a regretful heart but nodded and firmly closed the door. Then Hugo, who had been watching his expression, casually asked:
“Should I order this place kept empty?”
“What?”
Hugo’s expression was quite serious, so it didn’t sound like a joke. Leonardo answered as if it were absurd:
“No need. There are people who abandoned their homes to relocate—what about them? It’s fine if I just remember this place in my mind.”
‘Besides, what’s really important is right in front of me.’
Leonardo swallowed the last words in his throat. Hugo then smiled as if he found it admirable and lightly touched Leonardo’s cheek.
“A wise answer.”
Soon, Hugo brushed his fingertips over the golden eyes and round forehead, refreshingly revealed with the bangs half pushed back. Leonardo only closed and opened his eyes slightly, without particularly stopping him. Hugo, who had been caressing his eye rims, withdrew his hand and said:
“Pretty.”
“...”
Leonardo looked at him for a moment, as if he’d misheard.
“...What?”
He asked back in a voice that turned small with bewilderment, but Hugo only smiled instead of answering and casually checked his wristwatch.
Soon after, he took out a communication magic tool, pressed a few buttons, and tried to connect somewhere. Before even two rings went through, the other person’s voice came on.
‘Yes, Commander.’
“Overall preparations?”
‘Ninety percent complete. The convoy of escort vehicles has almost all arrived up to the rear.’
“The support troops?”
‘Two battalion-scale personnel are currently on standby, and more are being added.’
“I’ll be there soon.”
Hugo ended the connection after the brief inquiry, then put his arm around Leonardo’s shoulder and said:
“Shall we go?”
Leonardo nodded, composing his expression with dazed eyes. Hugo matched his stride to walk alongside him while scanning the surroundings, counting the personnel still nearby.
Since he didn’t seem to have said it with any particular meaning, Leonardo tried to erase the word he’d just heard from his mind. But his clueless inner self kept asking questions:
‘Why... couldn’t I tell him not to say that?’
If one had experience serving in the military, where the ratio of men was relatively high, it was honestly difficult to take being called “pretty” in a good way. Guys who were good-looking and fine-featured were inevitably often not large in build or muscle, so among peers, they sometimes received so-called unfavorable treatment—from bullying seniors or squad leaders with bad personalities.
Of course, he had stuffed the mouths of those who called him that with gravel and pummeled their faces with his fists, but it had been quite stressful when he was young, so even now he had an unavoidable aversion to the word itself.
But strangely... just now, it didn’t feel particularly bad. Rather, he was just surprised by Agrizendro’s keen eye for noticing he’d pushed his hair back.
“Hm?”
As Leonardo looked at him with narrowed eyes, Hugo looked down as if asking if he had something to say. However, Leonardo shook his head as if it were nothing.
He only stared blankly down at the two pairs of legs walking side by side, and slightly raised the corners of his mouth at the other’s kindness returning to normal.
*****
“By the way, did you get some sleep? When I woke up earlier, you weren’t beside me.”
Leonardo recalled the empty space next to him when he’d opened his eyes after Flynn woke him, and asked.
Hugo rubbed under his own eyes and answered with a relaxed expression:
“I slept well for the first time in a while.”
For someone who said that, his face was still full of fatigue, so Leonardo blinked with a subtle gaze. He recalled the incomprehensible man who had suddenly covered Leonardo’s eyes with his hand after staring at him for a while with a complicated expression while talking about something out of the blue last night.
At the time, he had struggled to remove the hand covering his sight, but then stopped resisting and tried to quietly go to sleep, thinking Agrizendro seemed to be staying awake, tired, because of him. However, with the other person’s body heat and scent so vivid, it wasn’t an environment where he could easily fall asleep.
In the end, Leonardo, who had barely fallen asleep about two hours before dawn, remembered Hugo’s breathing—still awake—as Leonardo’s consciousness faded. If so, he must not have slept properly either, but only Hugo would know why he was telling such an obvious lie.
Of course, thinking that, Leonardo was smiling with his eyes.
‘It would be stranger if he could sleep well with me beside him.’
He shrugged and widened his stride a little more. At that moment, Hugo, who had been matching his pace to Leonardo, suddenly stopped walking.
“We’re here.”
Leonardo stopped as well. Looking straight ahead, wiping the smile from his face, he caught sight of the gate in front of the border area where the Central Branch forces had waited before first entering the peninsula, next to a huge tent.
The gate, stretching far into the distance, had iron structures added that hadn’t been there before, as if reinforcement work was in full swing. The voices of the enormous crowd gathered before it and the cries of monsters mixed together, carried clearly by the wind from time to time.
Although only a small part had come into view before they turned the corner, Leonardo could sense how many troops were gathered beyond this point. Moreover, the large escort vehicles densely parked on the left gave him an overwhelming feeling anew.
‘They said they were developing new military vehicles... is that them?’
It was a new means of transportation said to have increased maximum speed and load capacity by using a well-mixed combination of petroleum and mana as a power source. Although he had seen lower models in the military before, it was his first time seeing the new model, and so many of them at once.
It was well known that the developer and main investor were all from the Agrizendro family. Since he was in the Council, the support seemed extraordinary.
Leonardo looked up blankly at the one at the center of wealth and power. Hugo, whose eyes happened to meet his, said to Leonardo:
“There might be more people than before, but there’s no need to be nervous. Just stay by my side as usual.”
“I’m not nervous.”
Although he’d been a bit stiff at the last general meeting, there was no reason to be nervous now. As Leonardo replied casually as usual, Hugo nodded slightly and continued:
“I see. Oh, and. General Parren said he wanted to meet you briefly. He was thinking of at least greeting you before leaving—would that be alright?”
‘General Parren?’
“He’s the supreme commander of the Parren military camp that cooperated in the peninsula subjugation. Over there, military rank is proportional to political influence, so it wouldn’t hurt to exchange greetings. Of course, if you don’t want to, I’ll decline.”
“No, it’s fine if it’s just a greeting.”
Leonardo answered as if it were no problem, recalling the face he’d glimpsed. Hugo smiled gently and softly rubbed Leonardo’s forearm.
“All right, let’s go.”
The two walked side by side beyond the tent. An endless expanse of navy-blue groups in neat rows and columns spread out.
They turned their heads like dominoes and looked at the two who had appeared in unison. Soon, their arms rose in unison. A thunderous cry of loyalty echoed in front of the gate.
