The secret meeting that had begun at midday ended when the sun was tilting westward. Though there was much to sort out with his partners, pressure from the two women telling him to rest for today made Leonardo head up first to the top floor of the residence.
Though called the top, it was only the fourth floor, with better lighting than the front building since it had more floors. Leonardo leaned against the window of his room, which he’d returned to after a long time, and carefully scanned the interior.
Though the owner had been away for months, there were traces of someone using it. It seemed Tergio had been lounging in this room again. He was often found in this top-floor room, leaving his perfectly fine room empty.
Though not as much as the lodging he had stayed in with Nero, this place, too, was full of an old feeling. It felt even more so because the room’s owner wasn’t particularly neat in his use. Perhaps it was due to a lack of attachment from moving so often. Even this room—though he was nearing a year of staying here—he had left just when he was starting to grow attached to it, displaced in turn by the cabin in Fidele and the Commander’s personal room.
Leonardo, lowering his eyelids against the afternoon light pouring through the window, took out the small backpack stored in his artifact. He laid the items inside out one by one on the desk, then picked a top and bottoms from the clothes His Excellency had prepared for him. He should have noticed from the glossy fabric, but after changing, they carried that new-clothes smell.
With flowing material and lots of delicate embroidery, it was a design that looked fit for the youngest son of some noble family. Wearing it, his impression seemed oddly delicate, making him tilt his head as if to ask, Does this suit me?
At that moment, the mirror beside the desk reflected someone opening the door and entering.
Knock knock—
"I’m coming in."
Tergio announced as he leaned against the doorframe. His casual knock, imitating a gentleman, was odd when one foot was already inside.
"Get out. I have things to do."
Leonardo looked at him in the mirror and answered indifferently.
Tergio, just as indifferent, came in and sat down heavily on the bed.
"Go ahead."
He propped his head on one hand and lay down in a somewhat seductive pose, staring at Leonardo. Regardless, Leonardo ignored him and went to the shelf to organize the items Hugo had given him.
"Those are clothes I haven’t seen before."
He could feel the gaze from behind tracing the curves of his body.
"Do they look bad?"
"Not my taste, but it’s fine since you look like a prince."
Leonardo shook his head at the unnecessary comment.
Never mind his taste—he’d been hearing that prince talk from him for nearly three years now.
Tergio had said Leonardo looked the most prince-like among all the people he’d seen in his life. In fact, among the strong who lived in the underworld, it was an evaluation as shameful as being called “pretty.” However, Tergio, who’d offered such a frivolous reason as “looking like a prince,” had consistently called him “my prince” ever since.
For the first three months after hearing it, Leonardo had complained daily about the goosebumps on his forearms. The problem was that the person in question didn’t even pretend to listen.
Today too, he seemed to pay no attention to Leonardo’s shuddering expression. Tergio spoke while wiggling the toes sticking out from the bed:
"By the way, my prince, you’ve gotten better at changing the subject?"
"..."
"Don’t make excuses about there being many people. The truth is you didn’t use your full strength against Kazad."
So that was why he’d come—still looking to pick at that point.
"You can’t deceive my eyes."
The assassin’s subtle gaze made Leonardo’s nape feel chilly. Still, Leonardo willingly showed him his back, continuing to sort his things.
If there were two things Leonardo had any affection for in this room, they would be the safe on the shelf and the bed with its soft bedding. Normally, he would have threatened Tergio, asking if he wanted to die for getting on the bed with his shoes on, but today Leonardo didn’t pay it any mind.
He simply turned the safe’s dial to unlock it and neatly filled it with items taken from his artifact. Noticing he was being ignored, Tergio deliberately messed up the bedding he had tidied with his own hands that morning. Leonardo kept his eyes on the communication magic tool Hugo had given him as he fiddled with the device.
Somehow, it felt like pressing just one button on this tool would let him hear that person’s voice. But though his thumb hesitated at the edge, he couldn’t bring himself to do it, and he put the magic tool in the safe.
Afterward, he studied the photo of the two of them for a while, making sure it couldn’t be seen from behind. Just as he was slipping it into the safe—thinking he should get a sturdy frame before it wore out—something he’d put in earlier caught his eye. Leonardo reached out as if entranced and took the box out.
"What, did seeing his face make your heart go soft?"
He paused as he was about to open it. Rolling his eyes halfway with a narrowed gaze, he answered:
"What are you trying to say?"
"Does Kazad remember you?"
Leonardo returned his sidelong glance to its original place.
"It’s been almost fifteen years. How could he remember? Even I’m hazy about it."
"True."
Tergio lay back, facing the ceiling, using the pillow that smelled of sunlight as a headrest.
"It’s time to forget. Someone else has taken that position anyway."
"..."
"So, how was it meeting him again?"
The troublemaker asked casually while touching the scar at the corner of his mouth. Leonardo stayed silent.
After firmly sealing his lips around a sigh, he opened the box’s lid and carefully gripped the leather case inside.
"Well, I’m not sure."
Caressing the luxurious surface, he lifted the top to open it. Inside, neatly stored, was a wristwatch that looked like it had been crafted with all the skill and sincerity of a master craftsman.
The watch had a cold, sophisticated look, harmonizing silver and navy blue. Though it hadn’t seen light for a long time, the glass was spotless, without a speck of dust, still emitting a dazzling radiance.
Though it wasn’t exactly the same shape as what he had seen on someone’s wrist recently, the similar design made it clear it was an item made for one person alone.
Tergio, who had silently approached from behind, wrapped one arm around Leonardo’s neck. Then, resting his chin on Leonardo’s shoulder and looking down at the watch with him, he whispered like a devil:
"You might become enemies with him. Be wary."
The watch must have been stopped for a very long time, because the second hand showed no movement. Leonardo closed the safe door and shook off Tergio, who was pressing heavily on his shoulder.
He sat at his desk with the stopped watch and examined its parts. Maybe because the sunlight was particularly good, the reflected metal sparkled like a midday Milky Way.
"We agreed not to touch him."
"That was when he had no connection to the vampires."
"He has no connection. I can tell just by looking at his eyes."
Leonardo’s brow furrowed with displeasure as he answered firmly. Yet he opened the drawer and took out tweezers and a small screwdriver, moving as if he’d done this a hundred times, and pried off the watch’s glass and back.
He delicately applied lubricant to the gear train and various parts with an oil pen. Then, after readjusting the completely unwound mainspring, he tightened the screws on the back.
Tergio asked the focused back, which was hiding his displeasure:
"How can you be so sure he has no connection? He’s said to be cold-blooded enough to abandon even a begging child."
Leonardo’s fingertips paused as he wiped the glass with a soft cloth. He knew the child the other man meant was him. Seeing the slight slowdown, Tergio leaned over the golden hair and added:
"Even if he came back later, it was already too late then. Now he doesn’t even remember you."
Leonardo silently gripped the watch’s crown. After slowly winding it, he lifted his hand away, hiding his tension.
Then the second hand, which had seemed permanently stopped, began to move again.
It was the first time he’d seen it since the watch had left its owner and come to him. Thanks to it, he had mastered everything about watches over the years, but making this watch move again had taken a great deal of courage.
"You resented him."
Tergio’s voice scattered over the golden hair. But Leonardo could no longer hear it clearly.
Just watching the silver tip step through the markings one by one, he finally felt his stopped world begin to flow again.
The sight of small gears meshing and turning in their natural order made him realize he had boarded the ship of time again—one he had missed for so long.
Leonardo stared down at the watch for a while with a blank face, as if he couldn’t believe it. The ticking echoed in the quiet room. Then a bright, flower-like smile spread across his face, and boundless, brilliant joy bloomed in his golden eyes and at the corners of his mouth.
Even the eyelashes shadowing those curved golden eyes sparkled in the light. It was such a beautiful smile that Tergio, who had been watching him in the mirror beside the desk, turned away with a stiff expression. It was pure and innocent, as if Leonardo had returned to being a young boy.
In Leonardo’s golden eyes was reflected a man who had always returned to his waiting self in every moment of those past days—whether in the gap of an erupting volcano or in the heated courtroom. Even in the moment when he had waited endlessly in front of the gate that sees the sun, the man had unfailingly appeared before him.
His red lips drew an elegant curve, curling pleasantly.
"But this time, he came before it was too late."
Leonardo lightly kissed the watch’s glass he had carefully cleaned. Though his breath left a deep mark, it didn’t seem to matter anymore.
In the tranquil room where he had somehow been left alone, he indulged in the flowing time for ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) a while.
