Hugo, who had come down to the investigation room without delay, entered through the double doors. The members working inside stood and saluted him. He acknowledged them with a nod and walked toward the interrogation room at the very back.
Passing through several more doors, he found a sizable group of armed personnel gathered behind the investigators seated at the desk in front of the glass window overlooking the interrogation room. Among them, Loren and Meterion stood with arms crossed, silently watching the room beyond the glass.
As soon as the members holding capture guns spotted Hugo, they lowered their weapons and saluted. Noticing their synchronized movement, Meterion glanced briefly at Hugo before turning his attention back to the window. Loren, on the other hand, spoke with mild surprise.
"You got here faster than I expected."
Hugo approached her, narrowing his eyes.
"...Were you hoping I'd be more broken when I arrived?"
"Judging by the state of the square when I got there, I thought that was enough."
At her dry reply, Hugo offered a bitter smile, as if it wasn’t anything worth mentioning.
"In the end, everything comes down to money."
Loren Opience had been a close friend of Hugo’s for over a decade, since their days in the Imperial Army. Because of that, Hugo understood well that despite her stiff tone and expression, concern for him was always buried underneath.
Loren also understood the meaning hidden behind his curt answer and could roughly infer why he was able to arrive earlier than expected.
Still, like Andreas, she didn’t think the method was a good one. She opened her mouth to speak, then gave up and fell silent, knowing it was useless.
Sensing her deliberate [N O V E L I G H T] silence, Hugo shifted the subject naturally.
"What’s the status outside?"
"Most of the disaster recovery and medical teams from the battalions at headquarters have been dispatched. Fewer injuries than anticipated. The northern square will be shut down for a while."
Hugo nodded at Loren’s report and stood beside her, peering into the glass window. Since the interrogation room's voices were transmitted through speakers, everything said inside could be heard from their side.
Seeing Leonardo cooperating more smoothly than he’d expected, Hugo studied his slightly fatigued face in silence.
Although he’d had the medical team treat Leonardo’s injuries as soon as he brought him in, shards of ice had still left scars on his face—just like the mark Leonardo had left under Hugo’s eye. That one, too, hadn’t fully healed even with recovery magic.
The wounds they had inflicted on each other would fade with time, but Hugo figured that whether or not the guy remembered, they would remain etched in his own memory.
Suddenly, Loren, seeing Hugo lost in thought, asked,
"That wound under your eye... was it really from him?"
Still watching Leonardo, Hugo answered,
"Yeah. I doubt anyone else could’ve left it."
Loren, who knew him well, gave him a slightly puzzled look at the ambiguous tone before shifting her gaze back to Leonardo in the interrogation room.
Hugo was intently observing Leonardo's eye movements, where his gaze landed, his subtle gestures—every detail—while listening closely to the interrogation.
And in that moment, even though the observation room should have been invisible from inside, Hugo had the distinct feeling that Leonardo briefly made eye contact with him through the glass.
* * *
"The large number of Quamares I captured in Perion to produce water-attribute protective gear suddenly vanished. While tracking the trail, I heard rumors the Delberg Merchant Group was secretly distributing mana stones. I followed that lead. The place where I caught their scent was Köln, in the central-northern region."
The clacking of a manual typewriter echoed as Leonardo spoke.
"There, I heard Delberg was recruiting for the merchant group, so I joined as a low-level member and made my way into the Frost territory. But entry-level members didn’t have access to monster-related info, so I began my own investigation. I later found buried monsters, destroyed them so they couldn’t be traded, and left the remains in plain sight."
Surprisingly, he offered no resistance during the interrogation. Thanks to that, the clerks’ hands were flying over their keys, and the investigators—Flynn among them—were listening closely.
"Not long after they were discovered, the Count’s security forces arrived and quietly retrieved them. That’s when I began suspecting collusion. Around the same time, I learned someone was impersonating me."
"..."
"After that, security was tightened. I realized it would be impossible to investigate the burial sites alone, so I tried to draw in the Council. Just then, while moving from Köln to Frost territory, I noticed the Council’s pursuit team nearby. I slipped away unnoticed and deliberately revealed myself in front of them."
"Wait, are you saying you showed yourself to the pursuit team on purpose, just to lure the Council in?"
The investigator from the Northern Branch, seated far left, asked in disbelief. Leonardo nodded lightly, as if it were no big deal.
Flynn marked Leonardo’s movements on a map and connected the points. The previous pursuit team had spotted Blaine just above Köln—precisely where Leonardo claimed to have joined the merchant group, halfway between Frost and Köln.
During the recent chase, Leonardo hadn’t ended fights quickly—he let himself be seen again and again. And every single time, the path led toward the Frost territory.
That lent credibility to Leonardo’s claim that he’d been guiding the pursuit team to expose Delberg’s monster smuggling to the Council.
In other words, it wasn’t that the Council had tracked him down—he had gone out of his way to be seen.
Moreover, he was a skilled mage capable of teleportation, with access to the closed gates’ portals. That meant he had moved with remarkable precision.
"I figured you guys would keep chasing me since you were already on my trail. I didn’t expect the pursuit team to pull back like that. But of all people... the one who finally came after me was the Commander."
Leonardo spoke as though the more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. If the pursuit team had continued following him and uncovered the full scope of the monster smuggling case, they could have quietly handled everything while also dealing a blow to Delberg. But of all people, the one sent to catch him next was the Council’s own Kazad.
“If that charred corpse was your doing, then the man who could tell beasts from monsters... that was also you in the end?”
At Flynn’s question, Leonardo uncrossed his legs, leaned forward from his reclined position, and opened his mouth.
“Yes.”
Locking eyes with Flynn, whose expression still seemed uncertain, Leonardo slightly raised the corner of his mouth and repeated firmly,
“I made it up—to leave a hint for you and the Commander. I took you to the storage room on purpose. I brought up monsters at the tavern deliberately. Every step was meant to tip off the Council.”
“...Why would you do all that, knowing you could be caught?”
At the repeated question, Leonardo paused. Investigator Eckison, seated in the middle, took his silence as an attempt to fabricate an excuse and pressed him.
“Leonardo Blaine, stop stalling and tell us the truth.”
But instead of looking at Eckison, Leonardo turned to Flynn and said clearly,
“Because wrongs need to be made right. And I believed you and the Commander would do that.”
For a moment, Flynn felt the breath catch in his throat and couldn’t respond.
Up until now, he’d unconsciously thought of Tergio and Leonardo as different people. But now, as Leonardo repeated the exact words Tergio had once spoken in the Frost territory—right in front of him—Flynn could no longer separate them.
“Besides, they’re not just selling off the monsters I caught—they’re committing crimes in my name. Wouldn’t you want to hit them back at least once?”
His tone was calm, but the motive was more than clear. Flynn could understand that. But Investigator Eckison still didn’t seem convinced. He flipped through several pages of the file and, reading aloud, asked with a sharper tone,
“Everything you’ve said so far sounds like you’re trying too hard to prove you’re not tied to the Delberg Merchant Group.”
Leonardo frowned in irritation at the investigator’s endless suspicion and said flatly,
“What do you want to hear?”
“Didn’t you help the merchant group’s grand master escape?”
At that pointed question, Leonardo scoffed.
“Why would I do that? Weren’t you listening? I said my goal was to strike Delberg.”
The investigator glared at him and flipped another page—this time pulling out what looked like a trump card. He pushed the document toward Leonardo.
“This was obtained this morning.”
The file included a photo of Brianna Dixie, a wanted figure, along with a list of people who had acquired residency in the southern territory of the Yulisia Empire, which bordered northern Raina Logia. Their photos were included as well.
One of the new names was “Elena”—the recent identity of Brianna Dixie, whose face Leonardo immediately recognized.
‘Looks like she made it out after all.’
Though he hadn’t been able to confirm anything after helping her escape—since he’d been captured shortly after—Leonardo now felt a quiet relief. He kept his expression neutral.
Even though the Council had obtained this intel, Brianna wouldn’t be forcibly repatriated just because Raina Logia had placed a request.
Despite their outward alliance, Raina Logia and Yulisia didn’t share an information network or operate under mutual arrest agreements. Beneath the surface, the two nations were deeply entangled with informants embedded on both sides.
So even if suspicions arose, they couldn’t openly request the return of a mere resident. That would be an admission of espionage.
Raina Logia, especially, had reason to tread carefully—there had already been a previous incident where an informant was exposed.
At the time, the near-collapse of relations had only been patched up by sending the empire’s second prince—whose political support was relatively weak—as a semi-hostage to Yulisia under the guise of “negotiations.”
Given all this, the Council would never risk escalating this into a diplomatic issue. After all, the leader of the imperial faction responsible for that decision was sitting in the Council right now.
On the contrary, the bigger concern was whether Yulisia would take action after recognizing the wanted status—possibly issuing a deportation or restrictions.
“The grand master of the merchant group, Brianna Dixie, has gone to Yulisia. She couldn’t have crossed the inland border while evading the military stationed around the Frost territory. If that’s true, the only plausible route is the coast. And you, Leonardo Blaine, had both the time and the ability to reach it.”
“...”
“Brianna possesses mana, yes—but not enough to cast flight or teleportation. Which means someone had to help her. Was it you?”
As the investigator pressed harder, Leonardo leaned back into his chair—the position he had taken earlier when speaking to Flynn. There was no physical proof in Eckison’s claims. As always, Leonardo had made sure to leave none.
‘Then...’
He paused for a brief moment of thought, glancing toward the frosted glass behind the interrogators. He couldn’t see or feel anything—but some inner sense, some intuition, told him Agrizendro might be watching from the other side.
Maybe it was just a feeling. But from an objective perspective, Flynn Levernil wasn’t even an investigator by title—he was the Commander’s adjutant. He was only here as a reference. There was no way Agrizendro, who had captured Leonardo himself, wasn’t observing this scene.
If he was watching now, a simple denial wouldn’t be enough. That man was terrifyingly perceptive. Even a slight shift in tone or expression could plant a seed of suspicion—and once that happened, the tail could be stepped on in unexpected places. That’s precisely why Leonardo was in this room now.
He eventually drew his gaze away from the glass and slightly parted his lips, preparing to speak.
Eckison watched him closely, eyes sharp and expectant.
But Leonardo didn’t answer right away. Instead, he curled the corner of his mouth into a faint smile and said,
“If you let me smoke a cigarette, I’ll answer.”
