Leonardo's twisted lips stiffened for a moment. Then, instead of erasing the bitter smile, he narrowed his eyes and glared at Hugo, as if trying to make sense of his words. Hugo, meeting his gaze, spoke again, as if to confirm his own thoughts.
"Andreas was off guard at that time. So if you'd attacked with your full strength—as I know you—you wouldn't have just broken his bones. His entire arm would've been torn off, and he would've been seriously injured. But now that he's received treatment, he's walking around just fine with only a cast. They say once the bones are set, it won't interfere with his # Nоvеlight # activities."
Leonardo stayed silent, simply staring at him. After a pause, he let out a small snort and opened his mouth.
"Are you trying to say I deliberately held back?"
At his question, Hugo gave a slight nod.
"That's how it looked to me."
"..."
"When I put you in the transport cage in Frost Territory, you fought back and injured me, but then you immediately went quiet."
Leonardo still said nothing. At that, Hugo continued, listing off his observations like evidence.
"And in the Imperial Capital, all your long-range attacks were aimed at the ice wall. And when people were in danger, you destroyed the entire wall with powerful magic. That means you had that much mana from the beginning, but chose not to use it."
Hugo looked him straight in the eye.
"You said I had no killing intent toward you. But the same was true for you. I never once felt any killing intent from you that suggested you were really trying to kill me."
Taking a step closer to the bars, Hugo grabbed hold of them and looked down into Leonardo’s face as he said,
"You never intended to harm us—the people—from the start."
At those confident words, Leonardo's Adam's apple moved slightly.
His eyes gradually turned bloodshot, as though something deep inside had stirred. His shoulders rose and fell with deep breaths meant to calm the rising emotion, and his faintly trembling breaths filled the quiet space.
Leonardo didn’t deny what Hugo had said. Instead, he slowly lifted the handcuffs on his wrists and said,
"If you understand, then let me out. You're the Commander—you should be able to do at least that much."
Hugo blinked slowly several times. Leonardo’s now subdued demeanor and his choked voice confirmed everything Hugo had just said, stirring a whirlwind of emotions inside him.
"...Because I’m the Commander, I set a condition for letting you out."
"What condition?"
At his question, Hugo briefly recalled the conversation that had taken place in the Grand Conference Hall.
I will go. To the peninsula, with Leonardo Blaine.
You've made the right decision.
However, I have a condition.
...A condition?
When Hugo first encountered him, he truly believed Leonardo was a dangerous man, one harboring uncontrollable and destructive mana.
But after arriving at the Imperial Capital and witnessing his actions, he began to think differently. Despite defying the military’s orders in the past, Leonardo didn’t seem to be someone who would harm others without reason.
His urge to protect the child in the square at that time, and the words he spoke about how it was "his own matter"—those had come from genuine feelings.
Facing those emotions head-on had shaken Hugo’s perception of him to its core.
After completing this task, please allow Leonardo Blaine to be released.
Recalling the storm of noise in the Grand Conference Hall after he’d said that, Hugo focused his gaze back on the man standing before him.
The man who had claimed he was the only one who could protect himself—when Hugo heard those words, he sensed that the man's overwhelming strength and pride were not born of arrogance, but of a need to shield himself.
All the expectations, the greed, the praise, the fear directed at him because of his immense mana. The distrust forced upon him by people who demanded sacrifices in exchange for that power.
He didn’t trust others easily. Just as Hugo hadn’t in the past.
Was this what Abraham Langaster had meant when he said they were alike?
For the first time, taking Abraham’s words to heart, Hugo said to Leonardo,
"The Council's reputation is on the line with the Elder Millie Peninsula subjugation. It's a matter everyone’s been desperate to resolve for a long time. Leonardo, if you contribute to solving it, they’ll forgive everything that happened in the Imperial Capital, release you, and never come after you again. That’s the condition I proposed. Isn’t that a good offer for you too?"
At Hugo’s words, Leonardo’s eyes widened slightly. His gaze also subtly shifted.
Just as Hugo said—if he could be free of the Council’s relentless pursuit that had tormented him for three years, it would be the most favorable outcome possible.
But the thought only lasted for a moment. Leonardo looked at Hugo with doubt, as if trying to discern the truth in his words. After what they’d done—stripping him of his mana—he doubted they’d let him go so easily. More likely, they’d force him into another job.
"..."
But when he met those gem-like blue eyes, for some reason, he felt there was no deceit in them.
Leonardo asked again, in a low voice, his brow furrowed,
"Is that really true?"
"Yes."
"Can you truly swear that if I help you this time, you’ll never seek me out again?"
At the voice tinged with desperation, Hugo looked into his brilliant golden eyes, gave a slight smile, and answered,
"I swear on the name of Agrizendro."
At those solemn words, Leonardo looked up at him in a daze. The weight behind putting his own name on the line was not light.
Hugo reached his arm through the bars separating them and extended his hand toward him.
Leonardo alternated glances between the large hand and Hugo’s face. After thinking it over until the very end, he slowly reached out and grasped the hand, locking eyes with him.
The light shining through the narrow window stretched across the floor in long rays, shimmering faintly at their feet.
Golden eyes glowing like the sun and blue eyes calm like the sky met and filled each other entirely.
****
"Agrizendro, let me out of this prison. I’ll be good."
Hugo, who had promised Leonardo release if he helped resolve the peninsula situation, turned back at the sound of Leonardo’s voice calling him just as he was about to leave.
"I’m sorry, but a lot of people are still wary of you. Just hold on for a day. I’ll get you out then."
Leonardo, sitting on the cold prison floor with the most pitiful expression on his face, looked up at Hugo. But maybe it wasn’t working on someone as emotionless as him, because Hugo remained unmoved. Leonardo spoke again, with an innocent look on his face.
"What’s the difference between now and tomorrow? I just don’t want to stay here."
"I’ll let you out tomorrow."
As Agrizendro, having answered firmly, turned to leave, Leonardo pouted and muttered loud enough for him to hear,
"But... that guy keeps saying he wants to do it with me."
His finger pointed toward a prisoner diagonally across from him.
That prisoner had been knocked out earlier by some unknown force and had remained slumped in place, emotionally wrecked.
But then the Commander had come down to the underground prison and started talking to the very man he’d been harassing. Watching the two of them with quiet dread, the prisoner soon realized—it was Leonardo Blaine.
The filthy words and actions he’d directed at him flashed through his head in an instant. When Leonardo pointed at him, he flinched, went pale, and stammered in panic,
"N-no, that’s not what I—"
He tried to explain, but the sudden coldness in the air and the creeping chill down his spine made his tongue freeze. As his body trembled and he slowly raised his eyes, there stood the Council’s Kazad—his blue eyes glowing like frost, glaring down at him.
"You still haven't learned your lesson."
A terrifying shadow loomed over him, and a voice brimming with murderous intent pierced his ears like a blade. For a moment, frozen in fear and struggling to breathe, the prisoner quickly lowered his eyes, afraid he might wet himself. Beyond the long legs stretched in front of him, he could see the face of the blond man in the opposite cell.
Leonardo, having wiped away any trace of the pitiful expression he wore earlier, was now grinning at him. He stuck out his red tongue mockingly, then lifted his middle finger and made a slicing motion across it with the other hand.
