Bermuda [bl]

"You were used."

At Teo's words, the grand master flinched. Her eyes wavered for a moment, and then she spoke in a choked voice, as if a sore spot had been exposed.

"You... who the hell are you? How do you know that?"

It was a truth she had known but tried hard to ignore. That's why she was blaming him for ruining everything by calling the Council.

She had hoped that if this job ended successfully and she returned, she would be recognized by Filione Delberg and could confidently act as a grand master in one of the major cities in the central and southern regions, not in such a barren place. That's why she had come this far.

However, reality was cruel. The executives had fled, and she was now hiding, unable to escape after the Council barged in while she was illegally trading monsters.

Even if she managed to escape from here, her name and description as the grand master would spread everywhere, and she would soon be on the run.

And Filione Delberg had used her, pretending to give her a chance while knowing all the risks, and there was no way Delberg would protect her once she became a fugitive. As the man in front of her had said, even if she had successfully completed this job and returned, Delberg would have cut her off like cutting off a tail.

Earlier, when she heard the man say that she might not have been able to live even if she had succeeded and returned, the precedent of other grand masters who had disappeared, which she had been suspicious of, suddenly flashed through her mind.

Living with more tenacity than anyone else, she hadn't realized upon seizing what she thought was an opportunity what becoming involved in this job truly meant.

And now that she had realized all of that, she just felt like she was going crazy in this situation.

Teo watched her emotional changes, which seemed very confused, and silently held out his hand again. She stared at that hand for a while If she was going to die anyway, there was nowhere else to go.

Thinking about what she had come here for, she firmly grasped his outstretched hand and came out of the underground storage. Perhaps because she had been in a cold space for a long time, his hand felt very warm.

"There's no time. Let's move quickly. You don't want to get caught, right?"

She nodded at his words. At that, Teo looked at her with a smile. At the warmest smile she had ever seen, she thought she had no choice but to follow him now. Because this man was the only one who said he would save her, whom the merchant group had abandoned.

Tergio crushed the location tracking sensor he was holding in one hand. Then, he grabbed her hand and disappeared without a trace in an instant.

* * *

"As soon as you gave the order, we dispatched and searched the entire area, but we couldn't find anyone. We discovered an underground storage at the given coordinates and are currently searching the inside."

Flynn, who was listening to the report through a communication magic tool, asked in puzzlement at the mention of searching the inside of the storage.

"Wait a moment, haven't we already finished searching all the storage facilities of the Delberg Merchant Group?"

"Pardon? Yes, that's right."

"Then, hasn't the investigation of that storage also been completed? That should also be a storage of Delberg, right?"

"This place, you mean? This place was not marked on the map that indicated the storage owned by the merchant group. Therefore, we judged it to be privately owned and did not search it, but..."

Flynn had a strange feeling.

'An unmarked storage? Is it not a storage owned by the Delberg Merchant Group?'

If it wasn't a storage owned by the Delberg Merchant Group, what were the things he and Teo had carried together from there?

The thought that it could be a secret storage of the merchant group briefly crossed his mind, but the entrance to that place was too loosely hidden for a secret storage. Rather, it seemed more credible that it wasn't owned by Delberg.

"Weren't there boxes stacked inside? What's inside them?"

"Hmm... miscellaneous items like blankets, feed sacks, straw bundles..."

"There should be a location tracking sensor that I threw around there. Did you happen to find it?"

"We did find a tracking sensor used by the Council. However, it seems to be broken and not functioning properly."

The items in the boxes were all things that didn't particularly need to be stored in a cool place. And they were things that were easy to obtain nearby, which the merchant group wouldn't bother to handle. Flynn's doubts grew, feeding on the suspicious circumstances.

Currently, the only missing merchant group personnel were the grand master and Tergio. And the storage where Tergio had taken him turned out to not actually belong to Delberg, and the sensor he had thrown in front of it was broken.

That place was not easily accessible due to the scarcity of people. So, if the sensor was broken, there was a high possibility that someone who knew about the existence of that place had directly broken it.

Flynn wanted to deny all these circumstances that strangely pointed to Teo, but he couldn't ignore them.

Because Teo had taken him there once, he naturally thought that the storage belonged to the Delberg Merchant Group and as a result didn't order a separate investigation. The investigation team had already searched all the storage facilities marked on the map without him having to mention it.

Of course, even for private storage facilities that didn't belong to the merchant group, some were being investigated late after obtaining the consent of the residents, considering the possibility of collusion with Delberg.

However, on the contrary, because he thought that place belonged to Delberg, that storage was able to slip through the investigation net during the day.

After finishing all these thoughts, Flynn felt goosebumps on his arm. He spoke to the tracking team on the other side of the communication channel, trying to maintain a calm demeanor.

"Alright... I understand for now. But please continue the investigation."

"Yes, understood."

The connection was cut off, and Flynn stared blankly at his hand. Various questions floated around in his mind.

"..."

Did Tergio really have another purpose for taking him there?

He had felt that Teo's hand, which had grabbed him tightly after coming out of the storage, was really warm, even if it was just for a moment. Was it all really a lie?

* * *

The place where Tergio and the grand master arrived was the coast.

It was a coast that required a long journey east from the residential area within Frost, and in front of their eyes, the black sea with crashing waves stretched out endlessly.

Teo had deliberately broken the sensor at the place they were just at to lure the tracking team, but he looked around, worried that there might be remaining Council members. As he grabbed her hand and quickly headed somewhere, she asked urgently, being dragged along.

"Where are we going now?"

"The border zone."

"What?"

Hearing that, she hurriedly stopped and strongly shook off his hand that she was holding. At that, Teo also stopped and turned around to look at her.

She breathed heavily with a startled heart and shook her head as if this wasn't right.

"Are you telling me to defect now? Are you crazy? I can't. I'd rather be arrested and imprisoned by the Council than that!"

She shouted as if fiercely resisting. The sound of waves crashing and hitting the ground seemed to snap her out of her dazed state. Teo silently looked at her like that again, and when her agitation subsided, he opened his mouth.

"If you're imprisoned in the Council's prison, how long do you think you'll be there?"

"..."

"Monster distribution is a felony. Moreover, the amount you and the Count have embezzled must be quite a lot. 10 years? 20 years? If you rot in prison for that long and come out, will Filione Delberg really leave you alone? No. Before that, will Delberg even let you come out of prison alive?"

She couldn't continue speaking. The Filione Delberg she knew was not someone who would leave even a small source of trouble. Delberg would surely try to cut off anything that might cause problems for the merchant group from the root.

With Filione Delberg's ambition and money, it wasn't impossible to secretly put poison in her meals while she was imprisoned.

She still couldn't decide whether she should resent or rely on this man in front of her. However, the unrealistic stories he had told were all very close to the truth.

Moreover, what was certain was that among the newly formed members who had come with her, the executives of the merchant group who had been attached to her under the pretext of assisting her were definitely not on her side. She thought she was being recognized by Delberg, but they regarded her as a mere pawn that could be used and discarded at any time.

Delberg only took the money she had risked her life to earn as a price, pretending to give her recognition.

"...Ha."

When she thought that far, laughter naturally flowed out of her.

She just laughed because her current state was so ridiculous.

They say that when a person is on the verge of death, their entire life flashes before their eyes like a revolving lantern, and judging by the fact that her life was lingering in her mind, she must really be on the brink of death.

She sighed as she briefly looked back on her life that flashed through her mind.

Ah, what a pitiful life.

Her vision blurred, and hot tears flowed from her eyes. The cold sea breeze seemed to be slapping her flushed cheeks, telling her to come to her senses.

Teo looked at her like that, then grabbed her hand again and walked ahead. She silently followed him.

After a while, when a small boat tied to the shore came into view, Teo led her to that boat and said,

"Get on. The boat has magic cast on it, so it will automatically head north without rowing. If you go non-stop for a day, it will dock at the coast, and from then on, find someone who can help you on your own."

As if he knew everything and had prepared, she asked him with a tear-stained, distorted face as he spoke.

"...Why are you helping me escape?"

When she asked, Teo untied the rope that was tied to the boat and said,

"Is that so important?"

"Of course, I was taught that no one helps without a reason."

At her bold words, Teo chuckled. Thinking that it was the same as what someone had told him about her, Teo untied the rope and placed it in her hand. Then, tapping his own neck, he said,

"You, are you from Bermuda?"

At that moment, she was startled and put her hand on the back of her neck. However, soon, a black choker-like object tied around Teo's neck, which was not clearly visible as it was hidden by his collar, caught her eye.

She slowly lowered her hand that had been covering the back of her neck, and with her eyes filled with strength, she asked him, putting in emotions that she couldn't fully express.

"...You too?"

At her trembling voice, Teo calmly nodded.

"Yeah. That's all. I roughly know what kind of life you've lived."

"..."

"So go and live a new life. Don't live tied down."

At Teo's words, she looked at the rope he had placed in her hand.

It felt as if the end of the rope of her life, which had been tied down, had finally come into her hands. It must have been just a simple act, nothing special, but the rope he placed in her hand made her feel a strange sense of liberation, as if it were some kind of ritual.

She looked at the land beyond him for a moment, then soon got on the boat. Defection was something she had never thought of before. She didn't know she would be pushed onto the boat like this, and she didn't know she would get on this boat of her own accord.

When she got on, Teo slowly pushed the boat that was on the shore so that it could float on the water. The rushing seawater came and soaked his shoes and pant legs, but he didn't seem to care.

When she felt the boat floating on the water and swaying slightly, she hurriedly grabbed his arm and said,

"What about you? Won't you get caught if you stay like this?"

At her worried words, Teo shook his head.

"I told you. I'm just a low-ranking member. Ordinary members will just be investigated a bit and released soon. Unlike you, whose face has become known."

At his words, still insisting that he was a low-ranking member until the end, she let out a dumbfounded, hollow laugh and said,

"Don't be ridiculous. A mere low-ranking member helping a guilty grand master escape? As if you had predicted everything in advance."

He didn't respond to her words. He didn't seem to have any intention of telling her the details. As the boat drifted further and the water became deep enough to soak his thighs, she spoke to him again without giving up.

"My name is Brianna Dixie. I have a personality that absolutely can't live with debt. So I will definitely repay you. Both you and Filione Delberg who used me."

"Alright."

Teo nodded at her bold words. Impatient due to his short response and the boat that had drifted enough to sway on the water, she grabbed his arm tightly.

"If something goes, something must come. That's the law of the merchant group. Seeing you even use teleportation, you seem to be a pretty strong mage, so what's your name?"

That 'name' was occasionally heard in secret, mainly from monster extermination teams or those whose lives were threatened and entrusted their protection to him. Being in a merchant group, one got to hear a wide variety of news, so sometimes stories about him would reach her ears.

Brianna had always thought it would be nice if the 'real' him approached her, but unfortunately, such luck never happened to her. However, at the end of this empire, which was like the boundary between life and death, she felt that luck had finally found her.

Teo looked at her, who was desperately clinging to his arm, and soon smiled slightly. At that moment, Brianna had the illusion that his brown eyes, reflecting the bright moonlight, seemed to be golden.

Before long, Teo released her clenched hand that was tightly grasping his arm. The moment his hand touched her again, Brianna felt that it wasn't her imagination that it was particularly warm.

She opened her mouth to say something, but he didn't listen anymore and pushed the boat she was on far away.

Instead, the moment the boat drifted away from him,

He spoke his 'name' to her, who was moving away, in a low but clear voice that she could understand.

"Leonardo Blaine."