Bermuda [bl]

"Oh, Mr. Investigator!"

Flynn turned his head at the familiar voice. Tergio came out of the tent where the merchant group members were being investigated separately and waved at him.

"Mr. Teo?"

"Mr. Investigator, that uniform..."

"Mr. Teo, where have you been!?"

Flynn ran up to him and grabbed his hand, saying. At that action, Teo looked at Flynn with a slightly surprised expression, then soon looked down at the hand he was tightly holding. As Teo seemed flustered, Flynn realized his own action and let go of his hand, saying,

"Ah, ah... I'm sorry. I've been looking for you for a while..."

"For me?"

"Yes, where were you?"

"Ah... well, after parting with you, Mr. Investigator, I was tired, so I took a nap in my quarters to slack off. Haha, but I didn't expect it to get this dark..."

Teo answered, rubbing the back of his neck as if embarrassed.

"When I woke up, I was told that all the members had gone to the territory square for investigation? So I came here too. I heard that the merchant group was really distributing monster corpses?"

Teo spoke casually as if it was nothing, but Flynn was doubtful whether everything he said was entirely true. However, thinking that it wouldn't be resolved just by worrying, Flynn decided to share his doubts with Teo.

"Mr. Teo. No, Mr. Tergio."

"Yes?"

"From now on, please answer truthfully to all the questions I ask. Understood?"

"Ah, yes."

"You have to tell the truth."

"Of course."

At Flynn's repetitive words, creating a rather heavy atmosphere, Teo nodded, answering a bit tensely as if he was nervous. At that, Flynn took a deep breath and said to him,

"The storage we went to together earlier... Did you happen to go there again?"

"Ah, that storage? No? I haven't been there again today since I went with you, Mr. Investigator?"

"...Then, is there any witness who can prove where you've been until now?"

"Uh... a witness?"

He scratched his cheek as if he was a bit troubled. Flynn looked at him suspiciously.

"Since I was sleeping the whole time... it might be a bit difficult to prove, but I greeted the owner of the quarters where I'm staying when I went in and out. Would that person also be considered a witness?"

"...Yes, well, it's possible for now, but in that case, would it be okay to search your room?"

From what Flynn felt, he was an ordinary person with no mana at all. Even when he held his hand, he didn't feel a hint of mana at all.

However, if he had tools imbued with mana or teleportation tools, even someone without mana could sufficiently use them to move to another place. Of course, even if that were the case, there was a high possibility that he had already taken care of it.

Flynn felt sorry to him for having these doubts. However, he was a member of the Council. In order to solve the case, he had to focus on and dig into even the smallest suspicions.

As time passed without Teo saying anything, just looking at him when asked if it was okay to search his room, Flynn felt that his gaze was somehow a bit unfamiliar. It was difficult to shake off the strange chill.

And a little later, Teo slowly opened his mouth.

"Mr. Investigator, what are you suspecting me of?"

"What? No, suspicion. This is just a part of the investigation process."

At Teo's straightforward question, Flynn tried to hide his embarrassment and made an excuse that it was just a formality. Looking at such Flynn, Teo soon nodded.

"Ah... I see. You can search if you want. If that clears your suspicion of me, I should gladly do it."

Teo said with a smile. He was smiling, but at his words that seemed to have thorns, Flynn felt like he was committing a sin. However, he couldn't not search because of that. There were many strange points in the circumstances, and he was perhaps one of the most likely suspects.

One of the things that felt a bit strange earlier was that when he asked the Delberg members if they knew Tergio's quarters, they each knew the location differently.

And as a result of investigating all the quarters they had mentioned, it was true that Teo had actually stayed in those places, but there was something odd.

It was the fact that he kept moving around and changing his place of residence. As if he was trying to keep anyone from knowing his exact location.

Teo told Flynn where he was staying. Then, Flynn immediately sent other investigators to search the place, and asked Teo one more thing.

"Mr. Teo, you said earlier that the place we went to together was a storage used by the Delberg Merchant Group, right?"

"Yes."

"But that place was not marked on the map showing the locations of Delberg's storage facilities."

"A map showing the locations of storage facilities? Is there such a thing?"

Teo asked back as if it was unfamiliar. Rather, it was Flynn who was flustered by his words that he was hearing it for the first time. After saying it, Flynn recalled that he was, on the surface, a low-ranking member who couldn't easily access information.

"Ah... yes. It was something that a high-ranking member had, so if you're not aware of it, I'll change the question. Is that place really a storage of the Delberg Merchant Group?"

"Yes, as far as I know. Is something wrong?"

Flynn felt frustrated at his attitude of not understanding the situation.

"Then, can you tell me who instructed you to move the boxes there?"

"Yes. Do you remember when we first met at the tavern, there was another member next to me? It's that person."

"That person?"

Flynn flipped through the additional list of members he was holding and soon found the name that matched his face.

"It's Mr. Elijah Tennen."

"Yes, that's right."

"Please wait here for a moment."

Having said that, Flynn went to another investigator nearby and asked him to investigate whether Elijah Tennen had given any instructions to Tergio. The investigator immediately went to the waiting area where the investigated members were gathered to look for Elijah.

At that moment, Flynn's communication magic tool rang. When he checked the caller, it was the investigation team that had gone to search Teo's quarters.

"Yes, have you confirmed?"

"Yes, Deputy Commander. When I checked with the owner, he said that the member named Tergio had returned to his quarters in the afternoon and stayed inside the whole time until he left about 10 minutes ago. It was also this owner who told him that the members were gathered in the square."

"Was there anything unusual in the room?"

"As a result of checking the inside, we couldn't find anything special. There were no magic tools that could be used for teleportation either."

"...I see."

"We will search a bit more around the surrounding area and nearby trash cans, and then report back to you."

"Yes, thank you."

Flynn ended the communication like that and fell into thought for a moment. Soon, he turned his head and looked at Teo, who had been expressionless. When he saw Flynn, he slightly raised the corners of his mouth.

Probably, as long as one was human, it wouldn't feel good to know that one was being suspected. However, Flynn couldn't judge whether his effort to smile was to ease the guilt or to hide something.

Soon, the investigator who had gone to confirm the facts with Elijah returned to Flynn.

"It's true that Elijah Tennen instructed him to put the remaining materials in the storage. However, the storage at the location you just ordered to search is not a storage of the Delberg Merchant Group."

"...Then, even though it's not the merchant group's storage, he deliberately went there."

"For now, that's the case. Ah, but since the merchant group's storage facilities are scattered here and there, from the perspective of a low-ranking member, this can be quite confusing. He said he had made that mistake a few times himself. He said that Tergio probably made a mistake too."

A mistake? A mistake was quite possible. It was just that everything fell into place too perfectly.

Around the time Flynn had been listening to the investigator for a while, another call came from the investigation team that had gone to Tergio's quarters.

They also reported that there was no record of him being seen outside other than the time he mentioned, that there were signs of the window being closed for a long time, and that even after searching all the places where trash could be thrown nearby, no teleportation tools or the like could be found.

After hearing all these reports, Flynn stood still for a long time as if gauging something. Soon, he turned his head and stared into Teo's eyes, who were looking at him.

Flynn felt a strange sense of déjà vu as he slowly approached him.

Then, he soon bowed to him politely and apologized.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Teo. It seems I misunderstood you for a moment. I'm truly sorry."

Flynn couldn't raise his head. At that, Teo made a very flustered face and waved his hands, saying,

"No, Mr. Investigator, please raise your head. I'm fine."

At his words, Flynn raised his head with a dejected face.

He was a member of the merchant group who had risked danger to tell him about suspicious circumstances or things he had seen, helping him.

However, he had suspected him based on the sole reason that he had shown up late, linking it with various circumstances, and in order to prove all those suspicions, he had searched his quarters and interrogated the people around him, but not a single piece of evidence was found that he was related to the escaped grand master.

Now that the situation had come to this, Flynn felt ashamed of himself.

Putting aside the suspicion that he was related to the whereabouts of the grand master, it was none other than Tergio who had told him that there was a teleportation zone that was not in use but the portal had not yet been closed, and that if someone tried to escape, there was a high possibility of using that place.

If he had attempted to escape or had been planning to help the grand master escape, he wouldn't have told him about that place. If he had been the only one who knew about that place, it would have been easier for him to escape.

Rather, by telling him about it, he was able to arrest the fire mage who had impersonated Leonardo Blaine. And he, who had been absent the whole time, finally showed up at night and confidently underwent the investigation. Based on the circumstances, Teo was just an innocent low-ranking member no matter how you looked at it.

"What's going on?"

When a low, resonant voice was heard, Flynn, who was apologizing to Teo, and Teo simultaneously looked in that direction. Commander Hugo Agrizendro was approaching them, looking at the two. Flynn straightened his bowed back and rubbed the back of his head as if a bit embarrassed, and said to Hugo,

"Ah, Commander. I had a bit of a misunderstanding with this person. I was in the middle of apologizing."

"Misunderstanding?"

Hugo shifted his gaze from Flynn to Tergio. As his gaze fell on him, Tergio looked at Hugo with a slightly tense face and greeted him.

"Ah, hello?"

"The member I saw at the tavern..."

"Yes, Commander. This person is Mr. Tergio. It was also from the hints he gave that we found out that the Delberg Merchant Group was burying and storing monster corpses in the ground. And it was also this person who told us that there was an unused gate that the fire mage had tried to escape through."

"Is that so."

At Flynn's words, Hugo stared intently at Teo.

With brown hair and brown eyes, Tergio, who had light freckles on his face, was much shorter than him and slightly taller than Flynn, neither too tall nor too short.

He had a moderately slender body but didn't look skinny, and his face was innocent enough to be somewhat likable, but objectively, he had a very ordinary impression.

That's right. He had such an ordinary face that if one passed by him, one wouldn't even remember him.

"What kind of misunderstanding did you have?"

"What? Ah, that... it's embarrassing to say..."

When Flynn smiled awkwardly and was reluctant to speak, Hugo looked down at him with sharp eyes. Then, Flynn alternated between looking at Hugo and Teo, and soon opened his mouth as if he had no choice.

"Mr. Teo woke up in his quarters and showed up very late to be investigated, so I had a suspicion... that he might be related to the grand master's disappearance... Yes, that's the kind of suspicion I had... Mr. Teo, I'm really sorry again!"

"Ah, no. It's okay. It's a reasonable suspicion. Haha, but the grand master hasn't been seen until now?"

Flynn nodded at Teo, who asked as if he was hearing it for the first time, and explained the current situation where the executives had been caught but the grand master had disappeared.

At that, Hugo quietly looked at Tergio, who was listening to that story. When Teo, who had been listening to Flynn's words with a serious face, looked up after feeling his gaze, Hugo soon took off the glove he was wearing and held out his hand to him, saying,

"As Flynn Levernil's superior, I also apologize."

"What? Commander-"

As the Commander personally offered an apology, Flynn felt like he was going to die from embarrassment, shame, and remorse.

As Hugo's large hand was held out in front of him, Teo looked at him and his hand alternately, seeming quite surprised. Then, he rubbed his hand on his sleeve, expressing his embarrassment.

Just because Tergio hesitated and seemed reluctant to shake hands at a mere handshake, Hugo raised one eyebrow and said with a slight smile,

"Are you going to embarrass my hand?"