Bermuda [bl]

"Are you going to embarrass my hand?"

"Ah, no. No, I'm not."

At his action of requesting a handshake with a feeling that didn't seem like an apology at all, even though he said he would apologize, Teo hesitated a bit uncomfortably. However, if he delayed any longer, it seemed like he would notice something strange, so he carefully took his hand.

The moment Tergio grabbed Hugo's hand that was held out in front of him, Hugo grasped Tergio's hand and pulled it strongly towards him.

At that sudden force, Teo was directly pulled towards him without any chance to resist. Teo, who suddenly found himself face to face with the Commander, had a clearly surprised look on his face.

Since the distance between the two was quite close, Flynn, who was watching from the side, was also quite flustered by the Commander's action.Hugo, who was tightly holding his hand with a strong grip, stared intently into Tergio's eyes in front of him. Fully exposed to that persistent gaze, Teo instinctively held his breath. His brown eyes wavered in confusion and his eyelashes trembled.

The moment those piercingly blue eyes stared at him as if they would see through him, Teo slightly lowered his eyes, feeling like he would be stripped bare.

A large and refreshing hand tightly grasped his hand, and his breath brushed right in front of his nose. It felt like his entire body was being restrained.

The gaze that slowly swept over him as if searching scratched his skin, but he couldn't bring himself to look up and tried hard to avoid eye contact. He felt like prey that couldn't move in front of a large predator.

Hugo followed his anxious-looking eyes, then slowly started climbing up his hand, rubbing it.

A firm thumb pressed down on Tergio's wrist. At that action, Teo looked quite flustered and tried to escape from his grasp, but the hand holding him didn't let go.

"Raise your head."

A low voice rang in his ears as if not tolerating even the slightest resistance.

As if he had heard an order that he couldn't defy, Teo swallowed and slowly lifted his eyelids.

As he intermittently exhaled, his deep and heavy scent flowed into him, pressing down on him as if suffocating him.

Teo felt that this moment was much longer than any other moment. In this situation where he was holding his wrist with a strong force and looking down at him with a chilling gaze, he felt an immense pressure.

"Uh... Commander?"

Flynn carefully called out to Hugo. It was because Teo, who was suddenly frozen, looked a bit pitiful.

Hugo quietly made eye contact with Tergio and checked his pulse. Then, soon, while still holding his wrist, he lightly shook his hand a couple of times before letting him go. His wrist had been grabbed so strongly that a clear red handprint was left where Hugo had let go.

Teo, who had barely escaped from the overwhelming pressure that had been pressing down on him, took about two steps back and exhaled the breath he had been holding. Looking at him like that, Hugo put on the glove he had taken off and spoke to Teo as if nothing had happened.

"It seems Flynn owes you a lot in many ways. By the way, how did you know that the teleportation zone of the closed gate is still active?"

At Hugo's question, Teo blinked several times to break his frozen mind. Then, trying hard to regain his composure, he opened his mouth.

"Ah... while doing merchant group work and moving around here and there... I found out."

"Hmm, is that so."

Even though he could have dug deeper, Hugo answered lightly as if he wouldn't ask any further.

"Thanks to you, it was a great help. Thank you."

Hugo slightly nodded his head to express his gratitude to him with a smile.

When a smile appeared on his coldly sculpted and upright face, all the members around couldn't take their eyes off him. However, Teo still looked at the smile on his lips with a somewhat wary expression.

After a while, Tergio moved to the waiting area after the investigation was completed, just like the other members. As Teo was led away by another investigator, Flynn said in a slightly grumbling tone,

"Commander, you're really too much. Making me talk about the part I misunderstood right in front of Mr. Teo... Do you know how embarrassed I was?"

Without taking his eyes off Tergio's receding back, Hugo opened his mouth.

"What exactly did you misunderstand?"

"Pardon?"

"Report all the suspicious circumstances and the parts you investigated."

Flynn, who was puzzled for a moment, recalled that he had been reporting the investigation process from time to time, but he had excluded the contents related to Teo as they were only suspicions. Soon, Flynn reported to Hugo all the parts he had been suspicious of, the contents of the storage investigation, Tergio's late appearance, and the search of his quarters.

After listening to the report, Hugo crossed his arms as if thinking about something, then asked Flynn,

"What's the reason for moving items that don't necessarily need to be refrigerated to the storage?"

"It's customary for the merchant group to move the leftover items from selling in the village to the storage. Of course, at first, I also thought that the items I moved together with Mr. Teo weren't necessarily the kind of items that had to be kept in storage, so I had a suspicion that he might have deliberately taken me there to make me check the storage."

"But."

"However, I confirmed the testimony that there is no time to check and classify the remaining items one by one, so they are put directly into storage regardless of the product."

"Then, did you confirm who instructed him to move the items there?"

"Yes. There was another member who was with us at the tavern, besides Mr. Teo, remember? According to that person, the supply of materials from the neighboring village is all the work of low-ranking members, so he instructed Mr. Teo."

"...The one who was wearing a hat?"

"Yes, that's right. However, since these people are not official members but hastily recruited, it seems that they sometimes confuse private storage with the merchant group's storage. Other existing members also said that it's a mistake that low-ranking members occasionally make, so he probably moved it to the wrong place."

"I see."

Hugo thought that Flynn's suspicion was not unfounded. It was definitely strange that Tergio had shown up late at night.

According to Flynn, he thought the person impersonating Leonardo Blaine was the real Blaine. However, he was also one of the people who had clearly seen Leonardo Blaine's photo during the process of him and Flynn gathering information.

Although further investigation was needed, the grand master had not been found yet. In a situation where it was clear that someone had noticed suspicious signs and informed her, the person who actually did it had not been clearly identified.

Meanwhile, that man named Tergio was also present at the tavern when they first heard about the monsters, and when it was unclear whether it was a monster or a beast, he was the one who gave credibility to the hypothesis that it was a monster. Next, he implicitly informed Flynn that Delberg was storing something underground, and he even knew about the unused teleportation zone.

"For a low-ranking member... he knows too much."

As Hugo muttered to himself, Flynn looked at him and asked,

"You were holding his hand for quite a while earlier... Do you have any other suspicious circumstances about Mr. Teo?"

At that, Hugo looked down at his hand that had grasped Tergio's.

"More than one or two."

"More than one or two?"

"Yes, but none of them are decisive."

"What kind of...?"

When Flynn asked cautiously, Hugo glanced down at Flynn and said,

"Did he say he was sleeping in his quarters the whole time?"

"Yes. The owner of the quarters clearly saw him go in and out. There is a window in the room, but even if it's fully open, it's not a size that a person can go through, and the height is also quite high, about 4 floors. There's almost no chance he left in the middle."

After listening to Flynn's words, Hugo seemed to think for a bit, then opened his mouth as if something strange had occurred to him.

"But why did he smell like the sea?"

"Pardon?"

Flynn's eyes widened. Hugo rubbed his chin and said again with certainty,

"Tergio smelled like seawater. As clearly as if he had just been there."

Hugo Agrizendro, the Commander of the Central Branch of the Council and the best ice mage in the empire, uses ice and water as his main attributes.

As such, his senses for water were sensitive and he could feel it well with his five senses. He could even distinguish whether the source of the water was ordinary tap water, a lake, or the sea just by the lingering scent, so there was no way he could have been mistaken.

Knowing this well, Flynn stammered and asked Hugo again,

"Did he... go to the sea?"

"From what I felt, yes."

"Co- Commander, did you feel any mana when you held Mr. Teo's hand?"

At Flynn's doubtful question, Hugo shook his head.

"No, I didn't feel any."

"Ah... I see. It was the same when I held it. Perfectly so. He was a non-mana holder with absolutely no mana."

"There were no mana tools for movement, including teleportation, in his quarters, and he, who was said to have been in that room the whole time, doesn't have a speck of mana to teleport, but strangely, he smells like the sea. Even though his quarters aren't near the coast."

Although there were clearly contradictory parts, there was no clear evidence to prove that he was lying. And even if it was revealed that his words were false, more physical evidence was needed to support what role he played and what his relationship was with the grand master.

"In the end, you couldn't find the grand master?"

"Yes, according to the testimony of the executives, they didn't escape together. We controlled and investigated all the gates in the nearby areas, but we couldn't find her. Now that even Mr. Teo has attended the investigation, it seems she has already left this area."

"Flynn, didn't you say earlier that you suspected that Tergio might be related to the grand master's escape?"

"Yes, that's right."

"What if the grand master escaped to the coast?"

At Hugo's words, Flynn rubbed his arm as if he had goosebumps and said,

"It's quite... possible, but even if she escapes to the coast and returns to the south, wouldn't she get caught again at the gate soon? Moreover, a nationwide wanted notice for the grand master will be issued soon."

"...Yes. That's true."

As the two were inferring various possibilities in the difficult-to-grasp direction of the investigation, a Council member hurriedly approached them and said,

"Ah, Council Commander. You were here."

"What is it?"

"The Commander-in-Chief contacted us through our investigation headquarters' communication channel. He said he couldn't reach your personal communication channel..."

At that, Hugo took out his communication magic tool, checked the record, and clicked his tongue. Then, he said to the member who brought the news,

"I'll receive it directly. Where should I go?"

"Please come this way."

* * *

"It's really hard to get in touch with you."

"What did you contact me for?"

"Do I have to have a specific reason to contact you?"

The headquarters' communication channel was larger in size, had more delicate functions, and was not portable, so the other person's appearance could also be seen. Looking at Abraham Langaster's face reflected in the communication channel, Hugo answered coldly,

"If there's nothing important, I'll hang up. And don't contact the headquarters."

"You're so heartless. It's not that there's nothing important. There are many tasks piled up that you need to handle directly. Including the matters of your territory."

"...I was just about to return soon. I've been quite busy here too, and things are just starting to get sorted out."

"I received the interim report. Quite a big incident occurred. So, what happened to Leonardo Blaine?"

Even though he knew a big incident had occurred, Hugo couldn't help but laugh at Abraham's search for Leonardo Blaine.

He had been chasing the guy's tail with hope and searching for him, but in the end, it turned out to be an impersonation, which made him feel deflated, and Abraham's words fueled Hugo's frustration.

"I followed the traces, but it was someone impersonating his name, and that person was involved in large-scale monster distribution. The guy you're looking for, Commander-in-Chief, maybe he wasn't here in the first place."

Hugo reported somewhat cynically. He firmly stated that the Leonardo Blaine Abraham was looking for might not be here, preventing that name from coming out of him any further.

"Hmm, I see... I see. You worked hard going all the way to a distant place to investigate directly. Well, someday, we'll hear news about that child again."

Abraham on the other side of the communication channel seemed somewhat disappointed. He seemed to have had quite a lot of expectations for this matter. However, Abraham soon opened his mouth again as if he had a different reason for contacting.

"In the midst of the issue of the peninsula expedition being brought up again, an urgent inspection schedule was set for the five southern branches, so I sent Shorendo instead of you. You should be well aware that it's not good for the situation to have all the Commander-level personnel of the Central Branch absent."

"..."

"Although you are the Council Commander, there's no need for you to handle the matters of the Northern Branch one by one. If the matters there have been sorted out to some extent, come back now."

In other words, it meant to stop handling other tasks there and come back to do his own work.

Indeed, Hugo also felt that he had spent quite a lot of time trying to catch Leonardo Blaine, more than expected. Just as he was thinking that he shouldn't be absent any longer and that he should wrap things up here and return soon, Abraham contacted him directly, so it seemed he needed to move up the schedule.

Originally, he was planning to return after reporting the direction of the investigation on the missing grand master, but seeing that Abraham had contacted him directly, it seemed he had to return earlier.

Agreeing with his words, Hugo said,

"I will return first thing in the morning tomorrow."