Bermuda [bl]

Creak–

"Blaine, are you ready?"

Flynn, who had half-opened the door with his shoulder, poked his head in and asked. In his hands were several backpacks, barely closed after being stuffed with various items.

The shadow pushed by the sunlight entering through the door gap reached Leonardo's feet. Leonardo put the artifact and communication magic tool he had been examining into his pants pocket and answered nonchalantly, pretending to tidy up his clothes:

"Yeah, I'm coming out now."

He bent down to grab the crumpled heel of his shoe and put it on properly. When he raised his head and looked past Flynn's shoulder, he caught glimpses of members moving busily outside the door.

Although not even 30 minutes had passed since sunrise, it seemed that the return preparations were nearing completion, as if everyone had been hurrying since early morning.

Leonardo gently rubbed the wood grain on the deck with his palm.

It was time to say goodbye to this place too. He felt bittersweet.

Standing up, he stretched and brushed back his bangs that had fallen over his eyes with his hand.

With a sizzling sound, the hair that was pushed back temporarily stayed in place due to the heat. After doing this two or three more times with care, he approached Flynn, who was holding the door open.

"I'll go carry some luggage, so wait around here in the meantime. The Commander will be here soon too."

"Want me to help with the moving?"

"It's okay. Your arm isn't fully healed yet. I'll be done quickly."

Flynn refused Leonardo's offer and moved away from the door he had been leaning on. Then he shouldered the bundle of backpacks tied with leather straps and walked away, wobbling.

Leonardo, who had been watching his retreating figure, thought about helping him, but decided to leave him be as Flynn seemed to have noticed his gaze and straightened his gait. Instead, he looked around at the nearby cabins that were empty of luggage and people. He had thought it was noisy since he woke up, but it seemed that a considerable number had already moved elsewhere.

He was about to close the door and look around a bit, but feeling regretful, he peered into the empty cabin where he had been staying.

The interior, filled with the smell of wood, still had warm air circling around. He noticed that the deck had become shiny, probably from repeatedly spreading out bedding, sitting, and lying down.

'All sorts of things happened here.'

Leonardo looked in turn at the side table pushed to the corner, the neatly folded bedding, and the window high up. Finally, he turned his eyes to the center of the deck and drew an afterimage of himself and the large man embracing.

"Ahem, ahem."

Feeling heat rise to the nape of his neck, he quickly stopped that train of thought. With an embarrassed fake cough, he pulled the door handle and half-turned his body.

But then he heard someone's voice from above his head. It was the protagonist of his reminiscence.

"Did you leave something behind?"

"Ah, you startled me–"

Leonardo, who had flinched in surprise, quickly raised his head. Hugo was standing right next to him, though it was unclear when he had arrived.

"Oh, I didn't mean to startle you."

Hugo lightly raised both hands in apology and glanced inside the still-open door. After confirming that there was no luggage left, he gestured to Leonardo with his chin.

"If you're all ready, let's go. We need to start leaving soon. Or, is there something you're looking for?"

Leonardo, who had calmed his startled heart, was about to answer no but glanced at the door gap once more. Then, touching the nape of his neck that had almost heated up, he answered casually:

"No. Just... I think I'll miss this place."

Hugo's eyebrows slightly rose at his rather sentimental answer. He looked down at Leonardo intently and spoke in a quite affectionate tone:

"You can come again."

"...Come here again?"

"You could if you wanted to. Though other territory residents would be living here then."

Come to think of it, it was time for this gathering place to be filled with other people's memories too. Since the existing refugees had given up their dwellings, it was natural for the original owners to move in after the urgent injured were evacuated.

He didn't know if someone had been living in this cabin too... Leonardo glanced inside with a regretful heart but nodded and firmly closed the door. Then Hugo, who had been watching his expression, casually asked:

"Should I order this place to be kept empty?"

"What?"

Hugo's expression was quite serious, so it didn't sound like a joke. Leonardo answered as if it was absurd:

"No need. There are people who abandoned their homes to relocate, what about them? It's fine if I just remember this place in my mind."

'Besides, what's really important is right in front of me.'

Leonardo swallowed the last words in his throat. Hugo then smiled as if he found it admirable and lightly touched Leonardo's cheek.

"A wise answer."

Soon, Hugo brushed his fingertips over the golden eyes and round forehead that were refreshingly revealed with the bangs half pushed back. Leonardo just slightly closed and opened his eyes, without particularly stopping him. Hugo, who had been caressing his eye rims, withdrew his hand and said:

"Pretty."

"..."

Leonardo looked at the other for a moment as if he had misheard.

"...What?"

He asked back in a voice that became small from bewilderment, but Hugo just smiled instead of answering and casually checked his wristwatch.

Soon after, he took out a communication magic tool, pressed a few buttons, and tried to connect somewhere. Before even two rings had gone through, the other person's voice was heard.

'Yes, Commander.'

"Overall preparations?"

'90% complete. The convoy of escort vehicles has almost all arrived up to the rear.'

"The support troops?"

'Currently two battalion-scale personnel are on standby and more are being added.'

"I'll be there soon."

Hugo, who ended the connection after a brief inquiry, put his arm around Leonardo's shoulder and said:

"Shall we go?"

Leonardo nodded, composing his expression with dazed eyes. Hugo matched his stride to walk alongside him while scanning the surroundings to count the number of personnel remaining nearby.

As he didn't seem to have said it with any particular meaning, Leonardo tried to erase the words he had just heard from his mind. But his clueless inner self kept asking questions:

'Why... couldn't I tell him not to say that?'

If one had experience serving in the military where the ratio of men was relatively high, it was honestly difficult to take being called "pretty" in a good way. Guys who were good-looking and had fine features were inevitably often not large in build or muscle, so among peers, they sometimes received so-called unfavorable treatment from bullying seniors or squad leaders with bad personalities.

Of course, he had stuffed the mouths of those who called him that way with gravel and pummeled their faces with his fists, but it had been quite stressful when he was young, so even now he had an unavoidable aversion to those words themselves.

But strangely... just now, it didn't feel particularly bad. Rather, he was just surprised by Agrizendro's keen eye for noticing that he had pushed back his hair.

"Hmm?"

As Leonardo was looking at him with narrowed eyes, Hugo looked down at him as if asking if he had something to say. However, Leonardo shook his head as if it was nothing.

He just blankly looked down at the two pairs of legs walking side by side, and slightly raised the corners of his mouth at the other's kindness that had returned to normal.

***

"By the way, did you get some sleep? When I woke up earlier, you weren't beside me."

Leonardo recalled the empty space next to him when he had opened his eyes after Flynn woke him, and asked.

Hugo rubbed under his own eyes and answered with a relaxed expression:

"I slept well for the first time in a while."

For someone who said that, his face was still full of fatigue, so Leonardo blinked with a subtle gaze. He recalled the incomprehensible man who had suddenly covered Leonardo's eyes with his hand after staring at him for a while with a complicated expression while talking about something out of the blue last night.

At the time, he had struggled to remove the hand covering his sight, but then stopped resisting and tried to quietly go to sleep, thinking that Agrizendro seemed to be staying awake despite being tired because of him. However, with the other person's body heat and scent so vivid, it wasn't an environment where he could easily fall asleep.

In the end, Leonardo, who had barely fallen asleep about two hours before dawn, remembered Hugo's breathing sound as he was still awake when Leonardo's consciousness was fading. If so, he must not have slept properly either, but only Hugo would know why he was telling such an obvious lie.

Of course, while thinking that, Leonardo was smiling with his eyes.

'It would be stranger if he could sleep well with me beside him.'

He shrugged his shoulders and widened his stride a little more. At that moment, Hugo, who had been matching his pace to Leonardo, suddenly stopped walking.

"We're here."

Leonardo also stopped in place. As he looked straight ahead, wiping the smile off his face, he caught a glimpse of the gate in front of the border area where the Central Branch forces had been waiting before first entering the peninsula, next to a huge tent.

The gate, which stretched far into the distance, had iron structures added that weren't there before, as if reinforcement work was in full swing. The voices of the enormous crowd gathered in front of it and the cries of monsters mixed together, carried clearly by the wind from time to time.

Although only a small part had come into view before turning the corner, Leonardo could fully sense how many troops were gathered beyond this point. Moreover, the large escort vehicles densely parked on the left side gave him an overwhelming feeling anew.

'They said they were developing new military vehicles... is that them?'

It was a new means of transportation that was said to have increased maximum speed and load capacity by using a well-mixed combination of petroleum and mana as a power source. Although he had seen lower models in the military before, it was his first time seeing the new model, and so many of them at once.

It was well-known that the developer and main investor of these were all from the Agrizendro family. Since he was in the Council, the support seemed extraordinary.

Leonardo looked up blankly at the one at the center of wealth and power. Hugo, whose eyes happened to meet his, said to Leonardo:

"There might be more people than before, but there's no need to be nervous. Just stay by my side as usual."

"I'm not nervous."

Although he had been a bit stiff at the last general meeting, there was no reason to be nervous now. As Leonardo replied casually as usual, Hugo nodded slightly and continued:

"I see. Oh, and. The Parren general said he wanted to meet you briefly. He was thinking of at least greeting you before leaving, would that be alright?"

'The Parren general?'

"He's the supreme commander of the Parren military camp that cooperated in the peninsula subjugation. Over there, military rank is proportional to political influence, so it wouldn't hurt to exchange greetings. Of course, if you don't want to, I'll decline."

"No, it's fine if it's just greeting."

Leonardo answered as if it was no problem, recalling the face he had glimpsed. Hugo smiled gently and softly rubbed Leonardo's forearm.

"Alright, let's go."

The two walked side by side beyond the tent. An endless expanse of navy blue groups in neat rows and columns spread out.

They turned their heads like dominoes and looked at the two who had appeared in unison. Soon, their arms rose in unison. A thunderous sound of loyalty echoed in front of the gate.