Bermuda [bl]

Flynn brought his nose close to the soil on Hugo's outstretched hand and sniffed it. Then, with surprised eyes, he said,

"The smell of oil...!"

As Hugo nodded, Flynn asked,

"Then... is it arson by someone else?"

"Yes, it seems so."

Hugo stood up and brushed off his hands as he continued,

"Leonardo Blaine is known to be very skilled with fire. It could be a trap, but thinking simply, I don't think he would have needed something like oil to start a fire. Moreover, based on his recent movements, it's unlikely that he would do something this conspicuous."

"I see... I thought it was strange when the embers suddenly scattered as you extinguished the fire earlier, Commander. It was actually because the embers hit the oil-soaked soil when the strong streams of water made contact."

Flynn nodded, as if he finally understood.

"I'll go contact the northern branch right away."

Flynn hurriedly ran out of the smoky fire scene. Hugo used magic to wash the soil off his hand. However, he could still feel the unpleasant, slimy oil residue on his skin.

He found it difficult to shake off the thought that the cause of the sudden fire in this town was somehow related to himself and Flynn, who had been wandering around the nearby towns and had arrived in this town yesterday.

It seemed as if some unclear causal relationship was lurking around him.

* * *

Before long, the Council members from the northern branch that Flynn had contacted arrived at the scene. As it was an investigation unit, there were only a small number of seven people. Among them, the person in charge seemed to recognize Hugo's face and was startled, bowing at a 90-degree angle.

"C-Commander! I didn't expect you to be here..."

"I came quietly, so don't make a fuss."

"Yes, yes!"

Flynn shook his head as he watched the person in charge, who was even more nervous and drawing attention despite being told not to make a fuss. He spoke to the lead investigator for a situation briefing.

"Around 2 a.m. Frost territory time, the fire was already spreading when I woke up. The commander personally suppressed it, and during the process, when the water touched the ground, there was a phenomenon of embers scattering. Upon inspection, the soil was soaked with oil. It was a considerable amount, and there were no places nearby that would handle oil, so we suspect it to be a planned arson."

"Oh, I see. You've already gotten that far... Thank you. We'll begin the investigation immediately, Adjutant Levernil."

The lead investigator exclaimed in admiration at the quick situation briefing and wrote down Flynn's words in his investigation notebook.

As the Council members set up fences and began their investigation, the town atmosphere became quite chaotic, even though it was still dawn and the sun had not yet risen. Flynn, who had been watching the investigation from a distance, said to Hugo,

"Who could have started the fire? I heard that the frequency of forest fires has increased recently. Could those also be acts of arson by someone?"

"It's possible."

"Then, should we inform the lead investigator about this as well?"

Hugo seemed to ponder for a moment before shaking his head.

"No, don't tell them yet. There's something I need to confirm."

* * *

Around dawn, the guards from Frost territory in charge of the area arrived at the scene to assess the situation. At the same time, Hugo left a message for Flynn to wait in the town and headed into the mountains.

He took out a thermal detector and flew around, investigating areas where the ground retained heat. Without fail, the places where heat was detected had traces of being scorched by fire.

Hugo descended from the air and closely examined the soil of the burnt ground. He squeezed the soil, smelled it, or sprinkled water to see if an oil film would float up.

However, none of the places with scorch marks on the ground smelled of oil, and no oil film was found. Although he had speculated that the forest fires that had been occurring at a high frequency, like the fire in the town, could also be arson, the connection had disappeared.

Hugo looked around suspiciously. Then, he began to notice very faint traces of the ground being dug up. However, it was ambiguous to consider them suspicious, as they could have been created during the fire suppression process while spraying water.

He considered digging up the ground right away, but since the northern branch of the Council was currently out for investigation and they might conduct further investigations later, he decided against it, thinking that he shouldn't damage the scene.

"Phew..."

Feeling tired from staying up all night and frustrated by the disappearance of the connection to the arson, he felt suffocated.

As he raised his head and exhaled, his breath dispersed in the cold air. A faint mist lingered between the trees, and a subtle flow of air could be felt.

Hugo lightly brushed off his hands and stood still, facing forward. It was because he clearly sensed the presence of someone other than himself nearby.

Right in front of him, a withered leaf that had been barely clinging to a bare branch fell weakly. As Hugo stared at that fragile flutter, he moved with a speed so fast that the person tailing him couldn't even notice.

The moment he reached the person whose presence he had sensed was before the falling leaf even touched the ground.

"Ack, ack—"

"You've followed me all the way here."

Hugo twisted the person's neck with one hand and forcefully pushed them against a thick tree behind them.

There was a thud, and the few remaining leaves scattered.

"Ugh—, ah... S-Spare me..."

As the black cloak of the person who had been secretly following him was removed, their face was revealed. They struggled and tried their best to remove the large hand gripping their neck.

However, the grip was so strong that their neck was gradually being constricted, making it difficult to breathe. Their eyes rolled back, and blood vessels appeared in the whites of their eyes. The large hand showed no signs of stopping, firmly pressing on the exact location of the jugular vein, almost rupturing the blood vessels.

With a flushed face, the mysterious man who had been fiercely resisting to survive reached out his hand towards Hugo's face. Then, a small magic circle appeared on his hand. Just as he seemed to be muttering an incantation, Hugo lightly grabbed his hand with his other hand and froze it using mana.

"Aaaaargh!"

As his hand froze, a scream that seemed to tear through the air erupted. The moment Hugo loosened his grip, the man fell to the ground weakly and writhed in pain and fear, clutching his pale blue right hand. Hugo took a step closer to the man and said,

"If that ice shatters, your right hand will shatter along with it. So, stay put."

"Ugh, ugh..., p-please spare me~!"

With a face that had turned deathly pale, he prostrated himself in front of Hugo and began to beg with his frozen hand. The tips of his fingers had turned from pale blue to a dark, rotten color, as if they were about to fall off.

Hugo quietly looked down at the man in front of him. He sensed the same mana energy from him as the cloaked figure who had been spying on him the previous night. Moreover, the magic the man had just tried to use was water magic, and as he had expected, he seemed to be a water mage who used water as his main attribute.

As he watched the man sobbing in fear, Hugo asked in a cold voice,

"Why were you following me?"

"T-That's..."

The man hesitated, glancing around. Hugo didn't give him a moment's respite and gathered cold ice crystals in his hand, instantly creating a sharp ice spear. The light streaming through the misty trees in the dawn reflected off the ice spear, making it look menacing.

As he immediately pointed the spear at the man's neck, the man was so startled that he nearly stopped breathing, and then he shouted in a panic,

"I was just following orders!"

"Orders? Whose?"

"Count Servia... told me to monitor the outsiders who appeared in the town at the foot of the mountain. So, I was just following orders."

Hugo furrowed his brows. The count the man mentioned was the lord of this territory. The lord of Frost territory had directly ordered him to be monitored. It didn't make sense.

Looking back on his actions, he had been inquiring about Leonardo Blaine, but he couldn't remember doing anything particularly suspicious.

If there had been any suspicious circumstances, they could have sent guards to investigate his identity. Assigning a tail like this was quite irrational. And using a mage at that.

"Count Servia? For what reason?"

"I-I don't know the reason either! He just told me to report if I noticed any suspicious activities."

"The person wearing a cloak and spying at the tavern yesterday was also you, wasn't it?"

"..."

"Were you also the one who committed the arson?"

"Huh? Arson? No, that wasn't me!"

He waved his hands in a panic and said,

"I wasn't even in that town at that time! I came to follow you at dawn and just found out about the fire!"

As Hugo coldly looked down at him, emphasizing with his entire body that he was telling the truth, he asked again,

"Then why didn't you use teleportation today? You could have escaped."

"Teleportation... I didn't use my own mana for that. I used a teleportation device, but I didn't have time to recharge the mana... so I left it behind."

Seeing him almost crying as he faced the fierce gaze, Hugo decided to stop interrogating him in the middle of the forest. As he approached him to change locations, the man let out a yelp and curled up into a ball.

Hugo grabbed the back of his collar with one hand and lifted him up. The man's body was half-hanging from his own clothes, as if he had been pulled up.

"I'll ask for the details after I finish my business."

As Hugo finished speaking, the mage who had been begging him soon closed his eyes tightly due to the intense glare that filled the surroundings with a white light.

A moment later, when he opened his eyes again, feeling that the surroundings had become quite noisy, he nearly fell over in surprise. He had arrived in the middle of the town, not the cold forest where he had been sitting just a moment ago.

Flynn, who had been talking to the lead investigator from the Council, was at a loss for words when he saw the commander suddenly appear with a half-collapsing man who was half-lifted by his hand.

The man who had been dragged along had a face covered in tears and a mess, with fierce handprints on his neck, and above all, one of his hands was frozen solid as if he had frostbite.

Hugo dragged him and threw him at the feet of the investigator and Flynn, saying,

"The lord ordered him to follow us. He was also the one at the tavern yesterday."

"What? The lord of Frost territory?"

"Yes. Lead investigator, transfer this man to the headquarters and detain him."

"Yes, understood!"

"Flynn, you're coming with me to the Servia County."

Flynn looked at the man who was sobbing with one hand frozen and felt a bit of sympathy, answering in a daze,

"Y-Yes, sir!"

* * *

Count Servia was pacing back and forth, unable to do anything.

"Why did the Council suddenly barge in? What did you do?!"

He was biting his nails and frantically walking around the room, disregarding his dignity. The grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group, who was sitting on the sofa, tried to calm him down with a forced smile.

"Count, please don't worry too much. Didn't they say they came because of the arson issue? The area around there isn't a place where our business would be suspected. Once they catch the arsonist, they'll leave."

"Really... you're saying such carefree things! Haven't you heard that the outsiders who have been wandering around this area recently extinguished the fire with magic? The outsiders were actually mages!"

The count couldn't hide his anxiety and began to lash out in all sorts of irritation.

"Suddenly, mages come and stir up the town, and now even the Council has made an appearance. Do you think I can afford not to worry?! If things go wrong, it'll all be your responsibility!"

Seeing his behavior, the grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group felt intense anger rising within her, but she swallowed it with a smile and tried her best to appease the anxious count.

No matter what, things had to be resolved well for her to have a way out. If the Council caught their tail and everything was exposed, damaging the merchant group's image, she would be a dead woman to the chief grand master of Delberg.

She thought she had a partnership with the count through their dealings, but the count kept trying to pin all the blame on her at every turn.

'This is why nobles are... They want to fill their bellies, but they try their best not to dirty their own hands. They're so petty.'

The grand master of the merchant group began to deeply regret proposing the deal to Count Servia. Although she wasn't in a position to choose her trading partner in the first place, the count always made people anxious, worrying that he might ruin things by getting tense at the slightest provocation.

However, that wasn't the only thing. There was another source of stress.

"Why did the fire suddenly break out? Isn't it because of that guy you brought?"

The count pointed at someone standing in the corner while gesturing wildly. At the tip of his finger was a man leaning against the door at an angle.

The man had yellow hair mixed with sparse brown and dark green eyes. With dark skin, he had his arms crossed and a very annoyed expression. He looked at the owner of the finger pointing at him and said,

"Come on, I told you I didn't do that. Count, you're really getting on my nerves."

"If not you, then who started the fire?"

"Oh, well, anyway, it wasn't me."

After saying that, the man instantly stepped on the sofa and sat like a hooligan, tapping the count's forehead with a terrifying glare and said,

"If you whine one more time, I'll send you off first, so keep that in mind. Okay?"

"Wh-What? You...!"

The count's face turned red as if it would burst, and he grabbed the back of his neck. He was very angry, but hearing the threat from the mage in front of him, a chill ran down his spine, and he was at a loss for words.

Watching the man laughing in the count's face, the grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group said with a disgusted expression,

"Blaine, what kind of disrespectful behavior is this towards the count?"