Bermuda [bl]

"Blaine, there you are."

The sound of angry heels clicking echoed. As he turned his gaze, a captivating woman with an evident look of annoyance was walking towards him. It was the grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group.

She approached him with quick steps, brushing her hair back with a quite angry expression, and spoke to him in an accusing manner, glaring at him with fierce eyes.

"I told you there's no good in provoking the count. Why do you keep getting on his nerves? Do you know how much I had to sweat because of you?"

"Ha, so it's okay for that old geezer to get on my nerves?"

"The count is my business partner. I'd appreciate it if you refrain from making such remarks."

At her words, he scoffed and turned his head away. The head of the merchant group stared at his face and opened her mouth.

"And I need to make something clear..."

With her arms crossed and standing at an angle, she looked the man in front of her up and down. Her eyes were filled with suspicion.

"The fire in the neighboring town, are you sure it wasn't your doing?"

At that, the man called Blaine, as if feeling guilty, instead flared up and said to the grand master of the merchant group,

"Oh, well, I told you it wasn't me! Hey, grand master of the Merchant Group. The count isn't the only business partner, I'm a partner too, you know? If you're suspecting me like this, how can we work together?"

As he strongly reacted with anger, the grand master of the merchant group silently stared at him, as if searching for something. The man gulped, as if her behavior was making him tense. It was because this woman, being the grand master of the merchant group, occasionally had moments when her intuition was incredibly sharp.

'He's lying.'

As he had feared, the grand master of the merchant group immediately realized that his words were a lie. When he was in a situation where he was being suspected, he would raise his voice or show it on his face when lying. The fire from last night was, as expected, the doing of this very guy.

Even though she wanted to take him along as a business partner, the fact that he had lied to her meant that there was nothing more to gain from him. However, the grand master of the merchant group decided to smoothly move on from the current situation and changed her expression, smiling as she said,

"Alright, I apologize for suspecting you. If it wasn't you, then that's fine. But since the Council has come in, lay low for the time being. Minimize your movements."

"I know that without you telling me. Come on, and you think I'd be afraid of the Council, no matter how many of them there are? If it comes down to it, I can just sweep them all away."

Watching the man in front of her boasting until the end, the grand master of the merchant group suppressed the urge to laugh. It was just like when he had introduced himself as 'Leonardo Blaine' during their first meeting.

"Anyway, stay put because it'll be troublesome if something happens. I'll have the other guys keep an eye on the situation and come back."

"Do as you please."

As he shrugged his shoulders and spoke, the grand master of the merchant group turned around and walked in the opposite direction. Her face, now turned away, was as cold as it could be.

'Is it time to dispose of him?'

She had thought she could use him for a bit longer, but as expected, a fake was a fake.

* * *

For the past few months, the grand master of the Delberg Merchant Group had been in a partnership with that man who had introduced himself as Leonardo Blaine.

The story began when she was looking for a useful fire mage before coming here, and some unfamiliar man approached her, telling her to hire him. He even revealed himself as Leonardo Blaine, as if it were an excuse for his high price.

The name Leonardo Blaine was occasionally heard in secret, mainly from monster subjugation teams or those who entrusted their personal protection when their lives were threatened.

Being in a merchant group, she had the opportunity to hear various news, and his name would sometimes come up. According to what she heard, his mission success rate was nearly 100%. And he was very fast, secretive, and reliable.

It would have been great if the 'real' Leonardo Blaine had approached her, but unfortunately, that didn't happen to her. However, since she needed a fire mage at the time, the grand master of the merchant group reluctantly hired him, giving him a little extra money. She did so even though she knew he was a fake.

One of the reasons was that he was a somewhat useful fire mage, not exactly weak, and another was that she was able to secure a contract with the lord of Frost thanks to the 'name' of that Leonardo Blaine.

The grand master of Delberg had chosen Frost territory as the future business site for the merchant group, so at that time, she had to win the contract with the count, the lord of the territory. However, despite the count's excessive greed, she was facing difficulties because he had a timid nature.

In the midst of that, when she brought 'Leonardo Blaine' with her, his attitude changed in an instant. It seemed that he thought the notorious name of Blaine would protect his actions that were ambiguously placed on the boundary of lawlessness.

From her perspective, it was more convenient to hire a mage who was already trying to deceive her by pretending to be Leonardo Blaine, rather than hiring any fire mage and having them act as Leonardo Blaine.

She didn't have to bear the risk of silencing the mage she hired if they refused the proposal to act as Blaine, and if things went wrong, she could make an excuse that she was also deceived.

There were hardly any people who impersonated his name in the world. Unless one had the courage to evade the Council's surveillance network and the skills to match, they wouldn't dare to foolishly impersonate that name.

In that sense, this man she had been partnering with was truly remarkable and at the same time foolish, as if he had done such things before. That made it easier to see through his lies.

As the grand master of the merchant group recalled the man's foolishness over the past time, she suddenly remembered someone who had warned her about her partner's foolish actions.

Last night, someone who had identified himself as a low-ranking member of the merchant group had secretly visited her.

Since she had hastily gathered members of the merchant group before coming here, there were quite a few unverified individuals who had joined, so she had been avoiding contact with them as much as possible.

She had assigned the low-ranking members to handle menial tasks in the nearby towns, not near the count's residence, so that they wouldn't get close to her or the fake Leonardo Blaine. But somehow, that person had found her location, avoiding the eyes of the higher-ups in the merchant group, and abruptly said,

"Two outsiders in the neighboring town are looking for Leonardo Blaine."

At first, when she discovered an unfamiliar man in her room, she almost screamed in surprise. However, she quickly maintained her composure and retorted,

"...Leonardo Blaine? Why are you reporting that to me?"

"Doesn't the fire mage you hired, grand master of the Merchant Group, have that 'name'?"

For a moment, a chill ran down her spine. It should have been a strictly confidential matter, so how did a low-ranking member who had just joined know about that information?

As the grand master of the merchant group, feeling threatened, was about to call for her closest aides outside, the man brought his finger to his lips as if telling her to be quiet.

"You know very well that your executives are not trustworthy."

At his words, the grand master of the merchant group flinched and stopped calling for her executives. Then, with a look asking how he knew that, she asked for his identity.

"Who are you?"

"I cannot tell you. Let's just say I came to offer you a chance."

"You're giving me a chance?"

She let out a hollow laugh. A sharp tension rose between the two. After a brief silence, she swiftly drew the dagger strapped to her thigh and pointed it at the man's neck, as if she would dispose of him at any moment, and said,

"Who are you to give me a chance? Tell me who you are."

The member glanced at the blade that had come to his neck. However, he didn't seem tense at all, and he gently pushed the blade away while making direct eye contact. He even had a meaningful smile hanging on the corner of his lips.

"...The story I just told you is also known to the Leonardo Blaine you hired."

He didn't seem to have any intention of revealing who he was. However, before she even realized that he had changed the subject, the grand master of the merchant group was surprised by the words that came out of his mouth and asked,

"...He knows about it?"

"Observe how he acts and judge for yourself what you should do next. That's all I can say. Please move swiftly."

"You...!"

After saying that, the member swiftly knocked away the dagger and opened the window of the room she was in, then immediately jumped out. She almost screamed but quickly covered her mouth and ran to the window.

This was the fifth floor, a height where jumping out could break both legs. However, when she looked out the window, the member who had suddenly appeared was nowhere to be seen. The grand master of the merchant group opened the door to go out and search for him.

Then, the higher-ups of the merchant group who were standing outside the door approached her, who had abruptly opened the door.

"Where are you going?"

Her closest aides, the higher-ups of the merchant group, made sure that the grand master of the merchant group could only move in a controlled environment. It almost seemed like they were monitoring her. Seeing them approach, she was about to hurriedly mention the man who had been in the room until just now but hesitated.

Countless thoughts flashed through her mind in a very brief moment, and after a short pause, she calmly entered the room again and said,

"It's nothing."

After the visit of the unknown man in the middle of the night, the grand master of the merchant group was quite unsettled.

He had said he would give her an 'opportunity.' He also seemed to know quite a lot. Although she couldn't figure out what he meant by the opportunity he mentioned, she thought this was a good chance to test her business partner.

The fire mage had been doing his job properly, but he was also quite whimsical in many ways and was one of the factors that made her as uneasy as the count.

If he intended to keep impersonating Leonardo Blaine, it was also important to see how he would act in a situation where someone was chasing the real one. Because if he acted recklessly with that name, she could also be put in danger.

And before long, he ended up doing something so foolish that it was truly disappointing.

The grand master of the merchant group thought that if he had just stayed put, or if he had made the outsiders who were looking for Leonardo Blaine disappear without anyone knowing, she would have been willing to continue using that name for him.

However, he was much more foolish than she had thought.

Setting fire to the town.

To make matters worse, he told a lie that was easily seen through and, strictly speaking, kept a secret from her, his employer. After having a conversation with that fake Leonardo Blaine, she immediately left the count's residence and headed outside.

She needed to hear more details about the arson to find out about the outsiders, and to find that low-ranking member from last night.

She could have sent subordinates, but in reality, there wasn't a single person in this merchant group whom she could fully trust at the moment. That's why she had to search for him herself.

Putting aside the fact that he knew about Leonardo Blaine, he also knew that the relationship between her and her executives was not that trustworthy, despite being just a low-ranking member.

* * *

Not long after she had left the vicinity of the count's residence, Hugo and Flynn arrived in front of the Servia County.

Hugo furrowed his brows at the subtle atmosphere he sensed inside the count's residence. Soon, they entered through the main gate of the massive mansion.

As the guards tried to stop them, Flynn took out a badge and showed it to the guards. Seeing the badge that signified the authority of the Council, the guards who had been hesitating opened the way they had been blocking.

Then, another guard hurriedly ran into the mansion to inform the owner of their arrival at the count's residence.