Chapter 75

Hugo and Meterion, who were at the vanguard of the procession, stopped in front of a huge entrance that split into three paths. It was before reaching the second objective spot, but they had encountered a fork in the road earlier than expected.

Meterion, who had floated a light ball in the air, scanned the high entrance and opened his mouth.

"I think we should disperse from now on."

Hugo also agreed and replied,

"Let's first disperse by battalion."

As Delua, who was immediately called on the radio, approached the very front of the procession with Marlen, Hugo gathered the commanders, held a brief meeting, and determined and assigned the routes to enter.

Among the three paths, the ones on both sides had the possibility of leading to other paths such as the mountainside and the outside, so it was decided that the 3rd and 6th Battalions would each enter and then split into company-scale units and move, while Hugo would lead a small number of personnel from the 1st Battalion and enter through the center.

As the meeting was wrapping up, Delua looked up at the large entrances in front and said,

"Then, are we moving right now?"

"Yes."

At Hugo's answer, Delua smiled brightly and asked with a confident voice,

"Commander, then Blaine is going with me, right?"

Hugo only stared at her intently without giving an immediate answer this time. After a moment, just as he was about to open his mouth, an unexpected remark was heard from a different place instead.

"I will take Leonardo Blaine with me."

Everyone turned their heads towards the speaker. The owner of the voice was Meterion.

Hugo and Delua looked at him as if they had heard all sorts of absurd things. Then, Delua, who had been dumbfounded, broke the silence first.

"Meterion, do you have a conscience? Blaine wouldn't want to go with you, you know?"

Meterion, who had furrowed his brows, stared at Delua with a cold gaze. However, Delua, as if there was nothing to be wary of even with that gaze, incessantly recited about ten reasons why Leonardo would dislike accompanying Meterion.

And the company commanders belonging to the 3rd Battalion, who had argued earlier that handcuffs should be put back on Leonardo, also agreed with her words. They also seemed to have no idea what their battalion commander was thinking when he said such a thing.

As Delua relentlessly poured out the facts, Marlen and Flynn, who were next to her, quietly touched their lips to try not to laugh.

Hugo also narrowed his brows as if he had no idea of Meterion's intentions, then looked at Meterion and Delua once each and said,

"Leonardo will come with me."

Delua, who was startled for a moment, asked back as if she couldn't understand.

"What? Commander, you've been entrusting Blaine to me all along. But why..."

Hugo, who had glanced at her, signaled the surrounding commanders with a light gesture to disperse first. Among the commanders who were leaving, only Meterion remained in his place, but Hugo moved about four or five steps away from him instead of giving a tiresome order.

Then, looking at Delua, he calmly asked,

"Delua, I don't know about other situations, but that guy's control is unstable right now. You must have felt it a few times while being with him today. When a situation arises where you have to directly face his unstable mana, can you be confident that you can control it?"

Delua flinched at his words. Although Hugo spoke in a calm manner, his expression was quite cold and serious. Seeing that, Delua couldn't easily open her mouth.

Regardless of whether she could control Leonardo's mana or not, in fact, Delua had detected signs of his mana control being unstable a few times today, but she had deliberately made only minimal reports out of concern that he might have to wear handcuffs again.

However, from Hugo's question just now, Delua could tell. That the Commander already knew everything, even the parts she hadn't mentioned.

The reporting between the Commander and a battalion commander was a matter of trust beyond simple situation delivery, so Delua's action was a big mistake that a battalion commander should never make.

But knowing that the Commander was aware of her mistake but didn't mention it in front of others, Delua soon lowered her head slightly and answered,

"...I'm sorry. I can't be confident."

Meterion, who didn't know the conversation that had taken place between the two, snorted and turned his head when he saw Delua, who had been pushing him back, become quiet at Hugo's question.

When Delua seemed to have lost her spirit, Hugo soon relaxed his stiff expression and lightly tapped her shoulder a couple of times, saying,

"I'm entrusting the rightmost entrance to the 6th Battalion."

"...Yes, understood."

***

Leonardo quietly kept an eye on the back. In fact, it wasn't the first time he had felt like someone was following him.

When he went to search for minerals with Flynn, a little away from the procession, he had heard a strange sound coming from inside the cave and guessed that something was there, but after that, he felt someone following him while cleverly maintaining a certain distance.

'There's no way a crazy human would try to attack a procession led by Kazad.'

While he was speculating about the identity and purpose of someone lurking in the darkness, the members began to move little by little, and the entire procession started moving forward.

Leonardo found it strange that the procession was moving even though the commanders of the 6th Battalion hadn't returned yet, but he thought they had probably encountered a fork in the road based on his intuition and followed the rear as well.

As he gradually walked forward, as he had expected, three large entrances appeared in front of his eyes.

The members each entered through the divided procession as if they had designated places, and by the time Leonardo followed them and reached almost right in front of the fork, about 20 people were waiting for him at the central entrance.

Hugo, who had his arms crossed, gestured towards Leonardo as if telling him to come this way when he saw him. Leonardo looked at that gesture with displeasure, then suddenly stared at his shimmering hand. Hugo, who usually wore black combat protective gloves on both hands, was wearing a glove on only one hand today.

Feeling the gaze on his hand, Hugo clenched his left hand that wasn't wearing a glove, hiding his palm. Then, he said to Leonardo, who had come forward,

"As you can see, the path has split, so we decided to disperse the procession as well. You will go with me through the center."

Hearing his words, Leonardo glanced at the members standing in line behind Hugo. Even when counting separately, the number of personnel who had entered the entrances on both sides was easily several hundred, but the number of personnel remaining at the central entrance was only a little over twenty.

"Isn't this too few?"

At Leonardo's puzzled question, Hugo answered as if there was no problem.

"The members remaining now belong to the 1st Battalion of the Council's Central Branch. The 1st Battalion is entirely composed of combat personnel, and their individual abilities are also exceptionally superior. Perhaps when compared to other battalions that went the other way, the personnel here can be said to have the best mobility."

The 1st Battalion of the Council's Central Branch did not have a separate battalion commander. The 1st Battalion existed with several platoons independently, and those many platoons together served the role of a company and a battalion. And as it was entirely composed of combat personnel, many of them were considered elite even within the Council.

The authority to command such a 1st Battalion belonged only to the Commander and the Deputy Commander, so it was almost like a direct subordinate battalion.

As if to support Hugo's words, the 20 or so members gathered there had a different spirit from ordinary members at a glance.

Leonardo also knew that the 1st Battalion of the Council was a battalion directly under the Commander, and indeed, as if the atmosphere of the members followed the feeling of the commander, while the 6th Battalion had a round and soft feeling, the 1st Battalion had uniformly cold faces, and the gazes looking at him were not very favorable either.

As Leonardo was carefully scanning their faces, he made eye contact with the woman he had seen at the camp dinner table last night.

When he narrowed his eyes and stared, she fiercely gazed at Leonardo as if engaging in a staring contest from her side as well. Leonardo soon recognized who that familiar face was and said with a chuckle,

"We meet again."