Chapter 192

The place where Nero set foot, unable to resist Leonardo's insistence, was the foot of a low rocky hill. It was a suitable location to hide from potential threats while having relatively less risk of being hit by falling debris.

After roughly kicking away the ash-covered bushes with his foot, Nero set Leonardo down on the flat ground and had him lean his back against it. Then he unfastened the buckle on his forearm and took out a small artifact from his pocket.

"Where were you trying to take me? And where did you get that ridiculous battle uniform?"

Looking up at Nero, Leonardo started questioning him one by one with furrowed brows.

"And when did you enter the peninsula? What about the tracker? You didn't just come thoughtlessly, did you?"

"Ask one at a time. I'll forget the ones you asked first."

With a perfunctory reply, Nero first unlocked the doubly locked artifact. Taking out hemostatic agents and compression bandages from it, he shook the spray-type hemostatic agent two or three times and plopped down next to Leonardo.

He carefully lifted Leonardo's blood-soaked left forearm, intending to spray the hemostatic agent first, but hesitated for a moment as the hot blood on his palm felt strangely sticky.

Nero removed his hand with a puzzled look and quietly rubbed the blood on his fingers. Then, his face gradually turned pale, and he urgently asked Leonardo.

"This... could it be poison? Ilaptor?"

"...I'm not sure. The symptoms are the same though."

"No way, how did this happen to someone who told me to be so careful!"

Nero raised his voice for a moment, startled as if he had heard something unbelievable. But he soon stopped speaking and clenched his teeth, then ruffled the back of his head as if frustrated and threw the hemostatic agent on the ground. Ilaptor's poison coagulated blood, so spraying hemostatic agent on the wound would have a worse effect.

Instead, Nero quickly unwrapped the compression bandage and tightly wrapped it around the upper part of Leonardo's shoulder.

Then he searched the artifact again and found a few strands of what looked like withered, almost rotten grass. It wasn't Degalianif.

"Did you catch their lax mentality just from being with those Council bastards for a while? What on earth were you doing to end up like this?"

Nero, frowning deeply and nagging, rolled the grass between his fingers and made it into a small, round ball. His index and middle fingers holding that dark lump were brought close to Leonardo's face.

Leonardo was incredulous to find himself being scolded, when he had been the one intending to give a scolding harsh enough to make ears bleed.

But just as he opened his mouth to retort, feeling too indignant to stay quiet, the smell of what Nero was holding brushed his nose, and his expression instantly hardened. As if suddenly recalling an unpleasant memory, Leonardo's eyes widened, and he turned his head away in disgust.

"Hey, you're not trying to feed me that-!"

Seeming to recognize what that withered root was, he grimaced and pushed against Nero's shoulder. But despite his desperate struggle, the strong grip forcibly holding his jaw made him open his twisted lips halfway.

The tightly closed red lips squirmed and slowly opened, and not-so-gentle hands pried apart his even teeth. In that gap, Nero instantly pushed in two fingers, rubbing the soft root of Leonardo's tongue and stuffing the clump of grass as far down his throat as possible.

Just before his fingers could be cut off by the angry teeth, he hurriedly pulled them out, then covered Leonardo's mouth and nose with his palm, pressing down firmly to prevent him from removing it. A piercing gaze that seemed to ask if he wanted to die stabbed at his face, but Nero wore an awkward expression and preemptively replied as if he had no choice.

"I'm sorry, Captain. But you wouldn't eat it if I didn't do this."

"Mmmmph!"

"Hurry and swallow. I'll let go once you swallow it all."

Originally, it would have been nothing to knock this guy down with just one arm, but perhaps due to his weakened state, Leonardo found himself struggling to breathe rather than push him away. Because of this, Leonardo, who had been glaring with eyes that could set his eyelashes on fire, tried to hold back his gag reflex several times before finally swallowing the rotten-smelling grass with difficulty.

The white Adam's apple with a clear black line across it bobbed up and down three or four times. Nero quietly watched Leonardo's golden eyes losing focus, disregarding the strength that seemed like it might shatter his forearm.

When the movement of the Adam's apple had mostly subsided, he slowly removed his palm that had been pressing down on the small face. As expected, a fist immediately flew from the left, but Nero easily blocked it by raising his elbow.

"Ugh-!"

But he couldn't avoid the kick that struck his abdomen.

Nero involuntarily let out a groan at the intense pain spreading from his solar plexus. Clutching his stomach where a footprint had been left, he staggered for a moment, then lowered his gas mask and cried out, "Wait, wait a moment, Captain!" while looking up at Leonardo with a pitiful face. However, the angry captain's fierce kicks showed no signs of stopping.

"Aah! It hurts!"

"You bastard, how dare you, use force, ...ugh-"

Leonardo, who had been beating Nero to a pulp in time with his words, suddenly couldn't finish his sentence and bowed his head deeply. He got down on his hands and knees and kept dry heaving, trying to vomit out his nauseated insides.

But while only saliva stretched out long, what he had just swallowed wouldn't come up at all. Seeing this, Nero once again reached out from behind and covered Leonardo's mouth. Then he tightly hugged Leonardo's chest and shoulders with his forearm, forcibly straightening his upper body that kept trying to bend over, and shouted urgently.

"Captain, you can't throw it up! Do you know how hard it was for me to get that!"

What Nero had fed Leonardo was a mysterious antidote herb secretly known among underground pharmacists. It was not only extremely difficult to obtain but also so precious that the price was whatever one called it, because this antidote herb was almost universal, able to neutralize almost all kinds of poisons.

However, unfortunately, for certain specific poisons like that of the Ilaptor, its effectiveness was far inferior to the designated antidote, Degalianif. Still, in an urgent situation like this, it would be better to eat anything that might have an effect.

Nevertheless, there was another reason why Leonardo wanted to vomit it out so badly. It was because he had seen with his own eyes in what terrible environment this grew.

Probably anyone who had directly seen that sight would not easily put this antidote herb in their mouth. Moreover, the side effects were not insignificant, so honestly, it was like gambling with one's body.

Because of this, a physical struggle between the one trying to spit it out and the one trying to feed it broke out near the low rocky hill. The fight ended quickly due to the weakened state of the one trying to spit it out, but given who the opponent was, the condition of the one trying to feed it wasn't very good either.

The two, who had collapsed on the ground for a moment catching their breath, glared at each other as if disgusted.

Among them, the one who first got up, stood on two feet, and extended a hand to the other was Nero. Leonardo stared at him intently with sharp eyes for a while, then eventually took Nero's hand and stood up without a word.

"Someone who would have died twice if it weren't for me is making such a fuss even when being helped..."

"Be quiet. I'm grateful, but I have a lot to say too, since I don't know if we might be executed side by side thanks to you."

As Leonardo muttered lowly while dusting off his dirt-covered clothes, Nero quickly closed his mouth that had been grumbling. His narrowed eyes clearly showed unhidden disappointment, but as he approached Leonardo's side, he lightly dusted off the dirt on the captain's lower back with his own hand.

The childish yet affectionate battle of nerves between the two who had met after a long time ended when the wind pressure spreading from the distant sky approached their direction.

Urureung kukung- Kwaaang-!

Leonardo, who instinctively raised his head to look at the sky, witnessed the strange and overwhelming power of the entire cloud moving, which he had seen just a short while ago. A truly admirable and vast magic unfolded before his eyes, but even so, he couldn't shake off his worry for Hugo, who would be facing the creature alone.

'His internal injuries must be severe... and he can't even heal himself. Moreover, as time passes, his movements will become duller as his abdomen fills with blood. I need to go and support him quickly.'

Originally, in all battles, the more advantageous side was attack rather than defense. But the Council's Commander couldn't properly use large-scale magic for fear of involving his members, only threatening the creature. Meanwhile, he was dangerously engaging in close combat with the target with an injured body.

In front of the monster trying to destroy everything, regardless of what happened to the monsters born from its womb, the human will to protect was a feeble and precarious heart that had to overcome the fear of death. Even for the strongest person.

Therefore, unable to place all that burden on him alone, Leonardo bit his lip and steeled his resolve, despite knowing his own condition well. Then he suddenly turned his head towards Nero with a solemn look in his eyes.

"Nero, could you-"

"Captain."

But Nero, who had just approached, grabbed Leonardo's hand first. Then, in the most serious voice he had not used until now, he slowly opened his mouth while meeting the golden eyes.

"You asked earlier where we were going, right?"

At Nero's suddenly changed demeanor, Leonardo blinked and stared at him. Then he absently looked down at the other's hand gripping his own with tremendous strength.

On the back of that hand holding on as if afraid to lose him, thick veins bulged with desperation.

"I was trying to leave the peninsula. With you, Captain."

"..."

"Originally, I just came to see if you were doing well, but..."

Nero hesitated to continue, seeing clearly how Leonardo might react.

However, seeing his face, pale white from the rain, his lips still red but with a faint purple tinge, and half of his upper body in a miserable state covered in blood, he could no longer hold back his words.

His mouth, which hadn't been able to open, suddenly moved on its own.

"It doesn't seem like you're doing well, and I don't think that's going to be enough."

Nero, who had briefly lowered his head to the innocent ground, once again met Leonardo's gaze. Then, with a deeply furrowed brow, he gently caressed the face of the captain he had longed to see.

Finally, having made up his mind, he spoke passionately, with a determination not to back down no matter what answer came from those red lips.

"Let's run away from here together."