Chapter 308

The firm lips that still held a faint smile slowly erased their expression. Along with this, the pupils in his blue eyes dilated slightly. It was a quite meaningful reaction to Andreas, who had caught that fleeting moment.

"What did you say?"

A distinctly colder retort came back. As if he had misheard, Andreas added, as though it were no big deal:

"Well, you know. I was just thinking about settling down soon too, and you just told me to try dating seriously. Honestly, that kid's looks are no joke, with a face like that, I wouldn't get tired of looking at it for a lifetime. I think I could even serve him."

"..."

"And even if the trial ends well and he's freed, he's still young and probably doesn't know much about the world. At times like that, wouldn't it be good to have a handsome and reliable older lover like me to help navigate this harsh world? Hm?"

Andreas rambled on with what he thought were logical reasons, spouting nonsense about how dating Leonardo would be good for him too.

Yes. It was utter nonsense. To Hugo, who roughly knew Andreas's dating history, it sounded like gibberish from an incorrigible womanizer. Rather, imagining Leonardo beside him, he pictured the innocent guy being ensnared by some old man and begging Hugo to save him.

As unwanted images piled up, Hugo's expression turned not just cold, but icy. A chill even spread around him, but Andreas pretended not to notice and chuckled, slapping Hugo's arm.

"So don't just keep him cooped up in the room, he must be bored, right? Bring him out often too. If we happen to run into each other naturally, it might work out well, don't you think?"

"Fredrick."

Andreas flinched at the sudden use of his surname. As they were usually on first-name terms, hearing his last name from the Commander after so long sent a chill down his spine for some reason.

Blue eyes tinged with subtle contempt stared intently at Andreas. Then, furrowing his brows, Hugo let out a small sigh.

"What did you hear in everything I've said until now?"

"...Huh?"

"Didn't I say he has many wounds?"

Andreas just blinked blankly. Although Hugo's voice wasn't raised, he seemed to be suppressing greater anger than when he had commanded with the old-style handcuffs in the conference room.

No, even so, to look at a colleague with such a trashy gaze... Meanwhile, Hugo, who had lowered his arm from the railing, turned to enter the room first. Andreas, with a dumbfounded expression, also peeled himself off the railing and hurriedly called out to him.

"Hey, Hugo–"

At that moment, sharp icicles shot up from the terrace floor, soaked with rainwater, like prison bars. Andreas, startled, quickly took two steps back. The icicles reached all the way to the ceiling, isolating him like a prison.

"W-What the!"

If he hadn't dodged, it would have surely shattered his crotch. Wondering if it was intentional, he quickly looked up, but that wasn't the end of it.

Thick icicles rose from every wall, and weren't their sharp tips flying towards him? They drew haphazard lines in the space, limiting his range of movement like a spider's web. Andreas, who had been dodging here and there as if dancing in confusion, lifted one foot and got his leg caught.

Like prey caught in a web, he was trapped between the icicles, unable to move. A panicked Andreas quickly shouted:

"H-Hey, Commander! What are you doing?"

"Reflect on your actions for three hours."

"What? Reflect? No, w-wait. What did I do wrong? Don't tell me it's because of that kid?"

Andreas tried to somehow pull the ivy vines to break the icicles, but they were no match for the Commander's ice. Hanging like a puppet in a ridiculous posture, he asked for the reason as if wronged, but Hugo didn't give any response.

Instead, he drew up another thick ice pillar from below Andreas's legs.

"Hugo!"

A terrified Andreas jumped up, his body convulsing ungracefully.

Fortunately, the sharp tip passed by his crotch and pierced the bulging pocket on his chest. The cigarette pack, miserably impaled at the end, poked through the pocket. Hugo turned his steps and approached Andreas, grasping the cigarette pack in his hand.

Then, with furrowed brows, he issued a fierce warning:

"Don't smoke these anymore. That's an order. And lose interest in that kid too."

After showing the cigarette pack to Andreas up close, he instantly froze it and turned it to powder, then opened the terrace door and went inside. Left alone, Andreas was so dumbfounded he couldn't speak. He could only stare helplessly at Hugo's retreating figure.

Then, looking at his own ridiculous state, he couldn't help but laugh. Finally, he looked down at his legs, which had nearly been skewered.

"Ha."

Andreas muttered, as if impressed:

"That bastard, he really meant to stab me."

***

The bathroom door flung open, and hot steam poured out in billows as if escaping the confined space. Leonardo, with his arms haphazardly thrust into a shower robe, emerged from the steam, dripping water.

He must have bathed for too long, as a sudden dizziness hit him. He leaned against the doorframe and let out a brief sigh.

On gloomy days like this with rain falling, his whole body became low-pressure, and his limbs felt limp. Nevertheless, his wet feet trudged towards the window, leaving a trail. The new glass, which had been replaced in the meantime, was being pelted by the heavy rain.

"The rain's gotten heavier."

Though his mind knew this, his hands loosely tied the robe's belt. Then, without hesitation, he flung open the window to greet the incoming rain.

The cold air mixed with the scent of rain rushed in, roughly exploring his exposed face and chest. As his body, heated from the hot water, cooled down, he finally felt like oxygen was entering his lungs. Leonardo took a deep breath. His foggy mind seemed to clear.

As he listened to the outside sounds, a familiar yet annoying requiem crept into the room. This was why he had wanted to keep the door closed all day, but his conscience wouldn't allow him to just hide and pretend not to notice.

As always, he clenched his right hand into a fist and pressed it to his heart. His eyelids, wet with raindrops, closed automatically as he bowed his head.

'Rest in peace.'

Although he didn't know their faces or have any personal connections, the fact that they had experienced the same battle evoked a strange sense of camaraderie. Sometimes, he would fall into a trance while repeating his regret for them. Did they even know they had died? He hoped their deaths had been instantaneous. If they had still been alive while being torn apart by monsters, it would have been too painful a death.

For a moment, several scenes flashed through his mind. Leonardo's eyes, which had been closed, snapped open.

"Ha."

He hadn't even realized he had been holding his breath. He frowned and ruffled his wet hair. He had been like this lately. It was dangerous.

This morning, while having a brief conversation with Agrizendro, he had promised not to have bad thoughts all day. The other had seemed increasingly worried about him, and knowing the concerns behind those words, Leonardo had silently nodded. However, feeling his own nerves becoming sharper than usual today, he had abruptly said he wanted to be quiet, words he didn't really mean.

Then, perhaps thinking Leonardo had taken his words as nagging, Agrizendro had left early in the morning after a moment of silence, telling him to eat his meals properly. In the end, it was as if Leonardo had driven out the room's owner. That wasn't his intention. Since showing his bare face to him, things had been consistently awkward like this.

There remained a subtle knot in his words and actions. On the other hand, the Commander, amusingly, seemed ready to indulge even the smallest whim as if he were the guilty one. Then Leonardo, not wanting to act spoiled towards a mature person, became more reserved in his speech. It wasn't entirely unrelated to his avoidance of conversations for fear that the other might dig deeper.

'But I don't want to be alone...'

Yesterday, even with work, he had checked on him every two hours, but seeing how late he was today, it seemed he was very busy due to the funeral. Sighing, he looked down at his feet to see the marble floor soaked. It was fortunate that all the carpets had been removed to clean up the glass shards, otherwise it would have been quite an inconvenience.

Leonardo leaned against the window frame to close it again. Fearing that the wind might blow rain in, he painfully reached for the distant handle. As he was manually pulling the fully opened window, something caught his eye. A white fluttering, precariously flying through the rain streaks, looked somehow familiar.

"...Huh?"

It occasionally fell downward when hit by thick raindrops, then struggled to fly up again, gradually approaching the window. Leonardo, who had been staring blankly, reached out as if entranced. The white butterfly that had been flying perilously then barely managed to land on his palm.

Stepping back into the room, Leonardo cupped the butterfly with both hands and needlessly looked around. Then he opened his palms again to look down at the pale creature. It was fluttering its wings repeatedly without drying its wet body. However, its movements, though irregular, were strangely rhythmic.

Leonardo concentrated on counting the tempo and number of wing beats.

'D.'

The butterfly showed alternating short and long wing beats at an unmistakably regular pace. Leonardo quickly calculated these signals on the damp window, using it as a notepad.

'1..., and 0.'

Soon, as if having finished its business, it stopped fluttering and only touched its wet antennae. Leonardo quietly looked at what he had written on the window.

'D-10'

It was a reminder.

Knock knock knock–

At that moment, with bad timing, a knocking sound was heard from outside the door.

"...!"

Startled, Leonardo hurriedly rubbed off the traces he had left on the window with his wet hand. Along with this, the butterfly, trembling, flew up and circled around in front of the rain-battered window, unable to leave.

'Go quickly, hurry!'

Leonardo surrounded the butterfly with an air barrier to protect it from the rain, then created a wind to send it far away. Just then, with a click, the door opened and the room owner's voice was heard. Leonardo turned around in a fluster. He didn't seem to be alone.

"Put them in order on the left bookshelf... Wait here for a moment before that."

"Yes, understood."

Several shadowy figures were visible through the slightly opened door. Leonardo stood frozen in place in front of the drenched window. While his gaze was directed towards the door, all his attention was focused on the back of his head. He didn't think a mere butterfly would arouse strange suspicions, but he still hoped it would fly away as quickly as possible.

Just then, Hugo, who was entering through the door, paused upon seeing Leonardo standing by the window. The two, their eyes meeting, remained motionless in their respective positions for a while. They just silently looked at each other with slightly surprised gazes.

Hugo's gaze first landed on Leonardo's face, dripping with water droplets, then moved to the shower robe precariously draped as if about to fall off. He scanned the exposed skin with small scratches visible through the gaps, then rested his eyes on the loosely tied waist belt that seemed about to come undone at any moment.

After staring intently at that spot, his gaze slid down to the bare legs revealed below. Water droplets trickled down the smooth inside of his calves. Hugo's eyes narrowed as he watched them fall to his feet and disappear into puddles.

"Commander, may we come in?"

The members waiting outside asked, facing inward. They were waiting with thick books that looked like encyclopedias.

Although they didn't show it, weariness was evident in their voices. Hugo answered nonchalantly without even turning around:

"No, just leave them there and go."