Bermuda [bl]

Leonardo was at a loss for words.

It was because of Kenis, who was bawling his eyes out in front of him.

About 3 hours before Hugo and the 1st Battalion arrived at the mining team's hideout.

When Leonardo escaped from there and came back out to the entrance, Alec, who should have been nearby, was nowhere to be seen.

In the midst of fleeing in a daze after seeing the other side of the Council battalion commander, he was dumbfounded, thinking that perhaps this time, the scholar guy had thrown away the contract and ran off, when he suddenly noticed coordinates engraved on the cave wall. It was in a position where it wouldn't catch the eye unless one looked closely.

Leonardo scratched out that mark with a dagger to make it unidentifiable, and while heading to that location, he speculated on the reason Alec couldn't keep his position.

After leaving the tunnels with some tension, thinking it might be an unexpected situation or a trap, he moved to the location of the coordinates and found a dense forest nearby, still dim as the sun hadn't fully risen yet.

Among the stubborn and eerie grass and trees, a low rocky hill was visible, and at the secretive foot of the rock that hung like a roof, two people were standing.

And one of them, as soon as he saw Leonardo, ran to him, shedding ugly tears and said,

"Mr. Blaine, please take me with you too!"

At Kenis's voice, shouting while grabbing Leonardo's arm with his red and swollen eyes, Leonardo hurriedly covered his mouth and looked around. Eventually, he questioned Alec with his eyes, asking what on earth was going on, but Alec shrugged his shoulders and made an expression as if it couldn't be helped.

Leonardo strongly pushed Kenis back until his back touched the rock. Then, he removed his hand covering Kenis's mouth and lowered his voice, asking as if interrogating him.

"Why are you here?"

"..."

"Why are you here instead of rejoining the procession!"

Kenis flinched at Leonardo's pressing, looking scared, but still said while sobbing,

"To accompany... and go together with Mr. Blaine."

Leonardo was at a loss for words.

He looked at Kenis with a dumbfounded face, then soon frowned as if annoyed and roughly ruffled the back of his own head. He couldn't be more confused about what was going on.

There was no presence of other people around, but with this guy's unexpected appearance, his nerves were on edge, wondering if anyone had followed him by any chance.

Leonardo immediately turned his gaze to Alec and glared at him as if telling him to explain right away what had happened. At his gaze, Alec smiled shamelessly as if he had done nothing wrong and began to explain the situation at that time.

"...So when I tensely looked to see who was walking over, it was this friend? Since he was blatantly wearing a Council combat uniform, I couldn't keep him there, so I moved the location here. I'm quite perplexed too, so could you put away those eyes of suspicion? I'm human too, so I'll get hurt if you keep doing that."

Alec said Kenis had found his way and walked towards the entrance on his own. However, Leonardo had been constantly checking if anyone was following behind him and the scholar, or if there were any footprints left by chance, so he was utterly puzzled as to how Kenis had found his way.

"How the hell did you follow us? There shouldn't have been any footprints or anything."

When Leonardo asked with a frown, Kenis hesitated to speak, only fidgeting. Then, Alec put his backpack in front and rummaged through it, taking out a spray.

"Should I put him to sleep?"

"Wh-what?"

As Kenis got startled and moved away at that, Leonardo kicked Alec's shin and said as if he was talking nonsense.

"What are you saying."

"Ah, well, if he heard our conversation, we can't just leave him be, you know."

Alec rubbed the kicked part as if it hurt a lot, then approached Leonardo and whispered in his ear with a voice mixed with laughter.

"And you're supposed to be my bodyguard, can you do this? This is also a violation of the contract..."

Leonardo tried to kick Alec's leg once more, but this time, Alec dodged it nicely. However, he seemed to have not seen the following punch, as he was hit in the side and fell away.

At Alec's way of speaking, leaking information himself even though he said they couldn't leave him be if he heard their conversation, Leonardo glared at him with eyes telling him to shut up. Eventually, he turned his head back to Kenis and asked.

"Speak quickly. How did you follow us, and why didn't you return to the procession?"

Leaving Kenis like this was dangerous in many ways. First, if a third party found out about the contents related to the contract, the contract could get twisted, and it meant there would be one more person whose mouth needed to be shut.

Moreover, he could hardly even use conspicuous attack magic to avoid being caught, and in the midst of that, the path ahead was said to be crawling with monsters.

Even though the scholar seemed to have a lot of strange things but had combat abilities close to 0, and the rookie member was naive, going safely to the target point without being detected while taking them along was no different from testing the limits of his own abilities.

However, even if he sent Kenis back like this, he was at a loss as to how he should explain and send him back. Should he say he'll be back soon, so don't say anything and quietly go back and wait? That he has to accompany an unknown scholar but won't run away?

Leonardo stared at Kenis with eyes telling him to quickly confess while wearing complicated thoughts. At that, Kenis pressed his back tightly against the rock as if driven into a corner and pondered how to say it. Then, as if he had made a big decision before long, he clenched his fists tightly and slowly began to open his mouth.

"Actually, I... have a better sense of smell than ordinary people. I also have good hearing..."

"...?"

Thinking what kind of absurd nonsense this was, Leonardo widened his eyes and looked at Kenis. Alec, who had been rubbing his side next to him, was the same. Seeing the expressions of the two, Kenis took a step back and opened his mouth again while gauging their reactions.

"It's not as outstanding as animals, but my hearing and sense of smell are more developed than others... so I followed the scent of you two."

Leonardo raised his furrowed eyebrows to the fullest.

'Hearing and sense of smell are developed?'

All this time, Leonardo had always been curious about how on earth this guy had gotten into the 1st Battalion of the Central Branch. However, he didn't bring it up as a question because it seemed like it would sound like he was ignoring him if he asked outright, but hearing those words, that question slowly began to unravel.

His combat abilities weren't outstanding compared to other battalion members, his mana wasn't very powerful, he wasn't skilled in swordsmanship, and his strategy and judgment weren't exceptional either, so how the hell did he get into the 1st Battalion?

This guy had abilities specialized in tracking. Come to think of it, the platoon leader of the platoon he belonged to was also a tracking specialist. It was also this guy who first discovered the outsider hiding and moving between the ravines.

Also, if he had a good sense of smell, he would have been able to follow behind him and the scholar even without footprints, and if he had good hearing... he might have heard the contents of the contract he had made with the scholar at that time.

When Leonardo was going through the past questions one by one with a confused face, Kenis looked at his face and added,

"And the reason I didn't rejoin the procession... There were footprints of both of you, but if I returned alone, it would seem like Mr. Blaine had run away, and then you might be handcuffed again... so I thought we should go back together."

Kenis slowly spoke his sincerity of being concerned about Leonardo. Upon hearing those words, Leonardo was at a loss for words and couldn't readily open his mouth. He was a bit dazed.

It was true that he had treated this fellow well, but even if he didn't join the procession like this, his own position could become quite awkward, so he couldn't understand the other party's actions of unnecessarily taking on hardship. And that too, a rookie fellow who would still have to be very mindful of his seniors.

Rather, he couldn't accept it to the point of thinking that Kenis might have already joined forces with the Council and was acting as if he hadn't in order to catch him. So he couldn't take his touching story at face value.

Leonardo stared at Kenis with cold eyes and spoke the main point he wanted to hear right away.

"How much did you hear?"

"Pardon?"

"Me and this guy's conversation. How much did you hear?"

Leonardo's gaze was the complete opposite of the pretty and brightly smiling face he had shown recently, full of wariness and probing.

Facing such a gaze, Kenis, who had thought they had built up some rapport with each other, felt a corner of his heart becoming quite sad. It even started to throb as if being poked.