Bermuda Chapter 340

Before returning to the territory with Hugo, Flynn was hurriedly processing the backlog of work while waiting for the press conference to end. He was compiling reports that had co up from other battalions, marking only the main issues with a pen, and busily working his hands over the manual typewriter.

Flynn, too, had not been able to return "ho" for a long ti, so there was a lot of work to be done at the mansion that needed attention. He had also piled up handover materials, worried about Gabe, who would have to handle the work alone while he and the Commander were away. Though he didn't think Gabe would read them...

As Flynn chanically flipped through the docunts spread out on the wide wooden desk, he suddenly spotted a familiar word among the black letters.

"Huh?"

His eyes and hands, which had been moving busily, imdiately stopped. He picked up a single docunt from among the spread papers.

The docunt was a list of individuals who had been wanted in the past but whose tracking period had expired due to personal issues. It was a report that ca up semi-annually, so sothing that had ended six months ago was only now coming up as an item to be processed.

Flynn quietly stared at one unforgettable na among them.

'Tergio Dungrey.'

Though the surna was clearly different, seeing the na Tergio again made him feel strangely nostalgic.

The scene where Leonardo, introducing himself as a low-ranking rchant group mber in Frost territory, had told him to just call him Teo was still vivid. In fact, since what he had told him was an alias, it's ambiguous to say it was the real person's na... but still, to encounter that na in a place like this.

The na Tergio itself wasn't common, and his encounter with Leonardo had been so intense that it was engraved in his mind. However, the Tergio in this docunt was described as an assassin involved in the tumultuous noble murder case of the past. It was said that he had attempted to escape from Mortares, one of the three major prisons in Raina Logia, so it was hard to gauge just how bad his cris were.

"What's with the na Tergio...?"

For a very brief mont, he suspected that this might also be Leonardo in disguise, but that didn't seem to be the case. This incident had occurred during the period when he was making a na for himself as a war hero in the conflict areas near the border. Not only did the timing not match, but while Leonardo had been cleared of charges and released under an alias, the fate of this Tergio was not so good.

Flynn stared at the bitter end of the na marked as 'deceased', then slipped the docunt back into the gap between the papers where it had been.

He organized the scattered docunts and carefully prepared a summary to give to the Commander, finishing it ticulously. After completing the compilation, he stood up with the stack of docunts and opened the door to the Commander-in-Chief's room at the back.

He approached the empty desk and placed the prepared docunts neatly on top. Seeing pens and office supplies scattered unlike usual, as if the Commander had left in a hurry, he didn't forget to return them to their original places.

Usually, frequently used items were kept in the first drawer on the right side where they could be easily reached.

As he opened it today as well, it was then that—

"Huh?"

Next to the organized supplies, an unfamiliar fra caught his eye. And the person in the photo inside was clearly Leonardo.

Flynn raised his eyebrows and bent down to look at the photo. Against a wet, broken-concrete background, Leonardo was staring blankly at sothing.

Just as he was thinking, 'Why is this here?', conversation sounds from outside grew closer.

Flynn, startled, hurriedly closed the drawer. No matter how much of an adjutant he was, it wouldn't be good to be caught staring at his superior's personal belongings.

Click–

"Have you finished the press conference?"

He reflexively greeted the door that opened without a knock. Hugo and Loren, in their formal uniforms, entered while conversing, having returned from the press conference.

Hugo briefly nodded to Flynn in response, then continued to Loren, who seed to have business:

"I plan to hear all the briefings related to the reports before leaving work. If there's an urgent matter, speak now in this place."

"It's not that urgent. It's just that you've been so focused on issues related to that guy, I wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten, just in case."

Even though he had suddenly heard the conversation, Flynn could tell who "that guy" in Loren's story was. It must be that guy in the fra he had just seen. Hugo, seemingly without room for excuse at Loren's subtly pointed words, nodded compliantly while loosening his tie.

"I haven't been able to pay attention to other matters lately. So, what's this about needing permission?"

Loren handed Hugo a single docunt she had brought.

"I was wondering if I could ask for your approval in advance if you're going to be away for a week. I want to organize an investigation team for the mana smuggling case at my discretion."

"Mana smuggling? Is this the case you ntioned to before the peninsula expedition? Seems like you've caught a tail."

Hugo naturally handed his loosened tie to Flynn and began reading the paper Loren had given him. Flynn quickly took the tie and straightened it, but his gaze and attention were focused that way.

"It's far from enough to say we've caught a tail, but we've found circumstances where mana was being traded in the shadows. Like blood packs stacked in a freezer, mana stored in several cylinders was being kept. The outside had storage dates and numbers written on them, and so showed signs of being about to be sent sowhere."

"How much?"

"We found about 30 cylinders at the scene. But each cylinder's capacity exceeds 5L. It's certainly not a small amount."

"...That quantity is definitely not for self-sufficiency. Where's the distribution point? What's the exact location of detection?"

"..."

Since mana could be used as an energy source in daily life, it wasn't uncommon to see extracted mana stored in dedicated cylinders. The trams running through the middle of the imperial capital, or the escort vehicles they had ridden when returning from the peninsula, were ans of transportation that used it as a power source. The sa was true for teleportation tools or indoor lighting.

However, mana without a mage as a dium was close to an invisible, formless energy, and if mishandled, it would scatter like gas, making storage thods tricky and the process of using it as a practical energy source complex. In other words, it ant that to make this possible, it had to go through so systematic stages of refinent, which implied that an organization involving multiple personnel was likely to be involved.

And if this were to be misused, it could cause great chaos in the social order, so the act of extracting and distributing mana by private organizations or individuals, not state institutions, was clearly illegal.

Hugo, who had been scanning the contents of the paper with furrowed brows, was about to sign the approval section with the pen Flynn had brought.

Loren, who had stopped speaking midway, seed to hesitate, then lifted her sharp eyes.

"Where was it found?"

She held back her words for a mont, her attention on the emblem symbolizing unity hanging on one wall of the Commander-in-Chief's room.

Biting the inside of her cheek hard, Loren soon opened her mouth calmly:

"It's related to a pro-emperor figure among the two divided noble factions. Is it alright to proceed with the investigation?"

"..."

Hugo's eyelids moved subtly. Rather, it was Flynn who looked openly surprised.

An indescribably uncomfortable silence lingered inside the Commander's room. However, Hugo's fingertips soon moved the pen.

"Of course."

He handed the signed paper to Loren. Then he added in a low voice:

"Investigate more thoroughly than ever before."

*****

Several small floating islands drifted around Celestia. Though called small, they were only small compared to the main island, with land masses wide enough to fit three or four villages. There were almost no people, though.

The interesting point was that these islands rotated in a certain orbit according to the flow of the magnetic field, with Celestia, the main island, located at the center of the elliptical orbit.

In other words, as the floating islands completed one orbit around the main island, they passed through the nearby airspace of Celestia twice. This cycle occurred twice every half year, and other than that, there was no opportunity to cross to another island unless one used direct flight magic or boarded a warship.

Leonardo, who had luckily caught the timing, boarded a pulley-style gondola for two days and entered the third floating island, Solia.

"You need to be here at this ti tomorrow and the day after! Otherwise, you might be trapped on the island for three months!"

The captain who had brought him shouted from behind in a concerned tone. Having heard this more than five tis already, Leonardo just waved a hand slightly, saying he understood.

The use of teleportation or portals was prohibited on the floating islands surrounding Celestia, except for Celestia itself. This was not because the area was a mana-restricted zone, but because spatial movent was either completely impossible or there was a risk of arriving in the wrong place.

The academic world was largely divided into two reasons for this: first, because the position of the floating islands kept changing. And second, it was speculated that the spatial movent coordinates used in places where gravity acted were recognized differently from those in regions where partial anti-gravity effects existed.

Gravity occurs due to the curvature of space-ti, and on floating islands, the thod of calculating curvature commonly used on the continent so far was not applicable. In other words, this ant that the floating islands moving along this orbit were ideal secret places to avoid the eyes of pursuit teams or surveillance networks.

However, perhaps because it was at an altitude even closer to the sun, brilliant sunlight, far from secrecy, poured down onto Leonardo's brown hair.

The light broke into tiny particles and slipped through even the smallest gaps, creating an illusion that made his hair look golden even though he had changed its color. Scattering shimring gold into the air, he arrived at a certain cetery located in the southern part of Solia. It was a neatly organized cetery that felt fresh and bright under the sun.

Originally, it tended to be overgrown with weeds and tangled grass. However, when there were occasional visitors, they would tacitly clean up the surroundings before leaving.

Various nas were engraved on the tombstones. The formats varied. So had only surnas, so only first nas. So had only nicknas written.

The atmosphere of this cetery was a bit different. It wasn't because it was a morial space set up on a sunny floating island. The reason was that among the resting places arranged seemingly irregularly yet regularly, there wasn't a single tombstone where the deceased's remains °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° were actually interred.

This place was not an officially registered public cetery, but a secret repository of mories created by the deceased with various stories, or by the living in different circumstances who wanted to commorate them.

Leonardo, walking along the stretched row of tombstones in this place of mories, stopped in front of a certain na located about halfway through.

'Halid'

Skipping three or four tombstones from there, another na could be seen.

'Ian'

These were always nostalgic and poignant nas for him.

Leonardo quietly stared at the white flowers placed in front of the tombstones, his hands in his pockets.

The fresh petals swayed gently in the cold wind at high altitude. He placed a bunch of white wildflowers picked from the nearby forest neatly beside them.

Closing his eyes, he conveyed his apologies for not being able to visit on ti this year. He also added that he hoped they would forgive him, as he had co here as soon as he was released.

As he stood in front of the tombstones for a while, feeling only the passing wind, a warm presence soon made itself felt.

"...Captain?"

Leonardo naturally opened his eyes. He reflexively turned around at the familiar voice.

His brown eyes gradually revealed their original clear golden color.

The corners of his mouth rose pleasantly. Leonardo greeted the other with a smiling face.

"You ca, brother."