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 come 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 "home" for a long time, 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 was mechanically flipping through the documents spread out on the wide wooden desk, he suddenly spotted a familiar word among the black letters.
"Huh?"
His eyes and hands that had been moving busily immediately stopped. He picked up a single document visible among the spread papers.
The document 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 came up semi-annually, so something that had ended six months ago was only now coming up as an item to be processed.
Flynn quietly stared at one unforgettable name among them.
'Tergio Dungrey.'
Though the surname was clearly different, seeing the name Tergio again made him feel strangely nostalgic.
The scene where Leonardo, introducing himself as a low-ranking merchant group member in Frost territory, had told him to comfortably 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 name... but still, to encounter that name in a place like this.
The name 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 document 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 crimes were.
"What's with the name Tergio..."
For a very brief moment, 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 name 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 name marked as 'deceased', then inserted the document back into the gap between the papers where it had been.
He organized the scattered documents and carefully prepared a summary to give to the Commander, finishing it meticulously. After completing the compilation, he stood up with the stack of documents and opened the door to the Commander-in-Chief's room at the back.
He approached the empty desk and placed the prepared documents neatly on the top. Seeing pens and office supplies scattered unlike usual, as if the Commander had left in a hurry, he didn't forget to put them back in their original places.
Usually, frequently used items are kept in the first drawer on the right side where they can be easily reached.
As he opened it today as well, it was then that:
"Huh?"
Next to the organized supplies, an unfamiliar frame 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. In the middle of a wet, broken concrete background, Leonardo was staring blankly at something.
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 seemed 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 frame 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 document 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 mentioned to me 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 tidied it, but his gaze and consciousness were focused on that side.
"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 some showed signs of being about to be sent somewhere."
"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 much 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 in the middle of the imperial capital or the escort vehicles they had ridden when returning from the peninsula were transportation means that used it as a power source. The same was true for teleportation tools or indoor lighting.
However, mana without a mage as a medium was close to an invisible, formless energy, and if mishandled, it would scatter like gas, making storage methods tricky and the process of using it as a practical energy source complex. In other words, it meant that to make this possible, it had to go through some systematic stages of refinement, 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, seemed puzzled and raised her sharp eyes to ask again:
"Where was it found?"
Loren held back her words for a moment, seeing the stopped pen tip. Her attention was on the emblem symbolizing unity hanging on one wall of the Commander-in-Chief's room.
Biting the inside of her cheek firmly, 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 noticeably looked surprised.
An indescribable uncomfortable silence lingered inside the Commander's room. However, Hugo's fingertips soon moved the pen tip.
"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 connecting for two days and entered the third floating island, Solia.
"You need to be here at this time tomorrow and the day after! Otherwise, you might be trapped on the island for 3 months!"
The captain who had brought him shouted from behind with a concerned tone. Having heard this more than five times already, Leonardo just waved his 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 movement was either completely impossible or there was a risk of falling 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 movement 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-time, and on floating islands, the calculation method of curvature commonly used on the continent so far was not applicable. In other words, this meant 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, shattered down onto Leonardo's brown hair.
The light particles broke into tiny pieces and penetrated even small gaps, creating an illusion that made his hair look like golden hair even though he had changed its color. Scattering the shimmering golden light into the air, he arrived at a certain cemetery located in the southern part of Solia. It was a neatly organized cemetery that felt fresh and well-lit by the sun.
Originally, it tended to be overgrown with weeds and tangled with grass. However, when there were occasional visitors, they would tacitly clean up the surroundings before leaving.
Various names were engraved on the tombstones. The formats varied. Some had only surnames, some only first names. Some places had only nicknames written.
The atmosphere of this cemetery was a bit different. It wasn't because it was a memorial 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 were actually interred.
This place was not an officially registered public cemetery, but a secret repository of memories created by the deceased with various stories, or by the living in different circumstances who wanted to commemorate them.
Leonardo, walking along the stretched tombstones in this place of memories, stopped in front of a certain name located about halfway through.
'Halid'
Skipping three or four tombstones from there, another name could be seen.
'Ian'
These were always nostalgic and poignant names 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 of the high altitude. He placed a bunch of white wildflowers picked from the nearby forest appropriately next to them.
Closing his eyes, he conveyed his apologies for not being able to visit on time this year. He also added that he hoped they would forgive him, as he had come here as soon as he was released.
As he stood in front of the tombstones for a while, feeling only the passing wind, soon a warm presence was felt.
"...Captain?"
Leonardo naturally opened his eyelids. 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 came, brother."