Bermuda - Bermuda Episode 12

Episode 12

Flynn felt like his eyes were spinning. She was clearly having a conversation, but it felt like there was no communication at all. The thing she had been chasing for all this time was pouring out of her in a strange way, and it was almost impossible for her to come to her senses.

“Then are you sure Blaine is in the lord’s castle now?”

“hmm… “As far as I know, yes, but he was not the man in the photo the investigator showed me.”

“Not this guy?”

“yes. He seemed like a completely different person? Of course, the hair was a bit yellow, but it was more of a mottled brown color than blonde, and the eyes… I don’t think it was gold at all, but rather dark green. That person’s personality is also very bad. “I always speak informally to the Lord of the Sangang.”

Flynn, who was very confused, paused when Theo said that he seemed like a different person. It’s not just blonde hair and golden eyes, it’s a different look?

“then… Are you saying that Leonardo Blaine in that mansion looks different from the picture I showed you? Like a completely different person?”

“yes. Leonardo Blaine in his mansion doesn’t have a very good personality, and he looks very cocky… Um, yeah. He looks like he just came to life. “This person in the picture is handsome.”

Theo, who harshly criticized Leonardo Blaine for being in the mansion, seemed to have a lot built up in him. Flynn asked again when Theo said that her face was different.

“Did he personally introduce himself as Leonardo Blaine?”

“Yes, every time you say something, you start with ‘This Leonardo Blaine-’? The Lord of the Sangdang also calls me Blaine… .”

“haha… .”

I just laughed out of frustration. The Leonardo Blaine that Theo was talking about was different from what I had heard so far about his actions.

First of all, the 8th platoon commander of the 1st Battalion, who most recently pursued him, testified that Leonardo Blaine looked exactly like the photo in the personal information document obtained by the council.

As time went by, his appearance matured a little, but it was easy to recognize him right away. Above all, he was very annoying to the council and was hiding in secret, so it was quite difficult to find him.

A person like that goes around telling people around the neighborhood that he is Leonardo Blaine, and even the lowest-ranking members of the upper class know about him?

Flynn recalled that in the past, when the few tips about Leonardo Blaine came in, they went through a verification process and found that most of them were impersonations or rumors. In other words, there was a high possibility that it was an impersonation this time too.

Flynn, who suddenly felt like steam was leaking out, sighed heavily. Then Theo, who had been gossiping about a man named Leonardo Blaine, asked Flynn.

“Why are you sighing like that?”

In response to his question, Flynn looked tearful and spoke helplessly to Theo.

“I think that Leonardo Blaine is a fake.”

* * *

“When the upper level brings in the corpse of a demonic beast, they bury it in the ground and set a fire on it to get rid of the demonic beast’s energy, and you put out the fire?”

“yes… , That’s right.”

Northern branch interrogation room. Across from Hugo, the mage who had been following him and was severely beaten was sitting in his handcuffs. The inside of the interrogation room was very chilly and cold. I don’t know if it was because of that or because he was afraid of Hugo, but the mage shook his body to the point where it felt pitiful.

The file in Hugo’s hand contained the personal details of the mage sitting in front of him. His name is Ardel Linter. He was a young man of 27 years old, and had been in the employ of the Serbian count for about two years.

He is a water mage who uses the properties of water. When he was hired, he was hired to put out forest fires, but at some point he confessed that he had been doing other things. And there were many threats and cajoling before I confessed it.

“Are you really protecting my safety? If it’s known that I said this, I… .”

“What do you think of the council? Personal safety is guaranteed. Of course, you will not be able to avoid punishment since you participated in an illegal act, but with some extenuating circumstances, you will receive a relatively light punishment.”

Ardel quickly became sullen at Hugo’s firm words.

At first, Ardel was following Hugo in the mountains and was caught by him. He was almost half-killed and was in a daze the whole time. He was then dragged, handed over to investigators, and transported directly to the northern branch of the council. The council members took pity on his frozen hands and carefully thawed them in warm water and fed him delicious food, and before he knew it, his body and mind were melting.

Although I had been caught by the Council’s investigative agency, I felt much more comfortable here than doing illegal work.

Meanwhile, when he thought he would never want to encounter that cold, scary person again, the scary, icy man suddenly appeared in front of him again.

The man, who had a very cold expression, said that he had already gone to Lord Frost and heard everything, so he should not think about backing away, and that if he testified properly, he would reduce the sentence to some extent.

When Ardel first heard the story, he couldn’t believe it and didn’t want to believe it, but for some reason, he felt that if it were a bloody and cold-blooded man like that, the Count might have already been blown away.

Eventually, Ardel gave up and began to confess the stories he knew one by one. However, in the midst of confessing, if he shakes his head even slightly or shows signs of attention… .

bang-!

“Hee, hee hee-!!”

“Keep talking.”

He could hear the sound of a sharp ice spear flying next to his head and hitting the wall, so he did his best to answer without stopping.

Once in the past, Ardel had asked the Count what would happen if he was caught by the council while doing something like this. At that time, the Count clearly said that he would only be interrogated by asking ordinary questions. But now, Ardel Linter felt his life was in danger and was testifying to survive.

Hugo closed the file he had been reading for a while while listening to the story of the arrested mage, closed his eyes, and cleared his mind.

The reason Delberg came to Frost Territory was simple. Because he had the money factor. And the element that made money was the ‘land’, which was rarely visited, was barren, and was rugged. The wide-open mountainous area was not a place suitable for human habitation, but Delberg took advantage of this.

In Lina Loggia, it was a clear illegal act for private merchants or individuals to distribute the corpses of witch beasts. The reason is that magic stones containing magical power can be obtained from the corpse of a demonic beast, but if these are distributed through illegal channels without going through official distribution, there is a high possibility of abuse.

Therefore, the Delberg Merchant Marine, which had acquired a large quantity of magical beasts, needed a natural freezer and workshop where they could be stored without inspection in order to distribute magic stones, and the cold, dry climate and sparsely populated mountain was very suitable for this purpose.

“A water attribute demon?”

“yes… . From what I saw in person, it was a magical beast with blue-green, scaly skin. It was the size of a typical livestock cow. It was slightly charred… “I remember.”

“Blue-green, scaly skin. ‘Kouamer’.”

“I think it was that name.”

Kuamer was a magical beast that could never be seen in the northern region of Laina Loggia. They are mainly found in the warm coastal areas and wetlands of the central and southeastern parts of Lina Loggia and travel in groups. Once discovered, it was so large that it was captured in large quantities.

When recalling that characteristic, Hugo’s mind flashed to a report that Kuamer had been found dead in droves in an area called Perion in the central east about three months ago.

Kuamer is a water-attribute magician, so fire-attribute magic was the most suitable for hunting, but since all the corpses discovered in large numbers at the time were charred black, it was thought to be a subjugation by someone using fire magic.

The reason it wasn’t a big problem at the time was because it was illegal for private merchants or individuals to ‘distribute’ magic beasts or magic stones, but it was not illegal to acquire magic stones through subjugation or self-sufficiency and use them only for personal purposes.

However, if the merchant distributes it for the purpose of selling it, the story is different.

“How many months ago did Delberg start bringing in magical beasts?”

“hmm… , 2 months. No, since about three months ago.”

“It was three months ago… . “The timing overlaps.”

It may be a bit of a guess, but it occurred to me that there might be some connection between the discovery of a large number of Kuamer corpses and the Kuamer brought in by this Delberg merchant. And the bodies were all completely charred.

“What did the earl receive in exchange for giving the land to the merchant?”

“I received some of the magic stones from the demon beast. “Frost Territory is a place where water is scarce, so magic stones with water properties are very rare.”

“Right.”

Now I finally feel like the pieces are coming together one by one.

In order to find a place to store a large number of magical beasts, the Delberg Merchant Marine chose the Frost Territory, where the temperature is low and there is little traffic, and the Count received the magic stones from the magical beasts in return.

The corpses of the demonic beasts are buried all over the mountains around the Frost Territory, and since the demonic beasts’ unique magical power flows out even after death, they are buried in the ground to hide Kuamer’s water-attribute magical power, and then set on fire as if a forest fire had started on top of them. It neutralized the energy of the water.

And while covering the once dug ground again, the traces of wet soil were hidden with burnt fallen leaves and dry branches. Because of the work process, residents believed that the frequency of forest fires had become more frequent in recent years.

After finishing organizing, Hugo put down the file. Then he took out the photo he had been carrying in his inner pocket the entire time, showed it to him, and said,

“You followed me, so you knew I was looking for someone. This is the person I’ve been looking for for the past few days.”

Ardel looked at the photo Hugo showed him and spoke as if he knew him.

“Ah, the person they said they were looking for… .”

When he said it as if he had expected it, Hugo raised an eyebrow and asked him.

“… also? You seem to know this guy. “So, is this guy the partner who set fire to the land where the demon beast was buried?”

Hugo thought that the mage who set fire to the ground covering the magic beast that Ardel had mentioned was the main character in the photo that was believed to be in the count’s house.

However, Ardel, who was looking at the photo, was embarrassed and answered his question because it was out of focus somewhere.

“yes? no.”

“… “No?”