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chapter 67
After parting ways with Laxo, Leto returned to the headquarters and immediately looked for Warrant Officer Feast.
The moment he entered, the entire room tensed up. The soldiers could feel that something was off, and they all quickly stood at attention.
“……”
Noah looked at Leto with puzzled eyes. The air around him was sharp, charged with a strange energy.
“You called for me, sir?”
Feast stiffened when Leto’s crimson eyes met his. The faintly glowing red pupils flickered irregularly, like something was barely being restrained.
“Cancel all my afternoon appointments.”
“Sir?”
Startled by the sudden order, Feast stammered.
“B-but, General! Brigadier General Kirko is scheduled to visit soon! We’re supposed to go over the search for the Finger Pirates’ hideout—”
“Bring him to the interrogation room.”
Leto cut him off, already looking around.
“Colonel Ice,” he called.
“Yes, sir.”
“You’ll go and escort Brigadier General Kirko here.”
“Understood.”
Having issued his orders, Leto left the command office with Feast in tow.
The suffocating tension that had filled the room—like needles pricking at everyone’s skin—finally lifted as soon as he was gone.
The soldiers, released from that invisible pressure crushing their chests, all let out shaky sighs and practically collapsed into their seats.
“What on earth was that about…?”
“The General seemed… off, didn’t he?”
“And what did he mean by the interrogation room?”
“Everyone.”
Colonel Ice’s cold, commanding tone instantly silenced the chatter.
“Don’t let your mouths run wild. If I hear even a whisper of gossip about the General after this, I’ll suspect our own unit first.”
The soldiers paled. After that chilling warning, they all turned back to their work in silence.
Noah, taking advantage of the lull, quietly pulled out a sheet of stationery.
The cheap paper from the commissary had thick, dark lines across it—so much so that people joked it looked like prison bars.
Looking at it now, Noah thought they weren’t wrong.
‘Should I use a different one?’
But she quickly dipped her pen in ink and began to write.
[I apologize for my late reply.]
She’d meant to send this letter to the Marquis of Oceanus long ago, but things kept coming up. Now, even choosing proper stationery felt like a luxury.
‘At least I already told Leto…’
Still—
“……”
Something about the way Leto had looked earlier kept bothering her.
The usual playful smirk and teasing manner had vanished completely.
It was rare for him to look that tense, to let such raw emotion show.
Even when the hazing incident had surfaced, he hadn’t been that severe.
‘It wasn’t just anger…’
No—he was angry.
But beneath that anger, there was something heavier.
‘It was the look of someone realizing something big and messy just landed on their plate.’
Her pen wavered slightly between her fingers.
Something serious must have happened in the military.
“Writing a letter?”
Ami leaned over curiously to peek.
Catching her friend’s glance, Noah pressed her palm against Ami’s face to shove her away, then slipped the finished letter into an envelope.
“Who’s it to?”
“My in-laws.”
She sealed the flap tightly and affixed a stamp.
“…Then why do you look like you’re writing a death warrant?”
Ami arched a brow.
“You look way too grim for a family letter.”
“I sort of feel that way.”
She’d dropped her baseless hostility toward the Marquis of Oceanus, but her suspicions hadn’t disappeared.
To Noah, her husband’s family was still an unknown, precarious place.
✦✦✦
The navy had two interrogation rooms.
One was the standard one—clearly marked with a sign by the entrance.
That room was used to scold sailors for minor infractions not severe enough to warrant formal discipline… or to question smugglers and pirates caught during maritime patrols.
The other interrogation room, however, was hardly known at all.
Most soldiers didn’t even know where it was—or that it existed.
It was a secret facility, used only under extraordinary circumstances and accessible only to the highest-ranking officers.
That was where Leto was heading now.
“Bring that bastard, Shika Rius, here immediately—”
Leto froze as soon as he stepped inside.
“Ah, you’re late.”
“Captain.”
“Shut the door and come in.”
Captain Ardvelo, already there, looked utterly different from his usual hearty self.
His wrinkled, emotionless face looked even darker under the dim light.
“Did you hear what the barmaid told me?”
His gaze never left the figure tied to the chair before them—Shika Rius.
The man Leto had come to interrogate was already bound, gagged, and covered in blood.
“Interrogation by torture is prohibited,” Leto said as he approached.
“Do I look like I did it?”
“Yes.”
“If I did, I wouldn’t get caught doing it.”
Ardvelo snorted and handed Leto a pair of black leather gloves.
Leto put them on, eyeing the prisoner’s condition.
Compared to their first encounter, Shika looked “cleaner,” but his face had hollowed into something corpse-like.
“…What did you do to him?”
Leto snapped his fingers lightly in front of the man’s eyes.
The dull sound of leather made his eyelids twitch. Conscious, at least.
“The Chief Secretary handled the questioning since I was tired,” Ardvelo muttered. “Then the idiot tried to bite his own tongue off.”
Leto sighed in understanding.
Only a few people knew that the Navy’s so-called Saint—the Chief Secretary—was a master interrogator.
“No wonder I didn’t see him by your side, sir.”
“He’s washing off the blood and changing clothes. It got messy.”
“What about medical treatment?”
“I used a bit of magic to stop the bleeding. We’ll have the Chaplain treat him later.”
“In any case, you’re here for the same reason I am,” Ardvelo said, jerking his chin toward Shika Rius.
Leto nodded.
“There’s evidence suggesting the explosion in the Finich district might have been an inside job.”
“The common soldier you flagged as suspicious testified, didn’t he?”
“Did this one confess?”
“Would the Chief Secretary have stepped in if he hadn’t mouthed off?”
Hence, this state.
Ardvelo looked down at Shika with a mix of disdain and disappointment.
“What the hell is happening to this country…” Leto muttered, rubbing his temple.
“Who knows,” Ardvelo grunted.
But they both had the same hunch.
“The military’s about to flip upside down.”
The navy, the army, the knights—all of them.
Ever since the Mage Tower exploded, the rigid, conservative military institutions that had defended the nation for a century were on the brink of massive upheaval.
“Especially the army,” Ardvelo said grimly. “Once this comes to light, they’ll face hellish backlash.”
“You suspect something?”
“I do… but…” Ardvelo trailed off and glanced sideways at him.
“I’ll tell you when I’m certain.”
Leto didn’t press further.
“For now, what should we do?”
“Track down those southern spies. They slipped in through Tenebre’s routes.”
The fact that Tenebre had shown up here at all was proof that foreign agents had infiltrated the south.
The southern command found the whole thing laughable.
“…You heard that, right?”
Leto turned to the bound Shika Rius with a deceptively kind smile.
He couldn’t speak through the gag, but he’d clearly heard every word.
“If you want another private session with the Chief Secretary, don’t bother cooperating.”
That got a reaction. Shika began making muffled, desperate noises through the gag, shaking the chair violently.
Once known as the most ruthless pirate in the south, the infamous Shika Rius now begged pitifully for mercy—tears and snot streaming down his face.
“Pathetic,” Leto muttered, clicking his tongue.
“Captain, General.”
Just then, Warrant Officer Feast appeared to announce Brigadier General Kirko’s arrival.
✦✦✦
“Why were you so angry earlier?”
On their way home, Noah finally asked.
“Something got… complicated,” Leto said.
“Is it classified?”
“Not exactly…”
The red car climbed the now-familiar hill toward the city.
“Maybe you should ask Grandmother yourself later,” he said.
“I’m not sure she’ll be in the right state for that today.”
As Leto turned off the engine, Noah unbuckled her seat belt and murmured, “My brother’s probably home.”
“Oh, right.”
Leto blinked, belatedly remembering.
“Guess we’ll have to catch him…”
“…and beat him like a rat,” Noah finished.
Last night, Gloria had mentioned wanting to meet her grandson in person.
‘Wait—it’s only been a day since then?’
Leto was startled.
It had only been two days since Captain Ardvelo returned, and just one day since Leto learned Gloria was Noah’s grandmother.
‘Feels like it’s been a week already.’
No wonder he felt so weary.
The fatigue dragging through his body felt like he hadn’t rested for days.
That’s why everything felt longer than it really was.
“Tired?” Noah asked softly, looking at him with concern.
“…Yeah.”
Leto whined, leaning closer with a pout. He rested his head against her shoulder, lips curling faintly as he murmured, “I’m exhausted. My shoulders might fall off.”
“They better not…” she said, flustered, lightly touching his broad shoulders as if afraid they might break.
Her delicate fingers brushed over him like butterflies landing on petals—gentle, careful.
But the touch still tickled his chest.
Unable to resist, he pressed a kiss to her cheek, then another—firm, insistent.
Noah squeaked and pulled back, laughing through the ticklishness.
“Do you know what the best decision of my life was?” he asked.
“Marrying me?”
“Exactly. That one decision makes up for every mistake I’ve ever made.”
“You really do talk smooth.”
“I’m good with more than words.”
“Are you, now?”
“Forgot already? Guess I’ll have to remind you—physically.”
Even though they were standing right outside their home, the two clung to each other, whispering sweet nonsense like newlyweds.
“…Remind her how, exactly?”
And then came Clara’s innocent voice from the doorway.
