Chapter 498

“Please remain inside until further notice. You may use the Shower Room or other facilities freely, but at least one team member must remain here.”

After briefly delivering the instructions, the knight gave a bow and left the team waiting room of Team JOKER. Until the door closed and his presence disappeared completely, no one inside spoke a word.

When those who were usually so noisy fell silent, a chill quickly settled over the room. It felt as though the cold aura of the man they had just encountered had followed them inside. As that sense of dissonance alone filled the stillness, the first to move was Gillian.

He finished wiping the soot from his face and neck with a towel. Beatrice sat on the sofa, clutching the bisque doll she had received, looking more like a doll than the doll itself. Morvan handed her the tea that had gone cold, and to Ero—whose legs had been bouncing restlessly—he passed the drink bottle Ero had left behind.

The tonic water, whose carbonation had long since escaped after the cap had been opened, was like life itself to Ero, whose mouth had gone completely dry. As he gulped it down greedily, Orca, who had been quietly observing, broke the silence of the waiting room with an expression of complete ignorance.

“Who was that man earlier, for everyone to be this serious?”

“Pff—!”

Ero sprayed the drink properly this time and broke into a coughing fit.

“Cough—kgh, hack—!”

“Are you alright?”

Normally Beatrice would have snapped at him for being disgusting, but this time she remained silent. Instead, Morvan handed him a towel from the side. Ero took it, thanked him with a glance, and immediately turned back to Orca.

“W-wait, you don’t know Ka—, ahem, that person?”

“Is he someone famous? Beast, Bell, do you know who he is?”

“Of course. Who wouldn’t?”

Beatrice, who had been sitting in silence with a pale face, spoke up. Her voice was unusually subdued. Gillian, turning his head as well, added on.

“Is there anyone who doesn’t know one of the Empire’s dukes?”

“...A duke? That man is a duke?”

Orca asked back, as though he could hardly believe it. Then, briefly, he recalled the presence he had felt when he clashed with that man.

A strong, solid body. The dense scent of water that had wrapped around his entire being. Eyes that were clear, yet at the same time cold and quiet like a deep sea whose depths could not be measured. At times, there had been a fierce force like a raging tidal wave.

And yet, an innate nobility had submerged all of it beneath the surface. Orca nodded as if he finally understood.

“Then that man must be the Duke of Agrizend.”

“What, you really didn’t know?”

Gillian asked in disbelief. Orca answered calmly.

“Our pod inhabits the southern coast, so news from inland arrives late. We live alongside nature rather than within human society, so it is difficult even to come across newspapers. No matter how famous someone may be, it is not easy to memorize every face.”

“Then how did you know his name?”

“I had long heard that one of the Empire’s dukes is the strongest mage of the ice attribute. Those in the pod who leave to train with the goal of becoming a mage can usually control water, so they regard that name as the pinnacle of their training.”

As he continued explaining, Orca drew his brows together, looking troubled.

“However... I did not know that the one the lion meets would be him.”

Gathering the sleeve of his loose robe, Orca folded his arms, clearly deep in thought. At that moment, a strange silence fell over the waiting room. Fine lines creased Gillian’s brow and the corners of his eyes, and Ero, who had been listening blankly, blinked—then his face suddenly turned pale.

H-how did he know...?

He feared that, after talking so much, he might have let something slip without realizing it. His eyes wavered anxiously as he tried to retrace his memory. But if that wasn’t it, then what exactly had this killer whale just said?

At that moment, Beatrice, who had been sipping her tea, abruptly cut in.

“Who’s meeting who?”

“Lion and the duke. They had the same scent.”

“What are you talking about? Explain it so it makes sense.”

She dropped the heel of the shoe that had been dangling in the air and pressed him impatiently. Morvan, who had been wiping up the spilled drink in place of Ero, also snapped his head up.

“When I met him at the dinner before. The lion had the scent of water.”

With everyone’s attention focused on him, Orca added calmly,

“It was a scent of unusually high purity, so at the time I thought it had come from some other water. But when I saw the duke just now, I knew for certain. That was his scent.”

***

Each time their lips dragged against one another, a sharp sting ran through him. Perhaps it was because he was straining so hard not to be swept away. His stiff lower jaw trembled, half parted.

Then the tongue that had been tracing along his teeth withdrew for a moment, only to envelop his lips entirely and press in deeper.

“Mm...!”

“...Mmm.”

A low hum slipped into the narrow space between them. As their straight noses crushed faintly together, the heated tension from the Shower Room rose unbidden in his mind. His instinctive arousal surged, but Leonardo twisted his head back, pulling his neck away. The desire that had consumed them not long ago kept stalling now—whether because of the place, or the situation.

Trapped within the shadow cast by the man, Leonardo pressed his back and arms tightly against the wall, even though he could not retreat any farther. His eyes, half-lidded and unfocused like loosened threads, fixed on the other man moving inside his mouth.

The man, whose lashes had fallen neatly even in this moment, had his eyes closed, as though wholly immersed in the act. A vertical line had formed between his brows, as if he intended to indulge fully in the pleasure of their joining.

But it seemed things were not going as he wished, because of Leonardo’s resistance. His closed eyelids lifted slightly, and a gaze laced with emotion fell on him.

Leonardo met those blue eyes head-on, refusing to look away.

What.

At such close proximity, it would have been natural to feel shaken, but instead he answered by twisting his lips and biting down on the other man’s lower lip. It was nothing like the tender, ticklish kiss from before.

Neither of them yielded, their fierce gazes tangled, yet neither wrapped an arm around the other’s waist or neck. It was hard to imagine a kiss more devoid of mood than this, but their heated breaths and the slick contact lingered as though they were engraving letters of affection with their tongues.

As the kiss deepened, Hugo was the one who finally gave in first, letting out a breath.

“...Are you going to leave your hands like that?”

He murmured it while brushing against lips that had yet to part.

Lowering the arm that had been braced against the wall, he took hold of Leonardo’s slack wrist. Both of them wore long sleeves and gloves, leaving very little bare skin exposed. Even so, Hugo deftly loosened the cuff of Leonardo’s glove and slipped his long fingers inside.

As two firm pressures pressed in, the looseness around the wrist tightened. Hugo bent his index and middle fingers, slowly rubbing along Leonardo’s wrist. When the artery reacted faintly, he paid it no mind and slid deeper. Tracing the base of the palm, he slipped into the soft hollow formed by the mound of the thumb and little finger.

Reaching the shallow dip at the center, he drew a circle with his fingertips, then pressed down.

Leonardo’s fingers trembled deeply.

Leonardo clenched and unclenched his other hand repeatedly. It was not because he wanted to hit him, but because he refused to be so easily drawn in by the man’s temptation—or to let the mood soften so readily.

At that moment, beyond the wide window behind Hugo, large metal materials tied to ropes were being hoisted upward. Their bulk cast a sudden shadow across the corridor before the light returned. Startled, Leonardo shoved Hugo’s chest away with his forearm.

“Enough.”

Letting out the breath he had been holding, he immediately cast a wary glance over the man’s shoulder. Only after confirming that there was no one else’s shadow did he flick his tongue against his lips and raise his eyes sharply.

“What are you trying to do?”

He knew it was a habit, but it drew attention. In Hugo’s view, the lips that had just been moving with his were flushed red and glistening. Because he had chased and bitten them relentlessly whenever Leonardo tried to turn away, not only the corners but the entire mouth was wet with saliva.

Hugo ran his thumb over those lips again, as though wiping them clean, just before they could form another cold remark.

“...You said you would meet me after the match.”

“I mean, yeah, but... Ha... why did you come when I was with my team? Usually we meet alone after everything’s over. And what is this—suddenly kissing me in a place like this?”

Hugo, watching Leonardo’s furrowed brows, answered with shameless calm.

“Was that not allowed?”

Leonardo’s eyes widened as though he had just heard something he should not have. A hollow laugh escaped him.

“What? Ha, of course—”

He was about to say it was not allowed, but then realized they had never actually made such an agreement. He had only said not to lay a hand on Ero; nothing else had ever been formally set as a strict rule. Even so, if this man was truly a duke of the Empire, Leonardo had assumed he would understand such basic calculations and implications without needing them spelled out.

At a loss for words, Leonardo brushed away the man’s hand that kept wiping at his lower lip, then spoke in a low sigh, as though listing his points one by one.

“What if someone sees us? The back is all glass. And to everyone else, we’re just a hunter and the one being hunted, aren’t we? The trial’s already over, you’ve been released and everything—if people see us standing here kissing, don’t you think it’ll look strange?”

Even if they had the bond of having fought together in a suppression operation, theirs was not a relationship that would naturally justify private meetings in public view. If it became known, it would undoubtedly attract attention—attention they did not want.

And the same applied to his teammates.

Yet Hugo continued as though it did not matter.

“From outside, we cannot be seen, so there is no need to worry. And even if we were, is there any reason we must conform to those gazes?”

The corner of Leonardo’s mouth twitched. He could not understand why someone who knew better was acting like this. It almost sounded like stubborn insistence.

“You said you’d protect me. From troublesome noise.”

This time, Hugo was the one left without an answer. It was a statement he could not reasonably deny, and yet, despite not having any habit of twisting words, that “troublesome noise” felt as though it was pointing at himself.

Of course, he knew that was not what Leonardo meant. He knew that the “protection” Leonardo spoke of included not only himself, but Hugo as well.

And yet, an inexplicable tightness settled in his chest, and Hugo held his tongue for a moment. Taking that gap, Leonardo continued.

“...Even setting that aside, anyone gets tense when they face the Legion Commander of The Council. Didn’t you see my team earlier? They were celebrating their win, and the moment they saw you, they all froze. If that wasn’t your intention, you could’ve just met me later, alone.”

“If I had not come to find you now, you would not have met me today.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is.”

“I said it’s not.”

Leonardo’s voice rose slightly, then he turned his head for a moment to steady himself. Closing his eyes and opening them again, he spoke back to Hugo.

“What makes you so certain? It’s not like you know everything about me. You don’t even remember.”