Chapter 15 (Part 1)

Caleb frowned deeply as he looked at the unfamiliar sorcerer who had come to see him.  

Not only was the man a stuttering mess who could barely speak, but he also brought someone from the Eastern Continent and immediately demanded the research materials Leonardo had recently discovered.  

His shabby clothing only heightened Caleb’s suspicion.  

“Why are you doubting us? I’m just asking for the materials your superior told you to find!”  

Hara, one of the suspicious sorcerers Caleb was wary of, stomped her foot and snapped, but Caleb became even more defensive, his tone sharp.  

“I can’t trust you until the Commander contacts me directly.”  

At his words, Hara clutched her chest in frustration and shouted,  

“Do you think he’s in his right mind right now?”  

Her words made Caleb’s expression turn serious, and he urgently asked,  

“Did something happen to the commander?”  

Hara’s expression shifted rapidly at his question.  

She alternated her gaze between Caleb and Hymen, as if unsure where to begin or how to explain, before letting out a hollow laugh and saying,  

“Does this guy seriously know nothing?”  

“Th-that’s impossible!”

“No, I bet it is. Just listen to how he talks. He doesn’t know anything, so his answers are completely clueless. He clearly has no idea.”  

Hara’s definitive statement made Hymen shake his head desperately in denial.  

“Ca, Caleb Ma, Martin is one of the top ma, mages alive today.”  

Listening to their conversation, Caleb couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.  

However, that didn’t mean he could simply trust these two and let them into the lab.  

‘What on earth is the commander doing that he’s not answering any calls?’  

Caleb, who had no idea that Leonardo was too preoccupied with his romantic escapades to notice anything else, looked visibly anxious.  

Since these two had arrived, he had been trying to contact Leonardo without success.  

Hara looked at him again and said bluntly,  

“Don’t tell me you don’t know that my master’s body has been swapped?”  

Caleb frowned at Hara’s open mention of a topic that shouldn’t be discussed so casually.  

“Don’t speak so recklessly.”  

At his stern tone, Hara tilted her head and replied,  

“What’s this? So you do know? Then, the Goddess—oh, wait, you wouldn’t understand it like that.”  

Scratching her head as if trying to remember something, Hara’s eyes lit up as she added,  

“You must know that Grace is also in trouble and needs help immediately. So why don’t you trust us?”  

“Hey!”  

Caleb glared at Hara, who kept making dangerous statements in the hallway where anyone could hear, and sighed as he opened the door.  

“Come inside to talk.”  

Having underestimated how recklessly Hara would speak, Caleb belatedly cast a detection spell around the area.  

When no one was caught in the spell, he breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door.  

Long after the door closed, someone emerged from the corner of the hallway.  

Iris, holding a stack of documents, stared at the closed door with wide eyes and muttered,  

“Swapped? Bodies? Grace?”  

The Eastern Continent sorcerer’s disjointed shouting sounded absurd, but at the same time, it was too suspicious to ignore.  

Standing in place, Iris mulled over the words before speaking to herself as if realizing something,  

“Leo and Sir Lowell swapped bodies?”  

Though Grace was a common name, there was only one person Iris thought of when she heard it.  

Chewing her nails anxiously, she muttered,  

‘Could something like that really happen?’  

If what the woman said was true, it was a massive issue. Why hadn’t such a major incident been reported to anyone?  

Iris thought of Grace, the woman she had once met, and her eyes turned cold.  

Grace Lowell, who had looked at her and Leonardo together as if someone had stolen her favorite toy.

‘That woman must have opposed it.’  

That foolish and naive female knight.  

With nothing but her alluring body to offer, she probably didn’t realize how serious the situation was and seduced Leonardo into keeping it a secret from everyone.  

The more Iris thought about it, the angrier she became.  

Deciding she needed to seek help from someone else, she hurried away, not realizing she had dropped a document with her signature on it.  

***

Unaware of the commotion outside, the three people inside remained in a tense standoff—or rather, only Hara and Caleb did.  

Hymen, meanwhile, was smacking his lips as he looked at the pile of books Leonardo had collected.  

“Hey, focus.”  

Hara jabbed him in the side to snap him out of it.  

Hymen licked his lips again and handed Caleb his communication device, saying,  

“Here, it has a record of my communications with Leo.”  

His gaze seemed to imply that Caleb could at least check the records if he couldn’t read them.  

Reluctantly, Caleb took the device and infused it with a bit of mana.  

As soon as he did, the communication log appeared in midair.  

“Wow, so the mage isn’t as dumb as I thought?”  

“Ca, Caleb Martin is officially a skilled ma, mage.”  

Ignoring their conversation, Caleb scrutinized the communication log.  

Among the numerous entries, he found a familiar trace and sighed quietly before returning the device.  

As they had claimed, Leonardo did seem to have some kind of cooperative relationship with these strange individuals.  

‘What could he have seen in them to make such a decision?’  

No matter how he looked at it, Caleb found these people untrustworthy.  

But he couldn’t question Leonardo’s decisions, so he spoke stiffly,  

“As you seem to know, I am Caleb Martin. What exactly are you looking for?”  

Though polite, his tone carried a subtle disdain, which made Hara scowl.  

“Oh, so you think we can’t find it ‘exactly’? Or that we wouldn’t recognize it even if we saw it?”  

Caleb remained silent, but Hara read his silence as confirmation and let out a disbelieving laugh.  

Placing her hands on her hips, she stood defiantly and said,  

“Are all Imperial mages like this?”  

“No, no.”  

“They’re all arrogant and clueless.”  

Hara’s words made Caleb’s brow twitch.  

As if daring her to continue, he stared at her, and she tilted her chin up slightly.  

“They’re like frogs in a well, thinking their little world is everything. Narrow-minded and blind.”  

Just as Caleb was about to retort, he felt a chilling presence fill the room.  

Reacting instinctively, he scanned his surroundings, but there was nothing there.  

After all, this place was always protected by the magic circles Leonardo had designed.  

Noticing Caleb’s reaction, Hara smirked.  

“At least you can sense it, huh?”  

Sensing that things might escalate, Hymen tugged on Hara’s sleeve and tried to calm her down.  

“Ha, Hara. Stop.”  

“Why? Maybe if he has nightmares for a month, he’ll stop looking down on people.”  

Hearing Hymen call her “Hara” and recalling her sarcastic tone, Caleb suddenly remembered something.  

A notorious spirit sorcerer from the Eastern Continent and her eccentric Imperial sorcerer companion—Kim Hara and Hymen Roxburgh.  

If these two were who he thought they were, they weren’t the kind of people to be underestimated or dismissed.  

‘…They’re not wrong.’  

Caleb sighed internally.  

As Hara had pointed out, he had judged the situation based only on what he could see and doubted his superior’s decision.  

He had assumed Leonardo had acted impulsively, especially since the matter involved Sir Lowell.  

But Caleb knew better than anyone that Leonardo wasn’t the type to act rashly.  

Acknowledging his mistake, Caleb straightened his posture and bowed respectfully.  

“I apologize. As you said, I made a hasty judgment. Please forgive me.”  

Hara blinked at his swift and sincere apology before bursting into laughter.  

“Well, that was clean. Alright, I’ll accept your apology. But try not to judge people by their appearances from now on, okay?”  

Caleb nodded slightly and apologized again.  

“Yes, I’m sorry.”  

Hara grinned at his polite tone and held out her hand expectantly.  

“Then give me the research materials.”  

Caleb looked troubled as he replied,  

“I’m sorry, but that’s not possible.”  

“Why not?”  

“The commander locked them away.”  

And Caleb didn’t have the ability to undo the magical seal.  

***

After several rounds of intimacy, Leonardo covered the sleeping Grace with a blanket, kissed her forehead, and stepped into the drawing room.  

Checking his communication device, he found an overwhelming number of missed messages.  

‘Why did Caleb try to contact me so much?’  

Among them, he also noticed a message from Hymen.  

Leonardo infused the device with mana and contacted Caleb first.  

The response was immediate, and Caleb’s voice came through.  

[Commander, two sorcerers came by this morning.]  

“What did you do?”  

[They asked for the research materials, but I couldn’t access them, so I didn’t give them anything. Were they sent by you?]  

Hearing Caleb’s report, Leonardo finally remembered that Hymen had asked for the materials he had found.  

It was something he had deliberately ignored while spending the past few days with Grace.  

‘I didn’t think I’d forget about it, though.’  

This is why kings of old dynasties lost their minds and ruined their kingdoms, entangled in the skirts of their concubines. Leonardo realized this anew and answered nonchalantly,  

“Yes, I must have forgotten to mention it.”  

Hearing Leonardo casually admit that he had simply forgotten, Caleb was momentarily at a loss for words and responded after a pause.  

[Are you alright, Commander?]  

His tone sounded as though he were asking if Leonardo was in his right mind, which made Leonardo chuckle. He then replied,  

“Perhaps… I am not entirely alright.”  

[…It seems you’ve come to your senses.]  

Leonardo chuckled quietly at Caleb’s response, then lowered his voice, which had been lighthearted just moments before.  

“I’ve sent two Pla beasts—the center of this incident—with Hara and Hymen.”  

[…Understood.]  

“Investigate the beasts with them. I’ll take a closer look at the forest and return.”  

Caleb fell silent again at his words.  

It sounded like an excuse, but at the same time, it also sounded like something someone genuinely busy with tasks would say.  

“I’ll return as soon as I have results.”  

Leonardo’s firm tone left no room for argument, and Caleb reluctantly replied,  

[How long do you think it will take?]  

Leonardo hesitated briefly before answering in a stiff tone.  

“One day. Just one day.”  

[Understood. I’ll wait.]  

As Caleb ended the communication, Leonardo let out a long sigh.  

For some reason, his heart was pounding as though he were a child lying for the first time. Or perhaps that was exactly why.  

‘This is the first time I’ve ever delayed work intentionally, and the first time I’ve fabricated an excuse just to play.’  

But Leonardo instinctively knew. If he “returned” now, Grace would pretend not to know him.  

It was as if she were clinging to him now, knowing they might never meet again if not for this moment.  

‘She doesn’t seem to dislike me, though.’  

There’s no way someone could indulge in such intimacy with someone they hated.  

Leonardo sighed, caught up in meaningless thoughts, and got up from his seat.  

‘Instead of worrying about this, I’d rather spend my time with Grace.’  

After all, he wouldn’t know her true feelings until she told him.  

No, she had already cried and said they couldn’t be together, so that was likely her true sentiment.  

‘Though it’s probably not what she really wants.’  

When he opened the door slightly, he saw Grace still fast asleep.  

He approached her, pulled back the blanket, and lay down beside her. Grace instinctively nestled into his arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world.  

As he stroked her hair, Leonardo closed his eyes.  

He couldn’t give her up to anyone.  

As his eyelids grew heavy with drowsiness, he reaffirmed his resolve.  

If their circumstances and environment made it impossible for them to be together, he would simply eliminate all those “impossible” factors.