Love Letter From The Future-Chapter 380: Bread and Dagger (78)

My thoughts drifted aimlessly, memory fragments sliding past one another, creating a cacophony.

From my hazy mind, a few impressions emerged..

They were scenes that should have flowed seamlessly. Instead, bits of recollections passed through my head like a jagged chain.

My body shot forward, tearing through the air. Dozens of serpent heads turned toward me.

That was the first scene.

The memories after that remained only in fragments.

My sword and the hatchet unleashed torrents of blood. Flesh and bone fragments scattered amid screams.

Yes, everything had been fine up to that point.

Golden streaks burned away every approaching tentacle. With Senior Delphine now fighting at my side, there was nothing left to hinder me.

No matter how terrifying that monster was, it had just been born.

In terms of aura alone, it couldn’t possibly rival Senior Delphine, who outclassed me entirely. And as always, she never failed to meet my expectations.

Next, came the memory of a storm of radiant beams enveloping my surroundings.

It was grueling, but still surmountable. By using the technique of ‘Shackle’ and ‘Liberation,’ I deflected some of the beams and scattered others. The deflected beams collided against one another countless times, erupting in cascading explosions.

Above all, the greatest credit belonged to Senior Elsie’s ‘Thunderclap’.

The bolts of lightning that rained down indiscriminately made no distinction between friend or foe. Maneuvering through them was arduous, but it must have been far worse for a mass of flesh that couldn’t even move.

The sight of dozens of serpent heads being electrocuted all at once was nothing short of spectacular.

As the electricity contracted their muscles, the snakes simultaneously jerked their heads upward, like sea serpents yearning for rain—

Or grotesque sculptures erected to honor a heretical god.

Either way, it didn’t change the fact that the serpent heads had been neutralized. In the end, only one figure remained.

And it was Leoric.

The memories that followed were even more fragmented.

A face morphing like clay molded by a child’s hands.

It turned to Alex and Betty.

I couldn’t bring myself to cut them down. And the price of that momentary hesitation was…

With a squelch came a sensation of something piercing through my abdomen.

Having been stabbed so many times before, I instantly recognized it.

That this was, at the very least, a serious wound.

Then I lost consciousness and, when I awoke, I found myself here.

A raspy voice rippled through the silence.

“…What a pitiful sight.”

It was a voice I knew well.

At that flatly delivered reproach, I staggered upright. After facing it enough times, I had come to understand.

Within that curt remark there was a hint of reproach.

It was an emotion that faintly trickled out —like squeezing the last drops of water from a withered rag. Unless someone had faced him for a long time, they wouldn’t even notice it.

Yet there was only one reason I could read his inner thoughts—

It was because that man was me.

Golden eyes clouded with fatigue, dark hair that exuded a lonely air like a rain-soaked wolf.

His gaze looking down on me was filled with mockery and conceit—the kind of disposition that only someone in an absolute position of power could possess.

In a faint voice he continued.

“Didn’t you say you’d protect everyone? And yet, this is the result… How laughable.”

“You’re the one who told me to hit rock bottom, aren’t you?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Though he seemed to meekly accept my rebuke, I already knew the truth.

He was never the type to accept my arguments in the first place.

The trajectory of his life was like a scar—something that, no matter how hard he tried, could never be erased. In fact, he probably never even wished to erase it.

That would be a kind of crime in itself.

An insult to the precious ones he continually discarded, all in the name of saving the world.

He always insisted that his path was the right one.

“But I never said to stir up trouble just for the sake of protecting a handful of elves. Didn’t you see? I even wrote ‘give up’ on the back of that letter.”

“So you’re telling me to just leave that monster alone? So humans and elves can keep killing each other under some misconception?”

“That’s what’s been happening all this time… for centuries now.”

His indifferent tone carried no trace of sympathy or compassion.

He was a man who lost even the feelings that one was meant to possess as a human. There was no way he could understand how I felt.

“So what’s a few more years of the same? I wanted you to see rock bottom through the elves. Because the ones living there are the primary targets of the Dark Order… inferiority, defeat, despair, and rage. All those emotions become food for Delphirem. And, more than that, having your people amongst the elves makes gathering information much easier.”

It was around that moment that I reached the limits of my patience.

My voice dropped low and slid through my tightened throat. The heat of anger seeped out between my clenched teeth.

“The village elves are not my tools… They don’t even know how to fight properly, yet you want me to make them spies?”

“If it’s for the sake of humanity, it must be done.”

The burden was placed upon my shoulders as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

For a split second, my breath caught in my throat. The man’s golden eyes grew darker.

“I’ve told you time and time again—you need to discard what must be discarded….. Yet you’re still acting like a petulant child, whining because you lack the courage to let go.”

“I’ve already let go of so much.”

For the first time, he fell silent.

I barely managed to calm the surge of emotion welling up inside me.

Gnashing my teeth, I simply added another remark.

“Before I even received that letter, I’d given up more than I ever imagined I could….”

I had stained my hands with blood.

Gilford, Alex, and countless others—I had taken their lives with my own hands.

I even even discarded my own body in the end.

Isn’t even that not enough?

The man gave no answer to my unspoken question. He simply studied my face as I avoided his gaze, then offered a single remark.

“In the future, you’ll have to discard even more.”

It was an uncompromising piece of advice.

I could only muster a bitter smile. Come to think of it, he had always been like that.

No matter how strange his methods appeared, there was always some hidden intention behind them. At least, he never worked in a way that would be purely detrimental to me.

Yes, that had been the case—

But then, my train of thought abruptly stalled, as if tripping over a stone. A new question began to arise in my mind like drifting smoke.

So what about this time?

“…Do I really have to give up?”

It was a simple question.

Yet it came out like a desperate plea of a convict awaiting retrial, unwillingly bound by hope.

Of course, there was no chance he’d indulge me.

For once, he let out a rare scoff.

“Yes, it’s still too soon for you… and you even let that final chance slip right through your fingers.”

“Then why did you tell me to bring the princess?”

Abruptly, his breath caught.

His weary golden gaze fell on me once more. Meeting his gaze head-on, I pressed forward.

“And why did you teach that technique to Seria? Why did you discard the other letter?”

“Letter? I’m not sure what you—…”

“Assimilation Rate.”

The man’s mouth—just when he was about to feign ignorance—clamped shut tightly.

That’s right. Letters sent from the future—no one else can touch them.

Let alone touch it, I was the only one who could even see it. Not even the ‘me’ from the future was an exception—he had always acted as if he had never seen its contents.

Yet a doubt had begun to take root in my mind some time ago…

Lately, he had been offering advice as if he knew the contents of the letter. In the past, his hints had been vague at best, but recently, that was no longer the case.

Especially when I ended up in the elven village—he acted like he knew exactly what was happening to me.

It meant that we were sharing sensations on a level beyond the ordinary.

And if he could actually touch the letter, then that explained everything. After all, I knew for a fact that I hadn’t thrown it away in a drunken stupor.

“So, as the assimilation rate rose, you were able to touch the letters? Is that how you were able to get rid of the second letter?”

The man remained silent to the end.

It was basically an admission. And so my voice rose of its own accord.

“What was in that letter? And why did the Princess and Seria have to come north? And who’s this ‘Old Lion’ of Yurdina…?!”

“Kiddo.”

With that curt remark, the man’s hand swept through the empty air.

At some point, a bloodstained piece of letter paper appeared in his hand. I couldn’t begin to fathom where it had come from or how.

My eyes locked on that newly revealed clue.

It had to be that letter—the one from the ripped, empty envelope.

And just as I took a step forward without thinking—

The world wobbled and tilted.

I felt as if I might pass out. My legs gave out, and I could no longer walk properly. A sharp headache pounded my skull over and over, like a bird pecking at a piece of fruit on a tree.

It was time for me to regain consciousness.

Through my hazy vision, I heard the man speak.

“Sometimes there are things you’re better off not knowing. You’re still far too lacking to shoulder every burden.”

Stop spouting nonsense.

I’m not some child you’re supposed to protect.

That’s what I wanted to say, but my body wouldn’t cooperate. Instead, as I teetered off-balance, I collapsed forward, struggling even to meet the man’s eyes.

But in my dimming consciousness, I managed to spit out a few broken words.

My voice didn’t even form coherent speech.

“I’m… not you…”

And then my mind went dark.

***

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a dimly lit room.

My vision relied solely on a single flickering lantern. My eyes, slowly drifting open, registered brightness for the first time in a long while.

How long had I been lying here?

It was an elegant bedroom. It seemed that even in the midst of everything, Senior Delphine had protected me to the end and retreated all the way back to Yurdina Castle.

She was a really remarkable woman.

So much so that I still couldn’t quite believe I spent my first night with someone like her.

As my senses gradually returned, I felt something unusual.

A pair of eyes was carefully examining the lower half of my body.

Without even realizing I’d awakened, the woman’s pinkish eyes were staring at my groin area.

She moved her hand toward that spot, then hesitated, pulling back.

It was an oddly comical sight, quite unbecoming of a Saintess.

The moment I regained consciousness, I stifled my initial reaction and spoke.

“…What exactly are you doing?”

“Kyaaah!”

The Saintess nearly toppled backward in shock, looking as if she might faint.

Her eyes, filled with confusion and distress, locked onto me. Then came a flood of flustered excuses.

“I—Ian! You’re awake? Listen, uh… I-I swear! I absolutely wasn’t trying to molest you or anything! You know that, right? I-I’m a Saintess, after all!”

Watching her stammering with teary eyes, I felt certain.

I had returned.

And yet, I had done so without having defeated Leoric.

It was a grim return.

Seeing the Saintess’s face flush bright red, I had a fleeting thought that maybe none of it mattered.

Even so, it wasn’t just my companions who had been awaiting my return.

Shocking news awaited me—

Alongside a bloodstained letter envelope placed at my bedside.

***

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