Love Letter From The Future

The essence of the question posed by the Saintess was simple.

She wanted to know who the sender of the ‘Love Letter from the Future’ was.

This was a matter that had already been explained several times.

The first explanation came from when the existence of the ‘me’ from the future was revealed.

At that time, Leto had to painstakingly explain his existence with utmost sincerity. In doing so, the story of the ‘Love Letter from the Future’ also naturally came up.

The letter was the start of all of these events, so it was hard to talk about what happened afterward without mentioning it.

At least there was one fortunate aspect.

That time had been an exceedingly chaotic period.

Having narrowly escaped death from the attack of the Dark Priest, the existence of ‘me’ from the future was revealed, along with Ria’s truth as well as the secrets surrounding the Percus family.

It was truly a time when all sorts of problems were intertwined.

No one had the leisure to focus on something as trivial as a ‘Love Letter.’ Thanks to that, the story about the ‘Love Letter from the Future’ was glossed over and faded away.

However, today was different.

Though another incident was approaching, the Saintess still had ample mental capacity. It wasn’t strange for her to pay attention to the resurfaced ‘Love Letter.’

Moreover, wasn’t I the one who had brought it up?

No one can see the ‘Love Letter from the Future.’

Even its contents could not be divulged. This was because any attempt to leak information to others besides myself would cause distortions.

However, the existence of the letter itself could be disclosed.

Just as Leto did in the past, the Saintess too came to know of its existence.

It was a mistake to have revealed everything earlier.

During the conversation, I had brought up the newly arrived letter, and upon hearing this, it seemed the Saintess’s long-standing curiosity was piqued.

And rather perilously at that.

The Saintess’s eyes, devoid of light, were utterly terrifying. Her cold voice was enough to send an unexpected chill down my spine.

I recalled when the Saintess had been like this, in the distant past.

It was around the time when we were preparing for the hunting festival. Back when I was with Celine and Seria, the Saintess would constantly try and keep those two in check.

Back then, she hadn’t been serious.

I realized that fact with a shudder.

Looking into the Saintess’s lifeless eyes, I broke out in a cold sweat.

“Wh-Who sent it?”

I stammered, hoping she wouldn’t press further.

Of course, there was absolutely no reason for the Saintess to grant that wish.

She offered a slight smile.

Her expression was still beautiful—so much so that my breath caught for a moment.

I just couldn’t tell whether my breathlessness was due to her beauty or her eerie gaze.

The Saintess asked again in a captivating voice.

“Yes, who… or rather, which bitch sent it?”

In the very end, she didn’t even bother to hide her true feelings.

Even if I knew who sent it, the atmosphere made it hard to speak.

Because if I did, it felt like an assassin dispatched by the Holy Nation might pay a certain someone’s room a visit.

Actually, no.Even in a more amicable situation, I still would have hesitated to answer.

Because it was embarrassing to admit.

How could I confess that there wasn’t just one sender?

Of course, they might have come from different futures, but it was a situation perfect for misunderstandings. I mean, five women, each claiming to be my ‘fiancée’?

Just imagining trying to confess this made me embarrassed beyond words.

Especially right now, there was no way I could tell this to the Saintess, not even if it killed me.

As I maintained my silence, the Saintess’s smile gradually faded.

And just before her face turned expressionless enough to give me goosebumps.

I barely came up with a brilliant idea.

“…Who do you think sent it?”

It was a basic tactic.

I simply turned her question back on her.

But the effect was beyond imagination.

The intense pressure the Saintess had been exerting on me suddenly subsided.

She kept blinking blankly.

“Who… do I think sent it?”

“Yes, who do you think sent it… No, rather who would you like it to be from?”

As the conversation went on, the nature of the question subtly changed.

From ‘Who do you think sent it?’ to ‘Who would you like it to be from?’

The change in topic was undoubtedly effective on the Saintess.

Her light pink eyes began to tremble violently.

After hesitating and remaining silent for a while, the Saintess soon let out a low laugh.

“Huhu, ahaha… ahahahaha!”

It was an unexpected reaction.

Not knowing why she burst into laughter, I looked at the Saintess with a puzzled expression.

After gazing into her eyes, I realized.

Ah, she doesn’t know either.

Her light pink eyes spun in circles.

She stamped her feet before quickly putting some distance between us.

By the time she regained her composure, her face had long turned bright red.

Fanning herself with her hand, the Saintess hastily made excuses.

“W-W-Why are you asking me that?! I don’t care, yeah… I-I don’t care at all! Whoever sends you love letters is none of my business. Hmph.”

For someone who didn’t care, she seemed quite interested.

As my gaze grew skeptical, the Saintess, perhaps feeling a bit guilty, raised her voice even more.

“……I-I really don’t care!”

If that’s what she wanted, then I had nothing more to say.

I shrugged my shoulders before teasing her.

“Really? I was quite interested, because…”

At that moment, a crashing sound rang out.

The Saintess, who had been waiting for me to finish speaking with a pounding heart, whipped her head around.

The sound had clearly come from the direction of the infirmary.

The Saintess’s expression instantly crumpled.

Whether it was because she couldn’t hear the rest of my answer, or because she was worried about the patient.

Either way, she said in disbelief.

“Impossible, there’s no way she’s up already…”

It was a line said often after the incident.

Moreover, a meaningless one at that.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

I gestured with my hand for the Saintess to stay put, then promptly kicked open the infirmary door and went inside.

There stood a girl holding a broken vase, eyeing me warily.

Parts of her face and arms were wrapped with bandages, making her look a bit pitiful.

If only she had listened to me from the start.

Hick, the Elf girl let out a hiccup, seemingly even more frightened by the sight of me.

An unmistakable fear spread in her blue eyes.

Causing a commotion as soon as she regained consciousness was probably due to that fear. But for someone who had just risen from a sickbed with severe injuries, her behaviour was far from acceptable.

I immediately raised my voice to scold her.

“Hey, if you move like that right after getting hurt…!”

If it weren’t for the surprising scene, I would have finished my sentence just like that.

My mouth gradually closed, and my expression hardened correspondingly.

The Elf girl was glaring at me, growling.

And she was baring her teeth.

The very teeth that I had shattered, leaving behind nothing but bloodied fragments.

Teeth only grow twice in a lifetime.

While the miracle of holy power could indeed be used to regenerate teeth multiple times, they still required time to grow. No matter how fast, teeth can’t regrow in just a few hours.

Is the Elves’ bodily structure different from humans?

But even when learning about other races, I had never heard such a thing. Moreover, hadn’t the Saintess, who had already seen an elf before, say so herself?

There was no way she should be up already.

Therefore, the scales began to tip toward the elf girl being unusual.

As my expression grew serious, the elf girl became even more terrified.

She aimed the broken vase at me with both hands but quickly lost her balance before falling flat on her back. Even then, she kept trying to frantically crawl with her feet, dragging herself backwards.

Not that there was anywhere to escape to, anyway.

With tears welling up in her eyes, the elf girl shouted.

“D-Don’t come any closer! You monster… you, you ruined us!”

It was an absurd claim to me.

Scoffing lightly, I retorted to the elf.

“Ruined you say? If anything, you’re the monster here… What’s with that regenerative ability?”

“Shut up!”

She shouted, tears streaming down her face.

I hesitated approaching her.

Because I felt earnest sincerity in her desperate cry.

“Y-You’re the ones who made me like this… I knew it, I should’ve known better than to trust the likes of humans…”

With that, the Elf girl began to sob.

I let out a deep sigh, feeling perplexed.

The reason I had intentionally forced the Elf to submit in the previous battle was because it seemed impossible to have a conversation otherwise.

Simply being hostile and knocking her out right away would have led to an obvious outcome.

But it was a miscalculation.

Forcing her to submit just once wasn’t enough to start any real conversation.

“Hicck, hic… I-I’ll never give in to you…”

“Ah, Is that so?”

With a swift kick off the ground, I instantly stood right in front of the girl.

Startled, the Elf tightly closed her eyes and flung the broken vase at me.

Perhaps due to receiving some level of training, her stance was quite proper. The force behind it was considerable; if it were an ordinary person, they would’ve been seriously injured.

Yes, if it were an ordinary person.

Without hesitation, I kicked the vase upward.

The glass fragments shattered in all directions.

At that moment, I brought my raised foot straight onto the Elf’s chest. She tried to block it by crossing her arms, but it wasn’t enough.

With a loud thud, I stomped on the Elf girl’s solar plexus, as she clutched at her chest and groaned.

“GUHH, AAA … AAAAAHHHHH!”

Listening to her cries, I asked her a question.

“Hey, do your teeth grow back?”

The Elf girl looked up at me with eyes full of confusion.

I was almost impressed that her spirit hadn’t been completely broken yet.

She seemed to have forgotten that she was in the heart of enemy territory, and that I was a member of the Empire that had long been at war with the Elves.

I gave a faint smile to the Elf girl.

“Then, that’s a relief.”

Immediately after.

Wham—my foot struck the Elf girl’s temple.

She lost consciousness without even managing a scream. The blow was so powerful that a couple of her teeth were knocked out.

As the incident concluded, the Saintess cautiously approached me from behind.

I thought she might be angry at my brutality, but she seemed more interested in the Elf girl’s physical condition.

“…Her regenerative ability is quite strong. This is beyond the realm of holy power.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s either magic or alchemy… or something similar, I believe.”

This was new information.

Hmm, I mused, stroking my chin, then hoisted the unconscious elf girl over my shoulder.

And once again, I stuffed her into the sack I had previously used to carry her.

As soon as I slung the sack over my shoulder, the Saintess’s flustered voice followed behind me.

“I-Ian! Where are you going?”

“Given her regenerative ability, she’ll heal on her own, right? Since I finished her with one blow, I figured that she wouldn’t need any further treatment.”

With those words, I gave a slight smile and raised my hand.

It was a farewell gesture.

“I’ll come see you again next time. I have something to consult with you regarding the North…”

I had been troubled by the Saintess’s obsession with the ‘love letter.’

With such a perfect excuse ready, there was no reason not to leave.

While the Saintess stood there, dumbfounded, I swiftly made my exit from the Sun’s Shelter.

Behind me, I could hear the Saintess’s shout.

“I-Ian! But about that confession from last time…!”

“We’ll talk about it next time! And it’s really nothing important!”

The last words were the least I could do out of loyalty to my friend Yuren.

Even though he suggested leaving me behind during the Corpse Giant incident.

In any case, being too nice was my biggest flaw.

With the blood-stained sack slung over my shoulder, I shot off like the wind.

While the passersby just gawked at the bizarre sight with dumbfounded expressions.

***A little while later, I arrived at Emma’s workshop and immediately tossed the sack onto the floor.

Emma, who had been anxiously pacing around in worry, widened her eyes in surprise.

I had shown up out of nowhere and threw an unfamiliar sack. It would’ve been more unusual if she wasn’t surprised.

I spoke with an awkward smile.

“Open it. It’s… a gift.”

Wait, ‘a gift’?

That sounded a bit strange.

But before I could take back what I said, Emma was moving hesitantly to open the sack.

It wasn’t long before she looked at me with a horrified gaze.

Her eyes seemed to be reproaching me, so I hurriedly tried to clear up the misunderstanding.

“Th-That’s Mr. Aviang! The person who scammed you!”

Emma looked back and forth between the elf inside the sack and I upon hearing my words.

And then, after a moment…

Tears welled up in Emma’s eyes as she covered her mouth.

“Oh my goodness, Ian… Why did you turn Mr. Aviang into a frail girl…?”

What on earth are you trying to do?

As if I could hear her unspoken words that followed, I, feeling wronged, had no choice but to raise my voice in protest.

“…I didn’t do it!”

It seemed Emma had some seriously distorted perceptions about me.

All I had done was break her nose, punch her until her teeth flew out, and then throw her in a sack.

Honestly, considering she was an enemy, I’d say I had been quite merciful.

Probably.