Love Letter From The Future-Chapter 387: Bread and Dagger (85)

The potion Emma gave me had a simple effect.

Upon detecting a specific mana, it would trace its owner’s path.

A simple but useful effect.

In order to make this, she must have undoubtedly experimented tirelessly with countless ingredients, even going as far as to stay up all night to complete this potion.

Because she had to save me.

I was always grateful to Emma.

Thanks to her, today I could try to save the North with this potion.

A truly exquisite twist of fate.

The potion I scattered on the ground began tracing a faint trail. Slowly, I walked along the gradually spreading hue on the snowfield.

Behind me, the army was moving.

I didn’t know what means Elder Poff employed but, as he boasted, the power of the flesh monster was weakening rapidly. It was hard to even find traces of what had once devoured the entire coniferous forest.

If it weren’t for Emma’s potion, I would also have had some trouble.

Still, the devastation left by the flesh monster remained vivid.

The once-vast coniferous forest had been reduced to a barren wasteland, with only a few scattered trees standing like forgotten remnants.

It wasn’t all bad news. It at least made it easier for the army to move.

Of course, it wasn’t an overwhelming advantage.

The flesh mass indiscriminately devoured the lives around it.

In doing so, its size gradually increased. And in the process, its innate power also seemed to grow stronger.

In other words, it was useless to bring along a bunch of nobodies.

It would only increase the number of prey for the flesh monster.

So the army could only be a last resort.

In the end, the only being I could rely on was myself.

Yes, just ‘me’.

I was lost in thought as I walked.

The sharp trajectories of my past life scattered like gravel. With each step I took, a dull pain throbbed.

Memories of certain days drifted like dust in the wind.

Amongst them were rebuking words.

For example, a cold voice devoid of even a shred of emotion.

“Go see the rock bottom.”

It was advice from a man who looked like me.

As always, the man didn’t say unnecessary things.

There was a world that couldn’t be known with naive sympathy and narrow-minded thinking.

During those few days I stayed in the elf village, I deeply realized this fact.

That I still have a long way to go.

Lives I knew nothing about were scattered everywhere.

Looking back, Leoric had also rebuked me.

“Ian Percus, have you ever truly been weak? You’ve only bestowed kindness like charity! You’re just a lackey of the privileged!”

He wasn’t wrong.

I was a noble of the Empire and a hero of humanity.

I never worried about a meal and grew up in a relatively affluent background.

Therefore, Leoric’s criticism was justified.

I know nothing.

My breath came in ragged gasps. Pushed to its limits, my body screamed in protest with every step I took.

As oxygen grew scarce, my vision blurred.

Tinnitus rang in my ears and amidst my foggy consciousness, a blood-stained letter rose.

The words written there cut into my mind in fragments.

Do you know the land of snow and ice?

There’s nothing left here, senior. But someone must remain here. The Seven Deadly Sins’ power is like a curse. It never disappears and someone must bear the burden of that sin.

It’s the burden that I, who inherited sinful blood, must rightfully bear.

Sinful blood?

My junior did nothing wrong.

She simply had the misfortune of having the wrong parents. No life exists where even birth itself is a sin.

And yet, she had already resigned herself to being a sinner.

Calling the curse that turned Leoric into a monster ‘the power of the Seven Deadly Sins’.

Someone must bear that terrible burden of sin.

Don’t worry too much, senior. As you know, half of my body is that of a monster. There’s no sign of going berserk yet.

But sometimes, I dream. Dreams of the days I spent with you a year before I was trapped in this land... Though it’s an impossible wish, I wish I could walk with you in a garden full of flowers someday.

I trudged through the blizzard and thought.

The fate the letter pointed to couldn’t be clearer.

It was a certain girl’s bleak future.

My junior would have to be isolated in a world of only snow and ice, even further north than the coniferous forest.

And that too, after a grace period of just one year.

But the blood-stained letter held an even greater tragedy

Senior, I have one request.

The letters in the letter were written not with ink, but blood.

Among the calm handwriting, particularly roughly written sentences stood out. It was a trace of writing forcibly while gritting teeth.

I’m starting to hear strange sounds. I saw a black shadow last night. It feels like I’m gradually becoming someone—no, something else. Yesterday, I bit off one finger on my left hand. Then two, then three... More. I need more. I need more blood.

The words reeked of madness.

At this point, I finally understood why my future self deliberately hid that letter.

According to its future, I could defeat the monster of the North.

However, the other side of that future required the sacrifice of a certain girl.

He knew all along that such an outcome was something I couldn’t accept.

More precisely, perhaps he hadn’t understood.

Would I even have imagined a life born as a sinner in the first place?

Limited perspective, obvious ignorance.

Sympathy and pity thrown like charity.

That was the reality of me, who was called a ‘hero’ by the world.

So please, cut me into pieces someday.

Even today, I was walking without an answer.

This body won’t die anyway. Cut off my limbs and bury the pieces in ice. Please don’t let me commit any more sins.

How could I possibly do that?

She was my cherished, beloved junior.

A girl who always wore a cold expression, but occasionally showed a warm smile now.

How could I?

Vivid blood-red letters remained at the end of the letter.

It was writing in a color so intense they seemed ready to tear through my retina.

From your loving junior, Seria.

With a crunch and the smell of blood.

Blood trickled from my bitten lip. With that pain as the starting point, my vision gradually began to clear.

I could see it in the distance.

The mass of flesh was bubbling and boiling with unconscious elves scattered around it.

It seemed that, as its volume decreased, the monster had vomited out the elves it had eaten.

Atop the churning flesh, only three or four elves remained.

And Leoric, dazed, standing at its center. freewebnøvel.coɱ

Deliberately, I firmly slammed my feet on the ground.

Along with white breath, a burning voice spat out.

“......Leoric.”

My hand fumbled for the sword’s handle.

It was proof that my hesitation had yet to end.

Was it right for me to kill Leoric?

He committed unforgivable evil. By his hands, countless lives had stirred up hatred and harmed each other. Naturally, it was right to kill and judge him.

Yet my conflict wouldn’t end.

If I kill Leoric, what happens to Seria?

The war between humans and elves was over. Having lost Leoric as their focal point, the elves might have to live again without hope for life.

It might be better to eat even their own kind.

It was a perspective I’d never considered before, but already experienced just how dire the elves’ food situation was.

If Leoric would just stay quietly in the coniferous forest like this.

Then, Seria wouldn’t have to sacrifice herself. If Senior Delphine took control of the Yurdina House, future conflicts between humans and elves would also disappear.

If things went well, humans and elves could interact with each other and the situation might improve.

Such self-justification gnawed at my heart. Selfish thoughts followed one after another.

What stopped these nonsensical thoughts was a noise uttered by a certain girl.

“Cough!”

It was one of the elves who were scattered around Leoric.

A child with gray hair and striking blue eyes.

I immediately realized who this child was.

Betty, Aviang’s younger sister whom I couldn’t save.

It seemed that Elder Poff’s method was effective. Just the fact the monster had to spit out even an elf like Betty, who had been swallowed a long time ago, proved it.

I made a mental note to thank him again.

I must treat him to a drink when I get back.

Just before Betty staggered to her feet, my arm hurriedly approached and supported the girl. She was exhaling shallow breaths weakly.

Even at a glance, urgent care seemed necessary.

Fortunately, the army wasn’t the only thing following me. Seria and my other companions would be running towards me, so I could entrust Betty to one of them.

It was then that a tearful plea squeezed out.

“Dru... gs...”

I looked down at Betty, as if asking what she meant.

Was she asking for medicine?

But what Betty mumbled with her slurred tongue was so beyond imagination...

“Drugs... please... the ones that make you feel good, Lord Leo...ricccc...”

SNAP—Something snapped in my head.

The withered body was all bones. It meant that she hadn’t been able to eat properly.

But what was this tiny girl saying?

Leoric, who had been out of it for a while, opened his mouth.

“Oh, poor Betty... You couldn’t sleep every night because of your incurable disease. Rest assured, sister. I will alleviate that pain a little.....”

And tentacles of flesh exploded upwards into the sky.

The disgusting Flesh Monster that shot up from the bubbling flesh writhed, targeting Betty. It creeped closer, as if to swallow her whole again.

To that, I only had one answer.

PAK! A pure white line was drawn in the world.

With this as the starting point, blood erupted and stained the pure white snowfield. The flesh tentacles recoiled and cried out in intense pain.

Several more tentacles surged up.

I carefully laid Betty on the ground and cut down all the tentacles flying towards her.

PAK! PAK! PAK!

With each burst of blood, severed tentacles fell to the ground with a splat.

The sight of the tentacles, still writhing even after being separated from the main body ,was quite unpleasant.

So I stomped hard on one tentacle that was rolling in front of me.

It stiffened, flaring up even more.

Only then did Leoric’s eyes, which had been blankly facing the ground, turned to me.

I wasn’t about to miss that opening.

Kicking my body off the ground, I rushed forward at high speed. The blade, tearing through the air, pierced within reach of Leoric.

Clang!

It was too violent of a sound to believe it came from a mere sword against fabric.

Leoric instinctively swung his arm, and a clash of strength began.

The middle-aged man asked me in a faint voice.

“Oh, Ian Percus... you pitiful one. Do you still believe you are justice?”

“I don’t know!”

With a sharp Clark, I twisted my blade, throwing his arm off balance.

Exploiting that opening, I lunged forward and struck again.

The blade lodged itself in Leoric’s shoulder but refused to go any deeper. He swung his remaining arm in retaliation, forcing me to retreat and leave behind the sword embedded in his flesh.

But I wasn’t out of options.

A hatchet.

Like a streak of light, I hurled the hatchet. Without a moment’s hesitation, Leoric stepped forward to meet it.

His body, impervious even to my sword, wouldn’t be seriously harmed by something as small as a hatchet.

Right, the hatchet alone wouldn’t be enough.

At the next moment, Leoric screamed as a fountain of blood erupted.

“What the... AAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!”

The hatchet I threw wasn’t aiming at Leoric.

It had struck the sword that was buried in his shoulder.

And following the Principles of the Movement within Stillness, the hatchet’s blade successively struck down like a hammer.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

After the three sounds rang out, Leoric’s chest was half-split and he fell to his knees.

Blood gushed from the severed chest, also spilling from his eyes and mouth.

As if in one last act of defiance, he reached out toward me.

Until I slammed my foot into his head.

With a thud, Leoric’s body collapsed to the side.. In the meantime, I yanked my sword and hatchet from his body.

“You know, I’m stupid ‘cause I majored in swordsmanship. So.....”

Leoric’s body began to melt, seeping under the bubbling flesh.

And the Leoric who appeared again had numerous Flesh Puppets.

A trick to hide his real body.

But it was useless anyway.

I flashed a slight smirk.

“Let’s just die.”

I already planned for this.

Familiar presences were closing in around me.