Love Letter From The Future-Chapter 389: Bread and Dagger (87)

Leoric’s Flesh Puppets lacked consciousness. Only the main body possessed emotions and awareness.

This was something that I, having faced countless of Leoric’s Flesh Puppets before, could guarantee. Moreover, he had said something similar about Betty’s body after she lost consciousness.

Did he say that a prolonged absence of consciousness would start affecting the body as well?

It honestly wasn’t particularly useful information.

What difference did it make if the Flesh Puppets lacked emotions? Their bodies were still under Leoric’s absolute control. Whether they had emotions or not was irrelevant in battle.

That is, if we didn’t have the princess on our side.

Without her, I wouldn’t have even thought of making use of this otherwise pointless insight.

[You’re trying to find the main body, aren’t you?]

At her response, I gave a slight nod.

She likely couldn’t even see my reaction from this distance, but it was an instinctive response from me regardless.

“To be precise, I’m trying to find the Flesh Puppet Leoric is currently occupying. After all, his true body is this entire mass of flesh itself.”

It was a short and simple plan.

And, more importantly, it was the most efficient one I could come up with.

Quickly grasping my intent, the princess fell silent. She was probably enhancing her vision to observe Leoric more closely from the rear.

However, there was still one missing piece to this plan.

“What do I need to do, then?”

That was Seria’s question.

Since I had anticipated it, I wasted no time in giving her a swift answer.

“You remember that technique you learned from ‘me,’ right?”

Meanwhile, Leoric’s Flesh Puppets were subtly repositioning themselves. It was a clear sign that the tentacles and Flesh Puppets were about to launch another assault.

There was no time to spare.

“When I give the signal, use it.”

“Huh?”

I didn’t bother responding, kicking off the ground instead.

Immediately, tentacles and Flesh Puppets rushed to meet me.

It had only been a few minutes since our last encounter, but the reunion gave me no joy.

With a single slash of my sword and a single swing of my hatchet, flesh was torn apart and blood erupted like fireworks.

And then, as I took one step forward and then another.

My once steady breath grew ragged again. The more labored my breathing became, the faster my sword and hatchet moved.

It was a sensation I had once felt before.

The day I finally put an end to the endlessly regenerating Corpse Giant.

That day,my mind had too turned hazy and, within that imperceptible world, I was the only one swinging a sword.

But Leoric was no easy opponent.

With a sudden thud, a fist burst out from the chest of one of his Flesh Puppets.

It was an attack even I hadn’t anticipated. I twisted my body as quickly as I could, but there was no avoiding it completely—my side was torn open.

As blood sprayed from my wound, Seria let out a scream.

“Senior Ian!”

“Not yet!”

Suppressing a groan, I brought my hatchet down on the arm that had grazed my side.

Thwack—the hatchet’s blade lodged halfway in but, at that moment, the tentacles were already whipping towards me.

By then, however, my foot had already slammed into the chest of the impaled Flesh Puppet.

Unlike slashes, blunt force was still effective against Leoric’s hardened body.

As the Flesh Puppet was knocked backwards, an opening appeared. Seizing the moment, I twisted the hatchet free from its arm, then bent low, using the Flesh Puppet itself as a foothold to vault over.

The sound of tentacles slicing through the air and slamming downward filled my ears.

Squelch, squelch.

It seemed that, unable to overcome their momentum, the tentacles ended up piercing their own main body—that mass of flesh.

I once more called out to Seria.

“Don’t swing yet! Just wait a little... ugh, longer!”

Of course, that wait wouldn’t be long.

With every step forward, the opposition grew fiercer but my strikes only grew faster in response.

And then I saw them.

Five Flesh Puppets standing motionless, watching me from afar.

One of them had to be the main body.

Amidst the downpour of tentacles and the relentless surge of Flesh Puppets, I let out a scream.

“Cien!”

[The one on the far right!]

And at the same moment, from behind me, I felt the presence of someone sprinting forward.

It was time to unveil the move I had been keeping hidden.

As I widened my eyes, a crushing pressure built up, as if my blood vessels were about to burst. My vision mapped out the space before me, tracing its hazy lines, and my hands seized and tore at them.

Every tentacle that had been lunging towards me suddenly twisted at unnatural angles.

Thud, thud—

The Flesh Puppets tripped as their feet caught on the tangled tentacles. But there was still one more reason I had to keep my eyes open.

The air itself began to bleed.

Drip—

Scarlet lines trickled down, forming sharp-edged characters—an ancient script used by the race once hailed as the founders of magic.

It was the Dragonblood Script.

Boom!

A thunderous explosion rang out, sending a wave of searing heat outward. Crimson flames hungrily licked at the surroundings, instantly swallowing the battlefield. And within that inferno, I dashed forward on my own.

It created a fleeting opening.

Just as my sword was about to reach Leoric’s main body, the four remaining Flesh Puppets pounced, hurling themselves at me as if they had been lying in wait.

My vision was already beginning to blur. There was no way I could fend off all of them alone.

That was why I asked for help.

“Seria!”

In that moment of suspended time, a single girl kicked off the ground and shot forward.

Across the horizon, a flash of blue streaked.

Her blade surged forward in a straight, immaculate path, bringing a storm in its wake. The very earth, torn apart by the slash that split through even the fleeting instants, howled in agony.

What could possibly remain intact before such a storm?

“KYYAACK!”

The four Flesh Puppets were cleaved in half, their remains erased without a trace in the aftermath. Even Seria, the one who delivered that single strike, was forced to stagger backward, overwhelmed by the sheer force of her own attack.

Now only I remained.

The main body’s mouth turned towards me, as if poised to unleash a scream at any moment.

And so, I used ‘Shackle.’

Beams of light clashed, neither yielding even the slightest ground. As I gritted my teeth and stepped forward, the beam flared even more intensely.

But even that had its limits.

Like fragments of glass, the beam shattered and, between the beam’s scattering particles, my blade swam forward.

In a final act of desperation, Leoric crossed his arms before him.

Thus, I decided to follow up with ‘Liberation.’

A sickening crunch rang out as my blade dug into bone. Even that resistance was fleeting—gritting my teeth, I pressed down harder and Leoric’s arms began to violently tremble.

At last, the middle-aged man bared his lone remaining mouth in a furious snarl.

“Do you really think this curse will end just because you’ve defeated me?! This is the grudge of the weak! The so-called hope born from the miserable reality that you people ignored—no, chose to turn a blind eye to!”

“Don’t... give me that crap!”

Forcing myself forward, I clenched my teeth even harder.

My vision turned red, as if the blood vessels in my eyes had burst. I was nearing my limit as well.

“Can’t you see the blood on your hands? If life itself is a living hell, then you were the one who helped create it!”

“No! It was you—people like you—who built this hell!”

“Maybe so!”

C-Crack— The blade pushed forward a little more. The end was in sight.

It was then that my hand, gripping the hilt, brushed against my waist.

Leoric’s eyes widened in alarm—because my hatchet had just flown into the air.

He must have remembered how this blow had struck him down before.

The hatchet, having reached its apex, suddenly froze midair.

“Not this time!”

Then, like a flash of light, the descending hatchet struck my blade.

The delicate balance of force shattered under even that slight disruption.

A shriek echoed. Blood splattered. My vision blurred.

Then came a deafening explosion that shook the world. My body weightlessly drifted, and everything went dark.

In the haze of my fading consciousness, only a single thought crossed my mind.

Can I finally rest now?

I had no strength left—not even to move a single finger.

***Upon waking, I found myself in the memories of a stranger.

A stinging sensation spread across my cheek. White sparks burst across my vision, the pain jolting me back to full awareness.

What the hell just happened to me?

A woman’s piercing blue eyes bore into me, glinting with a dangerous light.

“...I told you not to touch me!”

She bit down on her lip as she spat out the words—a warning laced with outright rejection.

Her voice brimmed with raw anger and yet, for some reason, I felt no fear of her.

If anything, I felt... pity.

Maybe that was why, despite the slap, I let out a hollow laugh.

Her gaze sharpened, her expression twisting in obvious displeasure.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s my first time getting slapped by a junior.”

Ha— she let out a scoff, as if she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Her gray hair swayed slightly with the movement.

Even I wasn’t sure why I said that. I guess she had every right to be annoyed.

But the truth was, my laughter had nothing to do with that.

When my hand brushed against her arm, the emotion that flickered across her face was fear.

It wasn’t directed at me. If anything, what followed—the way she immediately recoiled and trembled as she examined herself—was proof enough.

She didn’t particularly hate me.

Rather, it was her deep self-loathing that made her instinctively recoil from any form of contact.

Afraid she might hurt someone again.

As if to prove my thoughts right, her mocking sneer followed.

“Ha. What a horrible first experience. As if getting slapped wasn’t bad enough, it just had to be by a monster?”

“Why would you call yourself a monster?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

She took a sharp step toward me, her emotions flaring.

Deliberately holding my ground, I met her gaze without flinching.

“The blood running through my body craves more blood... and it’s getting harder and harder to control. Because I am a monster! The blood of the very monster who killed my beloved sister, our loyal retainers—it flows through my veins!”

“What if you could overcome this curse?”

It was a quiet question, delivered in a flat, unwavering tone.

Yet the effect of those few words was undeniable.

The woman’s entire body froze.