The question posed by the Lady Virgin Saint was simple.
It was about who the sender of the “love letter from the future” was.
There had already been several explanations about this.
The first was when the existence of “me” from the future was revealed.
At that time, Reto had to explain his existence with all his might. Thus, naturally, the story of the “love letter from the future” came up.
Initially, the beginning of all the incidents was tied to the letter. So, it was awkward to discuss subsequent events without explaining it.
There was, at least, one fortunate point.
It was an incredibly chaotic time.
Having narrowly escaped death from the attack of the Dark Priest, the existence of “me” from the future was revealed, as well as Liya’s truth and the secrets surrounding the Percus Family.
It was truly a time when all kinds of problems were intertwined.
No one had the leisure to focus on the “love letter.” Thanks to this, the story about “the love letter from the future” faded away without much attention.
But today was different.
Another incident was approaching, but the Lady Virgin Saint still had ample mental capacity. It would not be strange for her to pay deep attention once again to the resurfacing “love letter.”
After all, the one who brought up the story was none other than me.
No one had seen the “love letter from the future.”
In fact, I couldn’t even disclose its contents. If I tried to divulge any information to anyone other than myself, distortion would occur.
However, its existence could be acknowledged.
Just as Reto had before, the Lady Virgin Saint too had come to know of its existence.
It had been a mistake to lay bare all the circumstances beforehand.
In the process, I mentioned the story of the newly arrived letter, which seemed to have stimulated the Lady Virgin Saint’s long-standing curiosity.
And quite dangerously so.
The vacant eyes of the Lady Virgin Saint, devoid of light, were incredibly terrifying. Her chilling voice made me feel an unexpected shiver.
I recalled a time long ago.
It was when she was preparing for the Hunting Festival. During the time spent with Celin and Ceria, out of nowhere, she would exert control over them.
Back then, the Lady Virgin Saint had not been serious.
I truly realized this deeply.
Gazing into the Lady Virgin Saint’s dry pupils, I was doused in cold sweat.
“W-who sent it?”
I spoke, hoping she wouldn’t ask any more.
Of course, there was no reason for her to grant that wish.
She smiled sweetly.
That expression was still beautiful. It made me hold my breath for a moment.
I simply couldn’t tell if the reason my breath caught was due to her beauty, or because of that eerie gaze.
In a captivating voice, the Lady Virgin Saint asked again.
“Yes, who… no, what kind of woman sent it?”
By the end, she didn’t hide her true intentions at all.
Even if I knew who sent it, the atmosphere made it hard to speak out.
Saying anything would surely make it seem like an assassin sent from the Holy Kingdom would visit someone’s room.
No, in fact, even in a much more friendly atmosphere, I would have hesitated to answer.
Because it was embarrassing to say.
How could I confess that there wasn’t just one sender?
Of course, it could be that each one flew from their respective futures, but it was a situation ripe for misunderstanding. Five women claiming their “fiance” was me.
Just imagining confessing that made me shudder.
Especially now, I couldn’t possibly say it to the Lady Virgin Saint.
When I remained silent, her smile gradually faded.
And just before her expression turned to one that sent chills down my spine.
I managed to come up with a clever response.
“… Who do you think sent it?”
It was a simple idea.
I simply turned the question back at her.
However, the effect was beyond imagination.
The pressure the Lady Virgin Saint had been exerting on me instantly subsided.
Her eyes blinked in a vacant daze.
“Who… do you think sent it?”
“Yes, who do you think sent it… no, wouldn’t it be nice if someone sent it?”
As we exchanged words, the content of the question subtly changed.
From “Who do you think sent it?” to “Who would you want to send it?”
The latter was undeniably more effective on the Lady Virgin Saint.
Her light pink eyes began to tremble vigorously.
After a moment of hesitation, the Lady Virgin Saint suddenly burst into laughter.
“Hoohoo, ahaha… Ahahaha!”
It was an unexpected reaction.
I couldn’t understand why she was laughing, so I gazed at her with confusion.
Then, looking into her eyes, I realized.
Ah, she doesn’t know either.
Her light pink eyes were spinning around.
She stepped away from me with a thud, her composure lost.
Her face was already flushed with embarrassment.
Waving her hands, the Lady Virgin Saint hurriedly began to make excuses.
“Wh-why are you asking me about that?! I have no interest in it, um… I’m not interested at all! Whether someone sends you a love letter or not, it’s none of my business. Hmph.”
For someone saying that, she seemed quite invested.
As my expression turned sour, the Lady Virgin Saint seemed to feel a bit guilty and raised her voice even more.
“…I really have no interest!”
If that’s truly what she wanted to assert, I had nothing more to say.
I shrugged my shoulders and tossed a joke.
“Oh really? I was quite interested because….”
It was then I heard a crashing sound.
The Lady Virgin Saint, who had been waiting for my reply with a startled expression, abruptly turned her head.
The sound clearly came from the treatment room.
Her expression instantly crumpled.
Perhaps she hadn’t finished hearing my story, or maybe she was worried about the patient.
Either way, her disbelief slipped out.
“That’s impossible, it can’t have happened already….”
That was a line often repeated after incidents occurred.
It was also a pointlessly meaningless statement.
I gave the Lady Virgin Saint a signal to stay put and kicked open the door to the treatment room.
Inside, a girl was on guard, clutching a broken vase.
It felt a bit pitying to see her covered in bandages on her face and arms.
She should have listened better from the start.
The elf girl seemed even more frightened when she saw me, gasping sharply.
In her blue eyes, there was no hiding her fear.
Her panic upon regaining consciousness was likely due to her fright. However, the manner in which a recently injured patient carried herself was nearly failing.
I raised my voice to reprimand her.
“Hey, you shouldn’t move like that right after being injured…!”
If I hadn’t caught sight of a certain scene, I might have finished my sentence.
My open mouth gradually closed, and in line with that, my complexion hardened.
The elf girl was glaring at me with a growl.
She was showing her teeth.
The ones she would feel the pain from if I ground her down to pieces, bleeding out her baby teeth.
Teeth only come in twice during a lifetime.
While they can regenerate multiple times with the miracles of divine power, doing so involves the process of teeth growing and emerging again. No matter how fast it goes, new teeth couldn’t grow in just a few hours.
Were elves physically different from humans?
But even when encountering knowledge about such a different race, I had never heard of such narratives. Moreover, even the Lady Virgin Saint, who had seen elves once, hadn’t mentioned it.
She had said it was impossible for them to emerge already.
If so, the scales tilted towards this elf girl being strange.
As my expression grew serious, the elf girl became even more terrified.
With both hands, she pointed the broken vase at me, but soon lost her balance, landing on her rear end. Nevertheless, she dragged herself backward.
Though there was nowhere to escape to.
The elf girl cried out with tears welling up in her eyes.
“D-don’t come! You monster… you all ruined us!”
It was a ludicrous thing for me to hear.
Letting out a hollow laugh, I responded to the elf.
“You think we ruined you? You are the monster here… what’s with that regenerative ability?”
“Shut up!”
She cried out while tears streamed down her face.
I hesitated, frozen in the stance of approaching her.
I felt a sincere emotion behind that desperate cry.
“You did this to us… I knew I shouldn’t trust humans…”
At that, the elf girl began to sob.
I sighed deeply in a troubled heart.
The reason I had deliberately sought her surrender in the previous battle was that I had figured it’d be impossible to talk without it.
Having shown hostility, I had expected that just knocking her unconscious would result in something clear.
However, it was a misjudgment.
Just having a single surrender wasn’t enough to establish communication.
“I-I will never surrender to you…”
“Oh, really.”
The instant I stomped my foot, my body appeared right in front of the girl.
The startled elf squeezed her eyes shut and hurled the broken vase at me.
Thanks to some training, her stance was quite impressive. The force was also considerable, enough that an ordinary person wouldn’t be able to avoid serious injury.
Well, if they were an ordinary person.
Without hesitation, I kicked the vase away.
The shattering sound of glass scattered debris everywhere.
In the gap, I immediately thrust my raised foot into the elf girl’s chest. She tried to resist by crossing her arms, but it was futile.
The elf girl, whose solar plexus had been stomped, clutched her chest and groaned.
“Guh, uh… Aaaaaah!”
As I heard that sound, I threw a question.
“Hey, do your teeth grow back?”
The elf girl looked up at me with a gaze that seemed to question my sanity.
It was surprising how her spirit hadn’t broken yet.
Almost as if she had forgotten that this was the very midst of the enemy territory, and that I was a member of the Empire, which had been at war with elves for a long time.
I offered the elf girl a thin smile.
“Well, then I’m glad.”
Right after that.
With a smack, my foot struck the elf girl’s temple.
The elf girl couldn’t scream and lost consciousness. The shock was so great that a few of her baby teeth were knocked out, within the radius of the impact.
As the event came to a close, the Lady Virgin Saint cautiously approached from behind me.
I had expected her to be angry about the cruel actions, but she appeared to be more concerned about the elf girl’s condition.
“…Her regenerative ability is excessively activated. This isn’t the realm of divine power.”
“What about it?”
“Maybe magic or alchemy… I suspect it could be related to that.”
It was a new testimony.
I stroked my chin in thought and then lifted the unconscious elf girl.
I placed her back into the bag I had previously brought her in.
As I slung the bag over my shoulder, the Lady Virgin Saint’s startled voice followed.
“I-Ian! Where are you going?!”
“Well, thanks to her regenerative ability, she’ll heal just by leaving her be, right? As I ended it with one blow, I don’t think she’ll need any more treatment.”
With that said, I smiled slyly and raised a hand.
It was a farewell gesture.
“I’ll visit you again next time. I have something to consult regarding the Northern Region…”
I happened to be quite troubled by the Lady Virgin Saint’s obsession towards the “love letter.”
With such a splendid excuse at hand, there was no way I could not leave.
While the Lady Virgin Saint stood dazed, I quickly moved my feet and exited the Sun’s Rest.
I thought I could hear her shouting behind me.
“I-Ian! But about that confession from last time…!”
“Let’s talk about it next time! And it’s really nothing important!”
The last words I added were the bare minimum loyalty I owed to my friend Yulen.
When it came to the Corpse Giant, after all, I had been the one suggesting we run away.
I really cared too much.
With the bloodstained bag slung over my shoulder, I dashed through the wind.
Passersby only stared at my grotesque appearance with bewildered expressions.
And shortly after, I arrived at Emma’s workshop, tossing the bag away.
Emma, who had been pacing with worry, opened her eyes wide.
It was unexpected for me to appear suddenly and drop a bag she couldn’t understand. If she hadn’t been flustered, it would have been more strange.
I flashed an awkward smile and said.
“Open it, it’s… a gift.”
No, what gift?
My words had become a bit weird.
But before I could take back what I had said, Emma hesitantly moved and opened the bag.
Before long, Emma’s horrified gaze turned towards me.
Her eyes seemed to blame me, so I hurriedly responded to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Th-that’s Abiyang! The person who deceived you!”
Emma looked back and forth between me and the elf in the bag.
And after a moment.
With tears welling in her eyes, Emma clasped her mouth.
“Oh my, Ian… why did you turn Abiyang into such a fragile girl….”
What on earth did you do?
It felt as if I could hear the unspoken words, and I had no choice but to raise my voice in grievance.
“…I didn’t do it!”
It seemed Emma had an distorted perception of me.
All I had done was punch until her nose was broken and her teeth flew out, then carry her in the bag afterward.
For the actions toward an enemy, I had been merciful.
Perhaps.
