Love Letter From The Future

༺ The First Letter (19) ༻

Helplessness is a miserable feeling.

Seria was aware of that fact from an early age. She knew it since she was around the age of six, when her mother was expelled from the Yurdina Household for being a commoner.

We are talking about the Yurdina family who values noble bloodlines. There was no way a little girl, only six years old, could do anything, even if she was a genius.

A weeping mother, a father standing with a cold expression on his face, and even her step-sister, who was watching all of this with an indifferent gaze.

All her nightmares always started from that point. It was a memory etched in her life like a curse. From that day on, Seria was determined to never feel helpless again.

Because she thought that only in this way she would be able to overcome the haunting memories of that day.

The eyes of her father, as cold as the frost of an iceberg, and the eyes of her step-sister, who looked down at her as if she was pathetic, were still as vivid as they were at that time, just like a painting.

Thinking about that time, Seria felt suffocated. Each time she had this nightmare, she would open her eyes, gasping for breath.

So she swung her sword like crazy. Still, she couldn’t beat her step-sister. Her life was made up of a series of defeats.

The ‘Sun of Yurdina,’ the older sister she had to win against by any means possible, and the genius who was always her object of comparison.

Now there was no chance. If her step-sister went out into the world, Seria would never be able to stand on the same line as her again. In the world, the difference between a bastard and a legitimate heir was akin to earth and heaven.

So, she was in a hurry. In order not to feel helpless, in order to not reenact the misery of that day, she trained to the point of collapsing.

But what was the result of all of that?

Seria gasped. She barely took any steps, but her ankles were sore and she couldn’t move properly. The slight heating sensation from the sprain had long since transformed into burning pain, making her feel as if she was hit by a fireball.

Seria was drenched in cold sweat. Nonetheless, she clenched her teeth and kept moving. Even using her sword as a staff.

That sword, the path she had devoted her entire life to, was powerless.

That man must have been fighting for her. I didn’t know if they were a couple of them, or even more than 10. I could only barely feel their presence.

Even if it was a low-level demonic beast, it was too much to deal with 10 of them alone. And what if they weren’t a low-level demonic beast?

Just imagining that possibility, Seria’s heart was filled with guilt.

As she staggered, she tripped over a tree root. Dirt and grass were all over her body.

I felt like crying. From that day on, I swore I would never cry.

So far, no one has ever been on her side since her birth.

Her mother, who used to be on her side, had already passed away, and her family did not even tell her the site of her burial, as if they wanted to erase every trace of her from Seria’s life.

She grew up surrounded by contempt. Even after her sword talent had been recognized, she did not have anyone by her side.

Because she couldn’t believe them. All the members of the family who enjoyed looking down on her, harassing her, or secretly slandering her suddenly from one day forth bowed their heads while looking after her as if she was their master.

It felt nauseating. So she couldn’t forge any relationships.

At least until recently. Now, for the first time, she has someone she could call a ‘friend’.

‘It’s not something we should even talk about as friends in the first place.’

While saying that, Senior Ian looked so sincere.

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How could that be?

Seria knew. In her first match against Ian, he showed formidable skills, but not after that.

He seemed to be on the strong side for someone in the intermediate ranks, but his basic skills and the amount of mana were still insufficient to rise to the higher rank.

The person named ‘Ian Percus,’ whom Seria observed while staying together for a few days, was clearly someone like that. He wasn’t the type of person who was arrogant and overconfident in his abilities.

But when her life was under threat, he stepped in for her. It was something she could never understand.

Isn’t it her fault in the first place? So it was natural for her to take responsibility. Even if she died, she deserved to die while he deserved to live.

However, these clear preconceptions were shattered at once by Ian. So Seria couldn’t understand Ian, but she vaguely felt something in that.

She thought that being ‘friend’ might be such a relationship. Seria thought so and staggered up from the ground.

Seria didn’t want her Senior Ian to die.

For that, Seria was kept struggling. She was willing to break her ankle, if she could somehow manage to inform Professor Derek.

So she scratched the dirt, she crawled, she staggered, but still somehow stood up.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, a presence was felt in front of her. Her mind was clouded because she ran and limped with all her might.

Maybe that’s why the person who sensed her presence first were the people in front. She heard a whisper, and soon three people appeared in front of her.

Professor Derek, who had a robust physique, and the black-haired girl, who always walked alongside him. Come to think of it, she seemed to be Senior Ian’s friend.

I couldn’t remember the name. There was also another sophomore who seems to have teamed up with her.

Seria slapped off Professor Derek’s hand, who was just approaching her in surprise, and said.

“Demonic beasts…….”

Professor Derek’s bewildered gaze turned to her. So were the other two.

But it didn’t take long for the three to freeze as they were.

“The beasts attacked… Senior Ian is in danger…….”

While gasping for breath, Seria looked at Professor Derek with a fervent determination. Without uttering a word, Professor Derek turned his gaze in the direction Seria ran from.

And he said.

“……You did well.”

At the same time, Professor Derek stepped forward and vanished in an instant. The black-haired girl followed after him. The other girl, who was left alone, turned around and rushed somewhere else.

And soon, the murmur of students was heard from the direction she ran to. They picked their weapons and started running somewhere. They seemed to want to join in the hunt.

Please, stay alive.

Seria prayed like that and panted.

She was lacking supply of air in her brain, so she felt dizzy. So she didn’t realize.

That this was the first prayer she ever offered for another person in her entire life.

The lonely girl, at some point, had allowed someone to be by her side.

****

Two wolves ran in a zigzag pattern and charged at me. It seemed to be the result of a long-lasting collaboration, as they didn’t cross each other’s path.

My vision was blurry. But in the end, the moment they charged at me, everything was already set in stones.

At the end of the last possible moment, when the wolfs’ gallop paused for a split second so they could cushion their momentum and jump at me like a cannon.

He held his breath and closed his eyes.

I had to find that ‘feel.’ They were mere demonic beasts at the end of the day, so they must have been less adept at hiding their movements and intentions than humans. The sharpness of my senses was now through the roof.

They’re coming. At that moment, an imaginary trajectory was drawn before my eyes.

It was in the realm of intuition. I twisted my body straight away and squeezed in the tiny gap between those trajectories. At the moment when the time seemed to have stopped, I rotated the sword and gripped the hilt in reverse and slashed it.

With a sharp sound that ripped through the air, two ashen figures passed me by in a flash. The large body that was shot at high speed had a terrible physical power. Had I not avoided it, I might have been seriously injured.

I lowered the previously raised sword as it pierced vertically into the wolf’s vertebra, who was still airborne, unable to overcome its momentum.

The sword, enchanted with aura, ripped through the muscles as it shrieked in agony. Originally, my aura generated by my mana wasn’t supposed to be this dense, but as time went on, the aura ingrained in my sword became denser

The blade, which was inserted obliquely on the beast’s back while avoiding the spine, tore through the wolf’s flesh.

It was a fatal blow. The wolf shrieked, and its spilled blood flew in the same direction, following its airborne body.

It was then that the other wolf who escaped my blade came to attack me again.

I immediately drew my sword and positioned it horizontally. My sword slipped into the wolf’s jaws, which were open. It was an angle that can cut through the neck, while barely avoiding its protruding fangs.

However, perhaps because of the fatigue accumulated in my muscles, I lost strength in my grip, as I couldn’t pierce my sword any deeper.

‘Growl,’ the wolf forcibly bit the sword to survive. Its stamina was terrifying. I couldn’t pull out the sword right away.

It was then that the wolf, whose back I had slashed, enacted his last attack. The wolf, wielding all the strength it could muster, opened its enormous jaws and tried to bite me.

The sword couldn’t be drawn, and it was too late for me to dodge.

It was a desperate moment when my brain, who in that instant was searching for a way out, went blank.

My hand naturally traced my waist. I felt an unfamiliar sensation there.

It was a hatchet. A secondary armament that has been hanging around my belt for some time.

My arm pulled out the hatchet at will. Since it was a weapon much shorter than a sword, its speed was incomparably faster.

And then the next moment, I flung the raised ax.

The hatchet cut down the nose of the wolf, which had its jaws wide open, with a screeching sound. The jaws closed at once, and the wolf’s head fell to the floor.

That’s how one life ended.

The wolf, who was holding my sword with its fangs, squealed in pain and tried to get away from me. Those black eyes that didn’t reflect even a single ray of light were now drenched in fear.

That was the last emotion the wolf felt. The hatchet struck the wolf’s skull like a thunderbolt.

Crack, Crack, Crack. Pieces of meat and bones were scattered in all directions, along with the sound of the hatchet being struck down in succession.

The hunt was over only after the prey’s brain burst out, and the hatchet was soaked in blood.

The two wolves were now gone, and in their place, only two corpses were left.

I was so exhausted that I felt I would keel over at any moment. I barely managed to resist the urge to lie down. Although, I could still feel one presence.

However, its behavior was particularly different.

It didn’t move. After catching up to me, he just calmly stood still there. So I felt even more suspicious.

Maybe he was digging a trap and waiting for me to fall in? Or for all I know, he might be waiting for me to get tired. A clever hunter would certainly do that.

Wolves and humans. It was no longer clear who was the hunter and who was the prey. I calmed my hastened breathing and enjoyed this brief solace, leaning my back against a nearby tree.

Still, that last wolf did not move. Rather, he even circled around the place where I was resting. As if he was waiting for me to come to him.

At those thoughts, I let out a laugh of astonishment.

I won’t fight as you wish. I was exhausted, and he was fast. Besides, there must be a reason for him to wait for me to come over there.

There was no reason to respond to such a childish provocation. After all, he was bound to either turn his back and run away the second Professor Derek arrived, or he might become one of the corpses in this vacant lot.

But when the faint smell of medicine brushed the tip of my nose.

I froze. It was a scent I had smelled somewhere. Few scents were so thick and lasting.

Even while surrounded by this terrifying stench of blood, it was still a particularly noticeable scent. My body stood up as if possessed.

And then I walked towards the glade where he was waiting. This smell definitely came from the workshop.

Only students who spent their whole day in the alchemist’s workshop would exude this smell.

My steps came to a halt when I found a giant wolf standing in the forest’s glade.

The size of the wolves he’s faced so far has been horrendous, but he was even bigger than that. His height alone seemed to exceed 2m. A size that could be seen in its entirety only by looking up.

The forest at noon was submerged in silence. The sunlight pierced through the leaves, illuminated his body. I looked like a mere dwarf in front of that terrifying monster.

But the reason I remained speechless wasn’t because I was overwhelmed by its size.

The wolf was biting a small piece of cloth.

The blood-stained cloth was a part of the attire Emma wore that day.

The beat sneered at me and spat out that piece of cloth. And with a smirk, he looked at me, seemingly wanting to show off his spoils.

All kinds of animals were lined up. If there was a peculiar thing, was it that everyone has a torn belly with their guts spilled out?

It wasn’t because he was hungry. The wolf did it just to have fun.

Demonic beasts were such an existence. Beings infested with endless malice towards other creatures.

I chuckled and burst out laughing. That little laughter soon resounded through the forest.

Hahahaha Hahahaha Hahahaha.

I burst out laughing for all kinds of reasons. It was only after a long time that my laughter barely subsided.

It felt like my head was bursting with heat akin to a volcano on the verge of eruption. My heart was pounding and my nerves in my head twitched along with my heartbeat. It was giving me a headache.

Even now, it was patiently waiting for me. Rather, it had a look full of anticipation.

So, I’m willing to do whatever he wants.

Schling. I pointed my sword towards him. A growl came out of my throat.

“Hey.”

Grrrr, the corner of his mouth drew an arc. As if he knew what I wanted to say.

“You will die by my hands today.”

Certainly.

Then the wolf took a leisurely step and stared at me as if trying to observe me.

A hunter eyeing its prey, but today’s prey seemed to be a gnome.

On the other hand, the light in my eyes became dim.