Love Letter From The Future-Chapter 354: Bread and Dagger (52)

When I was a child, I regarded elves as monsters.

Such was the destiny of one born into the Empire’s nobility.

Elves had long been humanity’s enemies. And since it was the Empire that primarily clashed with them, I was instilled with a negative perception of elves.

How many innocent people had they killed?

I heard they had burned down hundreds of civilian homes and that they committed unspeakable atrocities during battles without hesitation. With my still-immature mind, I could only come to one conclusion,

‘Ah, so elves are something akin to demonic beasts’.

They were only beautiful in appearance. But that still made them no different from monsters, didn’t it?

But I was no longer that naively ignorant kid.

As I grew older, my perspective gradually broadened. And in doing so, I came to realize something.

Not all who are vilified are inherently evil.

Power solidifies itself by creating enemies. Those enemies, conjured into existence, are considered devils or monsters—targets to be thoroughly annihilated.

Perhaps elves were the same.

I thought that even among elves, there must be some who were decent. While most might be filled with hatred toward humans, wouldn’t there be a few who took a more moderate stance?

And so, I once vowed to adopt a moderate attitude toward them myself.

However, the power of entrenched beliefs was formidable.

I felt it keenly over the past few days.

I couldn’t help but see elves as enemies despite my best efforts.. As an imperial noble, they were the villains I was destined to subjugate.

It was a deeply rooted perception that was ingrained in me since childhood.

It was not something I could easily erase.

To me, elves remained untrustworthy and perilous creatures.

And now, an event that would shatter this entire worldview—

Was unfolding right before my eyes.

“B-Bread! Is bread supposed to be this soft?!”

Isha was asking me, her eyes wide-open with astonishment.

She looked deeply moved, as though she had just discovered an entirely new world of culinary delights. It felt as though she might burst into tears any second now.

Ruget’s reaction, though a bit more reserved, was not all that different.

With an expression of awe, he shoved the bread into his mouth.

“Th-This! Ish sho shoft!” (Th-This! Is so soft!)

He even momentarily choked and had to hurriedly gulp down some water.

Thankfully, we were in a snowy field. We could melt and distill the snow, so there was plenty of drinking water.

The only problem was keeping it from freezing.

I forced an awkward smile and said,

“Well, it’s all thanks to this special pouch. Normally, the longer you store bread, the harder and less flavorful it becomes. And above all, this pouch also has a fair amount of seasonings, like sugar...”

“Sugar!”

Each and every word I spoke was met with remarkable enthusiasm from the elves..

The elf woman who introduced herself as ‘Miera’ was no different. They said she was older than Isha, so she was called ‘Auntie Miera,’ but to be honest, I couldn’t tell the difference.

Both just looked about my age.

Indeed, it was very much like elves, who were said not to show signs of aging until the brink of death.

Her striking auburn hair left a strong impression.

Auntie Miera’s eyes gleamed as she asked me,

“I’ve heard of it before—something like a sweet-tasting stone, right? There are records that say our kind once used to use it in our cooking, ages ago...”

“Are those records still preserved to this day?”

“Of course! We cherish our traditions. And since we live so long, even if something is lost, there are always those who can rewrite it from memory... umm, if you’re curious, would you like me to teach you some of the traditional elven recipes?”

It was an intriguing topic.

If that was the case, there might even be records preserved from thousands of years ago. Perhaps I could find something about the Dark Order as well?

To be honest, I was also curious about the traditional recipes of elves from thousands of years ago.

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

Those would have been recipes from the time they dwelled in the Great Forest. It would be impossible to obtain the same ingredients now that they’d been driven to the northernmost edge of the continent.

But, what if I could recreate it with the ingredients I currently had?

Perhaps, that too might serve as another way to gain the elves’ goodwill.

In truth, I was just overthinking it.

The elves were already showing me a surprisingly favorable attitude over just a single loaf of bread.

They didn’t seem like people who endured centuries of persecution.

If anything, they seemed more like straightforward country folk.

That, more than anything, left me perplexed.

Because they didn’t seem so different from the people back in my own hometown.

“If you’d be willing to share, I’d be grateful. I want to gather as much information as I can. It feels like it might help me recover my memories...”

“Oh dear, you poor thing.”

Auntie Miera immediately looked at me with sympathetic eyes.

Given that she even had children of her own, she seemed especially compassionate. That kind of sentiment isn’t easy to maintain when you’re starving or poor.

When you’re struggling just to survive, who has the leisure to care for others?

In comparison, perhaps because they lived so long, the elves seemed to have a more generous disposition.

Auntie Miera tried to reassure me, as if telling me not to worry.

“Don’t fret too much, child. I was terrified when I heard there was a human with a sword and hatchet! But now that I look at you, you seem dependable and you’ve even given us bread...”

“You’re not all that different from us, really.”

The elf who chimed in was a muscular man called ‘Dolph.’

He said he worked as a carpenter in the village, as well as a lumberjack, a builder and so forth.

In a small rural community, such versatility was common.

“I like you... What moved me most was how you came all the way here to save that young elf. Even among elves, such strong camaraderie is rare these days.”

“Right, stay here for a while and think things through. Our circumstances are honestly not that great, but... once you regain your memories, you’ll still have time to prepare for your departure.”

Miera, Dolph, and Ruget...

These were the elves who were friendly towards me. The rest still watched me with wary eyes.

Of course, after I gave them bread, I could sense a bit of gratitude, too.

Still, their treatment was far more lenient than I’d ever imagined. It left me somewhat confused.

They weren’t the elves I had envisioned.

I expected them to be more hostile toward humans, entangled in countless grudges, becoming cruel and ferocious as a result.

But the ones I encountered here all seemed ordinary enough.

At this rate, how are they any different from humans?

Suddenly, I felt my throat tighten. I found it hard to breathe.

Images rose unbidden in my mind—

Countless elves falling before my sword and hatchet.

Just as I was about to pound my chest in distress—

“Even so, a human’s still a human!”

A cranky, sharp voice struck my ears.

The sudden accusation actually made it easier for me to breathe. I turned my head toward the direction the shout had come from.

There sat a boy who, no matter how I looked at him, seemed to be in his mid-to-late teens.

Ruget nudged my side and whispered,

“That’s ‘Elder Poff.’”

Elder?

I was even more startled by that title. He looked younger than most of the other elves around us.

Poff was glaring at me with a deep scowl on his face.

In front of him lay a piece of bread he hadn’t touched. Judging by the way his eyes kept darting toward it, he clearly wanted to eat it, but his pride wouldn’t allow it.

As everyone’s attention turned to him, he raised his voice even more.

“Humans are all untrustworthy! Have you all forgotten how we were treated?! Do you not remember why we ended up here in these cold, barren northern lands?!”

Unable to contain his anger, Elder Poff shot to his feet.

Thud, thud—his stomps against the ground hinted at the intensity of his fury.

His behavior certainly matched that of an Elder.

I looked at Poff thoughtfully, letting out a quiet hum.

I wasn’t angry. In fact, it even brought me a strange sense of relief seeing him like this..

Right, this was how elves ought to be.

I felt as if my warped worldview was slowly being restored.. Just moments ago, my breathing had been stifled, but now it felt easier again.

Elder Poff glared at me, his eyes filled with hatred.

“It’s still vivid in my mind! Those devilish human bastards who attacked our village... right, that guy, too, was a knight with a fancy sword, just like yours.”

“Elder Poff...”

Eventually, it was Ruget who stepped in to mediate.

He and Isha both seemed to have the unwavering trust of the village elves. You could even call him the village leader, in a way.

His voice took on a pleading tone,

“Of course, we should be wary of humans. But this one protected one of our elf children, didn’t he? A child who’s even received a ‘blessing’—and there’s no way such a child would lie... Right, Elder Poff? You understand this too, having received a ‘blessing’ yourself.”

“Ahem!”

So he’d received a ‘blessing,’ had he?

That was interesting information. My eyes instinctively swept over his figure once more.

On the surface, he looked like nothing more than a little boy with dark green hair. But to think that the same grotesque lump of flesh that inhabited Aviang and that Snow Leopard Demonic Human resided inside him...

Elder Poff puffed out his chest, unable to hide his pride.

“Well, Isn’t that thanks to Lord Leoric recognizing my unwavering faith?”

“And thanks to that, you’ve been sending a ridiculous amount of game to headquarters, haven’t you? I mean, who else could single-handedly take charge of the village’s meat supply, right, Elder?”

“At the time, I genuinely believed that just having a ‘blessing’ would make me catch more game!”

As if something had struck a nerve, Poff flared up at Ruget’s remark.

Of course, it didn’t seem to have any real effect.

When Ruget shook his head as if couldn’t reason with him, Poff cleared his throat a few times, then turned his back on us. Before he left, he tossed out a final warning,

“Anyway, you can’t trust humans! Mark my words, all of you, or you’ll regret it!”

“Elder, aren’t you going to eat your bread before you go?”

“Hmph, who knows if it’s poisoned?”

In the end, Ruget plopped back down as if giving up. He had tried to stand and stop Poff, but quickly realized it was useless.

Then I heard Isha quietly click her tongue.

“He hasn’t changed one bit, that Elder Poff...”

She spoke as though there was more to the story.

Curious, I sidled up to Isha and asked,

“That person—what does he do?”

“You scared me!”

Isha jumped in surprise at my silent approach.

Her wide eyes turned to me, but I remained calm as I repeated my question.

“Did I do something wrong? Elder Poff seems to dislike me...”

“Well, that’s because you’re a human!”

It was hard to tell whether Isha was trying to console me or blame me as she spoke in a slightly confused tone.

“Elder Poff lost his family to humans... He was living peacefully in the village when tragedy struck.”

“They attacked even though you were living peacefully?”

“Exactly. Isn’t that just what you humans do?!”

Isha glared at me with contempt and began to fume.

She seemed genuinely angry.

“Do you think it’s just Elder Poff?! There are plenty of elves who starved to death because you humans kept burning down our warehouses! If not for hunters like Elder Poff, we’d all have starved....”

I listened quietly, nodding my head now and then.

It was an interesting story.

“So he’s a hunter.”

“...Hey, are you even listening to me?”

I was listening, of course.

At least to the parts that mattered.

I finished my calculations in my head.

To be honest, I felt more comfortable with Poff than with Ruget or Aunt Miera—even if all he ever showed me was dislike and hatred.

He was exactly the kind of elf I was familiar with.

A relationship where we could face off if needed, clash swords if necessary.

It was ideal.

After all, I would have to leave the elf village someday.

It was best to leave without even a shred of attachment behind.

Besides, he seemed to know many secrets.

From this ‘blessing’ of Leoric’s to the army that once attacked their peaceful elf village.

I decided I should find a way to get closer to him.

“Hey, just so you know... Don’t get cocky just because you carry a sword or something, got it? Don’t be fooled by how he looks—Elder Poff is a formidable hunter who once took down a Snow Leopard Demonic Beast!”

A hunter, huh.

I fiddled with the sword and hatchet hanging at my waist.

Doesn’t seem like a bad passtime at all.