Love Letter From The Future-Chapter 390: Bread and Dagger (88)

The eyes are the windows into the soul.

If one observed closely enough, they could roughly gauge what the other was feeling—especially when that person had lost their composure.

Just like the woman standing before me.

There was confusion at first—then hope— quickly followed by despair and resignation.

In the end, deep mistrust was the only emotion left in those blue eyes .

She spat out her words as if they were venom.

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“Exactly what I said. There’s a way to break the curse.”

“That’s impossible.”

Her words were razor-sharp, as if they could cut.

Her reactions were always the same—

Either outright rejection or drowning herself in alcohol.

At least in the latter case, she was willing to talk. But when she was sober, like now, she was as fragile and volatile as cracked glass.

Even now, the way she clenched her teeth and glared at me said it all.

A little more provoking and she might just draw her sword.

“Do you have any idea how much suffering I’ve endured?! Of course, you wouldn’t know! I was cursed from the moment I was born... I’ve spent my life searching, examining every possibility. And every time, the only thing left was despair! And yet, you’ve barely known me for a few days and you already—“

“You just have to become a Master.”

Perhaps, she never even considered the answer I had given.

Her heated voice came to an abrupt halt and her eyelashes slightly trembled.

She looked completely lost—like she had no idea how she was supposed to react.

And honestly, I couldn’t blame her. Even I, the one who said it, felt the idea was absurd.

“If you become a Master, you will not only be able to reconstruct your body—you’ll be able to distort reality itself. Naturally, that curse running through your blood would be dealt with as well.”

“Do you even hear yourself?”

Perhaps because she was too dumbfounded to be angry, her voice softened slightly.

Even so, the sharpness in her tone remained unchanged. The way she glared at me was as keen as a blade.

“Sure, I may be on the verge of becoming a Master. But over the past few centuries, hundreds of swordsmen reached this level...and how many of them do you think truly became Masters?”

“That’s only the case when you’re alone.”

I shrugged, deliberately playing it cool.

Her face grew even more clouded with doubt, as if asking what nonsense I was spouting.

There was no point in drawing it out any longer. I got straight to the point.

“You already know, don’t you? I was given a special Imperial decree—to gather the secret techniques of every major organization.”

“Surely, you’re not asking me to hand over the Sword Circle’s secret technique, are you?”

“Well, you’re the only one left anyway.”

Although her expression seemed to scream ‘Absolutely not’, I wasn’t about to give her the chance to say it.

I pressed on with my argument.

“Besides, you hold the title of Grandmaster of the Sword Circle. Just think of it as officially taking me in as your disciple.”

“Even so...”

“This world might be on the verge of destruction.”

At my grave warning, her mouth clamped shut.

She, of course, already knew.

That was the very reason she left the mountains and came all the way to this desolate North.

She had already lost everything—her sect, her family.

As a result of the Dark Order’s schemes that lay in wait everywhere.

“We need to unite our strength. The Holy Nation, the Empire and even the Ten Kingdoms have all agreed... Besides, this also benefits you.”

“So, you intend to share the secret techniques of each organization. Because a new path might reveal itself that way.”

Since she already understood, there was no need for me to explain further.

Thus I simply looked at her instead of answering.

It was my way of saying, ‘What other choice do you have?’

She hesitated for a moment, but the outcome of her deliberation was obvious.

The world might be doomed anyway.

If there was even a chance to preserve her sect’s legacy, she had no other option.

Soon enough, a heavy sigh escaped her lips—it was a sign of surrender.

“Fine. I’ll accept.”

“Good choice. I’ll make sure to explain everything to His Majest—“

And in the very next moment—

Bam. Her elbow slammed into my abdomen. I had no chance to react.

In fact, I hadn’t even realized she had moved.

My breath hitched and a dull pain spread throughout my entire body. By the time I regained my senses, I was already rolling across the ground.

For a moment, I pounded my chest, trying to shake off the pain.

While she, receiving my dazed stare, just began speaking with an utterly indifferent expression.

“The training of the Sword Circle begins the moment you are initiated. From now on, always remember, ‘Movement within Stillness.’”

“What the hell does that even—”

Whoosh. Before I could finish, she was already standing right in front of me again.

She wasn’t particularly fast. However, because there was no warning at all, her movements felt so seamless they seemed almost supernatural.

A cold sweat ran down my back as I realized—

That this was the secret technique of the Sword Circle.

She then declared to me.

“Everything.”

A warning that my training from this point on would be anything but easy.

“Not just swordsmanship. Footwork, hand-to-hand combat, even the smallest details of everyday life.”

Her face was unreadable and her voice as cold as ice.

With a completely indifferent look, the girl made an utterly unreasonable demand.

“Until you master ‘Movement within Stillness’, you will stay by my side at all times.”

Hah. I couldn’t help but let out a brief incredulous laugh.

And so, from that day on, my grueling training began.

Even so, I can’t help but recall this memory with warmth. Why, I wonder?

Perhaps because— back then, there was still hope.

Because this was before a certain man stripped himself of all emotion.

**

Coughing, I opened my eyes.

My vision was blurry. My muscles, completely spent in such a short time, felt like heavy chains.

That too, chains weighed down by heavy iron balls.

Everything around me was completely white. The raging blizzard lashed against my fallen body, as if screaming at me—

Get up.

You’ll die if you don’t.

I chose to heed Mother Nature’s warning.

As I staggered to my feet, I nearly collapsed more than once.

Slipping, falling—

And yet, I forced myself to stand upon the freezing ground. As I could still sense someone in front of me.

It was a man with thick, black sludge dripping from his entire body.

His face was grotesquely disfigured by burns and he was desperately flailing, scrambling to scoop up the filthy sludge.

A mocking chuckle escaped me.

“N-NO! The Lord’s blessing—our hope—!”

“You call that hope?”

Haaa, I exhaled sharply as I threw the question at him. His gaze snapped towards me.

A fierce obsession burned in his bulging eyes..

He swayed as he struggled to stand. Like me, he was in the worst possible condition.

“...You wouldn’t understand.”

I didn’t bother arguing.

I simply brushed my sleeve across my eyes. The dried blood, brittle from the cold, crumbled like frost.

“Since childhood, I have preached that we must forgive everyone—because that was the Heavenly God’s will! But after coming to the North, whenever I looked at the elves, I felt nothing but despair. Why is it that we can never forgive one another?”

He wasn’t even using honorifics anymore.

Mocking, I played along.

“And?”

“Then one day, I was left stranded deep in the coniferous forest after an elven raid. That’s when I met that child.”

“An elf, I assume.”

“That’s right! Even though I was her enemy, she gave me bread! You understand, don’t you, just how precious bread is to the elves?!”

As I listened to Leoric’s story, I glanced around.

My sword and hatchet seemed to have been flung far away. And even beyond that, in the distance, I could hear faint breathing—

Belonging to two people I knew well.

It seemed the princess and Seria had also been caught in the final explosion. Though why I alone hadn’t been flung away remained a mystery.

Leoric’s confession continued, even amid all this.

“That day, worn out by hunger, I felt it—fate. I cared for the girl, who was just as worn from the cold. And before long, we grew so close that we could have been mistaken for father and daughter. No, at least... I truly saw her as my own daughter!

In the end, it was just me and Leoric left.

No one else could help me. And the same went for Leoric.

Two men, sworn enemies, both in a terrible state.

I let out an incredulous laugh.

What had to be done was already decided.

“That was when the humans ambushed us. Honestly, maybe I could have stopped them... Right before they set fire to our food warehouses, had I only attacked them from behind! But those worthless teachings from the Heavenly God’s Church... they made me hesitate.”

“So what happened then?”

“It all burned. Everything......”

That was our final exchange.

There was no harm in letting him vent a bit more.

Who knows? I might even learn something I didn’t know before.

Meanwhile, I subtly tensed my arms and legs.

It was about time to loosen up.

The decisive battle was near.

“In that fiery pit, I had a thought. How could anyone be expected to forgive in the face of such cruel fate? Such unbearable pain? It was nothing but naive arrogance. And when I awoke after days in a coma, my daughter’s corpse was what awaited me—dead from starvation.”

“So that’s why you attacked innocent humans? All for your pathetic sense of revenge?”

“No—to make them take responsibility for the hell they created!”

Thick black vapor began to billow out through Leoric’s clenched teeth.

Most of his power was gone, but like embers in dying ash, a faint trace of strength still remained.

Not bad at all.

After all, a completely one-sided fight wouldn’t have been a fitting end.

“You humans turned our lives into a living hell! Do you even have the slightest idea—could you even fathom the misery we lived through?”

“No.”

It was a simple and indifferent answer.

Just two syllables—and Leoric’s long impassioned speech came to an abrupt halt. He eyed me in confusion for a moment.

So, I gave him the answer he had been waiting for.

“I know nothing. Not how the elves lived, nor even how human beggars get by... I know absolutely nothing.”

Leoric ground his teeth at my quiet admission.

His wide, bulging eyes looked ready to pop out any moment. Though he bore the face of a benevolent priest, he harbored a profound hatred deep inside.

A hatred for humanity—the ones who not only killed his foster daughter, but the very essence of who he was.

Only then did I realize I no longer feared Leoric.

Oblivious to my thoughts, he spoke in a voice distorted by rage.

“Then it’s clear who was right all along.”

“So tell me—do you know?”

I shot back before he could even attempt a rebuttal.

His brow furrowed, his expression twisting into that of a witness cornered by an unfair interrogation.

That’s why I had to push him even further.

“Do you know the pain of the elves who had to sacrifice their families and neighbors just to survive? The agony of an older sister realizing her little sister became addicted to drugs? And what about the honor of the elves you destroyed?”

“Don’t spew nonsense... It was all done to survive.”

“And that’s how you trampled over them.”

Taking a sharp breath, I stepped forward.

Leoric didn’t back down. In his eyes, pitch-black flames burned fiercely.

“Sacrificing beloved family and neighbors just to scrape by each day? How is that any different from the life of a beast? The elves I knew weren’t like that... Even if they had to chew on tree bark, they upheld their dignity as elves.”

“Nonsense...! If it can’t keep you alive, then what’s the point?”

“No, the truth is, you’ve just refused to acknowledge it all along, haven’t you?”

At last, the middle-aged man bit his lip, unable to contain himself any longer.

His bloodshot eyes looked as if they could spill tears of blood at any moment. And how could they not, when everything he had ever believed in was crumbling right before his eyes.

I was ready to sever the last lifeline he was clinging to.

“You claimed your life was hell, so you turned everyone else’s into one too! Just to justify your pathetic revenge and twisted sympathy... You preyed on their hunger, brainwashed the elves and made yourself their so-called savior. So tell me—did it feel good? Like you were finally doing for them what you couldn’t do for your daughter?”

“Shut up......”

C-Crack. Twitch.

The black pupils in Leoric’s eyes vanished. Veins bulged from his arms and neck, creeping up to his face—it was an almost inhuman sight.

Still, I did not stop.

I, too, wanted to vent all the bitterness I’d been holding in.

“Tell me, was there ever a single elf who felt happy after selling out their own kind just to fill their stomach? Even one who saw that sacrifice as a glimmer of ‘hope’ and rejoiced over it?”

“You humans made us this way!”

“Yeah, and you... you played a part in creating this hell too!”

At last, there was nothing left to vent.

Panting hard, I steadied my stance.

I didn’t need a weapon. After all, the item Senior Delphine had given me—just in case—was still tucked safely inside my coat.

Leoric’s body began to quiver as he clenched his fists so hard they bled.

“I-I am not wrong...”

Kughk, From his mouth, he coughed up a sludge as dark as blood.

The sludge emitted an ominous smoke before dissolving into the air. And soon after, it began seeping from every orifice in Leoric’s body.

From his mouth, his nose and even his sweat pores.

It was as if his entire body were weeping.

Drowning in that filth, he let out an almost hysterical shriek.

“I am NOT wrong!”

There was no need to listen any longer.

I kicked off the ground, and my fist crashed into Leoric’s jaw.

And his punch slammed into my face in turn.

Blood sprayed into the air as both of our battered bodies collapsed—a spectacle of two wrecked men.