Love Letter From The Future

5. Bread and dagger (41)

Less, oh, Rick.

Those three syllables pierced my heart. Should I call it destiny or call it intuition?

Some animal senses were foreseeing it.

At the end of this story, I’ll be aiming at his uvula.

But I still had concerns.

It was that Veneta was overly cooperative.

Right after defeat, she was a woman who rebelled with the determination to risk her life. It was hard to understand why they were pouring information out now.

Tok, tok. My index finger started tapping the table a couple of times.

Are you lying?

However, there was no crack in Veneta’s expression.

It didn’t look like he was lying.

Of course, it was possible that Veneta had undergone special training. For example, mixing up false testimony in case of captivity.

The fact that Neris-senpai was standing next to me was also a decision with this in mind.

She was professionally trained as a spy.

At least he should have been able to pick up the slightest hints than me.

So I threw a wink at Neris-senpai, but the result was negative.

It meant that she didn’t notice anything special either.

Then, for now, he had no choice but to accept Veneta’s testimony as the truth.

It was just a waste of time to try to cover the truth right away. Because Veneta’s testimony was scheduled to go through the princess’s inspection anyway.

‘Dragon’s Eye’ reflects the psychology of others.

There has never been a more suitable ability to determine authenticity.

My voice sank even more as I finished my worries.

It was a signal that the interrogation would begin in earnest.

The first question to ask is simple.

“… … Are you Leoric? And sacrifices?”

“Yes, Master Leoric… Didn’t you know? He is of human origin. It also belonged to the Yurdina army.”

It was a mocking reply.

Even the content was absurd, to the point where I thought for a moment that Beneta was making fun of me.

Laughter flowed out of nowhere.

“So you guys are enemies?”

There was no direct answer to my point.

Veneta just kept her mouth shut and glared at me silently.

It was still a look of hate. It meant that they were cooperating with me for some reason, but there was still remnants left for humanity.

Even so, to use the honorific title of ‘sir’ over a human who was once an enemy.

I couldn’t help but be confused.

“What do you think of us elves?”

“A group of killers who plunder and harass innocent northern people. And these days, they even eat their own people, right?”

It was a mockery thrown as if for revenge.

And this was also a widespread perception throughout the empire. In a long war, humans and elves crossed a river of no return, and as a result they killed each other as soon as they found each other.

Veneta would not have been unaware of this either.

However, the mockery I threw for the second time was unexpected, so I just shuddered.

It was the first agitation seen.

Soon, her face contorted and she hurriedly tried to explain to me.

“That, that’s a misunderstanding… … !”

“It’s misunderstood, it’s nabal, and I’m not interested. Tell me about that Leoric and the sacrifice.”

Of course, I had no intention of listening to those lame excuses.

Veneta gave me a slightly dissatisfied look at my picky attitude. Even so, I couldn’t have listened to the complaint.

In the end, the elf woman had no choice but to let out a long sigh.

He realized that stubbornness was not an opponent.

Then I was able to hear more details.

“You would like to see us that way. Dirty demons stealing and invading the place of life… But that’s just the stigma you put on us.”

“Is that proof Leoric?”

“Yes, when I first found the fainting warlord… I honestly wanted to kill him. It happened right after the battle, so everyone was on edge.”

“But he didn’t kill me.”

“Because I gave you bread.”

It was a somewhat difficult answer to understand the context.

My questioning, which continued without interruption, stopped. Instead, I crossed my arms and let out a small sob.

Fortunately, Veneta seemed to have some sense.

Perhaps deciding that a supplementary explanation was necessary, the woman added a leisurely story.

“It is a long tradition of us elves… ‘Bread for bread, dagger for dagger.’ It means to repay kindness with kindness, and to repay enmity with enmity. And the reason Leoric fainted was to save our elf child.”

“So you paid back the favor?”

“Yes, we are elves.”

It was a tone of strange pride.

I almost inadvertently held on to ridicule, but then stopped.

There was no reason to provoke the opponent.

Instead, I asked what I was curious about.

“But the warlord is offering sacrifices? You can use the corpses of monsters scattered around, but there is no need to bring in rare monsters from the far south… … .”

“It’s a special ritual.”

It’s called ‘special consciousness’.

I quietly etched the information into my head. He was planning to seek advice from the saintess and Emma about this.

There was a time when the priests of the Tensingyo Church also offered sacrifices. It was mainly to cause miracles outside of one’s ability.

Wasn’t that living witness me?

So far, I have been through the risk of dying many times. The reason I was able to survive each time was because the saintess brought me back to life by offering precious sacrifices.

So there was no problem with the testimony itself that the sacrifice was necessary.

However, I did not know whether there was a special ritual that required a special sacrifice. He had to ask the saintess about this.

In addition, the case of Avian was also taken care of.

The biotransformation she received belonged to the realm of alchemy. If so, there was no guarantee that the ‘special ritual’ was not related to alchemy.

It was fortunate that Elsie-senpai found the double-headed snake.

I thanked senior Elsie in my heart and asked again.

“Is Leoric the only one who can perform that special ritual?”

“Yes, he is also the one who actually leads the elves in the coniferous forest.”

“Why?”

essential question.

At another question that pierced me like an awl, Veneta stared blankly at me.

“What effect does that special ceremony have? A mere outsider emerges as the de facto leader of the tribe? Common sense makes no sense.”

“Didn’t you already tell me?”

Veneta smiled quietly, as if asking if it was necessary to ask such a question.

Suddenly, behind the woman’s back, she saw a hallucination of a snake’s tongue flicking.

My eyebrows narrowed naturally.

“Eat your own people… Yes, you can see it that way.”

“I heard you. Eating ‘fruit’ as a sacrifice for handicapped or old elves… Wasn’t it disgusting?”

“It was disgusting.”

“Whoops,” Veneta let out a helpless laugh.

A blurry light passed through her eyes.

Fragments of fishy despair were reflected in the swirling emotions.

“Have you ever been hungry? We elves have suffered countless times of hunger. While living for hundreds of years… The whole body becomes lethargic, the blood dries up, and in the past, you lose consciousness in a blink of an eye. Without knowing what I had done all this time.”

“So you killed your own people?”

“You kill me?”

With a look of genuine doubt, the woman said so.

There was a certain kind of spark in the depths of those eyes.

Madness.

“You don’t know, hundreds of years… To suffer like that for hundreds of years! We didn’t know, we just thought life was good. That is the grace of the World Tree… Then one day, Leoric-sama came to visit us.”

It was a voice that suddenly started to grow hot.

It wasn’t long before that longing confession of faith peaked. With a bang, the restrained hand slammed the table.

It was to the extent that senior Neris was startled and almost tried to subdue him.

Although I couldn’t put it into practice because of my persuasion.

Before she knew it, the eyes of the elf woman were bloodshot.

“He gave us instructions. In fact, we were arrogant… Life was not a blessing. If it’s some kind of prison, I don’t know, we live to die.”

“So you killed him?”

“Please say ‘free’.”

Veneta, smiling lightly, seemed to believe that sincerely.

I expressed the emotions that filled me with tears in the most refined language.

“It’s a leap. If death is so good, they even commit mass suicide, why sacrifice the weak to continue that harsh life?”

“I told you, life is punishment… What will happen to a prisoner who escapes prison when his sentence is not over?”

It was a cowardly justification.

Since they are weak, they must be saved first.

The main point of the argument was that they should be freed from the prison of life with their own special consciousness, and that those who remain should overcome the harsh life.

A tattered logic, mixed with leaps and exaggerations here and there.

But faith does not exist in the realm of logic.

Veneta was riverside.

“Do we look miserable and shabby? Then you who made us like this… Do you guys have the right to criticize us?!”

“Not everyone becomes cowardly because they are driven to the edge of a precipice.”

“We weren’t like this at first either.”

With a deep exhalation, Veneta relaxed her tense body.

Then he leaned back on the backrest and smiled sadly.

As if lamenting my situation.

“Leoric-sama was a good person. I cared for the girl I saved like a foster daughter. I soon adapted to the elven village and became the only priest in the village.”

“Why on earth would that person… … .”

“Because that elf girl is dead.”

I stopped what I was about to say.

Veneta’s gaze and mine crossed in midair.

The elf had a look of despair.

“Because you burned the village, the food is gone. I’ve endured a long time, but the north wind always takes the weakest first.”

I gnashed my teeth at the vague resentment that emanated from those words. It was a spinal cord reflex response.

Scratching my neck, a growl leaked out.

“The Empire does not attack first. Burning down the village is probably because you attacked us first.”

“I do not know? You can believe whatever you want to believe. but… remember Bread and dagger.”

At the same time, Veneta tilted her upper body with a tired expression on her face. “Huh,” a helpless laugh escaped from the woman’s mouth.

“I gave you bread today.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You saved Matisse. Thank you, you may not be able to tell the difference… Matisse is still very young. There are still many days to live.”

It was a terribly contradictory statement.

They say death is ‘liberation’, thank you for saving Matisse?

I was on the verge of bursting into tears at that broken logic.

The elf smiled sadly.

“That’s why I gave you the last sincere answer. No lies mixed in. You can swear on the World Tree.”

It was nice to hear it, but the tone was strangely jarring.

I swallowed a laugh and trembled.

“Is this the last time? I still have a lot of questions I want to ask.”

“If you received the bread, now you have to prepare to receive the dagger.”

It was a calm word.

But the words were mixed with a strange certainty, so I kept my mouth shut for a moment.

My eyes widened and I stared at Veneta.

A feeling as if time has stopped around you.

The extremely slow, dull flow made my downy hair stand on end one after another.

I felt the pressure on my lungs.

“Then, let me ask you one last question.”

Benetta shook her head. It’s like you don’t want to answer any more.

The woman smiled and faced me.

“No, I told you, right? Now the last… … .”

“What did you do?”

Stand tall, and the breathing of the elf woman stopped.

Looking at those light green eyes staring at me without saying anything, I felt a strange sense of impatience. The moment I tried to ask her again.

“Isn’t it strange? At night, it feels like I’m not there.”

“Bee,” Veneta said, opening her mouth and sticking out her tongue.

There was a gross lump of flesh there. One ugly pupil that was tightly joined by mucous membranes and blood vessels.

It disappeared into Veneta’s throat as soon as she closed her mouth.

Veneta grinned. It was a beautiful smile, befitting a tribe of beauty.

“It’s a tracking device. Didn’t that kill you long ago? Like the old man said… … .”

The woman’s words did not carry on to the end.

It was because the hand ax had crushed Beneta’s skull before that.

Blood and flesh burst out, staining clothes and furniture. But I didn’t have the energy left to care about the matter so far.

Biting my lips, I got up. Senior Neris also hurriedly turned around and ran out of the tent.

And a long horn resounding.

It was the signal for a battle in the north.

Whether it’s a campaign or an attack.

“The elves have attacked at night!”

The time of blood and death has come.

A wild torrent was sweeping me.