Love Letter From The Future

657 – 8. Testament (31)

Walking in a hazy dream. Unfamiliar memories rise like fog, and white clouds soar from the ground one by one to form a landscape.

The senses gradually return. Moonlight and fire, warm warmth, and the dry scent of dead earth.

Instantly, the sound of a crackling bonfire wets my ears. I was staring blankly at the swaying fire shadow.

It’s called ‘fireworks’.

What was I doing?

“So, from tomorrow, if I don’t use a stronger medicine… Ian?”

“Uh, ah, huh?”

A soft tone like a delicate fabric awakens my spirit.

A tent, a few stones to sit on, and most of all, a beautiful woman with auburn hair sitting across from me.

Memories quickly rewind and rewind, fixing lost senses in reality.

Yes, it was.

I was on the verge of receiving a mission as a crow of the empire and coming to the wasteland of Ciendel, the capital city. In order to collect information about the Seven Sins, which has not yet been revealed, and to identify the remaining forces of ‘Count Rhodes’, who was dispatched as a reinforcement.

I never thought I would forget my mission for a while.

If the ‘blind snake’ knows, it will be ridiculed for a while. I put my hand on my forehead as I remembered my lord who was left in such a faraway place. A light headache knocks across the skull.

“Sorry… I’m stunned for a while. Can you say it again?”

“Hmm.”

Confession that he was lost in a situation where there were only the two of them.

It was an act that would have been considered rude, but instead of blaming me, the woman only let out her strange snort. The light green eyes illuminated by the scarlet light deepened.

Is that feeling of interest or worry?

I had no way of knowing. I just traced the memories of a long time ago and put a faint hope that it will be the latter.

“Images are affecting you. Too many images, I forcibly stitched them together. Aren’t you often dazed or hallucinating lately?”

“Well… ….”

“Look, it still is. And with the Master right in front of you, your body is more strongly influenced by images than ever before.”

The teapot hanging over the campfire was bubbling. The liquid contained in it was by no means tea or beverage.

Emma’s hand deftly grabbed her handle of the teapot. With a crackling sound, steam rises and fills the cup.

It was medicine. The only way to temporarily stabilize my broken body.

The woman handed her a glass and gave her usual charming eye smile.

“Then you will die? Not kidding, seriously.”

From noble mtl dot com

I was handed the glass without a word and immediately looked down at the contents with a nonchalant gaze.

A liquid like boiling mud. The smell was as strange as the color, and the taste was as strange as the smell.

In the past, I would have asked if it could be a little sweeter.

Not anymore. I poured the hot liquid into my throat and let out a sigh of residual heat.

It was something that should not have been imitated unless it was a high expert’s strengthened body. The potion, which had been boiling until just before, went down, warming the esophagus and stomach.

“Everybody did.”

It was a tired tone. At the one word I said out of the blue, Emma only let out a ‘huh?’ With a faint smile.

“When I first became a ‘crow’, when I was dispatched to the north, when I was appointed as an officer on the eastern front… ….”

“How did you survive?”

The question was hurriedly thrown out.

It was such a nonchalant voice that there was even room for it to feel a little rude. However, the expression on the face of the woman who put such a simple question into her mouth was quite calm.

It was the attitude that he said something obvious, like dew on a leaf falling into a lake.

I closed my eyes in silence instead of getting angry. Memories rewind, rewind, resurfacing long-ago burns.

Nostalgic faces.

It was a terribly beautiful relationship. So, did God end up with blood at the end of those memories?

Because it’s an undeserved gift to me.

“Somehow, when I did it… Even though I tried to die a couple of times.”

“So you want to be strong? Even if you are already strong enough?”

“Because I don’t want to lose any more.”

It was an answer that crunched like sand in the desert.

I was startled at first, but Emma, my voice that I had grown accustomed to, didn’t say anything back.

So silent.

How long had passed, the woman who was staring at me silently burst into laughter.

“…… Pooh!”

It was an incomprehensible reaction. As my questionable gaze turned, Emma burst into laughter as her tears flowed as if she couldn’t stand it.

“Aha, ahahahahaha! That, so you’ll be able to survive? Uh huh… So you want to become stronger?”

Until Emma stopped laughing, I said nothing. He just let out a light sigh and fiddled with the empty glass.

It was a strange thing. It’s normal to be angry, but since Emma was like that, she couldn’t possibly be angry. More precisely, should I say that she doesn’t even think of getting angry.

Maybe it’s because my emotions are so worn out.

Emma stopped laughing after a while and ran her index finger through the tears around her eyes. A belated apology followed.

“Sorry, sorry… Huhu, it’s been so much fun in a long time.”

“Was it that much fun?”

“No, what should I say… Aha! So, Ian? You really…….”

The sound of clear laughter cut off, and then the woman’s voice, blurring the end of her words, became hazy for a moment.

Water and fire shadows dance. Emma’s eyes, bathed in her moonlight, were enchanting and, in a sense, even sacred.

Her woman’s lips paint a crooked smile.

“…… You are stupid.”

It was a word I had heard countless times.

From my friend Leto, from my lover who left me first, and now from my lord.

It was around the time I swallowed my saliva, saying “Hmm”.

Holding her chin, Emma opened her mouth with a wet tone.

“So, too… It’s charming. How could this be? Having been through so much hell, being so stupid and naive…….”

“Innocence? I?”

“Yes.”

I laughed out loud after a long time. It was close to a wind leak, probably because I hadn’t laughed so much lately.

Emma just smiled at my reaction, saying it was nonsense.

“Then they get eaten?”

“It must not be particularly tasty because it is only muscle. Who the hell is that?”

“You never know. Could I catch you?”

And then Emma pretended to be her cute predator, imitating her claws with her hands and saying ‘Ah!’.

Obviously, it wasn’t scary at all.

“Yes, yes… Even if you catch and eat it, fix your body well. I don’t know what kind of battle there will be in the future.”

“Battle?”

This was Emma’s question, tilting her head. With a look on his face that he couldn’t really guess.

“You decided to join the remnants of ‘Count Rhodes’ soon, right? Then there would be no need for us to step out?”

I was wondering what to say.

Instantly, he looked away and let out a low voice.

“Anyway, be careful… You should stay at the rear as much as possible.”

Emma still had an expression of disbelief on her face, but I deliberately didn’t say anything further.

Because it was a fact that we would find out soon anyway.

And the next day.

Pak, blood splattered and a head fell off. There was only surprise and fear in the eyes of the middle-aged man with his handsome mustache.

‘The Count of Rhodes’.

The bone pain, as it was once called, rolled pathetically across the ground. Dozens of corpses were already lying around.

Some were knights, some were soldiers.

The distinction was irrelevant now. Because now everyone was just an equal corpse.

The traces of struggling to survive came into my eyes one by one. Shabby clothes, an emaciated face, tree branches forcibly fixing broken limbs, etc.

My hair was soaked with blood before I knew it.

There was no resistance left. The rest of them all just sit down and stare at me with fear-soaked eyes.

Only then did I look back as I brushed away the blood on my knife. There, Emma was making a slightly surprised expression.

“…… That’s why.”

He greeted me with a clear smile. My pupils reflected in that pale green retina, well.

He looked very tired.

In the sky, bloody letters are burning alone. As a symbol of the now defunct authority.

Everyone was struggling.

Ahead of perdition.

**

“The Count of Rhodes.”

I suddenly came to my senses when I heard the dry voice. A fierce headache passed through my brain, and before I could involuntarily let out a moan, my eyelids were forcibly drawn back.

It was a world full of light. On top of that, objects with color are a table and two chairs. And only the emotionless golden eyes of the man sitting across from me.

“Have you heard of it? He was one of the most influential nobles in the western part of the Empire. He was also a man with a gift for reading the times… Before the rise of the Dark Church, when the continent was in disarray, I increased the number of soldiers even if it was unreasonable. He must have been about a thousand or so.”

“What, what are you talking about… ….”

I asked with a frown, unable to speak the proper language because of the headache. Even so, the dry voice of the man flowed indifferently.

“But he was human after all. The day the Saint Ciendel fell at the hands of one of the Seven Sins and the Saint died… Count Rhodes decided to support the Holy Kingdom. Stupidly. Her daughter was studying at Chengdu.”

“Where is this place?”

“The pollution that hit the holy city of Ciendel was terrifying. The saint burned his life to reap the pollution of tens of thousands, but soon Ciendel became a living hell. Even escape is impossible… Massive quarantine followed immediately.”

“Why have I been brought here all of a sudden?”

“Resources, including food, are running out day by day. What do you think they would have chosen?”

“Hey!”

I didn’t even know who I was talking to, I shouted, hitting the desk recklessly.

A growl comes from scratching the uvula.