Love Letter From The Future Chapter 9

༺ The First Letter (9) ༻

On that day, Seria returned with a sullen expression.

It was an unexpected situation to her, after all, even though it was hard for her, she bent her pride as a junior and sought advice from her senior.

But for , it was a very reasonable decision.

Am I crazy? Objectively speaking, Seria was a better swordsman than , and there was nothing I could teach her.

There was nothing more stupid than wasting ti on pointless things. If I could have helped, I would have spared so ti for a few days due to my responsibility as her senior at the academy.

Another reason was that her relationship with was not deep enough for to deliberately go and teach her my insights.

After spending days with her, I might have pointed out a problem that she had not noticed herself, but it would take too long.

I wasn’t a person who was free enough to sacrifice so much of my ti for a junior who wasn’t even that close to . In fact, it was more appropriate to say that I had enough free ti, but it was clear that it would be more fun to spend ti with close friends such as Leto and Celine instead.

However, maybe it was because I refused too quickly, but my mind, after sending Seria away, was not as comfortable as I thought it would be.

The sight of Seria walking away with her shoulders dropped in disappointnt contrasted with her usual arrogant and upright visage, evoked even more of a pitiful feeling within .

No wonder Leto and Celine criticized .

“Hey, hey, hey, How could you say no to her so directly? You should have said it more discreetly.”

“Yeah, yeah, Ian. This was a bit too much even for .”

Leto spoke as I expected him to, but Celine’s reaction, who seed to be about to fight to death with Seria at any mont, was surprising.

Looking back, I thought it was a little too much, but I couldn’t help it.

I couldn’t take back what I already said. I shook my head to shake off those confusing thoughts.

“Well, it’s already over. It’s useless to continue worrying about it. Let’s go eat instead.”

Leto and Celine blad even more for my rebuttal. Rather, Celine, rethinking about my proposal, thought I was right, and soon regained her smile.

Only Leto shook his head with a pale face, groaned in an exhausted voice.

“No, I don’t have ti for that… I’m so busy.”

“Do you have that many assignnts?”

“That’s how it is in the mage faculty. I want to kill all the professors..….”

Leto, who was muttering such scary words, embodying truly how a student of the mage faculty is in his busy days, soon sighed and drooped his shoulders.

“I also have to visit the alchemy faculty’s lecture building later. What should I do? I’m way too exhausted to even move.”

In the anti, Leto began to glance at . It was an obvious hint.

“Ah, if only soone would go in my stead… Co to think of it, Ian, did you take your liberal arts class near the alchemy faculty’s building?”

Celine, stunned, tried to say sothing, but it fell through when I accepted doing my friend a favor. Celine sulked as she lost her timing to talk to .

“Yes, yes. I’ll take your place, so you can go back and rest… The bags under your eyes are so dark.”

At my compassionate acceptance, Leto was delighted, and took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to . Then he began to give a rough explanation.

“It’s sothing I need for my research, and I require the help of alchemy faculty students. The professor already gave so of them notice, so you’ll find it if you go to the alchemy’s faculty lecture hall before this evening. You have to go to Emma.”

“Emma?”

It was a familiar na. In the third year of the ‘Faculty of Alchemical Studies,’ we were at the stage where we could chat pleasantly. One might say she was close to .

But I tilted my head for a mont when I heard the na because I felt like I had heard it sowhere else recently.

The worry didn’t last long. There was so ti left until I went to Emma anyway. I could think about it gradually. With that mindset, I nodded for now.

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’ll go to her.”

So that afternoon, I entered the lecture hall of the ‘Faculty of Alchemical Studies.’

The lobby on the first floor was lined with mysterious experintal tools. It seed to be an exhibition, but I, a swordsman, had no idea about their purpose.

When I looked at the note that Leto handed over, the number “506” was written at the top. It ans I had to go to room 506 in the alchemy faculty lecture hall.

Having climbed the stairs to reach the fifth floor, I knocked on the door with the sign “506.” Then, soon from the inside, the sound of a voice saying ‘co in’.

It sounded familiar. Convinced that I had co to the right place, I opened the door pushing it aside.

There, there was a woman with red hair and a gentle impression staring at with her eyes wide open. Like she didn’t expect to visit.

I grinned.

“Emma! Long ti no see.”

“…… Ian? What are you doing here?”

Hearing Emma’s voice, a mixture of both surprise and warm reception, I took a seat at the reception table in the center of the lab.

And I spoke in a calm voice.

“It’s an errand, Leto had a note for you. Sothing he needed for his research?”

“Oh, oh, oh! Professor Adriana’s lecture… Yeah, I got it. If you see Leto next ti, tell him to co back in three days.”

Emma then calmly accepted the note I gave her. Her green eyes slowly scanned its content. She seed to be checking what ingredients to prepare.

In the anti, I looked around Emma’s laboratory. It may have been lent by the school, but an alchemist’s laboratory has always been sothing intriguing.

The eyes in the jars, the unidentified silver powder, and the by-products of magic beasts such as claws and hearts.

Just imagining what kind of potion those items would be reborn as made fascinated . Of course, I heard from Emma that it’s actually quite a difficult task because the preparation is thoroughly based on complex formulas and theories.

Imagination was synonymous with freedom, so I looked around the alchemist’s laboratory with a bated heart. And by the ti Emma finished reading the note, she said hello.

“Co to think of it, how are you these days? I think it’s my first ti seeing you since last sester.”

“Yeah, it’s the sa as always. I’ve been going back and forth in the forest lately. There were surprisingly many ingredients.”

As soon as I heard the word ‘forest,’ I felt a hunch in a corner of my head.

I felt sothing coming to mind. I then asked, tilting my head.

“If it’s a forest, are you talking about the one in the south?”

“Yes, It’s where the hunting festival is held.”

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous there? There must be wild beasts.”

Emma laughed at my probing questions. She looked at with the eyes of soone who had just heard a funny joke.

“You know, the wild beasts of the forest don’t co out to the outskirts. The more you go inside, the more food they get. I’m happy to be able to collect so many ingredients, since everyone is so worried about the beasts that they don’t even go into the forest.”

“……Are you sure?”

Emma nodded vigorously to my question, which was still worrying.

“Yeah, don’t you know I used to be a herbalist? I know the forest like the back of my hand. Ian, while you may not seem like it, you are an aristocrat after all.”

I coughed out heavily at Emma’s words.

While I was only the second son of a countryside aristocrat, I was still in a much higher position than a commoner like Emma.

More than half of the commoners who enter the academy get to receive a scholarship. Nonetheless, only one-third of the Academy’s students were commoners.

The nobles didn’t need to worry about their livelihood. It was enough to just concentrate on either training or studying all day. But for the vast majority of commoners, the situation was different.

Except for the offspring of so wealthy rchants, most commoners have to study and train to the point of losing the ti to eat and sleep. That’s how they managed to get into the academy.

No matter how hard I trained while growing up, I was still no match to the students from the commoner background.

Feeling a little embarrassed, I began making up excuses.

“No, after all, you, as a commoner, must know the forest well… I know that you used to be an herbalist. I’m not saying that I know nothing, and only rely on my status as a noble.”

Emma giggled at my shrinking voice. It was a clear laugh that reflected her feelings.

“Yes, I know. I just said it because Ian doesn’t feel like a nobleman. Sotis, I forget that Ian is an aristocrat.”

“You can just forget about it. It ans nothing to the academy anyway.”

To Emma’s comforting remark, I replied as if it was nothing. But I knew as well that it was not such a simple matter.

Even if it happened only recently to , rumors spread widely that I beat Seria to the point of near death.

This was due to the fact that I knocked down the top of the grade, while being only at the lower-interdiate rank at best, but was also because of the fact that a lower aristocrat of the Empire plumted a person coming from the high aristocracy.

Although there is no discrimination based on status within the academy. However, in the outside world, it wasn’t the sa. After graduating from the Academy, a commoner returned to the plebs, and the nobles returned to the aristocracy.

Emma, the daughter of a herbalist, was smart enough to get into the academy, so she must have known that my words were just to diffuse that atmosphere.

Nevertheless, she soon smiled warmly, uttering a sincere thanks

“……Yeah, thank you.”

She’s a lovely woman. It would be nice if she had a little more confidence, but I didn’t an to ddle in such a deep matter.

However, while talking to Emma, a mory ca to mind.

That letter, which said it ca from the future seven years from now, sohow crossed my mind.

“……Ehm, Emma, by any chance.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

Emma looked at with a little surprise, as if she had anything more to say. It was about ti I had to leave.

But Emma was the only one I could ask the question that ca to my mind, so I asked her.

“Is it possible to receive a letter from seven years in the future?”

Emma stared at silently, tilting her head as my question seed to be a bolt out of the blue to her.

It was nonsense, to say the least. A letter from the future seven years from now.

It must have been soone’s prank letter for a week when I lost my mory. As I said so, I shook my head.

“No, it’s not that important. I shouldn’t have asked you that question. Then I’ll go now…….”

“It’s not impossible.”

However, Emma’s answer, which she had been deeply contemplating for a while, was so unexpected that my body stiffened as I was about to stand up.

My questioning gaze turned to Emma, who was lost in thought with her arms folded.

And soon she headed to the corner of the laboratory. And when she pressed a button there, a hemispherical map unfolded in the air.

It was a map used by all magic and podium techniques based on astronomy and astrology.

“You know that every star in the sky has myth and history, right?”

“Oh, I’ve heard of it…….”

Emma waved her hand before my answer was finished. The seven stars embedded in the center of the sky were magnified with a hook.

“With the exception of the sun and the moon, these seven stars are the ones with the strongest power. Represent the seven sins that Delphirem, the first sinner of mankind, committed.”

Delphirem, I stood up as I heard that na.

In my dream that night, the man told .

‘Delphirem looms on the horizon’ but shouldn’t it be just a legend?

“You know that, don’t you? The concept of death didn’t exist in the first place in humans. But after Delphirem made seven offerings to the evil god, sin was born, and death was created.”

“……So?”

My voice hardened without even realizing. However, Emma, who was deep in her thoughts, did not notice such an expression, and continued her explanation while placing her chin in her hand.

“They are stars with the power to twist the rules of the universe… With that power, it’s not impossible to reverse ti. After all, they gave birth to a concept that did not exist in the plan of God.”

I, who until then had remained stiff in an awkward position, sank back into the chair.

An ominous foreboding struck . That night, that vivid dream. And a letter that was too elaborate to be dismissed as a joke.

I suddenly rembered one of the contents of the letter. Yes, the letter also included Emma’s na.

She will be attacked by a beast and fall into a coma. My heart skipped a beat out of shock.

And the mont I was about to leave Emma with a warning.

“Of course, it can’t be possible. Hahaha…….”

At Emma’s playful voice, I was imdiately stunned and had no choice but to stare blankly at Emma.

Emma giggled, perhaps unexpectedly seeing my reaction. As if everything she had said so far was a joke.

“Ti travel? It’s only theoretically possible. There have been many attempts to deal with the power of those stars, but they have never been successful.”

“……Is that so?”

Persuaded by Emma’s confident tone, I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down.

Yes, that can’t be true. A letter from seven years in the future.

It seems that my brain got ssed up after having been through so many strange things recently. I shook my head with a wry smile.

Let’s stop thinking about it. At the mont I resolved myself, Emma’s words bolstered my decision.

“Don’t worry too much. I don’t know where you heard about it, but it’s probably just a rumor.”

I sighed and nodded. I’ve been wasting my energy and brain on useless things. My body finally rose from the chair.

And just as I was about to say goodbye, as there was sothing bothering , I asked Emma.

“Emma, co to think of it, when are you going to the woods?”

“Well, I’m thinking of going there soti this evening… Why?”

Should I tell her what was in the letter or not?

I hesitated for a mont, but I soon smiled bitterly and left only one word.

“Just, be careful.”

“You, again… don’t worry. Oh, gosh! Co to think of it, I almost forgot about it. I have sothing to give you.”

Emma took out a small potion bottle with a cute gesture. It was a grayish potion.

“It’s a potion that wipes out your traces. I succeeded in making it a while ago. If I start mass-producing it, I will be able to prevent hunters and travelers from dying.”

In the anti, Emma asked to test it and put a bottle of potion in my hand. She looked proud, as she was an alchemist boasting her research results.

Since her father was a herbalist, it was probably a potion containing her most deeply rooted feelings and hopes.

She should have used it to go to the forest today instead of giving it to . Still, the sll of the ingredients she was going to collect today was so strong that the potion would be aningless.

So Emma saw off with her usual sweet smile.

The next day, Emma was found unconscious in the forest.

She was attacked by an unidentified beast, and her intestines were spilled out of her body.