༺ The Lord Is With Us (15) ༻
Emma’s arms were filled with dozens of potions, and she seed to want to give every single one.
Apart from the obvious problems of transporting so many potions, they were also a valuable source of inco for a commoner that I simply couldn’t take.
That was why I tried to dissuade her.
“Emma, don’t you think you’re being excessive?”
“Yeah, but the more prepared you are, the better, right?”
She posed a fair point with a tilt of her head.
Still, I needed to do sothing about it.
“I can’t even carry all this around, and you make your living selling potions.”
“……It’s alright.”
She carefully set the potions she was holding down on her desk.
Despite being a fairly large desk, the sheer amount of potions piling on top of it led to so of them rolling under the table, where I quickly picked them back up.
Emma, who had been reaching for the falling potions, flashed a smile to thank for being concerned about her.
Resting her hand on her chest, she spoke with a look of pride on her face.
“If I’m hungry, I can always go pick so mushrooms! I know a few mushroom colonies in the southern forest…….”
“No.”
I cut her off firmly, making my intentions clear. She looked at , bewildered by the firmness of my tone.
I shook my head vigorously with resolute eyes.
“Not a chance. Are you crazy? Don’t you rember how you were attacked by a demonic beast before?”
“B-But that was just because I was unlucky…….”
“I don’t care.”
Emma beca a little dejected by my stern rejection. She was normally wise and intelligent, but it seed like she was incapable of rational judgnt when it ca to her desire to help .
And as grateful as I was, I had no choice but to decline.
There was no way I could have her skip proper als for my sake. I wasn’t the kind of person who would sacrifice his friend’s livelihood for his own benefit. It also wouldn’t help at all. If anything, it would make my stomach churn every ti I chugged a potion.
Emma was my first commoner friend. One I had brought back from the brink of death. It had cost tens of thousands of gold, but I didn’t regret it one bit.
Through my sacrifice, Emma and her father were both saved. A happy future for the father and daughter had only just begun, but here she was attempting to risk her life again.
A sigh escaped my lips as I continued to try and dissuade her.
“Emma, you promised you’d be happy.”
“I’m happy being of help to Ian……..”
Her voice was sullen, and the way her erald eyes peeked at was enough to make any man weak in their knees.
As such, my voice automatically took on a more soothing tone.
“Emma, think about it from my perspective. How would you feel if I was eating mushrooms for als?”
“……But mushrooms have been a staple food since I was a kid?”
Oops, that was insensitive to a commoner’s lifestyle.
If I had been the lord of a territory, my reputation amongst the people would have plumted.
I broke out in a cold sweat and quickly tried to redy the situation.
“It’s not that mushrooms are bad, it’s just that I don’t want you to take the risk of going into the woods. To , your life is precious.”
Seeing her face flush red, my attempt to convey my sincerity seed to have had an effect.
Her green eyes montarily stared at blankly. Then, with a soft giggle, she shyly averted her gaze.
Thankfully, she didn’t seem offended. She even seed a little pleased, and although she didn’t directly et my eyes, she nodded her head in agreent.
“I-I see. If I’m that important to you, I guess it can’t be helped…….”
It was a different side of Emma that I hadn’t seen before. She had always been calm and clear-headed, but now, she was looking sowhat bashful.
I wondered if it was a side effect from her previous encounter with the demonic wolf, but I had no way of knowing as of now.
I just shoved the suspicion away into the back of my mind and shook my head.
Also, now that the opportunity presented itself, I cut to the chase.
“And there are plenty of ways to help that don’t involve potions.”
“Like ……?”
“Your knowledge.”
She tilted her head.
I lowered my voice.
“Do you rember our conversation from last ti? About how it might be possible to receive a letter from the future?”
Emma tapped her lips for a short mont, lost in thought. Then, as if a realization had dawned upon her, she let out an affirming noise.
Her eyes regained their usual intelligence.
“We talked about Delphirem and the Seven Stars, right?”
“Yeah. Tell a little more about him. And also, could a soul also travel back in ti and not just letters?”
Her brows furrowed slightly. Pushing herself to her feet, she faced the corner of the workshop, and with a magical signal, a series of solid blue lines began to form in the air.
It was a celestial diagram that was renowned as a must-have for both mages and alchemists. It captured the locations of all the stars in the sky.
“As I said, it’s not impossible. Information faces less resistance because it has no physical form. If it were to take the form of a letter, at most a sheet of paper would be traveling, and the cost would be minimal. But the soul is different.”
With that, Emma waved her hand once. The center of the astronomical diagram expanded along her movent, and seven unusually bright stars filled my vision.
They symbolized the seven sins committed by Delphirem.
Those seven sins were the first cris committed by mankind. It was said that the seven stars for each of the sins were located the closest to Arus’ Eye and under careful observation.
When the moon was at its peak, the seven stars would be positioned around it, and whenever the moon was at the center of the seven stars, that was also when the power of the Evil God Oros was at its greatest.
With the seven stars under Arus’ constant surveillance, Arus would never permit anyone to covet the power of the stars.
Not humans, not demonic beasts, and not even the Evil God himself.
There was only one entity capable of calling upon the stars. The rightful owner of those seven stars.
Delphirem, the traitor to humanity.
I absentmindedly muttered the na to myself. It was the sa na I’d repeatedly heard in my dreams.
“Even though information can leak through the tiline with less resistance, it would still place a considerable amount of burden on the world if a vast amount of it was being sent back. Not to even ntion the exorbitant amount of mana necessary to do so. That being said, the cost would be unimaginable to send sothing like the soul since it contains countless information.”
“So, does that an souls can’t return to the past?”
In response to my question, Emma shook her head.
“No, I’m just saying that there would be limitations. It’s not like sending a letter where it’s as simple as sending a piece of information and being done with it. For instance, a conditional limitation like the soul only being able to manifest itself during certain tis of the day?”
As she expounded on her explanation, she shook her head with a wry smile as if dismissing an absurd hypothesis.
“But that would still only be possible with the power of the Seven Stars, and unless that condition is t, it’s impossible to travel into the past, whether by letter or soul. “
“…So there aren’t any other possibilities?”
“There are two exceptions.”
In other words, there was a possibility. Seeing the color return to my face, Emma spoke to gently with a bitter smile.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Ian. They’re both absurd possibilities.”
“What could they be…….”
“The extermination of mankind-“
My jaw imdiately dropped. Then, as if she had expected my reaction, she once again shook her head.
“Or the destruction of Delphirem. Either one of two must happen. The forr would cause Arus to lose his power, and the latter would remove the need to hold onto the power of the Seven Stars.”
Emma seed to consider both scenarios as impossibilities and for good reason.
The extinction of either humanity or a mythical being.
They were both unimaginable, but there was a line that ca to mind as soon as I heard her theory.
“If we don’t protect the future, the world will perish.”
It was the line scrawled onto the back of the first letter.
I remained silent, pondering the eerie future it hinted at.
I felt unsettled even when it ca ti to leave the lab. I grabbed a few potions that Emma had prepared for and was about to leave the workshop when she suddenly shot a question.
“Ian, how is it? Don’t you think sothing about changed?”
It was a perplexing question, and one that I couldn’t readily co up with an answer for with my head already spinning from the previous influx of information.
Seeing this, Emma softly giggled and revealed the answer with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Actually, I applied a perfu called ‘Love Potion’. It supposedly makes you more attractive to the opposite sex… So-“
Before she could finish, I brought my nose to her neck.
It had a peculiar scent. It was sweet and also tantalized my heart.
I nodded. It definitely had an effect befitting its na.
Slowly, I inched away from her.
But when I turned to face her, she was holding her breath, frozen stiff on the spot – Her flushed face was the only indication of life.
Then, I nodded and complinted her.
“It definitely seems effective. It’s pretty nice”
“……Y-y-y-yeah?”
Emma stamred before averting her gaze and fanning her face.
Her erald eyes darted back and forth, and in her embarrassnt, she only managed to shyly murmur a single line.
“Y-yeah. I think it’s effective… on m- too…….”
With that, I left her workshop. There was still one more person I had to et.
Senior Elsie.
**
Surprisingly, she was easy to find. Due to her tendency to drag her gang around, as soon as I asked for her whereabouts, I was imdiately provided with sightings.
As usual, Senior Elsie was sitting in a secluded area she had claid for herself. With a smug look on her face, she proudly boasted of her achievents to her group.
“Do you know what kind of face that bitch Delphine made back then? She was lying there looking like her world had fallen apart, that stupid bitch! I should have just turned her into minced at right then and there…….”
One of her goons burst out laughing, even throwing a comnt in response to her words.
“Co on, even for her, minced at is too much.”
“It’s …… maybe you’re right. Anyway, that damn bitch-“
A sigh involuntarily leaked out as her words flowed into my ears.
Her manner of speech always contrasted with her doll-like appearance. The Rinella family was a prestigious noble family, yet here she was, spouting coarse words left and right.
I was tempted to reach for the hatchet at my waist, but I held myself back. After all, I was here today to ask for a favor.
Instead, I raised my hand and casually greeted her.
“Senior Elsie!”
“She was begging for r- Huh? What!”
Senior Elsie, who was still in the middle of her story, sprung up from her seat as soon as she heard my voice and ca running over to .
She looked way happier than I imagined, a huge smile lit up her face.
“You, you…! What’s going on? Why haven’t you been around lately?”
“Hi, it’s been a while, senior. I missed you.”
It was nothing but a greeting, but she seed extrely pleased by it. Then, she crossed her arms with a haughty expression.
“Hehe, really? It’s been a while since you’ve said anything decent, you cheeky junior. As a reward, I’ll grant you the privilege to pet .”
Her slightly expectant glance was sowhat adorable. I had wanted to tease her a little for being so smug as of late, but she looked so cute that I decided to let it slide for today.
She seed to be pleased as I gently pet her head. Her face resembled that of a cat that had successfully gotten rid of an itch.
Thinking it was ti to get to the point, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Senior Elsie, have you figured out what you were going to do for your next practicum?”
“……? No, I’m still thinking about it.”
“Then, would you like to co with ?”
“Hmmm…”
With dazed eyes, a relaxed sigh leaked out from her mouth as she seed to relish the feeling of having her head pet
“Heh”
Then with a snort, the corners of her mouth twisted into a smirk as she glanced at with the cheeky grin decorating her face.
“? Why would I go with a weakling like yo- Hiik! I’ll go! I’ll go!”
Ultimately, I was unable to hold back and ended up moving my hand towards the hatchet at my waist. With that simple gesture, Senior Elsie was successfully persuaded.
Why did I bother using words when it was so simple?
I cursed my foolishness and placed my hand back on her head.
She was trembling with her hat tugged down, but with my hand back on her head, she seed to settle down a bit.
“I really need your skills. As you know, it’s extrely difficult finding a mage as skilled as you…….”
“……T-that’s true! I am a pretty amazing mage!”
Realizing that she had no power to refuse, Senior Elsie desperately tried to find a reason to follow . In a way, it was her attempt to save so face as she didn’t want to admit to being blackmailed by a junior.
Beyond that, she seed to like my complint as a smug expression crept back onto her face.
“I guess it can’t be helped! I’m the only senior you can trust, after all!”
I fell silent.
Was Senior Elsie soone I could trust? It was food for thought, but I didn’t intend on pointing that out.
Still, I felt I should at least give her a heads-up of the other mbers.
Knowing the strained relationship between her and Senior Delphine, I hesitated before speaking.
“No, there’s one more.”
“Heh, of course, you wouldn’t have anyone else but… Huh? What, there’s soone else?”
Her head tilted as though wondering how I could possibly know another fourth-year besides her.
While it was cute, it was still irritating, and so, I spat out my words sowhat brusquely.
“Yes, Senior Delphine is coming with us.”
The mont she heard that, Senior Elsie stiffened despite my hand stroking her head.
Her eyes widened in shock, and I noticed a sense of betrayal from within them.
Senior Elsie was on her feet, trembling as her blue sapphire eyes shone with anger.
This was the beginning of a competition that would last throughout the entire practicum.
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