[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
Chapter 114 - Isra’s Great Forest (13)
"Professor Isra, I was worried you wouldn’t co."
I tossed the branch I had been swinging aside and smiled, while Isra forced a small smile in return.
"I just needed to clear my head a bit..."
Isra hesitated as she slowly approached .
"You’ve... sweated a lot..."
"I helped out here while you were clearing your head. If I’m going to get a al out of this, I figured I should earn it."
I tried to joke, but Isra didn’t laugh.
"You could have bathed by the stream..."
"From what I saw earlier today, that might not have been a good idea."
"I see..."
Isra nodded slowly, seeming to understand my point.
"Have you made up your mind? Headmaster Kirrin is probably waiting anxiously."
Instead of answering, Isra quietly began to speak.
"Well..."
But she trailed off and lowered her head, remaining silent for a while.
"Well... I’m sorry."
Just as I was about to ask again, Isra suddenly bowed deeply.
"I apologize for all the disrespectful things I’ve done. I was late because I was trying to figure out how to properly apologize..."
"Ah, well, you just need to say you’re sorry. There’s no need to go that far."
"No, I’ve done so much wrong... I felt that a passing apology wouldn’t be enough."
Isra remained bowed as she spoke.
"It might sound like an excuse, but it wasn’t that I disliked you as a person, Professor Dian... It was just that..."
Here, Isra faltered, unable to continue, so I finished her sentence for her.
"You hated the Head Combat Professor, who had connections to the Imperial Palace and was getting in the way of your advancent to the Headmaster position. Not the person, but the position."
"That’s right..."
Isra bowed her head even lower.
"I know this apology alone isn’t enough. But I had to start with it... Please forgive ... Please, I beg you to forgive ..."
"Hmm, should I forgive you?"
I stroked my chin with a smile, and Isra trembled silently.
"Alright. I’ll forgive you, just this once!"
"Th-thank you..."
Isra bowed repeatedly, her forehead nearly touching her knees.
In all my life, I’ve never seen an elf begging a human like this.
"And also..."
Still bowing, Isra stamred.
"Th-thank you... for saving ..."
"Oh, well, it was the right thing to do."
"I was foolish... I didn’t recognize you... and repaid your kindness with hostility..."
"Well, I was wearing a mask back then. And I didn’t recognize you either. You were just a little girl at the ti, but elves grow up so fast."
"Regardless of the reasons, I apologize... If only I had known sooner..."
Isra’s voice began to tremble with emotion.
"If I had known... things would have been different... If soone could send back in ti with magic... I’d go straight to the past and slap the face of the younger who treated you so harshly, Professor Dian..."
"Don’t bla yourself too much. These things happen."
"I’m so sorry... So very sorry..."
"It’s okay. I’ve accepted your apology, and that’s enough."
I lightly patted Isra on the shoulder, and she collapsed to her knees, crying.
"I’m truly sorry, Professor... I never repaid the kindness you showed by saving my life... And I couldn’t even keep the promise you made to to live without despair or giving up..."
Isra placed her hands on the ground and wept.
"I wanted to beco Headmaster... Once I left for the city, I wanted to see how far I could climb... But no matter how hard I struggled, I kept getting stuck in the sa place..."
Oh dear...
"I wanted to kill Kirrin... I hated that she was above just because of her connections, doing nothing... Her education was inferior, her skills lacking... Yet just because she was born to the right parents..."
Isra shook her head violently.
"Still, I tried not to give up...! I kept telling myself that one day Kirrin would step down... So I endured, doing my best in my current position... But then suddenly you arrived..."
Isra stopped speaking and took a deep, ragged breath.
"I’m sorry, Mister... Instead of becoming a great person... I gave in to jealousy and envy... In the end, I abandoned everything, gave up, and ran away like a coward... All the while thinking the world was against ..."
Isra, with her forehead pressed against the ground, sobbed, her shoulders shaking.
"I’m sorry... I wanted to thank you, but... I’m just so sorry, Mister..."
I looked down at Isra for a mont before letting out a sigh.
"Isra."
I knelt down on one knee and placed my hand on Isra’s trembling back.
"I accept your apology, and I understand your thanks. But right now, I’m the one who’s grateful to you."
I continued to stroke her trembling back as I spoke.
"Thank you for growing into such an amazing person."
"I’m not... I’m a failure..."
"Why would you say that? You earned your advanced degree in less than ten years after moving to the city. That’s a huge achievent, isn’t it?"
"It’s not..."
"What are you talking about! Others spend twenty years trying to achieve that, and you did it without even basic education. You did great. It’s truly impressive."
I continued to comfort her, gently rubbing her back.
"And I heard from the Security Office that you practically took on the role of Vice-Headmaster, leading the academy in place of Headmaster Kirrin ever since it was founded."
"That was just to get the Security Office’s attention..."
"The results aren’t invalid just because your motivations were less than pure. And that’s not sothing anyone could manage without a strong sense of duty."
Isra’s sobbing and trembling gradually began to subside.
"And I’ve also heard that most of the salary you receive from the academy goes toward the Great Forest restoration project. That’s sothing I could never have imagined doing."
"Others are doing the sa... It’s not just ..."
"Are they, like you, enduring and working hard despite difficult circumstances?"
Isra didn’t answer that.
"You lost the Great Forest and went to an unfamiliar city, where you earned that advanced degree. You diligently maintained the academy instead of openly expressing your frustration, even though the odds of rising further were slim with a Headmaster under the Emperor’s protection. And you sent your earnings back to your kin. An ordinary person would have given up and fled long ago."
"But in the end, I did run away..."
"Running away isn’t always a bad thing, Isra. It’s better than stubbornly staying until you break. Running away also takes courage. And more importantly, I don’t think I ever asked you to stick it out and endure."
Isra slowly lifted her head.
"In a situation where most people would have given up and lashed out, you showed remarkable resilience. So you’re not a failure."
"Mister... I..."
"You said that if you had known I was the one who saved you, things would have been different. The sa goes for . If I had known that you were the elf I saved back then, what would I have done?"
"You probably... would have hated ... thinking I was a monster who repaid kindness with ingratitude..."
"No. I probably would have hugged you tightly and said thank you."
"What...?"
I looked into Isra’s eyes and smiled.
"I’m thankful to you."
"You’re thankful to ...?"
"Yes, Isra. Thank you for growing up so well."
I reached out and gently stroked Isra’s head.
"I was worried that without the Great Forest, you might have ended up living a aningless, hopeless life. If that had happened, the act of saving you from the flas back then would have been aningless."
A glimr appeared in Isra’s green eyes. It was as if the stars in the night sky were reflecting in her eyes.
"When I returned after killing the Demon King, they gave all sorts of things in the Palace. A noble title, land, gold, and other things I can’t even rember. But I gave up everything, well except the money."
"Why...?"
"Because it was aningless. Killing the Demon King doesn’t make you a noble or give you land. You can earn those things through other ans. Those titles and lands can’t be a badge of honor for killing the Demon King. Of course, I needed the money. I didn’t want to bother working for it."
I added a joke at the end, laughing.
"But Isra, seeing the people I saved still alive and well, even by chance, years later, is different. It’s a reward I could never have gotten if I hadn’t been part of the Demon King’s Slayer Special Force. There aren’t many people in this world who can hear soone thank them for saving their life ten years ago."
"That’s really true..."
"So, thank you. For giving aning to what I did. For proving that the choice I made back then wasn’t wrong."
I grabbed Isra’s shoulders and smiled brightly.
"Saving you back then was absolutely the right thing to do!"
# # # # #
Dian’s bright smile filled Isra’s vision.
In that mont, it was as if ti had stopped, and Isra forgot even to breathe.
Dian’s smile was filled with firm conviction and affection, sweeping away all the guilt and regret that had weighed down on Isra.
As his hand touched her shoulder, Isra realized that she was still soone important to soone.
"Waaaaaah!"
Isra threw her arms around Dian and burst into tears like a child.
[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
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