Love Letter From The Future

That day, Ceria returned home looking dejected.

It seemed that she had not expected such a turn of events. No matter how you looked at it, for a junior to humble herself and ask a senior for guidance, to be dismissed so coldly was cruel.

However, to me, it was a very rational decision.

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

There was nothing more foolish than pouring time into meaningless tasks. If I could be of help, I might have set aside some time out of loyalty to my junior at the Academy.

Moreover, the reason I didn’t go out of my way to guide her was that our relationship was not special enough for that.

If I spent days with her, I might even point out problems she had not discovered herself. However, that required far too long a time.

I wasn’t idle enough to sacrifice that much time for a junior with whom I wasn’t even close. In fact, as idle as I was, it was clear that spending time with close friends like Reto and Celin was far more enjoyable.

But perhaps because I had rejected her so decisively, my heart was not entirely at ease parting with Ceria.

The sight of Ceria walking away with her shoulders slumped, looking dejected, was even more pitiable in contrast to her usual proud and upright image.

It was no wonder that Reto and Celin began to chide me.

“Hey, hey… even so, could you refuse her so bluntly? You should have said it more indirectly.”

“Y-yeah. I-an oppa, even I think that was a bit harsh.”

While it was understandable for Reto, it was surprising to see Celin, who had been acting like she was ready to fight Ceria, commenting on it.

Looking back on it, I suppose I had gone too far, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Once words are spoken, they can’t be taken back. I shook my head to rid myself of unproductive thoughts.

“It’s fine, it’s already over. Let’s just go eat.”

Since I, the one involved, had taken that stance, Reto and Celin could no longer reprimand me. Instead, as Celin thought it over, perhaps she found that approach more favorable, and soon her bright smile returned.

Only Reto shook his head with a pale face. He lamented in a weak voice.

“No, I don’t even have time for that… I’m ridiculously busy.”

“Do you have that many assignments?”

“That’s just how it is in the Magic Department. I want to kill the professors…”

As a student from the busy Magic Department, Reto muttered terrifying words, soon sighing and slumping his shoulders.

“I still have to go find the Alchemy Department’s lecture building later. What should I do? I barely have any energy to move now.”

As he said this, Reto began to glance towards me. It was a behavior that was as obvious as could be.

“Ah~ I wonder if someone will go in my place… By the way, I-an, don’t you have a cultural studies class near the Alchemy Department?”

Celin looked at me, seemingly at a loss for words, but it was all cut off as I happily agreed to the request of my friend. With her timing for a reply stolen, Celin sulked.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll go in your place, so you should go back and rest… your eyes look completely haggard.”

With my empathic acceptance, Reto beamed and pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket to hand it to me. He then started to explain the details.

“These are materials I need for my research, and I need the help of the Alchemy Department’s students. The professor said he had already informed a couple of students, so if you go to the Alchemy Department’s lecture building before this evening, you should be able to find it. Go see Emma.”

“Emma?”

It was a face I knew well. A third-year in the Alchemy Department, while we weren’t close friends, we could manage to have pleasant chats.

However, the reason I tilted my head when I heard that name was that it felt like I had heard it somewhere recently.

The contemplation didn’t last long. I had a little time left before I would go find Emma. I could think it through later. With this mindset, I nodded in agreement.

“Sure, don’t worry. I’ll pass it on.”

That afternoon, I entered the Alchemy Department’s lecture building.

The first-floor lobby was filled with bizarre experimental tools. It seemed they were part of an exhibit, but as a student from the Swordsmanship Department, I couldn’t even guess their purposes.

The note Reto handed me had the number ‘506’ written at the top. That meant I was to find Room 506 in the Alchemy Department lecture building.

After climbing the stairs to the fifth floor, I knocked on a door marked ‘506’. Soon, I heard a voice from inside say, “Come in.”

It was a familiar voice. I was reassured that I had found the right place and swung the door open.

Inside stood a woman with red hair, looking at me with wide eyes, as if she hadn’t expected my visit.

I grinned and smiled.

“Emma! Long time no see.”

“……I-an? What are you doing here?”

With a voice that mixed half surprise and half joy, Emma watched as I took a seat at the table set up in the center of the lab.

With a relaxed tone, I continued.

“I have a favor to deliver; Reto sent a note to you. It seems he needs something for his research?”

“Ah, ah! You mean Professor Adriana’s lecture… Okay, I got it. When you see Reto next time, tell him to come by in three days.”

As Emma accepted the note I handed her, her green eyes slowly scanned the text. It seemed she was verifying what materials she needed to prepare.

In the meantime, I looked around Emma’s lab. Though this was likely provided by the school, there was always something intriguing about an alchemist’s workshop.

Flasks contained eyes, a mysterious silver powder, and remnants from monsters like claws and hearts.

Just imagining what kind of potions those items would be transformed into was quite exciting. Of course, Emma had told me that it required precise preparation based on complex formulas and theories, so it was, in reality, a pretty difficult task.

But imagination was free, so I enjoyed exploring the alchemist’s lab with a light heart. When Emma had read through the note, I decided to ask her how she was doing.

“By the way, how have you been? I feel like I haven’t seen you since last semester.”

“Hmm, I’m just the same as always. These days I’ve been going back and forth in the forest. Surprisingly, there are a lot of materials.”

At the mention of “the forest,” I felt a tickle in the back of my mind.

It was a sensation as if something was about to surface. I tilted my head and asked.

“You mean the one in the south?”

“Yeah, that’s the place where the Hunting Festival is held.”

“Isn’t it dangerous there? There could be ferocious beasts.”

Celin laughed at my concerned tone. She looked at me with eyes that seemed to find my worries amusing.

“Don’t worry, the beasts of the forest usually don’t come out unless provoked. The further in you go, the more abundant the prey is. Everyone is so worried about the beasts that they don’t even enter the forest, so for me, it’s great that there are plenty of materials.”

“……Are you sure?”

At my lingering doubts, Emma nodded her head firmly.

“Yeah, don’t you know I’m from a herbalist family? I know the forest better than anyone. Is it true that you’re pretending not to be a noble, but you really are one?”

I coughed and shifted my gaze at Emma’s words.

I may have grown up with harsh training, but compared to students from commoner backgrounds, I had to yield.

Once they enroll in the Academy, over half of commoners already receive scholarships. Yet, even so, the ratio of commoners among Academy students is just a little over one-third.

Nobles don’t have to worry about a livelihood. They can spend their days solely focused on training or studying. However, most commoners were different.

With few exceptions among wealthy merchants’ children, most commoners had to devote their study and training time to scraping together a living. They were the ones who barely made it into the Academy.

No matter how rigorous my training had been, I had to take a step back in front of students from commoner backgrounds.

Feeling a bit awkward, I began to offer justifications.

“No, just because you’re a commoner doesn’t mean you know the forest well… it’s because you’re from a herbalist background. My being a noble doesn’t mean I don’t know about the forest.”

With my voice tinged with embarrassment, Emma giggled. Her clear laughter resembled her kind spirit.

“I know, I know. You don’t seem like a noble at all, so I just threw that out there. Otherwise, I’d forget that you are one.”

“It’s fine if you forget. It doesn’t mean anything in the Academy anyway.”

At Emma’s self-deprecating words, I answered as if it were nothing. But I also understood that it wasn’t such a simple matter.

After all, rumors had circulated that I had turned Ceria into a wreck.

This was partly because I, who usually ranked in the mid-range, had defeated the top student, but also because a low-ranking noble had smashed the offspring of a high noble.

Although there was no discrimination based on status within the Academy, the outside world was not the same. Once they graduated, a commoner would return to being a commoner, and a noble to being a noble.

Emma, clever enough to enter the Academy despite being the daughter of a herbalist, must have known that my words were merely a way to lighten the mood.

Yet even so, she soon bestowed upon me a warm smile. A genuine expression of gratitude.

“……Thank you.”

She was a kind woman. If only she could have a bit more confidence, but since I wasn’t close enough to meddle in such deeper issues, I held my tongue.

However, while conversing with Emma, a memory surfaced.

A letter, the one that supposedly came from the future seven years ahead, suddenly flickered through my mind.

“……Hey, Emma. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure? What’s up?”

Emma looked at me in surprise, as if wondering whether I still had more to say. Well, it was about time for me to leave.

But since the question that suddenly came to my mind could only be asked of Emma, I went ahead and asked.

“Is it possible for a letter to come from the future, seven years ahead?”

Emma seemed taken aback by my unexpected question and stared at me silently before tilting her head.

After all, it was a nonsensical thought. A letter arriving from the future in seven years?

It must have been a prank during that week when I lost my memory. Shaking my head, I mumbled.

“No, wait. That was a silly question. Well then, I’ll….”

“It’s not impossible.”

However, as Emma pondered for a moment before giving such an unexpected answer, I froze in the position I was in, trying to rise.

My bewildered gaze turned towards Emma. She was lost in thought, her arms crossed as she contemplated.

Soon, she turned towards a corner of the lab. She pressed a button there, and a hemispherical map unfolded in the void.

A celestial map, a guide used by all magic and alchemical arts based on astrology.

“You know that each star in the sky holds myths and history, right?”

“Uh, I’ve heard something like that…”

Before my response was finished, Emma waved her hand. With a whoosh, the seven stars fixed in the center of the sky widened.

“Excluding the sun and moon, these seven stars hold the strongest power. They symbolize Delphrium, the first betrayer of humanity, and the seven sins he committed.”

Delphrium; I stiffened at the mention of that name.

In the dream I had that night, a man had told me, “Delphrium is coming.” But wasn’t that merely a story from a myth?

“You also know that the first humans didn’t have the concept of death, right? Yet, when Delphrium offered seven sacrifices to the dark god, sin was birthed, and thus death came to be.”

“……And?”

My voice, tightening unconsciously, bore a stiff edge. However, Emma, lost in thought, seemed unaware of my tension and began laying out her hypotheses while resting her chin on her hand.

“It’s a star with the power to twist the very fabric of reality… If it possesses that power, reversing time wouldn’t be impossible. After all, it was an event that birthed a concept that didn’t even exist in the plans of the Heavenly Deity.”

By that point, I had returned to my seat again, still caught off guard by the conversation.

A sense of foreboding washed over me. The vivid dream I had that night. And the letter that had been too meticulously crafted to dismiss as a joke.

Suddenly, I recalled a part of the letter’s content. Yes, that letter mentioned Emma’s name.

That I would be attacked by monsters and fall into a coma. I was startled into an upright position.

Just then, as I was about to leave some warning for Emma.

“Of course, that probably won’t happen, but you know. Ahaha…”

At Emma’s playful tone, I could only stare at her dumbfounded.

Emma seemed surprised at my reaction, laughing softly as if everything she had said so far was a joke.

“Did that surprise you? But it’s just a theoretical possibility; it’s not like it’s ever been proven. Many have attempted to harness the power of those stars, but no one has succeeded even once.”

“……R-really?”

Swayed by Emma’s assured tone, I released a sigh of relief and sat back down.

Yeah, it couldn’t be possible. A letter from seven years in the future.

Lately, with all the strange things I’d been experiencing, it seemed my mind had gotten a bit odd. I shook my head with a wry smile.

I should just shake it off. At that moment, Emma’s words strengthened my resolve.

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

I let out a sigh, nodding in agreement. I had wasted mental energy on something unnecessary. My body finally lifted from the chair.

As I was about to leave with my farewell, I suddenly felt a point to ask Emma.

“By the way, when are you going to the forest?”

“Hmm, I was thinking of going this evening… why?”

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

I hesitated for a moment but soon, with a wry smile, I left her with just one line.

“Just, be careful.”

“Come on, now… Don’t worry about me! Wait, I almost forgot to mention this. I have a secret weapon, you know.”

With a cute sound, Emma pulled out a small vial. It contained a grayish potion.

“This is a potion that erases your presence. I succeeded in making it not long ago. Once I begin to mass-produce it, it should help prevent hunters and herbalists from getting into dangerous situations quite a bit.”

Then Emma handed me a bottle of the potion, urging me to try it out. Her face beamed with pride as an alchemist showcasing her accomplishments.

Since her father was a herbalist, this potion must have been tied to her long-held dream.

It would be crazy to give it to me instead of using it herself when she planned to go gather materials today. After all, the scents of the ingredients she would gather today were already far too strong for it to matter.

And so Emma, as she always did, sent me off with a warm smile.

Then, the next day, Emma was found collapsed in the forest.

Attacked by an unidentified monster, she was lying there with her entrails spilled from her abdomen.

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