Love Letter From The Future

Right before I carelessly almost called out, ‘Senior Elsie.’

I momentarily held my breath at the plainness of her tone.

I couldn’t believe it.

Wasn’t this the same Senior Elsie?

She, who was notorious for her foul temper, unmatched by anyone. Rather than offering an apology, she should have been spewing curses by now, unable to contain her anger.

And yet, there she was, not only bowing her head before a commoner but also offering a sincere apology.

It was nothing short of a miracle.

Does Lupine perhaps have a knack for being a mentor?

But that feeling of awe didn’t last long.

Before I could fully process my emotions, a thunderous voice burst from the man’s mouth.

“…Don’t be ridiculous!”

Senior Elsie flinched, trembling as she squeezed her eyes shut.

It was as if she was already accustomed to such outbursts by now.

“D-Do you have any idea how much I’ve been tormented by nightmares since then?! Every day, I had to be on guard while walking down the street! Afraid that your gang might be lurking around…!”

“…I’m

Despite the man’s storm of accusations, Senior Elsie only continued to offer her apologies.

The man was completely stunned by her meek demeanour.

He began to tremble, then turned his head away.

I, too, could empathise with how he felt.

Senior Elsie was notorious for her particularly cruel methods.

Moreover, she specialised in using her family’s power to incapacitate her opponents. It was a form of intimidation that was hard for a commoner with no connections to withstand. ℞

Anyone would eventually break in such a situation.

Be it physically, mentally, or both.

And now, the very person who inflicted such deep wounds on his body and soul stood before him.

Out of the blue apologising to him, looking as if she had thoroughly repented all this time.

It must have seemed absurd.

And there was no way he’d be willing to forgive her.

That’s probably why his voice turned so cold.

“…Get lost.”

His tone even held a hint of tremor.

The weary man quickly removed his glasses and hastily wiped away his tears. Perhaps the pain he had endured was once again flashing through his mind.

With her head lowered, Senior Elsie offered another apology.

“I’m saying it again but, I’m sorry… If you want, I can apologize as many times as…”

“I told you to get lost!”

It was then that the man roughly shoved her.

Agh, with a small cry, she fell to the ground.

The sudden turn of events made me involuntarily flinch.

Though rumours suggest otherwise, could Senior Elsie really endure even this?

It seemed the man had a similar doubt to mine.

As his eyes were momentarily filled with fear.

But contrary to his concerns, there was no response from the fallen Senior Elsie.

She merely tried to get up, staggering as she did so.

Watching her, the man stammered out a warning.

“D-Don’t ever show up in front of me again… And don’t even think about being forgiven! You’ve left me with a scar that will never fade….”

Those were his final words.

Then the man began to stagger away until Senior Elsie was completely out of his sight.

Soon after, his eyes met mine, who had been hiding behind the building.

It was a remarkable coincidence.

The backyard of this secluded building was open on all sides.  Had he not deliberately chosen this path, the chances of running into me would have been slim.

Yet, the man ended up making eye contact with me.

It could only be described as a cruel twist of fate.

Given that the possibility of him intentionally seeking me out was nonexistent.

Just seeing the way his face turned pale instantly told me everything.

He was clearly terrified of me.

In a certain sense, I was an even greater object of fear than Senior Elsie.

After all, I was the one who had taken down the imperial princess’s escort knights in the middle of the central avenue.

And as if that wasn’t enough, I even assaulted the princess herself. So by now, there was no one left at the academy who expected me to think or act normally.

They knew doing so might land them in the temple’s intensive care unit.

To make matters worse, although the exact details were unclear, it seemed that the Princess was secretly backing me, making it unlikely for anyone to willingly stand against me.

In other words, I was like an upgraded version of Senior Elsie.

Be it my skills, the cruelty in my methods or the backing I had, all of it was superior.

In any case, my reputation wasn’t entirely unwarranted.

Though I never attacked anyone first.

Most of the time, it was a justified retaliation and I had never used violence against any powerless commoners.

Even my confrontation with the princess had its own justified reasons.

But it wasn’t realistic to expect everyone to understand all those circumstances.

So it was perfectly natural that the man feared me more than Senior Elsie.

Especially since rumours about my special relationship with her were already widespread throughout the academy, he had even more reason to be terrified.

The man’s body trembled as he stumbled backward.

On the verge of tears, he desperately shook his head.

It was as if he had come face-to-face with a legendary demonic beast.

“M-Misunderstanding… It’s a misunderstand…!”

“…It’

With a deep sigh, I gave my response.

Though as expected, the man continued to shoot me doubt-filled glances .

He was a perceptive person.

Honestly, I wasn’t in a good mood.

Seeing Senior Elsie being shoved and knocked down right before my eyes stirred up a wave of anger within me, regardless of the reason.

But I knew as well.

I couldn’t let myself react like this.

I struggled to calm myself and did my best to feign a calm voice.

“You’re the victim here… Just go.”

People’s hearts can be so fickle.

Now that I had become attached to Senior Elsie, I couldn’t help but feel the urge to blindly take her side.

I chose to keep that desire in check.

But that didn’t change the fact that my heart ached.

Poor Senior Elsie.

No, I shouldn’t feel pity for her, but why do I keep feeling that way?

Even as the man hurriedly fled the scene, I silently watched Senior Elsie.

It was only after quite some time that she staggered to her feet.

She grimaced and began brushing the dirt off her clothes.

Then, as always, she let loose with her rough language.

“…Ugh, that asshole. Such a narrow minded jerk.”

But her words were laced with an unmistakable sadness and humiliation.

For a long time, I couldn’t say anything.

I simply stepped back quietly, out of respect for her pride.

The next day, I ended up seeking out Leto.

Though I was hesitant to reveal the personal details of my situation with Senior Elsie, I needed a reliable advisor.

Leto was more than capable of fulfilling that role.

Sure enough, he was already aware of all the rumours surrounding her.

When I sat down across from him and sighed, he clicked his tongue in disappointment.

“Tsk, tsk. Why did you let things get so messed up?”

“…I had no idea I was such a pathetic jerk.”

“Then let me enlighten you. You’re a pathetic jerk, and on top of that, you’re a piece of trash who leads people on when you can’t even handle it.”

Leto, as usual, delivered his harsh judgement without holding back.

Even if I wanted to get angry, I didn’t have the energy for it.

All I could do was raise my hands in surrender.

“Fine, it’s my fault… So, what should I do, Leto?”

“How do you feel?”

He responded with a direct counter-question.

And it was a question I simply couldn’t answer.

It felt as if I had been stabbed in the gut.

Leto’s light green eyes gazed at me intently. With a serious expression, he asked again.

“I’m asking, how do you really feel? Isn’t that something you need to figure out?”

But an answer that hadn’t surfaced after days of agonising wasn’t just going to pop out all of a sudden.

After hesitating for a while, I let out another deep sigh and spoke.

“To be honest, I’m not sure about that myself…”

“No one is truly unaware of their own feelings.”

Leto said this as he casually looked away.

He briskly flipped over a page of the book he was reading.

It was as if my predicament didn’t concern him in the slightest.

“You can hide them, delude yourself, or look the other way… But if you don’t know your own feelings, who will? That’s the kind of nonsense only girls engrossed in romance novels would believe. Then again, that’s exactly what makes human psychology so interesting….”

Leto’s eyes flicked back toward me.

I couldn’t say anything in response to his remarks and simply stared down at the ground.

“You don’t have the luxury of running away anymore. If you were someone as rotten to the core as I am, maybe you could, but you’re too half-hearted for that. It’s only going to keep making things harder for you.”

“…then what should I do?”

“You’ve got no choice but to be honest.”

As if stating the obvious, Leto said this.

He continued to flip through the pages of his book, offering me sincere advice.

“Can’t you tell just by looking? That Senior is being serious…so you need to respond with sincerity too.”

After some thought, I decided to take Leto’s advice.

As I always had.

Leto was right.

No one can escape their true feelings.

Neither I, nor Senior Elsie.

Thus, it was the time for me to make a choice.

Ultimately, I had to brace myself for what was to come.

It was now time to confront Senior Elsie’s true feelings.

And my own.