Love Letter From The Future-Chapter 343: Bread and Dagger (41)

Le-o-ric.

Those syllables struck a peculiar chord in my heart. Was it fate or simply intuition?

Some kind of primal instinct was telling me that, at the end of this story, I’d be aiming my blade at his throat.

But I still had something to worry about.

Specifically, the fact that Venetta was being way too cooperative.

Right after her defeat, she’d resisted with a resolve to throw away her life. It was hard to understand why she was so readily spilling information now.

Tuk, Tuk.

I tapped my index finger on the table a couple of times.

Could she be lying?

Yet, I couldn’t discern any hint of deception on her face.

She didn’t seem to be lying.

Then again, there was a possibility that Venetta had undergone some kind of special training—something like weaving false testimony in the case of capture.

That possibility was precisely why I had Senior Neris standing beside me.

She received professional training as a spy.

At the very least, she would likely pick up on subtle signs far better than I could.

So I shot a glance at Senior Neris, but she shook her head.

She hadn’t picked up any unusual signs either.

In that case, we had no choice but to accept Venetta’s testimony as truth for now.

Right now, trying to determine its authenticity would just be a waste of time. After all, Venetta’s testimony was going to be reviewed by the princess anyway.

The ‘Dragon’s Eye’ that reflects the psyche of others.

There was no better ability for discerning the truth.

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Having settled my thoughts, my voice dropped a notch.

It was a signal I was about to begin the real interrogation.

The first question I asked was straightforward.

“...Lord Leoric? And a sacrifice?”

“Yes, Lord Leoric... Didn’t you know? He’s originally human, after all. And he was even once part of the Yurdina army.”

Her reply was laced with mockery.

Even the content was absurd enough to make me momentarily wonder if Venetta was trying to toy with me.

An incredulous laugh escaped my lips.

“Then he’s your enemy, isn’t he?”

No immediate answer came to my question, she simply clamped her mouth shut and just glared at me.

Her eyes still brimmed with hatred, indicating that, despite her cooperation for some reason, she continued to harbor deep resentment toward humanity.

And yet, to use the honorific ‘Lord’ for a human who was once an enemy...

I couldn’t help but be confused.

“You—what do you think of us elves?”

“A group of murderers who pillage and torment innocent Northern folks. And lately, I hear you’ve been eating your own kind, too.”

It was a taunt I threw back at her, as if in retaliation.

And this was a widely held belief in the Empire. After a long war, humans and elves crossed a point of no return, resulting in them killing each other on sight.

Venetta surely knew this.

But perhaps she hadn’t expected me to make a second taunt; she flinched.

It was the first time I’d seen her unsettled.

She quickly grimaced, hastily trying to defend herself.

“Th-That’s a misunderstanding...!”

“Misunderstanding or not, I don’t care. Just tell me about this Leoric guy and the sacrifice.”

I, of course, had no intention of listening to her long-winded excuses.

Venetta gave me a slightly annoyed look in response to my curt attitude—not that I had any intention of indulging her complaints.

In the end, the elf woman could only let out a long sigh, realizing that stubbornness would get her nowhere.

Only then did I get to hear a more detailed account.

“You people probably want to see us that way. Dirty demons who steal and invade your lands... But that’s just the stigma you’ve forced upon us.”

“And Leoric is the proof of that?”

“Yes. When we first found the unconscious military priest... Honestly, we thought about killing him. The battle had just ended, and everyone was on edge.”

“But you didn’t kill him.”

“Because he gave us bread.”

Her response was, to say the least, perplexing.

My steady line of questioning came to a halt. I crossed my arms and let out a small hum.

Fortunately, Venetta seemed to catch on.

Realizing she needed to explain further, she continued at a relaxed pace.

“It’s an old tradition among us elves... ‘Bread for bread, dagger for dagger.’ It means to repay kindness with kindness, and hostility with hostility. And the reason Lord Leoric was unconscious was because he saved one of our elven children.”

“So you repaid him with kindness?”

“Yes, because we are elves.”

Her tone carried a peculiar sense of pride.

I almost let out a sneer but stopped myself.

There was no need to provoke her unnecessarily.

Instead, I probed into what I was curious about.

“But you’re saying that a military priest is offering sacrifices? Couldn’t he just use the corpses of the demonic beasts lying around? Why go through the trouble of importing rare demonic beasts from the distant South...?”

“It’s for a special ritual.”

A ‘special ritual,’ huh.

I quietly committed that detail to memory, planning to consult the Saintess and Emma about this later.

After all, even priests of the Church of the Heavenly God occasionally offered sacrifices—usually to perform miracles beyond their natural capabilities.

Wasn’t I a living proof of that?

I faced death more times than I could count. And each time I survived, it was because the Saintess had offered precious sacrifices to bring me back.

So, the claim that sacrifices were necessary wasn’t inherently questionable.

But I wasn’t sure if a special ritual requiring special sacrifices existed. That was something I would need to ask the Saintess about.

Moreover, Aviang’s case also weighed on my mind.

The biological modifications she had undergone fell squarely within the domain of alchemy. If that were the case, there was no guarantee that this ‘special ritual’ wasn’t connected to that as well.

It was fortunate that Senior Elsie discovered the Double-Headed Serpent.

Silently thanking her in my mind, I asked another question.

“Is that Leoric guy the only one capable of performing this special ritual?”

“Yes, and he’s also the one who effectively leads the elves of the coniferous forest.”

“But why the hell?”

It was a question that cut to the heart of the matter.

Faced with another pointed question, Venetta simply gazed blankly at me.

“What’s the purpose of that special ritual? And how does someone who’s just an outsider end up as the effective leader of your people? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Didn’t you already mention it?”

Venetta gave a sly smile, as if questioning whether there was even a need to ask that question.

For a fleeting moment, I envisioned a snake’s tongue flickering behind her back.

My brow furrowed instinctively.

“Eating our own kind... Yes, I suppose that’s one way to put it.”

“I’ve heard about it. That you sacrifice disabled or elderly elves to harvest the ‘fruit’... Didn’t you find it revolting?”

“It was revolting.”

Huhu, Venetta let out a self mocking laugh, a faint glimmer passing through her eyes.

Amidst her wavering emotions, a fragment of bitter despair surfaced.

“Have you ever starved? We elves have suffered from hunger countless times. For hundreds of years, no less... Our bodies grow weak and powerless, our blood dries up completely, and eventually, we drift in and out of consciousness—completely unaware of the deeds we might have committed during those times.”

“So, that’s why you killed your own kind?”

“Killed?”

With a genuinely puzzled expression, she said that.

Deep within her gaze, a peculiar flame flickered.

Madness.

“You don’t understand. For hundreds of years... hundreds of years, we endured such suffering! We didn’t know any better—we thought merely existing was a blessing. We believed it to be the grace bestowed by the World Tree... Then one day, Lord Leoric came to us.”

Her voice suddenly grew fervent.

Her fervent confession, steeped in yearning, soon reached a climax. With a bang, her bound hands slammed onto the table.

Senior Neris was so startled that she almost moved to restrain her.

But thanks to my intervention, she didn’t follow through.

Before long, the elf woman’s eyes were bloodshot.

“He bestowed his teachings upon us. He revealed that we had been arrogant... Life wasn’t a blessing. If anything, it’s a kind of prison—we’re merely living to die.”

“So, you killed them?”

“Please call it ‘liberation.’”

Venetta smiled faintly, as though she truly believed it.

I held back a surge of emotion, doing my best to convey them in the most composed words I could muster.

“That’s an exaggeration. If death is so great, why not commit mass suicide? Why sacrifice the weak to prolong your harsh lives?”

“I already told you, life itself is punishment... What happens to prisoners who try to escape before their sentence is over?”

It was a cowardly justification.

Because they’re weak, they should be saved first.

The gist of her argument was that through their so-called special ritual, they liberate the weak from the prison called life while the rest must endure their harsh existence.

A broken logic, full of inconsistencies and exaggerations.

But faith doesn’t exist within the realm of logic.

Venetta insisted.

“Do we seem miserable and wretched to you? Then what about those of you who made us this way... Do you think you have the right to judge us?!”

“Not everyone becomes a coward just because they’re pushed to the edge.”

“We weren’t like this at first, either.”

Hoo, with a deep sigh, Venetta released the tension from her tightly wound body.

She leaned back against the chair, giving a wistful smile, as if lamenting her fate.

“Lord Leoric was a good man. He cherished the girl he saved as if she were his own daughter. He even quickly adapted to the life in the elf village and became its sole priest.”

“So why would someone like that...?”

“Because that elven girl died.”

I stopped mid-sentence.

My gaze met Veneta’s in mid-air.

Her eyes held a look of utter desolation.

“Because your kind burned down our village, we lost our food supplies. We endured as long as we could, but the northern winds always took the weakest first.”

The faint accusation in her voice made me grit my teeth. It was a reflexive response.

Then a strained, growl-like voice escaped me.

“The Empire doesn’t initiate attacks. If your village was burned or anything like that, it must have been because your side attacked us first.”

“Is that so? Believe whatever you want. But... remember: bread and dagger.”

Then, with a weary expression, Venetta leaned forward. A helpless laugh escaped her lips.

“Today, I gave you bread.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You spared Mathis, didn’t you? Thank you. You might not be able to tell the difference, but... Mathis is still very young. He has many days left to live.”

Her words were deeply contradictory.

She called death ‘liberation,’ yet thanked me for saving Mathis?

I was on the verge of snapping at the absurdity of her broken logic.

While she only gave a wistful smile.

“That’s why I answered you honestly till the end. Not a single lie was mixed in. I can even swear it on the World Tree.”

Her words should have been reassuring, but there was something about her tone that rubbed me the wrong way.

I swallowed a sarcastic laugh and shrugged.

“Till the end? I still have plenty more questions to ask.”

“If you’ve received bread, then you should also prepare to receive the dagger.”

She spoke calmly.

Yet there was an odd conviction in them that made me fall silent for a moment.

My gaze lingered on Venetta.

It felt as if time around us had come to a halt.

The incredibly slow, heavy flow made the hairs on my body stand on end one by one.

I felt a crushing pressure on my chest.

“Fine then, let me ask just one last thing.”

Venetta shook her head, as if to say she no longer wished to answer.

She faced me with a faint smile.

“No, I told you, didn’t I? That was the end...”

“What did you do?”

Suddenly, the elf woman’s breath caught.

As I looked into her pale green eyes silently gazing at me, a strange sense of urgency welled up within me. Just as I was about to press her further—

“It’s strange, isn’t it? When night falls, it feels like I’m no longer myself.”

BLEH. Venetta opened her mouth, sticking out her tongue.

There, a grotesque piece of flesh was lodged—a hideous eyeball, connected by sticky mucous membranes and blood vessels.

As soon as Venetta closed her mouth, it disappeared down her throat.

Venetta flashed a sly smile. It was a beautiful smile befitting her race.

“It’s a tracking device. Too bad—you should’ve killed me earlier, just like that old man suggested....”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence.

Because before that, thwack, my hatchet crushed her skull.

Blood and bits of flesh splattered, staining me, my clothes and the furniture. But I didn’t have the luxury to worry about such trivial matters.

Biting my lip hard, I stood up. Senior Neris also hurriedly turned and dashed out of the tent.

Then came the drawn-out blare of a horn.

It was the signal for a battle in the North.

Be it for an advance or a response to an ambush.

“The elves are attacking us!”

A time of bloodshed and death was upon us.

I was being swept away by an uncontrollable torrent.