Love Letter From The Future

༺ The Lord Is With Us (13) ༻

Senior Delphine was successfully persuaded.

She silently implored me with pitifully trembling eyes, but I firmly shook my head.

My heart passionately overflowed with the desire to help her improve her character by her side, but I fully respected her choice and wasn’t going to force her to accompany me on the practicum since it was potentially a life-threatening event.

Instead, I simply asked her repeatedly until she gave a clear affirmation. In the end, Senior Delphine finally agreed with tears streaming down her face.

“Hik… I’ll go… I… Hik… I just have to go, right……!”

To think she was so overcome with the desire to change herself that she even started crying… I felt her sincerity that matched my own. As such, it was within human nature to offer a helping hand to those who were genuinely trying to improve themselves.

Worried that her heart would falter, I asked her over and over again, but her answer remained firm. Once she swore upon the Yurdina name, I felt reassured that there was no chance of her reneging on her decision.

Once that was done, I left the room, leaving her to wallow in her emotions.

As I moved through the chilly halls of the marble temple, I also felt my head cooling down. At that moment, a sense of incongruity hit me.

‘Was Senior Delphine genuinely crying out of joy?’

However, it didn’t matter now. It was water under the bridge at this point, and it was only beneficial to me that I could recruit a strong force.

It was routine to form a group of 4 for practicums. If I could, I wanted to form the same group as from the Hunting Festival, but unfortunately, there was a problem that dissuaded me from doing so.

Both Celine and Seria were still in their second year.

As a rule, sophomores were prohibited from participating in practicum assignments. Although exceptions could be made with their advisors’ approval, I decided against taking them during their finals week since the practicum couldn’t replace their grades on the finals.

It was obvious that taking them along would only hurt their grades.

Celine had a duty to revive the fallen Haster, and Seria carried the responsibility of protecting her top spot in the second-year Knight Division.

I couldn’t stand in their way — They were my two favorite juniors at the Academy.

Of course, that being said, Senior Delphine would also have to work to maintain her position as the top student of the fourth-year Knight Division, but that was none of my concern.

Given her extraordinary abilities, I could only think that she had some tricks up her sleeve. Honestly, my relationship with her was still ambiguous.

We did see each other often, but our relationship wasn’t amicable since we faced off as enemies every time.

Frankly, it was somewhat impulsive of me to invite her to join my practicum. I only wanted to find out what had happened between her and ‘Ian’, but in the end, I didn’t get to hear about that at all.

Fortunately, there would be many opportunities. Throughout the two-week practicum, we would inevitably have to talk to each other, whether we liked it or not.

As I collected my thoughts and continued to go on my way, my vision was suddenly flooded with light.

Noble, silver hair and pale pink eyes that out as though they were meticulously drawn on a canvas.

It was the Saintess.

With wide eyes, I stared at her, and in turn, she cast suspicious glances between me and the hospital room.

“……Why are you here? I heard Sister Delphine was refusing all visitors.”

Clearing my throat, I averted my gaze.

She still seemed cranky, indicating that our misunderstanding wasn’t fully resolved. To be honest, I found her a little difficult to face, and I felt a little uneasy even though she was only standing in front of me.

“That… I have my reasons… Also, are you still suspicious of me?”

“……Ha, of course.”

The Saintess snorted incredulously.

“You must have somehow deceived Yuren, but not me. Priests from the Church possess something known as the ‘spirit eye’ which allows them to see the colors of souls, and as the Saintess, mine is fairly accurate.”

I momentarily fell silent. This information sounded familiar, but my lack of interest indicated that it wasn’t of much significance.

After sifting through my memories, I cautiously opened my mouth.

“Doesn’t that ‘spirit eye’ struggle to even properly distinguish demonic humans apart from normal people? I heard it doesn’t do much.”

Yes, I would have paid more attention to it if it had been that useful, but the fact was that it wasn’t particularly useful.

The color of the soul was little more than a muddled collection of hues, and only a few people were capable of reading them accurately.

But most of all, the color of the souls appeared differently for each spirit eye. Therefore, even if they looked at the same soul, oftentimes, the colors were perceived differently

It would have been a different story if a method of differentiating between the souls was developed and passed around, but there were no such techniques for the spirit eye.

I did hear that there was specialized personnel within the Holy Nation’s Inquisition who were trained from a young age to discern the colors of the soul. However, apart from them, the spirit eye was pretty much useless.

It was to the point they couldn’t properly single out demonic humans. The souls of humans who had contracted with the Evil God became tainted, but because the souls of normal humans were already marred from original sin, it was difficult to tell the difference.

However, in the face of my doubt, the Saintess remained calm. She puffed out her chest with pride, accentuating her imposing breasts.

Such sinful flesh. Mentally, I drew the holy cross, repenting to the Heavenly God on behalf of her erotic body.

“My spirit eye is a little clearer. Of course, I’m not able to make out the all the details, but the colors are clear enough to tell apart their identities.”

“So, the me from before and the me standing in front of you now are the same?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The Saintess answered confidently.

And she was likely to be correct. After all, according to Leto’s theory, that was the ‘me’ from the future.

Though it still felt surreal, I trusted Leto. He was my closest friend and one of the most intelligent people I knew.

The Saintess’ claim also further supported his theory.

Even then, I shook my head.

“Don’t put too much faith in that ‘sight’ of yours. One day, you may come to regret it. Humans are beings that can’t be ascertained with just a single look. They have so many sides that even if you see them numerous times, they might still have a hidden aspect you don’t know about.”

“Hmph. Why should I care about what you say?.”

To my dismay, the Saintess disregarded my heartfelt advice. In fact, she even mockingly stuck out her tongue.

“Blehhhhh”

I entertained the thought of pulling her tongue but decided to restrain myself.

Considering we were at the temple, I couldn’t afford to be punished for touching the Heavenly God’s most beloved maiden. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself.

Then, the Saintess’ eyes suddenly widened and she tapped on her chin with her finger as if she came to a realization.

“But wait. What do you mean you had business with Sister Delphine? There’s no way your hostile relations from the Hunting Festival could have turned for the better… Could it be… Was it you who injured her like that?”

Then, she burst out laughing as if she couldn’t believe the words coming out of her very mouth.

“Haha, what am I saying? Not even you would go that far. That was more of a one-sided torture than a battle – Subduing her before mercilessly inflicting pain and fear upon her. It’s an awfully… cruel…..?”

However, the longer I remained silent, the more the Saintess’ face stiffened. I said nothing, merely avoiding her gaze.

The Saintess’ expression crumpled.

“……No way.”

A sigh escaped my lips. I knew she wouldn’t believe me, but I raised my hands in surrender, just in case.

“I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but I wasn’t in a normal state of mind.”

The Saintess’ expression didn’t soften in the slightest.

She glared at me, her eyes filled with contempt,

“…You’re despicable.”

She walked away, her final words dripping with disgust.

I heaved a sigh before continuing on my way.

‘Social relations sure are complex.’

I had a long list of places to visit today.

**

It was pure coincidence that I was running into familiar faces today.

It had been a while since I last saw Emma, and I was on my way to see her as I wanted to ask her how she was doing and to learn more about the stars symbolizing the seven deadly sins.

Emma had mentioned that it wasn’t impossible to travel back in time if you had the power of those seven stars.

It was just that no one had ever succeeded in doing so. Conversely, it meant that it was possible with their power.

At the moment, it was the most probable explanation as there weren’t any other options that could make it happen.

While I was lost in my thoughts, I abruptly halted in my tracks at the sight of the two familiar figures in the distance.

Celine and Seria.

For once, they were walking side by side, albeit while averting their gazes and facing opposite directions.

I didn’t know why they were walking together while emitting a chilling atmosphere, but whatever the reason was, I was glad to see two of my favorite people simultaneously.

As I waved to them in excitement.

“Celine, Seria!”

Both women turned their gazes towards me in surprise, but their faces soon lit up as they quickly approached me.

“Ian-oppa! This is great, I was just looking for you.”

“Senior Ian… I-I missed you.”

Celine’s cheerful voice and Seria’s shy voice intertwined in the air.

I stared at the two women, stunned that they were both looking for me.

Then, the two girls proudly held out a document to me.

Practicum Dispatch Authorization Form

After reading it, I turned to blankly stare at them.

“You’re going, right? I thought you might need us, so I convinced the advisor to let us go!”

“T-That… Senior Iahn! Uugh…I just wanted to be of some help to senior…….”

I smiled faintly at Celine, who was as energetic as always, and Seria, who bit her tongue as usual.

I was grateful that my juniors prepared the documents in case I needed them.

Still, I couldn’t accept their goodwill. I slowly shook my head.

“Sorry, but I don’t need your help.”

“…….huh?”

In turn, their brown and blue eyes simultaneously opened wide as they looked at me dumbly.

I flashed them a smile.

“I’ve already gathered them. My teammates.”

Gradually, the expressions on the two women’s faces hardened. Thinking they were worried, I quickly explained to assuage their worries.

“Senior Delphine agreed to come. You guys are aware of it too, right? That although her personality is pretty shitty, her skills are the best. That’s why there’s no need for you two to come as well.”

Silence filled the air.

A pair of hazel eyes gained a cold glint, while the pair of aquamarine eyes seemed to lose their sparkle, almost as if they were descending into the depths of the ocean.

The atmosphere quickly grew frigid.