Love Letter From The Future

As promised, I didn’t demand any of the core Elven secrets from Aviang. Likewise, their settlements’ locations or number of troops were  off-limits.

My questions were consistently direct..

I simply inquired about the events leading up to Aviang undergoing the body modification surgery.

Even so, a hint of hesitation still lingered in her.

She was chosen as an Elven spy despite her young age..

Regardless how strained they were for resources, they must have provided her with basic training. Surely, they wouldn’t have overlooked the possibility of betrayal, which means her sense of kinship must be especially strong.

So it was only natural for her to feel afraid.

Even seemingly trivial information could turn into a deadly weapon at any moment.  That was the power of humans experienced by the Elves over the years.

Therefore, I never crossed the line.

This, of course, was only a temporary reprieve.

It might come the time when I would need even the most intimate secrets held by the Elves. They were enemies of the Empire I belonged to..

But even for that eventuality, it was wise to restrain myself now.

Gradually breaking down her psychological defences was the most important thing.

The so-called ‘Boiling Frog’ strategy.¹

If she began to divulge bits of information, thinking ‘This much is fine,’ it would become easier to get her to disclose the more important details. Unless she was a professionally trained agent, that is. But she was just a brat who had barely come of age.

Judging by her inability to shake off that still lost expression, it was clear this strategy would likely succeed.

And, during our conversation, I discovered one unexpected fact.

It was that Aviang has not undergone the body modification surgery of her own will.

In fact, she even felt repulsed by the procedure.

It was a typical mindset of a harmony and nature-loving Elf.

The Dark Order’s techniques typically distort the natural order. It seemed body modification surgery was no exception to that.

As if denouncing it, Aviang spoke.

“It was a C-Cult!”

“…Cult?”

It was a word that came out of nowhere.

I ended up asking out of reflex..

While the Dark Order could indeed be called a ‘Cult’, Aviang didn’t seem to know much about them.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Just the fact that she referred to them as a ‘Cult’ rather than the specific name made it obvious. Aviang hadn’t connected the ‘Cult’ with the ‘Dark Order.’

That was understandable.

They have been lurking in the shadows for thousands of years and their evil deeds have long since faded into myths..

There was no concrete information about what exactly the Dark Order had done or what methods they employed.

In fact, I was the exception.

I clashed with the Dark Order several times so far and, thanks to that, I was somewhat aware of their methods.

So the moment I saw the grotesque lump of flesh implanted in Aviang’s body, I was convinced.

That even in the North, the Dark Order’s schemes lurked.

Rather than a matter of logic, it was more of intuition.

For anyone other than me and my comrades it would have been difficult to even suspect the possibility of the Dark Order’s involvement.

However, Aviang’s hatred toward the ‘Cult’ seemed genuine.

As she spoke about it, her blue eyes blazed and her bitten lips looked like they would bleed open at any moment.

From the outset, the very term ‘Cult’ carried a negative connotation. Unless Aviang was a skilled con artist, I had to believe in the sincerity of her feelings..

While I mulled over my thoughts, she raised her voice as her speech fervently continued.

“It was all orchestrated by humans! In the end, even the village elders were swayed…!”

Aviang’s face looked desolate as she trembled.

She was so consumed by anger that she momentarily forgot my presence and started denouncing humans. Of course, I didn’t intend to blame her for that.

The main priority now was the information

I wasn’t so inflexible as to wield my pride as a human at every turn.

Thanks to that, Aviang was able to continue speaking in a more relaxed atmosphere.

“We Elves respect all life.”

She said this, her earlier fervour now somewhat diminished.

I crossed my arms and remained silent. In truth, the rumours I’d heard and her words didn’t quite match up.

In the coniferous forests, the Elves conducted guerrilla warfare.

The North, already being a barren land, naturally didn’t have many resources to spare for sudden immigrants. The food problem, in particular, must have been severe.

I had heard that only after migrating to the North did the Elves begin eating meat. If they had abandoned the vegetarianism they almost religiously believed in, I could roughly imagine how dire their situation was.

A belief, once forsaken, can easily be discarded again.

It was around that time the Elves started raiding the northern settlers. That’s why the Yurdina family had been waging war against the Elves ever since.

Those who kill others for their own survival still claim to respect all life.

It was an absurd declaration, but I didn’t bother to put it into words.

I simply waited for Aviang to continue.

She cautiously glanced at me, and when I remained quiet, she parted her lips again.

“We at first thought he was an unfortunate human who got caught up in the war. He called himself a priest of the Church of the Heavenly God and seemed to adapt well to the village.”

“…A priest of the Church of the Heavenly God?”

“Yes, a priest of the Church of the Heavenly God. He still uses holy power, so there’s no doubt.”

It was an intriguing story.

The priests of the Church of the Heavenly God wield holy power based on their faith. This was a characteristic that distinguished them from those who obtained power of the Evil God through contracts.

And since the Heavenly God and the Evil God respectively preside over the world’s light and darkness, the powers bestowed by the two were distinctly different.

Even a layperson could easily distinguish between them with the naked eye.

That meant this ‘priest’ still maintained his faith in the Heavenly God.

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh in disbelief.

“Yet you still called it a ‘Cult’?”

“T-That’s right! What else would you call it if not a Cult?”

At my skeptical response, Aviang blurted out indignantly.

It was indeed a bit strange.

Aviang might be naive, but she seemed to possess normal reasoning abilities. Moreover, hadn’t she lived for over ten years in human society?

She wouldn’t be foolish enough to carelessly denounce the Church of the Heavenly God as a Cult.

In the end, I had no choice but to ask again.

“Why, exactly?”

Now it was Aviang’s turn to keep her mouth shut.

Even after hearing my direct question, she couldn’t shake off her hesitation. It was a stark contrast to how she so readily condemned the Cult before.

But the conflict on her face seemed of a different kind.

Rather than a reluctance to betray her kin, it was as if she was about to reveal facts so horrifying she couldn’t bring herself to say them.

Thus, I had to follow up with an even more pressing question.

“So, this ‘Cult’—were they the ones who modified your body? How does a priest of the Church of the Heavenly God possess such techniques? And what exactly are they doing that makes you so sure they’re a ‘Cult’…?”

“We Elves love our own kind.”

It was a declaration uttered almost like an excuse.

Of course, this was nothing more than self-justification for the testimony to come. Aviang seemed to harbor strong repulsion towards the actions of her kin.

I lightly tapped the table with my index finger.

After taking a bit more time, Aviang finally confessed the true nature of the ‘Cult.’

“But the Cult devours our own kind.”

My finger, which was about to tap the table once more, froze.

For a moment, my thoughts came to a halt.

Like a stone thrown into a bucket full of water, my mind overflowed with thoughts. My brain, momentarily overloaded, prompted a reflexive question.

“…What did you say?”

“It’s exactly as I said.”

Her tone was somber.

Aviang’s voice, filled with fervor just moments ago, had sunk completely. Her once-bright blue eyes were now veiled in sadness, having long since lost their light.

It was clear she was dredging up painful and agonizing memories.

So I could only stare in bewilderment.

Exactly as she said? What on earth does she mean?

Soon enough, the answer came back.

In the form of brutally clear facts.

“Elves are eating Elves. Though it’s limited to those who believe in the Cult…”

I opened my mouth to say something but then closed it again.

Just looking at Aviang made one thing painfully clear.

An external enemy can strengthen internal unity. Especially among the Elves whose sense of kinship had grown to a frightening degree after years of persecution.

Just look at Aviang, who broke into tears earlier saying she couldn’t abandon her people, even in the face of violence and death.

It was a horrific reality, one I couldn’t have even imagined.

An indescribable emotion welled up, constricting my throat.

“And others are just standing by and watching that? Of course they should try to stop it…!”

“It’s crazy, right?”

With a wry smile, Aviang firmly declared.

“…We’re going crazy, all of us Elves are.”

Her voice was filled with searing despair.

Suddenly, I recalled something Mitram had said.

Didn’t she say the Dark Order exists for those abandoned by the world?

At the end of that persecution and discrimination, the Elves began devouring their own kind.

1. The boiling frog strategy is a metaphor used to describe situations where gradual changes go unnoticed until it's too late to react. The idea comes from the story that if you put a frog in boiling water, it’ll jump out right away. But if you heat the water slowly, the frog won’t notice and will eventually get cooked.

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