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"Are you... taking them with you?"
It wasn’t even worth asking. Yuri was clearly packing the letters now. Even after meeting in person, he was still carefully packing the letters exchanged over ten years, ones that had slowly increased the distance between them.
"Yeah."
Why would he throw them away?
Absolutely not. Those letters contained ten years of information on Elena.
"Did you throw away my letters?"
"...No, of course not."
"Good."
"Why is that a relief?"
"It would’ve been weird if I were the only one who kept them."
If possible, Yuri would like to read the letters Elena had kept. From his memories and journals, Yuri had pieced together a general idea of his own personality, but the details were still fuzzy. Plus, memories weren’t always crystal clear, and he didn’t remember exactly what he had written in the letters.
Based on the fragmented memories, Yuri hadn’t written anything deep or meaningful, but it would still help to read through them.
"But asking to see the letters you sent yourself would be strange, wouldn’t it?"
As Yuri continued packing the letters into his bag, Elena hesitated before speaking.
"Can I read them later?"
"...The letters you sent?"
"Yeah."
"Why...?"
"Just... I think I might’ve written something strange when I was younger."
Was it really that strange of a request?
"They’re letters I sent when I was ten. I don’t even really remember what I wrote..."
"Then we could swap and read each other’s letters."
Yuri responded casually.
"I don’t really remember what I wrote back then either."
"Alright."
An awkward smile formed on Elena’s face, and Yuri matched her with a similar grin.
After gathering everything from the drawer, Yuri opened the desk drawer.
‘Basic Mana Introduction’
‘Anyone Can Become a Wizard’
‘Three-Element Swordsmanship’
‘Wind Source Cultivation’
Four books that practically screamed "fraud." Yuri judged them to be worthless, but deliberately opened the drawer and took them out in front of Elena.
"What’s this?"
Just as planned, Elena’s curiosity was piqued. She quickly stood next to Yuri and grabbed the ‘Basic Mana Introduction’.
"Yuri, do you... want to become a wizard?"
"I just read it out of boredom."
Yuri lied, intentionally making it obvious. Elena gave him a strange look and opened ‘Basic Mana Introduction’. With a fairly serious expression, she read through the contents and turned the pages.
‘Whoosh...’
At first, she was focused, but soon, the speed at which she flipped through the pages quickened.
“You didn’t actually pay money for this, did you?”
It didn’t seem like it was stolen, so most likely, it was bought.
“It's secondhand, too.”
Yuri knew. That book had passed through at least three owners before reaching him.
Had those who read the book before him become mages?
“So... is there a problem?”
Yuri knew the book had problems. But this wasn’t the moment to admit that. With a sullen expression, Yuri asked back, and Elena let out a small laugh, snapping her fingers.
“Whoosh!” ‘Basic Mana Introduction’ burst into flames in Elena’s hands and disappeared.
“This is trash.”
Elena declared the harsh truth to Yuri, whose face now looked stricken with shock.
“Maybe to someone who doesn’t know magic, it might look somewhat convincing, but even that’s mostly nonsense. Why do you even have something like this?”
“Because it was the best I could get.”
It really was the best. In this backwater city, there were no proper magic books. And even if there were, Yuri wouldn’t have been able to get his hands on them.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elena furrowed her brows as she asked.
“There was a mage from Dercia Tower right by your side! If you’d written me a letter asking to learn magic, I would have—”
“I didn’t want to.”
Elena was right. If Yuri truly wanted to learn magic, buying a secondhand book like that wasn’t the way. Asking Elena for help would have been quicker and smarter.
But Yuri hadn’t done that. Why? He didn’t know for sure. The version of Yuri who could answer that question had already died, bleeding out from a stab wound in the Black Serpent office.
Still, he could guess the reason. Yuri was similar to Lee Soo-hyuk, and if it had been Soo-hyuk in this situation, there would have been only one reason why he didn’t write to Elena.
Pride.
A stupid sense of pride. A distant childhood friend who, with each exchanged letter, only reminded him of his inferiority and reality. He didn’t want to show her his weakness, didn’t want to ask her for help.
There was no need to explain the miserable, pitiful backstory behind it all. “I didn’t want to” was enough. It also made clear his reluctance to say anything more.
“...”
Elena wasn’t foolish. And in person, she seemed more considerate than she came across in letters. She looked at Yuri for a moment, then sighed softly and nodded.
“I understand.”
The completely burned ‘Basic Mana Introduction’ fell to the floor as a pile of black ashes. Elena remained silent for a moment before shifting her gaze to the other books in the drawer.
“Did you also want to learn martial arts?”
“Magic didn’t seem like it suited me.”
“Can I take a look?”
“Do as you like. But they’re probably worthless.”
Elena glanced at Yuri’s stiff face, feeling some regret for her earlier words, and checked the contents of ‘Wind Origin Technique’ and ‘Three Elements Swordsmanship’.
As expected, these two books were as bad as ‘Basic Mana Introduction’. But this time, she didn’t laugh or burn them. She quietly put them down.
‘Anyone Can Become a Mage’
The last remaining book. Elena silently stared at its title. She didn’t bother checking the contents, knowing what books with such titles typically contained.
Many mages, eager to join the Magic Tower but hindered by their lack of talent, often found solace in books like that. But Elena wasn’t one of them. She knew she was born with immense talent and had never experienced the frustration of lacking it.
For others, these kinds of books might bring comfort, but Elena would have scoffed at them, dismissing the solace as “cheap.” She’d have suggested training harder instead of wasting time on such things.
But she couldn’t do that to Yuri.
“I’m glad I came to see you.”
Instead, she murmured those words. She tore her gaze from the books and looked seriously at Yuri.
“And I’m glad you know this now.”
“...”
“I promise. Yuri, you will”
Elena took a short breath and turned around with a smile.
“You’ll realize that you’re lucky I came to get you today.”
With that, they packed the few belongings left into a bag.
It was time to leave Oldor.
