Elysia left on a night when the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.
She looked back at Lannington City; even at midnight, the city was ablaze with lights.
Countless people in this city were experiencing their own mundane or magnificent lives.
She had entered the city all alone, and now, months later, she departed without taking a single cloud with her.
The handover of her position went smoothly.
The big stunt Vill-V pulled easily earned her the recognition of the group under Elysia; after all, someone who dared to set off fireworks on the Godfather’s roof was no ordinary person.
Elysia later communicated with the Godfather and apologized on her behalf.
He very generously let the matter slide, and in the process, asked her to call Vill-V over to set some ground rules.
At that time, the expression on Vill-V’s face when she signed her name on the regulations was as if she had lost something important; she sat on the bench afterwards, looking completely drained of color.
But it didn’t take long for her to recover, and with high spirits, she took all of Elysia’s belongings and began converting her own base into the Helix Workshop.
Elysia felt a bit bored on her journey, so she found a place to lean against and took out a few letters from the Sea of Origin to read on the road.
She had a whole stack of similar letters, some from her subordinates and others from the citizens.
After she announced that she was leaving, to her surprise, her subordinates didn’t have much of a strong reaction.
But thinking about it, it was understandable; she had already handed over her authority and it was basically an open secret that she was leaving, so everyone had some mental preparation.
Still, she felt a little bit lonely.
Then, just before she left, she received a whole sack of thank-you letters.
Even for those with terrible handwriting, the writing on the envelopes was exceptionally neat.
Only then did she understand that their indifferent reaction back then wasn’t out of cold-heartedness; they just didn’t want to make things difficult for her.
She opened an envelope and began to read: “To Elysia: I am Wivens, the leader of the duo that Elysia first encountered in the alleyway.
Now, one way or another, I can say I’m living a decent life.
First of all, thank you, Elysia.
My life hasn’t had any particularly bright spots.
I was born ordinarily in a small town on the outskirts of the European Union, went to school ordinarily, and entered the city ordinarily, planning to make a living.
When I arrived in Lannington City, my first reaction was how tall the buildings were and how bright the lights were.
My hometown was small enough to see from one end to the other, but here, the horizon was always filled with high-rises.
There were no forests here like in my hometown; the towering buildings were the forests of this place.
I felt like a headless fly, lost in this city.
This city is brilliant and magnificent, filled with well-dressed, distinguished big shots.
The lights in the Central Tower square at night are a hundred times more numerous than in my hometown, but these splendors don’t belong to me.
I can only gaze at them from afar and then continue with my own life.
In the days after entering the city, I’ve washed dishes, swept the streets, and worked as a warehouse laborer.
I couldn’t adapt to life here; it was too fast, so fast that I couldn’t keep up with the rhythm.
Others could always do better, faster, and more work than me.
I was like a passenger who bought a ticket for the very last carriage, only able to cling to the tail of the Astral Express, struggling with all my might just to keep from being thrown off.
In the end, I was still thrown off.
I lost my job.
I know some people who came to the city at the same time as me.
They always complain that reality gives them no way out, complain that work is annoying, complain that life is unsatisfactory, and complain about why they can’t meet a benefactor or find an opportunity.
They feel the world is unfair—why can’t they stand higher when they have clearly put in the effort?
But I didn’t complain, because I didn’t even have the right to complain.
I hadn’t even gone to university, had no special skills, and only possessed common knowledge that everyone knew.
I couldn’t compare at all to those top students from prestigious universities or the businessmen who had already achieved something.
Compared to them, perhaps I never had the qualifications to step foot in this city to begin with.
However, perhaps I could have had more.
If I had studied harder back then instead of messing around in town; if I had managed my elder’s small shop seriously instead of just scraping by and wasting the family assets, perhaps the me standing here today would be completely different.
But even so, for me, this world is still a bit cruel.
Later, the people around me all returned to their hometowns, but I stayed here, even if it meant becoming a hooligan.
Maybe I’m a fool; I was just stubbornly looking for my place in this city, or perhaps I was just harboring an unrealistic expectation, hoping that this city would pay attention to us and have some tenderness for people like us.
And then, Elysia, you appeared.
At first, I just wanted to collect protection money to solve my struggle to make ends meet, and then you slapped me, making me dizzy and shattering my unrealistic persistence.
But afterwards, you reached out your hand and smiled, telling me that I could live here like a human being.
It’s not that I wasn’t willing to work hard; I just didn’t know how to work hard.
No one taught me, and when I tried to learn on my own, I couldn’t keep up with them.
This city is survival of the fittest; it never gives any care to us weaklings—oh, those extremely harsh gang rules might count, but that’s about it.
But you taught me, taught me some skills.
To me, this is the most precious thing I have received since coming to this city.
When those big shots on TV talk about improving our conditions, their eyes are always full of contempt.
They make promises but never take us to heart.
What is actually fulfilled is always very, very little.
Not to mention anything else, the road in front of my house has always been full of potholes and has never been repaired.
I’m not stupid; I never dared to hope for much.
But your appearance, Elysia, told me that true tenderness exists.
I have never seen even a hint of contempt in your eyes, Elysia.
You just let us pay for the mistakes we made in the past, and once we were cleared of them, you taught us everything you knew.
You never thought yourself a bit higher than us, and you were very patient, never getting annoyed by anyone’s dullness.
I can feel that you also believe we can live the same life as the millions of ordinary people in the city.
This trust is something I feel unworthy of, but Elysia, you really did it, bringing along a loser like me.
This is not just my story; many people in the gang are the same.
They held the same dreams, were crushed by reality in the same way, met you, Elysia, in the same way, learned a lot in the same way, and finally lived a good life, able to live with their heads held high.
Thank you, Elysia.
Everyone is very grateful to you.
Perhaps you don’t know, but many people at the bottom of their lives met the gentle you at that time.
In that moment, they all received a lifetime of redemption.
And now you have left, but we will take up what you did, just as you did back then, guiding the way for the lost ones entering the city.
May there always be tenderness in the world, whether for us or for you, Elysia.
P.S.: I naturally couldn’t write such flowery words myself; I have to thank Elrs for the polishing.
He helped all of us revise the drafts and stayed up for several days.” Seeing the end, Elysia just covered her mouth and smiled gently under the moonlight.
“Honestly, I just did what I wanted to do.” She wiped the tears overflowing from the corners of her eyes and said softly.
She carefully folded the letter and couldn’t help but mutter to herself: “Now I have a lot more motivation~”