Elysia departed on a night when the moon shone bright and the stars were sparse.
She looked back at Lamington City.
Even at midnight, the city remained brilliantly illuminated, its countless inhabitants each experiencing lives that were either ordinary and uneventful or turbulent and magnificent.
She had entered the city alone, and now, several months later, she left without taking so much as a wisp of cloud with her.
The transfer of authority had gone smoothly.
Vill-V’s spectacular stunt had easily won over everyone under Elysia’s command.
After all, anyone daring enough to set off fireworks on the Godfather’s roof was clearly no ordinary person.
Elysia later spoke with the Godfather and apologized on Vill-V’s behalf.
He generously let the matter go, though he also had Elysia summon Vill-V so he could lay down three strict rules.
At the time, Vill-V had looked as though she had lost something precious when she signed her name to the regulations.
Afterward, she sat on a bench, her entire body seemingly drained of color.
It did not take her long to recover, however.
With all of Elysia’s assets in hand, she enthusiastically began transforming their headquarters into Helixcraft.
Elysia eventually grew a little bored while traveling.
She found somewhere to lean against and took several letters from Pelagic Primaevality to read along the way.
She still had an entire stack of similar letters, some from her subordinates and others from ordinary citizens.
When she announced that she would soon be leaving, her subordinates had reacted far less intensely than she expected.
On reflection, though, it was understandable.
She had already transferred her authority, making her intention to leave all but explicit.
Everyone had more or less been mentally prepared.
Even so, their muted response had left her feeling a little lonely.
Then, just before her departure, she received an entire sack of thank-you letters.
Even those whose handwriting was usually atrocious had written the words on their envelopes with exceptional care.
Only then did she understand that their subdued reactions had not come from coldness or ingratitude.
They simply had not wanted to make things difficult for her.
She opened one of the envelopes and began to read: ‘To Miss Elysia: ‘I’m Viven Si, the leader of the pair Miss Elysia first encountered in that alley.
After everything, I’ve finally managed to build a respectable life for myself, so let me begin by thanking you.
‘There has never been anything particularly remarkable about my life.
I was born in an ordinary little town on the outskirts of the European Union, received an ordinary amount of schooling, and came to the city in the ordinary hope of making a living.
‘When I first arrived in Lamington City, my immediate thoughts were that the buildings were so tall and the lights were so bright.
In my hometown, you could see from one end of town to the other, but here, no matter where I looked, the horizon was always crowded with towering buildings.
There were no forests like the ones back home.
The rows of skyscrapers were this city’s forest instead, and I felt like a headless fly, completely lost within it.
‘The city was dazzling and magnificent.
It was filled with important people dressed in fine clothes, and the lights in Central Tower Square at night were a hundred times brighter than those in my hometown.
Yet none of that brilliance belonged to me.
I could only gaze at it from afar before returning to my own life.
‘After entering the city, I worked as a waiter, swept the streets, and labored in warehouses.
I could not adapt to life here.
Everything moved too quickly, so quickly that I could never keep pace.
Other people always worked better than I did, faster than I did, and accomplished more than I did.
I was like a passenger who had bought the very last ticket, clinging to the rear of the train and using every ounce of strength merely to keep from being thrown off.
‘In the end, I was thrown off anyway.
I lost my job.
‘I knew several people who had entered the city around the same time as me.
They were always complaining that reality had left them no way to survive, complaining about frustrating jobs, miserable lives, and how they could never meet someone influential or find an opportunity.
They believed the world was unfair.
They had worked hard, so why were they still unable to climb higher?
‘But I never complained, because I did not even have the right to complain.
I had never attended university and possessed no useful skills, only the basic knowledge of daily life that everyone knew.
I could not possibly compare with elite graduates from prestigious universities or merchants who had already achieved something.
‘Compared with them, perhaps I had never possessed the right to set foot in this city in the first place.
‘And yet perhaps I could have had more.
Had I studied harder back then instead of fooling around in town, or had I managed the little shop I inherited from my elders with care instead of drifting along until I squandered the family property, then perhaps the person standing here today would have been completely different.
‘Even so, the world was still a little too cruel for someone like me.
‘Later, everyone around me returned to their hometowns, but I remained here.
Even if I had to become a thug, I was determined to stay.
Perhaps I was a fool, stubbornly searching for a place of my own in this city.
Or perhaps I simply harbored an unrealistic hope that one day this city would notice people like us and show us a little kindness.
‘Then you appeared, Miss Elysia.
‘At first, I only wanted to collect some protection money so I could put food on the table.
Then you slapped me so hard that my head spun, shattering my unrealistic persistence along with it.
But afterward, you extended your hand and told me with a smile that I could live here like a proper human being.
‘It wasn’t that I refused to work hard.
I simply did not know how.
No one had ever taught me, and when I tried to learn on my own, I could never keep up with the others.
This city only allowed the strong to survive and never offered any care to weaklings like us.
Well, perhaps the gangs’ brutally strict rules counted, but that was all.
You, however, were willing to teach me.
You taught me actual skills, and to me, that was the most precious thing I had received since coming to this city.
‘Whenever those important people appeared on television and spoke of improving our circumstances, contempt always lingered in their eyes.
They made promises, but they never truly cared about us, and almost none of those promises were ever fulfilled.
To give one simple example, the road outside my home has always been full of potholes, and no one has ever repaired it.
‘I’m not stupid, and I’ve never expected too much.
But your appearance, Miss Elysia, showed me that genuine kindness truly exists.
‘I never once saw even the slightest trace of contempt in your eyes.
You simply made us repay the wrongs we had committed, and once our hands were clean, you taught us everything you knew without reservation.
You never considered yourself even half a step above us.
You were patient as well, never growing irritated because someone was slow or foolish.
I could feel that you truly believed we could live the same ordinary lives as the countless other people in the city.
Even I felt unworthy of such trust, yet you truly made it happen, bringing along a failure like me.
‘This is not my story alone.
Many people in the gang were the same.
We carried the same dreams, were crushed by reality in the same way, met you in the same way, learned so much from you, and ultimately found better lives in which we could hold our heads high.
‘Thank you, Miss Elysia.
Everyone is grateful to you.
Perhaps you never knew, but many people at the lowest point of their lives encountered your kindness back then.
In that moment, they received salvation that would last a lifetime.
‘Now you have left, but we will carry on what you began.
Just as you once did, we will guide those who enter this city and lose their way.
‘May there always be kindness in this world, both for people like us and for you, Miss Elysia.
‘Additional note: Naturally, I could never write something this refined on my own.
I must also thank Elles for polishing it.
He spent several days helping every one of us revise our drafts.’ Upon reaching the end, Elysia merely covered her mouth and laughed softly beneath the moonlight.
“Honestly, I only did what I wanted to do.” She wiped away the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes and spoke in a gentle voice.
She carefully folded the letter, then murmured involuntarily to herself, “Now I have even more motivation~”