The Retired Supporting Character Wants to Live Quietly

Chapter 114 - Ismera’s Great Forest (13)

"Professor Ismera, I was worried you wouldn’t come."

I tossed the branch I had been swinging aside and smiled, while Ismera forced a small smile in return.

"I just needed to clear my head a bit..."

Ismera hesitated as she slowly approached me.

"You’ve... sweated a lot..."

"I helped out here while you were clearing your head. If I’m going to get a meal out of this, I figured I should earn it."

I tried to joke, but Ismera didn’t laugh.

"You could have bathed by the stream..."

"From what I saw earlier today, that might not have been a good idea."

"I see..."

Ismera nodded slowly, seeming to understand my point.

"Have you made up your mind? Headmaster Kirrin is probably waiting anxiously."

Instead of answering, Ismera quietly began to speak.

"Well..."

But she trailed off and lowered her head, remaining silent for a while.

"Well... I’m sorry."

Just as I was about to ask again, Ismera suddenly bowed deeply.

"I apologize for all the disrespectful things I’ve done. I was late because I was trying to figure out how to properly apologize..."

"Ah, well, you just need to say you’re sorry. There’s no need to go that far."

"No, I’ve done so much wrong... I felt that a passing apology wouldn’t be enough."

Ismera remained bowed as she spoke.

"It might sound like an excuse, but it wasn’t that I disliked you as a person, Professor Dian... It was just that..."

Here, Ismera faltered, unable to continue, so I finished her sentence for her.

"You hated the Head Combat Professor, who had connections to the Imperial Palace and was getting in the way of your advancement to the Headmaster position. Not the person, but the position."

"That’s right..."

Ismera bowed her head even lower.

"I know this apology alone isn’t enough. But I had to start with it... Please forgive me... Please, I beg you to forgive me..."

"Hmm, should I forgive you?"

I stroked my chin with a smile, and Ismera trembled silently.

"Alright. I’ll forgive you, just this once!"

"Th-thank you..."

Ismera bowed repeatedly, her forehead nearly touching her knees.

In all my life, I’ve never seen an elf begging a human like this.

"And also..."

Still bowing, Ismera stammered.

"Th-thank you... for saving me..."

"Oh, well, it was the right thing to do."

"I was foolish... I didn’t recognize you... and repaid your kindness with hostility..."

"Well, I was wearing a mask back then. And I didn’t recognize you either. You were just a little girl at the time, but elves grow up so fast."

"Regardless of the reasons, I apologize... If only I had known sooner..."

Ismera’s voice began to tremble with emotion.

"If I had known... things would have been different... If someone could send me back in time with magic... I’d go straight to the past and slap the face of the younger me who treated you so harshly, Professor Dian..."

"Don’t blame yourself too much. These things happen."

"I’m so sorry... So very sorry..."

"It’s okay. I’ve accepted your apology, and that’s enough."

I lightly patted Ismera on the shoulder, and she collapsed to her knees, crying.

"I’m truly sorry, Professor... I never repaid the kindness you showed me by saving my life... And I couldn’t even keep the promise you made to me to live without despair or giving up..."

Ismera placed her hands on the ground and wept.

"I wanted to become Headmaster... Once I left for the city, I wanted to see how far I could climb... But no matter how hard I struggled, I kept getting stuck in the same place..."

Oh dear...

"I wanted to kill Kirrin... I hated that she was above me just because of her connections, doing nothing... Her education was inferior, her skills lacking... Yet just because she was born to the right parents..."

Ismera shook her head violently.

"Still, I tried not to give up...! I kept telling myself that one day Kirrin would step down... So I endured, doing my best in my current position... But then suddenly you arrived..."

Ismera stopped speaking and took a deep, ragged breath.

"I’m sorry, Mister... Instead of becoming a great person... I gave in to jealousy and envy... In the end, I abandoned everything, gave up, and ran away like a coward... All the while thinking the world was against me..."

Ismera, with her forehead pressed against the ground, sobbed, her shoulders shaking.

"I’m sorry... I wanted to thank you, but... I’m just so sorry, Mister..."

I looked down at Ismera for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"Ismera."

I knelt down on one knee and placed my hand on Ismera’s trembling back.

"I accept your apology, and I understand your thanks. But right now, I’m the one who’s grateful to you."

I continued to stroke her trembling back as I spoke.

"Thank you for growing into such an amazing person."

"I’m not... I’m a failure..."

"Why would you say that? You earned your advanced degree in less than ten years after moving to the city. That’s a huge achievement, isn’t it?"

"It’s not..."

"What are you talking about! Others spend twenty years trying to achieve that, and you did it without even basic education. You did great. It’s truly impressive."

I continued to comfort her, gently rubbing her back.

"And I heard from the Security Office that you practically took on the role of Vice-Headmaster, leading the academy in place of Headmaster Kirrin ever since it was founded."

"That was just to get the Security Office’s attention..."

"The results aren’t invalid just because your motivations were less than pure. And that’s not something anyone could manage without a strong sense of duty."

Ismera’s sobbing and trembling gradually began to subside.

"And I’ve also heard that most of the salary you receive from the academy goes toward the Great Forest restoration project. That’s something I could never have imagined doing."

"Others are doing the same... It’s not just me..."

"Are they, like you, enduring and working hard despite difficult circumstances?"

Ismera didn’t answer that.

"You lost the Great Forest and went to an unfamiliar city, where you earned that advanced degree. You diligently maintained the academy instead of openly expressing your frustration, even though the odds of rising further were slim with a Headmaster under the Emperor’s protection. And you sent your earnings back to your kin. An ordinary person would have given up and fled long ago."

"But in the end, I did run away..."

"Running away isn’t always a bad thing, Ismera. It’s better than stubbornly staying until you break. Running away also takes courage. And more importantly, I don’t think I ever asked you to stick it out and endure."

Ismera slowly lifted her head.

"In a situation where most people would have given up and lashed out, you showed remarkable resilience. So you’re not a failure."

"Mister... I..."

"You said that if you had known I was the one who saved you, things would have been different. The same goes for me. If I had known that you were the elf I saved back then, what would I have done?"

"You probably... would have hated me... thinking I was a monster who repaid kindness with ingratitude..."

"No. I probably would have hugged you tightly and said thank you."

"What...?"

I looked into Ismera’s eyes and smiled.

"I’m thankful to you."

"You’re thankful to me...?"

"Yes, Ismera. Thank you for growing up so well."

I reached out and gently stroked Ismera’s head.

"I was worried that without the Great Forest, you might have ended up living a meaningless, hopeless life. If that had happened, the act of saving you from the flames back then would have been meaningless."

A glimmer appeared in Ismera’s green eyes. It was as if the stars in the night sky were reflecting in her eyes.

"When I returned after killing the Demon King, they gave me all sorts of things in the Palace. A noble title, land, gold, and other things I can’t even remember. But I gave up everything, well except the money."

"Why...?"

"Because it was meaningless. Killing the Demon King doesn’t make you a noble or give you land. You can earn those things through other means. Those titles and lands can’t be a badge of honor for killing the Demon King. Of course, I needed the money. I didn’t want to bother working for it."

I added a joke at the end, laughing.

"But Ismera, seeing the people I saved still alive and well, even by chance, years later, is different. It’s a reward I could never have gotten if I hadn’t been part of the Demon King’s Slayer Special Force. There aren’t many people in this world who can hear someone thank them for saving their life ten years ago."

"That’s really true..."

"So, thank you. For giving meaning to what I did. For proving that the choice I made back then wasn’t wrong."

I grabbed Ismera’s shoulders and smiled brightly.

"Saving you back then was absolutely the right thing to do!"

# # # # #

Dian’s bright smile filled Ismera’s vision.

In that moment, it was as if time had stopped, and Ismera forgot even to breathe.

Dian’s smile was filled with firm conviction and affection, sweeping away all the guilt and regret that had weighed down on Ismera.

As his hand touched her shoulder, Ismera realized that she was still someone important to someone.

"Waaaaaah!"

Ismera threw her arms around Dian and burst into tears like a child.