Chapter 251: A Father’s Curse

Hearing this shocking revelation, Nyx’s face went pale.

She hadn’t known, she hadn’t known any of this.

And just then—one the elves suddenly raised her hand, her eyes wide with realization.

“I remember something!” She exclaimed and everyone turned to her. “I was passing by the Holy Tree that night—I know I shouldn’t have, it was a sacred ceremony.”

“But I had important work, so I ended up nearby.”

“And then…I heard screaming.”

She trembled at the memory.

“Terrible screaming like someone was in agony. It sounded like a man’s voice.”

She looked at Leona.

“I think…I think that was Julius.”

Another elf nodded vigorously.

“I remember something too. I wasn’t near the tree that night, but when I was heading home, I saw Leona helping Julius walk.”

“He looked absolutely terrible—pale as death, like he was about to collapse.”

She looked at Leona.

“I asked you what happened. And you told me…”

She paused, trying to remember.

“You said it was nothing. That everything was fine. That Julius had simply gotten emotional after hearing the previous Patriarch’s message.”

She shook his head slowly.

“I believed you then. But now…it seems something had gone very wrong.”

All eyes turned back to Leona and she gave a small, bitter smile.

“I didn’t expect anyone to remember that. But yes—it’s exactly as you said.”

She took a shaky breath.

“After being attacked by my father’s spirit, Julius thrashed around, screaming and convulsing like he was in unbearable pain. I tried to help him, tried to do something, but nothing worked.”

She shook her head in defeat. “It went on for what felt like forever until finally, finally, he calmed down.”

Her expression grew dark.

“But even after he stopped screaming, he looked terrified, like he’d just survived a nightmare. He was utterly weak. I had to support him all the way back home and help him into bed.”

“And after that…he couldn’t get up for two entire days. He was that weak.”

Leona sighed heavily.

“During those two days, I kept thinking about what had happened. About what exactly my father had told me and why.”

“I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t want to believe it.”

She looked down at her hands.

“On the third day, Julius finally woke up. He looked better, though still shaken. We discussed what had occurred, tried to come up with explanations, tried to make sense of it all. But we couldn’t figure anything out.”

Her voice grew quieter.

“Eventually, we decided to just…push it aside. To forget about it. We didn’t really believe something would actually happen. It made no sense to us.”

“We thought maybe it was just my father’s final words—that he’d died with resentment and said cruel things because of it, but that nothing would actually come of it.”

She closed her eyes.

“So we didn’t tell anyone. We didn’t mention it. We just tried to move on, thinking everything would be completely normal and nothing would go wrong.”

Then she let out a sorrowful, hollow laugh.

“But how could it be that easy?”

She opened her eyes, and they were filled with tears.

“After that, everything changed for the worst.”

She looked around at the gathered villagers, her gaze sweeping across all their faces.

“And if you really want to know where everything truly went wrong, when the village’s fate was sealed—it was from that moment forward.”

The crowd gripped their clothes in anxious anticipation.

Leona continued, her voice steadier now but laced with old pain.

“The next morning, I decided to put everything aside and completely forget what had happened. After all, it was probably nothing, right?”

“There was no way a curse could actually work. I didn’t need to worry.”

She shook her head.

“But despite telling myself that, I still had fears. Worries that something bad would happen. So I spent the entire day with a bit of concern in the back of my mind.”

“But to my surprise, nothing happened.”

She blinked like she could still remember her shock.

“I spoke to others normally. Teased my sister. Cuddled with my mother. I was the same as I’d always been. Julius was the same too.”

She smiled bitterly.

“I was so relieved. I thought—see? Nothing happened. It was all just empty words.”

Her face darkened.

“But the next day, everything changed.”

She looked out at the crowd.

“One of our villagers woke up screaming. She was in horrible, unbearable pain, a burning sensation in her belly, like fire was consuming her from the inside. Everyone in the village was alarmed.”

Many of the elves grimaced, remembering that morning. It had been like an alarm, a scream that woke the entire village and sent everyone rushing.

“We tried everything to help her. But nothing worked. Julius tried healing spells—nothing. Nyx tried to talk her down—nothing. She just kept screaming, the pain spreading through her whole body, and we could do nothing but watch.”

Leona’s voice dropped.

“But while everyone else was worrying about her, I was thinking about something else. About the fact that the person suffering—Tessa was one of my closest friends.”

Everyone turned to look at an elf with long orange hair. Tessa’s face had gone pale, her eyes wide as she stared at Leona.

Leona continued, “Not only was she my friend, but the day before she fell ill, we had spent half the day together. We went into the forest. Picked berries.”

Despite the grim situation, Tessa also smiled faintly at the memory.

“I still remember that day too. Not only because we were really lucky and found so many berries…but it was also the last day I saw you smiling so cheerfully.”

Leona showed a reluctant, bittersweet smile.

“That’s true. Because it was on that day that I realized the curse might actually be real.”

She sighed and went on to say in grimace,

“My father had told me I wouldn’t be able to show emotion or love. And he said that if I did, someone would suffer. At first, I thought I would be the one to suffer.”

“But when Tessa fell ill right after we spent that happy day together…I started to wonder.”

Everyone immediately realised what she was trying to say and were horrified at the thought.

“But I didn’t want to believe it.” Leona shook her head in refusal. “I told myself it was just a coincidence. I tried to push past it, to forget about it.”

“But the very next day…”

She bit her lips till she could feel them burn.

“…three more villagers started suffering the exact same pain.”

She looked at three women in the crowd and said with rememberance,

“Aina, Felta, and Emma, you remember that day too, don’t you? We were all practicing archery together the day before you fell ill.”

“You guys kept praising me, saying how good my aim was, teasing me about being a natural.”

The three women exchanged glances, memories surfacing.

Aina spoke up with a nostalgic smile.

“I remember. You were amazing with that bow, I said I’d never seen anyone shoot like you.”

Felta nodded with a chuckle.

“I remember being so jealous of yours skills, I’d never seen anyone hit the target from that distance.”

“I almost snapped my bow out of frustration that day. You were always better than me. The prodigy.”

Emma added while rubbing her forehead fondly.

But then her expression changed and it became more solemn like she realised something pivotal.

“I also remember…that it was literally the next day that all three of us fell ill. We went through the same horrible pain that Tessa had.”

Understanding began to dawn on the villagers’ faces.

Leona acknowledged it with a bitter nod.

“One time could be a coincidence. But twice? The same three people I’d been friendly with the day before, all suffering the same mysterious illness?”

She clenched her fists.

“I realized something was truly wrong. And in the coming weeks, more and more villagers fell ill.”

“Every single one of them was someone I had talked to, someone I had spent time with, someone I had shown even a little warmth or affection to.”

Her voice broke.

“I realized that I really, truly had a curse hanging over me. I couldn’t show my true thoughts or feelings to anyone.”

Because the moment I did, instead of me suffering—they would suffer. And watching them suffer would be my ultimate punishment.”

Tears streamed down her face.

“I realized the curse was working exactly as my father had intended.”

“But despite knowing that, I couldn’t hold myself back completely.” She wiped at her eyes roughly. “Even though I wanted to control my emotions for everyone’s sake, I still let things slip sometimes.”

“I would forget to be cold, forget to keep my distance. And because of that, more and more people suffered.”

Her voice dropped to a whisper.

“This went on…until it finally affected Nyx.”

She looked at her sister, tears flowing freely now.

“And then Mother fell ill too.”

Nyx’s eyes shimmered in anguish. The memory clearly still pained her.

Leona looked up at the sky, as if addressing someone far above.

“Watching my own sister and mother go through that horrible pain and realizing it was because I had laughed with them the day before, because I had shown them affection…I knew then that I had truly become the curse of this village.”

She looked back at the crowd, her expression filled with self-loathing.

“Anyone who got close to me would suffer because of it. Anyone I showed love to would be punished for my sin of existing.”

Her whole body trembled.

“So from that day forward, I made a decision.”

“No matter how much I wanted to talk to others and play with them like I used to in the past, no matter how much I wanted to laugh and smile and be myself…I couldn’t.”

She shook her head firmly.

“I had to isolate myself completely. I had to become cold. Distant. Unfeeling.”

Nyx’s hands trembled at her sides.

She remembered that time—remembered recovering from her illness and rushing to her sister, eager to see her, to talk to her, to make sure she was alright.

But when she arrived, Leona was already different. Distant. Cold. The warmth in her eyes had been replaced by something hard and unreadable.

No matter how many times Nyx approached her, no matter what she said or did, Leona wouldn’t open up. She wouldn’t laugh. She wouldn’t tease back.

She just…existed. A hollow shell of who she used to be.

“We all wondered why she changed so much.” An elf whispered. “I thought it was some kind of family dispute. That Nyx had done something or that Leona was jealous of her.”

Another elf nodded, shamefaced. “I heard rumors that Leona was fighting with Nyx over the throne. That she wanted all the power for herself.”

“Someone told me she was having an affair. That she was secretly working against the village.”

More and more elves spoke up, their voices filled with guilt.

“Because she was so cold to us, we thought there must be something wrong with her. That she was the problem.”

“B-But she was protecting us. All along, she was protecting us.”

The realization was spreading through the crowd like wildfire.

They all felt terrible now.

They remembered how Leona had changed.

How day by day, she’d become colder and more distant.

How she’d stopped smiling, stopped laughing, stopped showing any warmth whatsoever.

And they’d created horrible rumors about her because of it.

Of course, most of those rumors had been started by the male elves who took advantage of the situation, but the entire village had believed them.

They’d all turned against her, shaming her and treating her like she’d betrayed them.

When all along, she’d been suffering in silence to protect them.

When all along, she’d been sacrificing her own happiness—her own ability to love and be loved—just so they wouldn’t suffer.

Tears began dropping freely among the crowd.

“Leona, I’m so sorry.” The voice came from a young elf in the front, her cheeks wet, her voice cracking. “I doubted you. We all doubted you. Please forgive us!”

Others echoed the sentiment, a chorus of apologies rising like a desperate prayer.

“We love you, Leona! We never stopped loving you!”

“How could we have been so blind!?”

“You suffered alone for so long, and we did nothing. W-We said nothing.”

Lulu and Luna were openly crying now, finally understanding the full extent of their mother’s suffering.

Nyx was gritting her teeth, frustrated and heartbroken that she hadn’t been able to help her sister at all.

And Leona stood there in the center of it all, tears going down her cheeks, finally telling the truth she’d kept buried for so long.

The truth that had been slowly killing her for four decades.

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