Chapter 257: Collusion

Julius had seen that face before.

He had seen it when Luca slaughtered his disciple.

He had seen it when Luca tortured Rufus.

He had seen it in his nightmares.

And now it was looking at him.

But as terrified as he was, he knew he couldn’t falter now, so he forced a smile and stammered out,

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, Hero. I’ve told the truth. The curse is broken. We can all move on.”

Luca’s grin widened. “The curse is broken, is it?”

“Yes…I defeated the patriarch’s spirit. I’m free.”

Luca took a step forward. Julius took a step back.

“That’s convenient.” Luca said, his voice soft, almost pleasant. “Very convenient.”

“You’ve been possessed for forty years, and just today, right when your wife is finally confessing everything…”

“…you suddenly break free.”

Julius swallowed. “I-It was her courage that inspired me. Her bravery gave me strength.”

“…How touching.”

The villagers who heard the obvious sarcasm in his voice immediately erupted into confused whispers.

“What’s happening?” One elf whispered to her neighbor.

“Didn’t Leona just say Julius was innocent?”

“But the Hero wouldn’t lie.” Another countered.

“There’s obviously something else going on.”

“But Leona proved his innocence! She said nothing was wrong. And it makes sense—Julius technically isn’t at fault. So what’s really happening here?”

The murmurs spread like wildfire through the crowd.

They had thought that the nightmare was finally ending.

The curse was broken, the patriarch’s spirit was gone, and Julius, while not exactly forgiven, was at least understood.

A bitter conclusion, yes, but a conclusion nonetheless.

Now it seemed they had only scratched the surface.

Nyx’s eyes, already dark, grew darker still. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and her hand drifted toward the knife at her belt.

She had been waiting for this, waiting for the moment when the mask would slip, when the truth would finally emerge.

Her instincts had never believed Julius’s performance, and now those instincts were screaming that she had been right all along.

Lulu and Luna tightened their grip on their mother, their eyes fixed on their father with fresh suspicion.

They had never trusted him. They never would. And now, even the hero was calling him out.

Leona was perhaps the most confused of all.

She had told the truth, the whole truth as far as she knew it. Every secret, every memory, every painful detail had been dragged into the light.

She had held nothing back.

And yet, here was Luca, suggesting that there was more. That she had been deceived.

She turned to him, her brow furrowed.

“Luca, what’s going on? What are you talking about?”

She searched his face, looking for answers.

“Is there something I don’t know? Did I leave something out?”

She thought for a moment, replaying her confession in her mind.

“I really don’t think I forgot anything. I told you everything I knew.”

Luca shook his head, a gentle smile on his face.

“You didn’t forget anything, Leona. You told everything you knew.”

His smile turned sharp as he looked at Julius.

“It’s just that our dear Julius here has been hiding a great deal from you.”

“There’s plenty he hasn’t revealed to anyone.”

The crowd erupted.

“What is it, Hero?! What isn’t he revealing?!”

“Just tell us already!”

“We want to know!”

Leona, Nyx, Lulu, and Luna leaned in, their curiosity overriding their caution. Even the children stopped fidgeting and stared at Luca with wide, expectant eyes.

Julius, meanwhile, was drowning in sweat.

His shirt clung to his back. His palms were slick. His heart pounded so hard he could hear it in his ears.

Just moments ago, he had been soaring—euphoric, triumphant, convinced that he had escaped the noose.

He had performed perfectly.

He had played the humble and tragic victim, the man who had fought his own demons and emerged battered but victorious.

And then Luca had opened his mouth.

Now the noose was back. Tighter than ever.

Julius’s legs shook. His vision blurred.

But he couldn’t show fear. He couldn’t break.

He still had a chance, a slim one, but a chance nonetheless. Luca couldn’t prove anything. There was no evidence. Only speculation.

He forced himself to straighten, to meet Luca’s gaze, to speak with as much indignation as he could muster.

“Stop slandering me, Hero!” His voice cracked, but he pressed on. “I know you have it out for me! And I understand—my previous actions have offended you, and I apologize for that!”

“But you have to understand, it wasn’t really me! I was influenced by the Patriarch’s spirit!”

He spread his hands in a gesture of desperate appeal, his face contorting into what he hoped was a sincere expression.

“From the very beginning, I wanted to be friends with you!”

“To become close companions!”

Luca actually rolled his eyes at this, his disgust evident.

The gesture was so casual, so dismissive, that it made Julius’s desperation even more apparent.

But he pressed on, his voice taking on a pleading quality.

“I sincerely did not want to fight with you at all! And now—now we can start over! We can put all of the past behind us and rebuild our friendship!”

His eyes brightened with forced hope, like a merchant desperately trying to close a failing deal.

“With us working together in the village, things will improve significantly! We can do so much good!”

“The village will prosper under our combined leadership!”

He smiled, a appeasing smile that didn’t reach his terrified eyes.

And shockingly, to everyone’s complete surprise, Luca’s expression actually softened.

He gave Julius what appeared to be a friendly, considering look.

“You know what, Julius?” Luca said thoughtfully. “I think you’re right. We should do that.”

“We should really build a new friendship together.”

The crowd stirred in confusion. Even Julius himself felt a flicker of genuine hope surge through his chest.

Maybe, just maybe, Luca was actually willing to let this go. Maybe he could still salvage this situation.

But that hope lasted exactly one second.

Because then Luca’s smile turned sharp and cold, his eyes glinting with dangerous intent.

“But if we’re going to build a new friendship, we need to bring out all the old laundry. All the dirty secrets hidden underneath.”

“Only then can we have a proper relationship without lies, without deception.”

He took a step forward. Julius stepped back.

“So go ahead, Julius. Tell everyone the truth. The truth you’ve been hiding for so long. Tell it, and then we can truly build that friendship.”

Julius’s forced smile wobbled. His voice came out thin and reedy.

“What…What truth, hero? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’ve already told everything. Everything I know. I don’t know what else you want from me.”

Luca’s expression hardened. “You really have nothing to say?”

Julius felt like he was standing before a demon.

Luca’s eyes were pits of darkness, bottomless and cold.

But he couldn’t back down. He couldn’t admit anything.

He shook his head, forcing himself to meet that terrible gaze.

“Y-Yes.” He said, trying to inject firmness into his voice. “Yes, I really have nothing more to say. I’ve told you everything.”

For a long moment, Luca just stared at him in silence.

Then he spoke, and what he said made Julius’s blood run cold.

“Then what about…”

Luca paused deliberately, letting the tension build until everyone was practically holding their breath.

“…the matter of you and the former Patriarch colluding with one another to take down Leona and bring the entire village under your control?”

“What do you have to say about that?”

The effect was instantaneous and explosive.

It was like a bomb had detonated in the middle of the village square.

“WHAT?!”

“COLLUDING?! Julius and the former Patriarch were working TOGETHER?!”

“That can’t be true! How is that even possible?!”

The crowd erupted into absolute chaos—shocked shouts, confused questions, frightened exclamations all overlapping into a cacophony of noise.

Everyone was utterly baffled. Before this moment, they had understood there were two possible explanations for everything that had happened.

Either it truly was the Patriarch’s malevolent spirit controlling Julius against his will, making Julius a victim.

Or Julius had been the mastermind all along, manipulating events for his own benefit.

It had been one or the other. A binary choice.

But now Luca had introduced a third possibility that threw everything into complete chaos: that Julius and the former Patriarch had been conspiring together from the very beginning.

The idea was so horrifying, so unexpected, that no one knew what to think or say.

Even Nyx, who had been observing and investigating this situation for years, who had accumulated more knowledge about the curse than anyone except Leona herself looked completely blindsided.

She had never once considered that her father might have been actively working with Julius in some kind of partnership.

The very concept seemed impossible.

She, along with everyone else, turned toward Leona as if seeking answers.

But Leona herself looked just as confused and shocked as everyone else. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open, her face pale with dawning horror.

“What do you mean, Luca?” Leona’s voice was barely a whisper. “What do you mean my father and Julius were working together?”

“How could that possibly be?”

Luca chuckled, his eyes still fixed on Julius, who had gone the color of old parchment.

“Think about it, Leona. Before, you had two possibilities…Either your father was at fault, or Julius was the schemer.”

“And no matter which you chose, something felt wrong. Off. Like you were missing a crucial piece of the puzzle.”

Leona nodded slowly. He was right. Neither explanation had ever sat well with her.

There had always been a lingering unease, a sense that the truth was more complicated than she knew.

Luca held up one hand.

“Now, instead of focusing on one person…”

He held up the other.

“…or the other…”

He brought his hands together, interlacing his fingers.

“Why don’t we think of them as colluding? Working together, towards a common goal.”

He pressed his palms together.

“And if we look at it from that perspective—Julius and the former patriarch in league with each other—a great many things start to make sense.”

It was like a key turning in a lock. Leona felt something click into place in her mind.

Questions that had plagued her for years suddenly had answers—not all of them, not yet, but enough to see the shape of the truth.

The villagers felt it too. A collective intake of breath, a shared sense of horrified understanding.

This was the answer they had been looking for.

Julius, meanwhile, had been growing paler and paler with each passing second. His breathing became rapid and shallow.

He looked like a man watching his entire world crumble into ash.

Finally, he broke.

He couldn’t stay silent anymore. If he remained quiet now, he would forfeit everything—his position, his power, possibly even his life.

So he started screaming like a cornered animal.

“SLANDER!” His voice cracked with hysteria. “SLANDER! IT’S ALL SLANDER!”

The scholarly, composed image he’d carefully maintained for decades shattered completely.

He looked absolutely deranged, his eyes wild, spittle flying from his lips.

“You should shut your mouth, Hero! You know nothing about what you’re talking about!”

He jabbed his thumb at his own chest.

“Me? Colluding with the patriarch? How ridiculous! That’s utterly impossible!”

He let out a manic laugh that sent chills down everyone’s spines. It was the laugh of someone teetering on the edge of complete breakdown.

“The Patriarch attacked me! I was a victim!”

He whirled toward Leona, gesturing frantically.

“Leona saw me suffer for two days! She witnessed it herself!”

“I had to fight with that monster in my mind over and over again for years! You can’t imagine how painful it was!”

His voice took on a self-pitying quality, almost whining.

Then he spun back to face Luca, pointing accusingly with a trembling hand.

“And now you’re telling everyone that we were working together?! That’s INSANE! No matter how much you hate me, you can’t just make up lies like this!”

“You better shut your mouth right now, or else—or else—”

But Luca just smiled calmly, completely unbothered by the outburst.

“Or else what, Julius?” His voice was soft, almost curious. “Or else what exactly?”

The words hung in the air, soft and deadly.

Julius’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.

What could he say? What threat could he possibly make that would mean anything to this man?

This monster who had butchered his subordinates, who had stabbed himself without flinching, who had faced down armies and walked away unscathed?

He had nothing.

Luca’s smile faded, replaced by a cold, dark expression.

“I’ll say this once…Shut your mouth.”

Julius shivered.

“If you say one more word, I’ll personally walk over there and rip your lips off.”

He leaned forward slightly.

“So keep that disgusting mouth of yours closed while I explain to everyone what’s really been going on.”

Julius wanted to protest. He wanted to shout, to argue, to defend himself.

Technically, Luca couldn’t just attack him without provocation, right? There were rules, restrictions.

But the rational part of his mind was completely overridden by pure, primal fear.

After seeing what Luca had done to Isaac and Rufus—Julius didn’t dare open his mouth.

He just looked down at the ground, his whole body shaking with frustration and terror, silently praying he still had his trump card left to play.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep