Chapter 260: Restrictions Broken

Julius watched Luca, waiting for him to falter.

He expected fear or at least hesitation because he still held the village hostage. If everything truly broke apart, he could simply sacrifice them all.

He was certain Luca understood that, at least to some extent. It was his trump card, his final leverage.

The Hero would have to back down.

But then he saw Luca’s face…and Julius’s confidence shattered.

What he had been expecting wasn’t there at all.

Luca didn’t look scared, frightened, or even the least bit nervous.

Instead, he was just standing there, calmly watching him with that same devious smile he had worn all along.

It was the kind of smile of someone who already knew how the game would end.

Luca then chuckled, the sound warm and almost…amused.

“You’re right, Julius.” Luca said, his tone carrying an unexpected gentleness. “Evidence is absolutely necessary. I can’t simply accuse you of everything and expect the village to accept it, regardless of whether I’m a hero or not.”

“Rules matter. Accountability is necessary.”

The crowd seemed to exhale, uncertain whether they should be comforted or worried.

Luca’s expression shifted to one of theatrical disappointment.

“But here’s the problem: I don’t actually have any concrete evidence. Everything I’ve presented to you has been speculation. Theory. Logical deduction, yes, but nothing I could prove in a court of law.”

Julius seized the opportunity immediately, pointing a trembling finger at Luca.

“Exactly! I told you! This is exactly what I’ve been saying! He’s been spinning lies and fabrications to turn all of you against me.”

“Just because he’s a ’hero’ doesn’t mean every word out of his mouth is gospel. He’s been playing you all for fools!”

He turned to face the crowd, desperate, searching for even a glimmer of sympathy in their eyes.

He found none.

If anything, the villagers looked at Luca with concern, as though the Hero had just surrendered his strongest hand.

Leona’s face creased with worry. Even Nyx’s expression flickered with uncertainty.

But Luca’s eyes grew sharper.

“However.” Luca continued, his voice cutting through the noise like a blade. “There’s no need for me to have evidence, Julius. Because…”

He took a step forward. Julius reflexively stumbled backward.

“…you’re going to provide it for me like a good little piggy.”

The crowd gasped. What was Luca saying? Why would Julius ever admit to anything?

Julius’s face twisted with confusion and fear.

“What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind!? Why would I say anything like that? Not to mention everything you’ve said is completely false!”

“And even if it were true, why would I openly admit it?!”

Luca chuckled again. “Well, to answer your question, Julius…let me ask you something first.”

Julius waited with overwhelming nervousness as Luca finally said,

“Why exactly do you think I’m talking so peacefully right now?”

The crowd leaned in. Julius felt a cold hand grip his heart.

“Why haven’t I already made a move against you?”

Luca continued, his voice dropping to something darker.

“Gods know you’ve irritated me enough this past week. I should have twisted your head clean off your shoulders by now.”

Julius trembled, but remained silent.

Luca’s gaze swept across the crowd before settling back on Julius.

“So what’s stopping me, Julius? What’s the one thing keeping me from simply ending this right now?”

Nyx’s voice rang out eagerly.

“It’s because of the restrictions, Hero! If you didn’t have those restrictions holding you back, you would have killed Julius long ago!”

Luca nodded. “Exactly.”

His eyes narrowed, and his voice dropped to a low, dangerous murmur.

“Now…what would happen if those restrictions completely broke apart?”

The crowd gasped. Whispers spread like wildfire.

Nyx’s eyes widened and then a scary smile spread across her face.

“Then there wouldn’t be anything holding you back anymore.” She said. “You wouldn’t have to stand here debating with him. You could do whatever you wanted. Right now.”

Luca’s smile matched hers. “Exactly.”

Julius’s face went pale—paler than paper, paler than death. He looked like he had just seen a ghost.

Luca turned to face him fully.

“As long as all the restrictions are gone, everything that’s holding both of us back will turn to ashes. And finally—” His voice hardened. “—we can have the showdown we’ve been waiting for.”

He slowly turned his head toward Leona.

“But to remove the restrictions…I need your permission, Leona.”

Her eyes shimmered in surprise.

“As long as you give your permission as the matriarch, everything will break apart. I’ll have free rein. And Julius will know there’s nothing stopping him anymore.”

“…It will be his last stand.”

Leona gulped. She hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t anticipated that she would be the one holding the power to decide his fate.

Julius’s reaction was immediate and primal.

“NO!”

He screamed, lunging forward with wild desperation in his eyes.

“NO, YOU CAN’T! YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT DO THIS! IF YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT, THE CURSE WILL AFFECT THE ENTIRE VILLAGE!”

“THAT’S THE LAST THING YOU WANT, HERO! UNLESS YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SUFFER MISERABLY, DON’T YOU DARE SAY ANYTHING Unnecessary!”

Nyx smirked.

“What are you talking about, Julius? Didn’t you just say a moment ago that the curse was completely gone? That you had finally defeated the patriarch?”

She raised her hands in a dramatic gesture. “So why are you acting like the curse is still here?”

Julius spun on her, his face twisted with fury.

“Shut up, Nyx! Keep your bitch mouth shut!”

The crowd recoiled. This wasn’t the calm, collected healer they had known.

This was a man unhinged, desperate, willing to say anything to survive.

Julius whirled back to Leona, his eyes bloodshot, his voice cracking.

“Don’t do it, Leona! Don’t you dare do anything unnecessary! If you want everyone in this village to live—if you don’t want them to suffer a horrible death—then you better not loosen any restrictions!”

He was threatening her now, no longer bothering to hide it. His desperation had stripped away the last vestiges of his control.

But Nyx’s voice cut through his, louder and more commanding.

“Do it, Leona!” She screamed. “Do it! Break those restrictions! Let the Hero do what needs to be done!”

“Trust in him—he’ll never let anything happen to this village! He’ll save us all!”

“Shut up!” Julius screamed. “I told you to shut up, you whore! In the past, you used to call me ’brother-in-law’ so sweetly—you were so kind to me!”

“And now you’re acting like this? You’re an ungrateful bitch!”

Nyx’s face contorted with fury.

“Shut up, you maggot! You slimy piece of shit! I never liked you—not once! Every single time I was around you, I wanted to stab you. I literally tortured myself just by being near you!”

“So don’t you dare act like I ever had any affection for you. I was planning to kill you every single day of my life!”

Julius’s teeth clenched so hard they nearly cracked. He ignored Nyx entirely, turning back to Leona with an intensity that bordered on madness.

“Leona.” He said, his voice dropping to something almost hypnotic, almost pleading.

“Listen to me. Only me. Think back to everything that’s happened. All the suffering. All the pain everyone has endured.”

Leona’s mind flashed with images—years of anguish, of desperation, of watching her people suffer.

“If you give him that permission…”

Julius continued, his voice dripping with certainty.

“…if you allow him to break free, it will be a thousand times worse than anything that came before.”

“The curse will ravage this village. People will die. Your sister will die. Your daughters will die.”

He pointed at Luna and Lulu, his eyes wide. “Those precious children of yours—they’ll suffer deaths so horrible that you’ll wish they’d never been born.”

But Nyx was already screaming back.

“Don’t listen to him, Leona! Don’t listen to his lies! Trust the hero! Trust Luca! He’s never let us down!”

The villagers stirred. Uncertainty flickered across their faces—but then, one by one, they began to speak.

“Do it, Leona! Do it!”

“Give the Hero control! Let him do whatever he wants!”

“Please, Leona, don’t listen to Julius! We’ve had enough of him! He’s been manipulating us our entire lives!”

“Even if we die because of this, I don’t care anymore! I’d rather die than be under his control!”

More voices joined in, a chorus of desperate hope rising against Julius’s threats.

“Do it!”

“Break the restrictions!”

“Free us!”

“End this!”

Julius was screaming now, his voice hoarse and fractured.

“SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!”

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’RE ASKING FOR! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND THE DANGER!”

But his words were drowned out by the growing roar of the crowd.

Leona stood in the center of it all, the weight of their combined hopes and fears pressing down upon her shoulders.

On one side, Julius’s threats and warnings about the curse.

On the other, the desperate pleas of her people, of Nyx, of Luca.

But then Luca stepped forward, and the world seemed to quiet around them.

He reached out, taking both of her hands gently in his. His touch was warm, steady, anchoring her to something solid in the chaos.

When she looked up into his eyes, she saw not the hero, not the powerful warrior—but simply Luca.

The man who had spent these past days fighting alongside her, protecting her, believing in her when she couldn’t believe in herself.

“I’m not going to make grand promises.”

He said quietly, his voice soft enough that only she could hear despite the noise around them.

“I’m not going to swear sacred oaths or lay out evidence that I can protect everyone. I’ve already done enough through my actions.”

His hands tightened gently around hers, and he pulled her closer, his gaze never wavering from hers.

“All I’m asking…” He whispered. “…is that you trust me. Not as the Hero sent by the goddess. Not as the warrior who came to save your village. But as Luca, the man you’ve come to know these past few days.”

“Look into your heart, Leona. Search your heart, and see if you can truly believe in me.”

He smiled.

“That’s all I ask. Trust me. And I promise you…”

His voice dropped to a whisper.

“…I will break the shackles that bind you and everyone in this village.”

Luna’s voice trembled from where she clung to her mother.

“Do it, Mother! Please. Trust in Luca. He’ll help you. He’ll help all of us!”

“Please, Mother!” Lulu added, her small voice thick with tears. “I don’t care anymore if I live or die. I just want to be free from him. From that man!”

“Please, Mother, please! Trust in Luca!”

Leona closed her eyes.

The voices swirled around her: the villagers’ desperate pleas, Julius’s frantic warnings, her daughters’ tearful entreaties.

But beneath all of it, she heard her own heart.

If she gave permission and Luca moved against Julius without restriction, the curse could indeed devastate them all.

Julius had made that abundantly clear. She could lose everyone—her daughters, her sister, all the people she’d worked so hard to protect and save.

But if she didn’t act, if she let fear paralyze her, then nothing would ever change. The cycle would continue.

Forty years had already been stolen from her. How many more would follow?

She then thought of Luca and asked herself the question that had echoed in her heart since the moment she first saw him.

Did she trust him?

The answer came like a revelation, clear and undeniable.

Yes. With every fiber of her being, yes.

This was the man who had reawakened her capacity to love, to hope, to believe.

He had restored her sister, saved her daughters, illuminated a darkness that had consumed forty years of her life.

He had shown her that change was possible, that freedom was attainable.

If anyone deserved her trust, absolute, unconditional trust—it was him.

The moment that certainty crystallized in her mind, the darkness lifted from her face.

Her eyes brightened, and a radiant smile spread across her features like the dawn breaking after the longest night.

She looked up at Luca with pure, unwavering love and conviction.

Julius saw that smile, saw the decision formulating in her eyes, and his voice broke into a desperate wail.

“NO! LEONA, DON’T! DON’T DO IT! DON’T!”

He lunged forward, reaching out to physically stop her.

But unfortunately—it was too late.

Leona took a deep breath, her voice steady and clear as she spoke the words that would change everything.

“I, Leona Silverleaf, daughter of the Elna, the Grand Matriarch and the current Matriarch of the Elven village, hereby grant full and absolute permission to Luca Faust, Hero sent by the Goddess of Equivalent Exchange to do whatever he deems necessary and just.”

“I grant him authority to act without restriction, to make decisions without limitation, and to wield his full power in defense of this village and its people.”

“I place the fate of every life here in his hands, and I do so with complete trust.”

The moment the words left her lips, Julius released a scream of pure despair.

“NOOOOOOOOO!”

But ignoring his pleas…the heavens answered.

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