Chapter 142 The Curse

Hilda looked at Ren and saw him smiling that smile of his. It irritated her and at the same time comforted her to see that smile. The arrogance of this man still irritated her to no end, but it also reassured her and made her feel that as long as it was him everything will be alright.

Also truthfully speaking after hanging out with Ren for a bit, Hilda didn't really hate the guy, in fact among all the men she knew, this was the first time she was so interested to know more about a man.

"I agree if you're able to save my sisters I will give you my everything. My heart, my body, and my soul are all yours."

Hearing Hilda's response Ren's smile grew wider. "Then the deal has been made. Now let's see what we have here."

Ren held one of Hilda's little sisters in a cradle position as he tried to see what kind of things the curse was doing to them. Ren started to circulate his mana into Karla the older of the two.

'Hmm, this is interesting. The curse is supposed to put these children into a frenzied state, killing everyone on sight. Then why are they sleeping?... Oh, someone used a sleeping spell on them, this might've been done to suppress the curse. They'll be sleeping for an indefinite amount of time, the only way to wake them up is by breaking the sleeping spell placed on them, but if I do that they'll wake up and the curse will take full effect and they'll try to kill me and Hilda.

After gaining his initial findings, Ren told Hilda the current situation of the girls. When Hilda heard that someone used a sleeping spell on her little sisters to protect them, she unconsciously looked at the body of her dead mother.

Ren looked at the same place Hilda was looking at and put the pieces together. He then got a bit curious and checked the body of Hilda's dead mother as well. Ren was surprised to see that Hilda's mother was cursed as well. But unlike the two girls curse which was recent, Hilda's mother's curse has been around for years. It would seem like she forcefully broke free of the curse a few minutes before her death.

"Did you know your mother has been cursed for a few years now?" When Hilda heard what Ren said she had her mouth from hanging open in shock.

"What did you say?" Hilda couldn't believe her ears and wanted to confirm what she just heard.

"I said that your mother over here has been cursed. Even though she's dead and had broken free using her own will, I can still sense a tiny portion of the curse lingering. This means she has been cursed for some time, seeing as once you get released from a curse its presence disappears entirely. The only reason I could think of, as to why I'm still feeling the presence of the curse is because of how long the curse has been attached to your mother."

Hilda clenched her fist, as she heard her heart pounding faster and faster. She felt her body tremble a bit, as she gulped and asked, "what kind of curse was my mother under?"

Ren felt that there was something more going on based on Hilda's reaction, but he decided not to bother about it. He then looked at Hilda's mother one more time.

"She's been under three types of curses. The first one was a curse that makes her mute. The second curse drains her of her mana continuously making her unable to regain any lost mana. The last curse made her remain in a dream-like state, where she's supposedly unaware of her surroundings, and could only see whatever the one who cursed her wanted her to see."

When Hilda heard the answer to her question, she bit her lip until it started to bleed. She could no longer stop herself from tearing up. She felt an excruciating pain in her chest that made her want to vomit.

Her mother that she both hated and loved, was actually in that state for all these years and she never noticed. She kept on saying bad things to her, but it turns out she was the worthless one. Not only was she unable to protect her little sisters, but she was unable to notice her mother's condition.

Unable to hold it in any longer, Hilda started to scream.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Hilda screamed her heart and soul out, as tears fell from her beautiful face.

Ren was shocked by this sudden reaction to what he said. In the end, he simply chalked up this reaction as something humans do because of their varied emotions. If it was back then he would never understand this, but now as he has been a human for quite some time he was able to empathize with her plight. He still couldn't grasp the concept fully, but he somehow understood what Hilda must be going through. He then continued his probing on Karla's body to see if he could remove the curse from her and Nina, he did this while he waited for Hilda to calm down.

...

Hilda who was screaming knelt in front of her mother's body. She could now truly understand why her mother was showing such a content smile in the end. How frustrated her mother must've been when she couldn't do anything even though she wanted to, and how relieved she must've been when she was finally able to do what she wanted.

"I'm so sorry, mom... I'm sorry for being a worthless daughter!" As Hilda was apologizing she suddenly remembered her mother's smiling face, back when her father was still alive. It was at that moment Hilda heard someone whisper in her ears.

"It's alright my little one, be strong... I love you." Hilda was surprised and looked at her mother's unmoving body.

Ren was surprised as well, he didn't hear the words that were spoken, but he felt a weird cold sensation. There was a power that suddenly flowed into the house, it wasn't mana nor Spirit Aura it was something new. As he was wondering what that power was, he saw Hilda stand up, wiped away her tears and bowed in front of her mother. She then looked at Ren with more resolve than he has ever seen from her.

"I'm sorry about my sudden outburst, but I'm alright now." Seeing her sudden change made Ren's lips slightly curve upward.

'As usual, humans can change what they feel with the drop of a hat. Despair can turn to hope, courage can turn to cowardice, joy can instantly turn to sadness.'

"No problem, I actually like the look you have right now. Well, let's get back on topic. After checking on the curse your little sisters' have, I can think of only two options on how to save them. Option one, I wake them up and we hope that they can break the curse on their own. While this is happening I will help you detain them so that they won't kill others, but this process might take a very long time. A good example is your mother who took years to break her curse. The second option is more direct. We figure out who put the curse on your sisters and convince him to lift the curse, or we could do the hidden third option and kill him. Once the caster of this kind of curse is gone, there's a fifty-fifty chance that the curse would break."