Deep night had settled in. The moon hung directly overhead. Stars glittered across the sky. Dogs could be heard somewhere in the distance.
Out beyond the wall, the zombie-like monsters were still pounding at the gate. But inside, everything was still. No movement. No sound. Just quiet — as if no one had ever lived in this village at all.
All three of them were desperate to know the truth about those monsters.
"I'd only ever seen zombies in movies. Seeing them for real makes me understand why people were so terrified of them." Jhed thought to himself. "Ugh... these thoughts won't stop." A tsunami of thoughts had crashed through his mind and refused to settle.
"So — why are you making us wait so long?" Shine said.
"Alright. Listen carefully. What I'm about to tell you will show you just how powerful the ability to curse truly is." Andrev said.
All three of them fixed their eyes on him.
"Fifteen years ago, when the war ended, the adventurers from this village who had gone to fight came back. As you all know, the Demon King won the war. Our adventurers had fled to save their own lives. But there was a woman — her son had also gone to fight. He never came back. She asked every returning adventurer, but no one would answer her. They all went quiet and walked away. From that day on, she asked them every single day: 'Where is my son?' But they all ignored her. The villagers stayed quiet too. I stayed quiet too.
The woman came to believe her son had probably died a warrior's death on the battlefield. But that wasn't what happened. She was right that he was dead — but not in battle. One day she found out the truth: these adventurers had thrown her son in front of the monsters to save themselves and then ran. The boy was screaming for help. But they sacrificed him so they could escape. The monsters tore him apart. And these adventurers fled.
When she found out, she told the whole village. But those adventurers were family to other villagers too — so everyone stayed silent. I understood her pain. I spoke up for her — told people that what these men did deserved consequences. But they started ignoring me as well. The woman had lost her mind by then. She stopped eating. She stopped sleeping."
Andrev's voice grew quieter.
"Every day I tried to reach her. I told her — 'Even a great mage like Harles faced defeat. Even the hero took his own life near the Demon King's fortress. How could we have won? Fear took root in people's hearts. With the hero gone and Harles imprisoned, victory was impossible. People turned back. You're not the only one who lost a son — many people lost their entire families. Look — my son Mite writes to me every week.'" Andrev showed her the letters.
She wouldn't even look at them. It was the same every day.
Then one day, she finally answered him.
"Other people's families died fighting. But my son — they threw him in front of monsters. When they were tearing him apart, he must have been screaming so hard. He wasn't strong like your son. He had no magic either. He used to drink magic potions just to swing a sword. He learned swordsmanship entirely on his own. He told me before the war — 'Mom, I'm not ready yet.' But I didn't listen to him."
Tears poured from her eyes without stopping.
"When I looked into her eyes, I saw an emptiness I'd never seen before. What it feels like when the whole world turns against you. What it feels like when no one can understand your pain. That day I understood — if my Mite had been there, he would have done something." Andrev told them.
The woman would watch those adventurers walking past her house, laughing. Every time, rage would build inside her.
One day, she came outside and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"How can you laugh after killing my son?"
The adventurers ignored her, just like every other time, and kept walking.
But her rage that day had reached a breaking point.
"I curse all of you. From this day forward, you will become monsters — monsters that devour people and turn them into creatures like yourselves."
The moment those words left her mouth, black clouds swallowed the sky. Lightning cracked and split the air — and struck every one of those adventurers, the ones who had thrown her son to the monsters and fled. The instant the lightning hit them, they twisted into something unrecognizable. They began devouring the people around them, and those people became like them in turn. The woman watched all of it, and for a moment, she felt something close to satisfaction.
But a curse always demands payment from the one who casts it — payment in life. She died right where she stood. And her body vanished.
Chaos erupted everywhere. People ran for their lives. No one had believed she would actually use a curse.