Chapter 36 Double-Edged Sword
Two weeks passed by with no signs of Elisha's return, things in the tribe had become more and more hectic with the disappearance of their beloved chief.
Usha was trying her best to keep things in the city peaceful but people were panicking here and there regardless. She didn't know how tough was being a chief before this happened.
They managed to rebuild most of the walls but it wasn't strong as the previous one, as they quickly put it together. Monster attacks became more vicious because of all the commotion in the forest so, they had to assign extra guards to the gate.
Girls were anxious about their future and another future attack because they had no evidence to say that they won't be attacked in future. Elders were also worried about the tribe.
Usha temporarily took the place of Elisha but, she easily got overwhelmed by the work and problems that came with it. She was on the verge of a breakdown with all this
Eva also left the city as she was worried about her own tribe. During these two weeks, Carol showed no signs of recovering so, she didn't want to stay here as the Kano tribe might be in danger.
"Usha, I'm taking mother back, I can't stay here any longer," Eva didn't want to abandon her best friend but at the same time, she had other things to protect.
Usha knew that someday she might go back, but she didn't expect that day would come this fast.
"Ugh~I know you're worried about your people, but is it really a good time to go back?" Usha wasn't being selfish, she was just concerned about Eva.
"Even if something did happen, I must protect them, they are my family, Usha," Eva said with a sad face. Their normal battle-hungry personalities were nowhere to be seen.
"I'll just provide some horses to you then, you should come back when things are settled, take care of aunty," Usha tried to leave the room but, suddenly Eva remembered Usha something she tried to forget,
"How is Aunty Nara? Why don't you let me see her again? Did something happen to her?" Eva questioned her making Usha's face grim.
"She's fine, it's just a little sickness, you guys go back I'll get things ready, By the way-" Usha just ignored her question making Eva suspicious of her, but she didn't have time since she wanted to leave before noon.
"I'll come back when things are solved, don't worry we will find your chief together, I'll send a message if I find any clue," Eva left her last words with her before leaving.
Usha looked outside from the window remembering the tragic things that happened to them in the past weeks.
*Sigh
"Why is this happening to us? Did goddess really abandon is like a mother said?" She thought while walking down the hallway watching the reconstruction works of the wall from afar.
She entered a basement-type room quickly without letting others see her,
"I want to see her," She said to the two girls who were guarding a door made with iron. It looked like a prison but, nobody knew who was in there.
"Young chief, is it really ok to keep her alive?" At her words, Usha frowned but she quickly regained her cool as it wasn't a bad opinion.
After going through the metal door, she entered a little chamber which mainly had no sunlight or anything, it was dark but, there were some mana stones to give some kind of light to it.
"Arghhhh~ Blessing! Blessing! Holy!" Usha felt her heart wrenching hearing the loud sound of someone screaming inside the room, which was guarded with some extra rods.
"Aunty Nara!" If someone from the past told them that she was the same Nara, who helped to heal many people in the village with her kindness and care they wouldn't have believed it because her appearance had totally changed from an angel to a monster.
Nara had black spots all over her body and her hair was a mess, it was a scary sight to behold for anyone who have seen her previous self.
"Why did this happen? I adored you just like my mother," She couldn't help but remember the day this all started.
Two days after she healed everyone from the curse, Nara started to show some symptoms of diseases. She started to lose her memory little by little, and her whole body became weak suddenly.
Nym was so depressed by her mother's condition that, she constantly kept researching for the reason for her disease and medicine for her.
"Blessing! Holy! Holy! Hahaha," Nara kept muttering like a crazy woman. Nobody knew why she became like this but Usha had a vague idea about how it happened.
"That damn witch! Because of her, I lost my mother and now her,"
"Damn it! If I meet you again I'm going to cut her into pieces and feed her to goblins," Usha hit the wall in anger looking at Nara.
"Aunty, Nym is trying her best to find a cure for you, I'm pretty sure she will be successful wait until then," She was talking but Nara was mumbling the same word again and again.
In her mind Usha wanted to release her from this pain but seeing Nym trying her best, she couldn't make up her mind to kill her or at least she thought like that but Usha wasn't strong enough to take such a decision.
She went back to the main hallway leaving the basement-like building. Elders were waiting for her as they wanted to know about Nara.
"Young chief, how's that girl? Any improvements?" They asked looking at her.
"It's actually becoming worse, grandma, why do you think this happened to her?" Usha had her own theories but, she wanted to know what others think about her condition.
They talked about different possibilities but in the end, nobody knew what was wrong with her.
"I think this must be because of the curse, we should kill that witch to revert her back,"
"But how do we do that? Didn't you see how powerful she was? And we don't even know where she's from except that she was a dark elf," Her words made sense to all of them but, the hatred inside them for Eldora was enough to burn the whole city down.
"She killed our younglings and killed my one and only daughter, I won't forgive her," Someone started to cry remembering the previous attack of Eldora making the atmosphere dark.
Usha quickly interfered and talked with her kindly,
"We will grandma, first we should take care of the remaining girls, I think she wouldn't be proud to see her strong mother crying like this,"
All of them were surprised by her words as she was well known for her cold nature, they never expected such kind words from Usha.
"Kid, you're different than I expected,"
"Yeah, I thought you were a cocky and stubborn one,"
They had no brakes while talking, Usha just laughed it off while going back leaving them to talk among themselves.
"They really are good elders, I will definitely protect them," Usha would have already been overwhelmed by the amount of work if not for the support of elders and Elisha's friends.
She couldn't help but feel sweet remembering that, there were still so many people to help her and there are people that depend on her,
"Eldora, I don't where you are or why you attacked us but, one day you will have to pay for this," She knew her strength wasn't enough, so she planned to become stronger than her mother.
"I won't let something like this happen again ever," She thought while going back to her office.
Three years went by like that, and still, there was no clue about Elisha,
"Chief! There is a group of dark elves, what shall we do?"
Usha looked outside to find a small group of dark elves,
"Ignore them, they can't attack us," Nobody questioned her as everyone knew why she said that.
"If they try to attack us use cannons and kill them quickly," She had no hesitation while ordering them showing her confidence.
She ignored them because small groups were no threat to them, they had Nym who could easily purify the curses with the same light magic.
"Nym, don't do anything unwanted, just do what you're told and obey my orders," Usha saw her angrily looking at the dark elves and she knew why she was like that but, she didn't want to risk her life.
During these few years, Nym managed to find the reason why her mother went crazy after that bloody event which happened three years before,
It was because she directly used holy blessings to consume many curses that couldn't be purified at the same time. The curses started to eat her from the inside and her light magic couldn't keep up with her.
Curses couldn't directly affect light magic users but no matter how potent her light magic is, in the end, she had her own limits.
Nym learned from her mistakes and only used mana stones to use her magic, so without her directly consuming the curse, she used mana stones to consume the curse.
While thinking about all this Usha got ready to give archers the order to shoot but suddenly she saw a familiar face among the attackers.