They reached the farm at near sunset. Leyla tied the horses to the wooden fence encasing the fields. “This is the farm, let’s get inside and meet my father. He must be waiting for us!” Leyla smiled for the first time, she felt relief that she was going to throw all the responsibility into her father’s hands.
Inside the massive barn-like house, a dozen of children greeted them with a middle-aged woman behind. Cain couldn’t help but notice they were all girls, the woman also looked too young to be Leyla’s mother.
Cain didn’t ask what was the family deal as it wasn’t his business to know. However, the story was like this. Leyla’s father Isaac and his wife Alma had a child just after marrying. The child was Leyla. Sadly right after giving birth, Alma fell ill, no healer was able to find a cure for her. When she was on her deathbed, a woman clad in black cloth approached them from the forest proclaiming to have a cure. Being desperate, they accepted her offer in exchange for some coins. The woman’s cure failed to cure Alma and she died a couple of days after, It was sad but Isaac didn’t hold any grudges against The woman as he already felt it was too late for his wife.
Going by his late wife’s wish, he remarried ten years later to try to get an heir to the farm. Leyla would eventually marry into another family and he didn’t want to tie her down to the farm. Sadly as life likes to laugh at people, only girls it was. Isaac eventually gave up after the twelfth girl.
As Leyla was the eldest daughter, it was now her duty to care for the farm in her father’s stead. Isaac encouraged her as this whole land is going to be hers eventually. However, he hid something from her. He was suffering from the same symptoms her mother suffered from.
Isaac lay on the bed in the guest room, As soon as he saw Cain and the others he sat up. Cain immediately noticed the stat he was in.
The old man’s grey hair was already falling from the middle of his head, making his wrinkled face more apparent. Isaac’s body was ripped as all the farmers’ who work day and night were, his hands were rough and his chest was wide. However the signs of his sickness were dominant, his left arm was noticeably thinner than his right, and his right leg was thinner than his left. Half of his face was unresponsive, as he didn’t seem able to close his left eye.
“Welhom. Shorry to hee ya rike dis.” (Welcome, sorry to see you like this) The right side of his mouth didn’t seem to move.
Cain immediately got alarmed and used his appraisal on Isaac.
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[Axe Arts] The art of swinging a woodcutting axe. It is most effective against trees.
[Hoe Arts] The art of handling hoes.
[Throwing] The art of throwing stones.
[Animal wrestling] The art of grappling animals the same size as the user.
[Nerve infection: Permanent damage] A massive, unhealable nerve damage caused by an infection that festered for years.
[Blocked descendant] A curse laid by an evil witch. The ability to have male descendants was stolen by magical means to fuel one of her abhorrent experiments.
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Why did I even try to apprise him? Now I won’t be able to take it from my mind until I investigate further. Cain slowly approached Isaac extending his hand for a shake. Isaac naturally grabbed her as a form of greeting.
As he felt the traces of the curse, Cain recognized it immediately. How could he forget that abhorrent and foul magic, a faint frown covered his face for a moment?
“I would like to have a private talk with you, is that possible?” Cain asked immediately, it was so sudden that the other could easily tell that something was off.
Isaac looked at Cain’s eyes for a moment before speaking, “I won’t marry Leyla to someone followed by four women!” Cain’s mind blanked for a moment.
“Father!” Leyla cried.
“No, it’s not my type.” Cain quickly waved his hand rejecting the idea. “I have something else in mind, it’s better to talk with you about it in private.” Cain faked a smile as he tried to show a faint serious face.
Isaac finally signaled to be left alone with Cain, and the conversation quickly followed.
“I will get immediately to the point as talking around the problem would just confuse you even more. Have you ever met a woman with black hair and a face full of freckles? Her skin is bright brown and her voice seems to weirdly echo in her mouth. A random fact but should have smelled sour and acidic.” Cain quickly described the witch he knew.
“I don’t remember many details but I did meet a woman with a lot of freckles on her face, it was about twenty years ago or something,” Isaac responded as he combed his beard, his eyes wandering to the ceiling.
“Let me guess, she did perform some kind of ritual on you,” Cain asked as he sat beside Isaac.
“How did you know? She did sprinkle something on me and my first wife.” The surprise was clear on Isaac’s face. His head turned rapidly toward Cain.
“Let me be frank. That woman was a witch, she cursed you to never have male children, to never have boys.” The witch’s name was Morena, the older sister of the witch Zaleria who enslaved Cain. In his past life, Zaleria was killed by her sister Morena who then proceeded to sell Cain to the dragon lord.
“It can’t be…” The shock was clear on Isaac’s face, it quickly turned into a sad smile “It doesn’t matter anymore, I don’t have that much time anyway.” Isaac was speaking from experience, his wife only lasted a month after those symptoms appeared.
“You’re right. it’s too late to save your life. But I can lift the curse immediately!” The curse wasn’t that hard to lift as it was applied lightly, all he needed to do was pass a pulse of Mana through Isaac’s body.
“Here, it’s lifted,” Cain said as he put his glowing hand on Isaac’s head.
“Wait…Are you saying I can have a son now?” Isaac stood up with all his strength.
Cain stood and walked toward the door, “It’s up to your luck. We talk tomorrow.” Cain left the room without elaborating further, he saw Isaac’s wife standing at the door with a worried face. “He has something to say to you, go in!” Cain pointed at the wife with his finger, and then with his thumb at the door behind him. The wife immediately rushed in.
Cain looked at the worried Leyla, “It’s already getting late, let’s leave your parent to discuss the matter between them for tonight. You get something for us to eat.” Even though she barely understood what he was talking about, she just nodded in agreement and rushed toward the kitchen to finish what her stepmother was cooking.
“Hush, hush! Move out, let us leave to our business! We will continue the talk tomorrow morning!” Cain said to the dragon’s fang members as he grabbed Sofia’s hand and hurried outside, the other three followed him in silence.