Loving The Cursed Werewolf King-Chapter 597: The Ancient Curse (Cecillia’s Point of View)

Cecillia’s POV

Last night of winter and the first morning of spring, was the time of my birth. That was when a unique small bell-shaped plant grew and bloomed beautifully. Its pure white color gave grace to a man and a woman, a white-haired princess that shone brightly like a very pure blank paper without flaws.

However, behind all the pureness the baby had, her eyes were not able to see. She was born blind and both of them gave the name Cecillia, which meant blind.

Cecillia was my name.

I grew up alone without siblings. I only had a few little friends, a cat with thick fur, five birds that always chirped in the morning, then a few roosters that would help me know the time of day.

Every night I always prayed to anyone out there. The Sun God, The Moon Goddess, Goddess of Earth, or whoever that could hear me. I wanted to see and look at the faces of my father and mother. Seeing the face of a woman who called themselves ladies-in-waiting and seeing the face of a man who called himself a castle guard.

I also really wanted to see the form of my friends. I wanted to know what the birds looked like and their colors were. My ladies-in-waiting said that my cat’s color was brown, but I didn’t know how brown color was.

I could only guess from their explanation. If red was like hot, blue was like cold, then purple was neutral. I got even more confused as the castle guards argued about the transparent color. They said that color was something that could see through. Then, I asked again, what was the shape of the invisibility?

And every time I asked, they fell silent.

There was something else that confused me. That was when my father or mother, who was called by people as king and queen, called me beautiful. I didn’t know the shape of the words beautiful. They explained that beauty was similar to pleasing to the eye. Again, I’m confused. How was the shape pleasing?

They also taught me to determine beauty and handsomeness using my hands. From then on, I started to know everyone I passed. Almost everyone in the castle had their face touched. Most of them would say thank you in a high tone if I called them beautiful or handsome, while those who were not beautiful and not handsome would cry, but strangely the others laughed. I thought it was funny, so I laughed too.

"Our Princess, Cecillia is the prettiest." Those words were the words I always heard every time I finished touching their faces.

I didn’t know if it was true or not, but I still felt grateful because they had been so kind to me.

From then on, I learned to sharpen all my senses because I knew that I would never be able to see. For seventeen years, I had always studied and learned. I had a teacher myself who taught me to write. I was focused on the movement and carving of the hand.

If the rotating word formed the letter o, the short vertical lines formed the letters i, and o plus i became a after combining them together. I learned everything until I could finally write.

I lived in peace and serenity until I overheard that our royal border guard was killed. That night I cried for the first time. That man was a guard I once called not handsome. He had a son of my age who had gone to another kingdom. A few weeks ago, he said goodbye to going to the border and promised to come back because he still wanted to welcome his son who had just left.

But now that man was gone. And his death was my first sad emotion.

Since then, the peacefulness that had always made our lives in bliss was slowly crumbling, and my father started to shout at anyone. I didn’t understand why. Mother just said that he didn’t like the new young king who was so greedy to take small territory under his rule. Mother said father was just tired. After all the conflict he went through finished, father would go back to being a good father figure again. That was what my mother promised, but until I wrote this, my good father never came back again.

That was when I started to feel bored. My friends, the ladies-in-waiting, as well as the guards who used to play with me since childhood slowly left the castle for various reasons.

In the midst of my boredom, I went to the forest. I just planned to play in the forest as usual. I already knew the road well. I only needed to take a few steps and turn around to touch the tree that had been marked, then if I wanted to go home, I just needed to step in the reverse order. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

But, that day, something was different. I heard a growl. I didn’t know what animal it was because I couldn’t tell the type of animal growl using my hearing yet. I wanted to run, but I hadn’t touched the marked tree yet. I wasn’t sure how many steps I had taken.

I didn’t know what I had stepped on. Then, I fell to the ground.

"Who is there?’

I knew it was just a useless question, but at least if it was a human, the person would answer me. That was what I thought.

Suddenly, the growling sound that had been heard before stopped. Now, the sound of footsteps, like a human stomping on the ground could be heard. I groped the ground and found a pair of legs and trousers.

Thankfully, it was a human.

"Sir, can you help me show the way to Birwick Castle?"

I got no response, but I knew that the man was squatting in front of me. I was confused when I heard a sniffing sound until finally something touched my neck.

"Are you human? You can’t see?" he asked in a voice so close that it took me by surprise.

As the ladies-in-waiting and the guards of the castle had taught me, I had to slap anyone who touched me without asking my permission. I raised my hand to slap him, but a strong hand held my hand.

"L-let go!"

The mysterious man didn’t let go of me. Instead, he pulled my hand and sniffed my wrist. I struggled and screamed for help. I was sure at that time I was still in the castle forest area. I couldn’t possibly have crossed the boundary of the forbidden forest. I was very confident about it.

The man came closer and the first thing I caught was the smell of fresh wood, like the smell of the first rain in spring.

The man brought his face even closer and what made me flinch was a strange whisper and urge from within me. Besides, the smell of the man’s body made me feel weak.

After trying hard to break free, I heard his whisper saying the words, "Mine."