Why do I keep attracting Villainesses?

Chapter 32: Unbelievable reveal, who’s to blame?

I had a nervous look on my face as I swam back toward him.

I just couldn’t believe it.

How could Artria and my former mistress, or should I say, Persephone, be related?

They weren’t even the same species.

Artria was a mermaid through and through, but Persephone was shark merfolk. Perhaps she was a half-blood?

"Not blood related, of course," Garin suddenly said, dispelling my suspicions before they could get even more wild.

He sighed, looking out into the blue haze of the distance.

"Look, it happened years ago. Back then... Artria’s parents were still around," he began.

His voice sounded like he was telling an old, sad story that he had repeated a hundred times in his head.

"Those two were the kindest people in our village. Truly. They really knew how to cheer everyone up back then. If anyone was sad or hungry, they were the first to help."

I listened, trying to imagine Artria with parents.

It made sense; she had a big heart under all that grumpiness, so she must have gotten it from somewhere.

"They adopted Persephone when they had Artria," Garin continued. "Both of them were raised together in the same nest."

" They grew up as sisters, playing together and eating at the same table."

" Honestly, back then, Persephone wasn’t as terrifying as she is now. She was just a quiet girl who stayed close to her sister."

He let out a helpless sigh, as if he were recalling a past that would never come back again. I could see the other mermen nodding slowly.

They all remembered that time, a time before the village was under constant shadow.

"But..." Garin paused, his jaw tightening.

"One day, Artria and Persephone had a fight."

" You know how kids are, it was probably over something small. But Persephone was always sensitive. She ran away from home, hiding somewhere out in the deep cracks of the reef."

" Their parents went to fetch her... but..."

"Unfortunately, they ran into some trouble and didn’t make it," he finished softly.

"What do you mean they ran into trouble?" I asked. I had a bad feeling about where this was going.

"They were killed off by a swarm of sharks," Garin said.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

Sharks.

Again.

It seemed like everything in this world came back to those mindless killing machines.

"It honestly wasn’t her fault," Garin added, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as me.

"I don’t understand. What are you saying?" I asked.

This conversation was heading down a dark turn, and I didn’t know whether I wanted to keep listening or not.

It felt like I was digging into a grave I should have left alone.

"The sharks had come back then due to Persephone’s own ability," Garin explained.

"None of us expected her to awaken such a power. It was her ’Curse.’ But because her emotions were saddened back then, she ended up calling a swarm of them by accident."

He looked at me, his eyes full of a strange kind of pity. "Persephone was crying when Artria’s parents came looking for her."

"The poor girl had no idea what was going on. Her grief and fear were what drew in every shark within five miles."

" She herself was frightened by the sight and hide away in a cave."

" She was trapped in the back of a cave while a swarm gathered outside."

" She didn’t know how to send them away, and the more frightened she became, the worse the situation turned."

"Artria’s parents fought just to get to her," Garin said, gritting his teeth.

"In the end, they were able to keep the sharks at bay long enough to save her. They got her out, but due to sustaining several gruesome injuries, even the healers couldn’t save them in time and....they unfortunately didn’t make it."

" They died right there in the water, protecting their daughter."

A trace of melancholy emerged on all their faces. Even the merman who had been laughing earlier was looking down.

The silence that followed was heavy, like the weight of the ocean was pushing down on us.

"I’m sure you could understand what happened next...." Garin let out a sigh.

I did understand. It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together. Artria, left alone with a sister whose very existence had caused their parents’ deaths.

The grief must have been more than a child could handle.

"Artria refused to forgive her sister," Garin said. "She looked at Persephone and saw her parents’ killers. And Persephone, who was overwhelmed by her own guilt and grief, couldn’t handle the hatred."

"She left the village and refused to return."

He shook his head. "We tried reaching out to her. We really did. We didn’t want to lose both of them. But we couldn’t find her for a long time. Years later, when we finally did find where she was hiding... she was already too far gone."

"She refused to listen to anything we said and isolated herself from us," he continued. "When we continued to try and bring her home, she almost killed all of us.

Garin turned to me, his expression earnest. "That’s why Artria was so sensitive when you said that back then. When you told her to kill you if you lost control."

I felt a wave of shame wash over me. I had basically walked up to a girl who lost her parents to a "shark" power and asked her to be the one to kill another "shark" who was losing control.

I had triggered the worst memory of her life without even knowing it.

While Artria seemed to hate her sister, it seemed even she couldn’t bring herself to kill her, much less someone like me who was similar to her in more ways than one.

"She probably thinks just like her parents, you’ll end up throwing yourself away as well," Garin sighed. "She’s watched several of us get hurt trying to help her sister, and she hates it."

" And I’m sure she also blames Persephone for what’s happening now with the sharks. She thinks her sister is doing this on purpose to punish the village."

I didn’t know what to say. I merely floated there in silence, trying my best to digest all I’d just heard. My mind was quite blank right now.

But then, a thought couldn’t help but cross my mind.

If Persephone’s power was tied to her emotions, and she was currently unstable because she thought I was dead... then I was the reason the village was in danger.

Every shark biting at the hunters was a result of the grief I had caused her by "dying."

Did I want to go back to her though? Of course not. What if she killed me for real this time.

That woman was far too dangerous to deal with, and until I found a way to make sure she wouldn’t kill me, I had no intention of letting her know I was alive.

As for the sharks, I’d just have to deal with it myself.

I mean, how difficult could it be to deal with a bunch of mindless fishes.

Besides that though.

To think my mistress and my new friend were actually sisters with such a past between them.

"Jacob?" Garin asked, noticing I had gone quiet for a long time. "You okay?"

"I’m fine," I lied, though my voice was barely a whisper. "I just... I didn’t know it was that complicated."

"It’s never simple with those two," Garin said, turning back toward our path.

"But now you know. So when you talk to her next time, maybe keep the ’kill me’ talk to a minimum, okay?"

"Yeah," I said, my heart feeling like lead. "Thanks for letting me know."