The island survival episode was the start of the nightmare fuel.
In the novel, the one hit by Blightcap Madness Fever was not Waffel. It was Azalea.
It was a relatively unknown disease, and only Fanna managed to identify it due to her extensive knowledge of herbology as an elven race. It also helped that Azalea was the one infected.
The Blume family carried a rare trait in their blood, a lineage traced back to dryads, making fungus and plant-based poisons largely ineffective against her.
However, the infection did not spare her.
It only made her situation from bad to worse. Her eye rotted away, and they had to dig it out without anesthesia, then burn the socket to stop the bleeding.
I told you, right?
Nightmare fuel.
That moment marked a clear shift in the story, and not everyone was ready for it. Some readers were hooked by how far it was willing to go. Others thought it crossed a line.
Either way, the community never really agreed after that.
