replaced falling leaves 1.2.4 with 1.3.0, launched game, loaded world and it crashed right after "loading terrain" showed on screen

running Minecraft 1.18.1
Forge 39.0.18
Falling Leaves 1.3.0

crash log file:
crash-2022-01-22_00.08.23-client.txt

launcher's crash report reads as follows:
The game crashed whilst unexpected error
Error: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "de.cheaterpaul.fallingleaves.modcompat.SereneSeasonsConfig.getModifier(net.minecraft.world.level.Level)" because "de.cheaterpaul.fallingleaves.modcompat.SereneSeasons.config" is null
Exit Code: -1

i have never used "Serene Seasons" in my world and it's not in my mods folder

Serene seasons support update seems to have become accidental dependency