Listening to Elinalise's story was the first thing I did this morning.
"... That's pretty much my life's story."
"I didn't really need that much detail..."
Honestly, I feel rather bothered by that story.
All I really need is information about curses.
Yet, Elinalise went ahead and told me everything.
"I'm sorry for hiding this from you all this time."
"Does... Cliff know about this?"
"Of course, I told him everything before the wedding."
"Right... and Sylphy?"
"Sylphy doesn't know. Her grandma was once a prostitute, isn't it better if she doesn't?"
"I think Sylphy wouldn't mind something like this..."
"Rudeus too, please don't look at Sylphy differently after hearing these things. That girl may be of my blood, but she's just a normal girl."
"Of course I won't."
Elinalise is Elinalise, Sylphy is Sylphy.
Still, with a past like hers, I can understand why she wasn't so forthcoming as Sylphy's grandma.
Most people would probably look at her at a different light.
What's past is past.
One shouldn't run from one's past, but that only I know of it is enough.
"Well, in summary, what is this curse Elinalise speaks of?"
"Magic crystallizes within my body after being fertilized by men. Without sperm, the magic will expand until I die. That sort of feeling."
"But, nothing happened in the first few years?"
"I'm not very sure myself about that... But back then, my monthlies hadn't started yet, so that might be the case."
"Monthlies..."
So it's related to menstruation. Magic crystallized from her eggs?
In that case, Zenith's curse is probably something different.
Zenith already had two kids.
I should check with Lilia, but Zenith should be 35 or so, so it's possible.
Still, at least for now, nothing has happened.
"Your memory, did it ever return?"
"No, still nothing."
"..."
Her memory never came back.
So who Elinalise actually is, we may never know.
It's still possible that she would suddenly remember one day.
But after 200 years, I doubt it.
"Well, Zenith is different from 'that girl' back then. At least right now, she seems to recognize her flesh and blood. Maybe her memories can recover."
"It'd be great if that's the case."
I shouldn't be too optimistic.
Rather, I should just assume the worst and plan from there.
"What about the curse?"
"For now, no symptoms are like mine."
"Right."
"She probably... has a different curse."
"Right."
"It's highly likely. Do you have an idea?"
Idea?
Clues?
Well.
Maybe, maybe not.
I don't have any clue for the curse.
"Nothing."
"Is that so. Still, you can't be too careful."
It's probably not a life threatening one.
But as Elinalise said, there might be a trigger somewhere.
"In other words, all we can do now is wait and see?"
"Yeah."
Not too optimistic.
Hopefully, nothing will happen to Zenith in the future.
"That's everything I know. I'm sorry. There's a lot I didn't want to talk about, so I was very late in telling you these things."
Elinalise looks downcast after those words.
Yeah, it's a little late.
If it was someone else, he'd yell at her for not saying anything until now.
But I can understand wanting to hide a dark past.
Rather, I should be the one apologizing for hiding my past life.
"No, it's obviously something hard to talk about, yet you told me anyways. I'm really thankful."
I hold out a hand to Elinalise.
She held it tightly.
"Then, I'm heading back to Cliff's."
"I'll take a break, then head over to check in with Nanahoshi."
"Ah, then see you later."
Elinalise left the room with those words.
In the end, not much progress regarding Zenith.
Although a curse is highly likely, at least so far nothing happened.
Prepare for now, we'll deal with situations as they arise.