Boffis patted her head with some distress, “But even if I tell you the answer, you won’t get it because you haven’t seen it before.”
She thought hard for a while, then reluctantly reached out her hand and gestured, “Here’s how it goes…
“Generally speaking, there will be many dispersers this high on the ground surface. Water will be pumped from underground rivers, imbued with energy, and then poured into the dispersers. Then when the night comes, the dispersers will be turned on.
“The water infused with curse energy will emit different colors and beautiful lights when activated.” Boffis said with a little nostalgia, “But you won’t have the chance to see it.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s because your blood doesn’t have a special reaction to those curse energies.” Boffis glanced at the group behind Citalopram and replied casually, “As the Pale Priestess, you might have felt it, but I don’t see the curse sensory running in their blood. I think the era of curse energy technology has already come to an end.”
“…So, what exactly is the curse energy?” Citalopram couldn’t help but ask.
“Curse energy…” Boffis muttered.
She couldn’t help but express a bitter smile, “It seems that you will still be hung up with that topic if I don’t tell you.
“Since I’m going to tell you what it is, I have to make it clear. You must never use the curse energy again.
“Curse energy is the technology we rely on to survive in the desert. You can understand it as the ability to pump out clear springs from the desert, achieving what we want under harsh conditions.
“—That’s an ‘incomplete power of creation’.
“But your teacher should have also taught you about the laws of this world, right? Everything that isn’t meant to exist comes with a price.”
“…Something like that.” Citalopram nodded.
Annan did tell her.
Although Annan didn’t lay it out as such, he conveyed a similar meaning.
Boffis took a deep breath and murmured in a low voice, “Curse energy is the blood of the world.
“The contact between this world and the dream world isn’t a gentle fusion. At the overlapping point of the two worlds, the world will become extremely fragile, creating a flaw in our current world itself.
“You can see it as the wounds inflicted upon our world, the exposed flesh without the skin’s protection.”
Boffis sighed, “The curse shaft is a hollow wedge nailed into flesh and blood, pumping out the world’s blood. The surrounding of the curse shaft will gradually become desolate, and the people near the curse shaft will occasionally go missing. In that case, they have fallen into the dream world. Once the physical body enters the dream world, it is basically impossible for them to come back.
“In addition to the curse shaft’s destruction of the world itself, those who drink the world’s blood will be cursed by the world. Or rather, you can say that they’re directly drinking the world’s curse into their bodies.
“Those who have used the power of curses will live seven times longer, but they will not stay youthful; they are doomed to be entangled by nightmares even after they are dead. Every time they wake up from a nightmare, new curses will be added. It’s a tragedy. They will be tortured until death… and even death isn’t the end to it.
“As long as we’re in contact with the curse energy once, we will never be able to get rid of this craving. But there is no room for hesitation when we are in the desert. The curse energy is the poisonous blood that keeps our civilization going. We consume it knowing that we will die sooner or later because of it. However, if we don’t take it, we will die of thirst first.
“After we arrived in Yaselan, which isn’t rich in resources, some folks with wisdom began to encourage the crowd to use the curse energy in moderation.
“But the vast majority of elves are reluctant to give up on the convenient and magical energy because its side effects can be said to be negligible compared to its convenience. Having an entire civilization using the curse energy together will further share its burdens and side effects rather than having one person bearing it alone. As for the possibility of the world becoming riddled with holes for hundreds of years later, that’s a future that has nothing to do with us.”
“Can the curse energy be so addictive?” Citalopram asked subconsciously.
She vaguely saw the shadows of the Sunwell Plateau [1] and Quel’ Thalas [2].
“Not really. The curse energy itself is not addictive, but the convenience itself is a terrible dependence for us. The convenience of the curse energy is enough to make people forget the pain of death. Therefore, the elves born after the third era do not see death as a terrifying thing.
“For them, the curse energy is not for survival, but enjoyment.” Boffis’ answer was even direr.
“Given the increasing rarity and the magical property of this power, the people of Yaselan are eyeing this power. There are traces of curse energy in some of the legends and stories sung by the bards.
“In your legends, curse energy is granted many aliases like ‘the Water of Immortality’, ‘the ‘Fountain of Youth’, the ‘Holy Grail’, the ‘Water of the Underworld’, and so on.
“In the end, under the persuasion of many prophets, the emperor took control of the situation. In the case of the elders’ house opposing it, a compromise was reached. The elves would not completely stop the use of curse energy but centralized the population in the capital and ran curse energy there. In the end, they prohibited the use of spell energy among the Centaurs and Yaselians (People of Yaselan).
“…But then, we launched a rebellion.
“Not an uprising, but a rebellion bringing us to self-destruction. For example, the city I live in is a curse-worshiping city at the extreme level. Before the curse shaft was finally demolished as planned, people destroyed their own houses and destroyed the traces of life. Using the curse shaft’s last power, they weaved an eternal public nightmare and stopped the time there.
“—It was an endless month, an incomparably beautiful ‘nightmare’. But, it wasn’t to record important knowledge and inheritance, but to escape into it and enjoy life no different from before.”
Miss Boffis turned emotional, but soon the surge of emotions subsided.
She was silent for a long time before she lowered her head and said in a low voice, “Sorry, I lied before.”
“This is not your fault.” Citalopram gently and softly comforted.
Boffis took a deep breath and calmed down.
Then she continued, “Mom wanted to take me to the capital. But I ran away halfway because I didn’t want to use the curse energy anymore, which was obviously wrong. Mom taught me so since I was a child.
“But she herself wants to move to the capital to live…” When she said this, she choked with emotion.
Citalopram advised again, “It’s not your fault.”
“I just want to live a normal life. But no one supports me. The best I can do is go back to my hometown and die with everyone, putting this meaningless ‘knowledge’ as specimen.
“But, I couldn’t do anything. When I came back, I was late and didn’t get to participate in the ritual. When I wanted to leave, I couldn’t run.”
Boffis smiled wryly, “I’m here alone with no great mission or great things to achieve. So I just lingered in the same place, not knowing where I should go, and I didn’t get anything done in the end.
“I lied, Citalopram. I’m not good at all. I don’t have any buddies, and I don’t have any special abilities. So I can’t do anything well.”
She murmured, “I’m just an indecisive dabbler.”
Boffis looked at Citalopram pleadingly, and her voice was soft and ghostly. “Will you come back for me?”
