As it turned out, the curse really did activate after several generations. No one knew what triggered it. No one knew whether it was simply ordained to happen that way, or whether it occurred by chance, like Russian roulette.
No matter what, Shishigou Kairi was ultimately the one who became its victim. For a magus, the contents of this curse were unbearably vile.
Shishigou Kairi could not have children. Absolutely could not. Therefore, despite possessing a precious Magic Crest, the Shishigou family was destined to die out with his generation.
"What's that supposed to mean? Couldn't you just take in an adopted son or something?"
Hearing Red Saber's question, Shishigou removed the cigarette from his mouth with two fingers and ground it out against the floor. Throughout the process, a strange smile remained on his face.
"Yeah. The people in my family used to be optimistic about it too. But when they transplanted my Crest into an adopted child my father found through his connections, she died. After that, there was no way to continue."
It was not because of a rejection reaction. She had been a girl from a distant branch of relatives who carried a trace of Shishigou blood, and the pre-transplant tests had shown an exceptionally high compatibility rate.
Only after the autopsy did they discover that the cause lay in Shishigou Kairi's Magic Crest. Lethal poison seeped from it. The Crest was said to be perfectly adapted to Shishigou Kairi's body, but the moment it was transplanted into anyone else's flesh, it produced toxins.
After learning this, Shishigou Kairi immediately persuaded his father, Tomoki, to stop the transplantation experiments he had intended to continue, and chose to give up. In other words, the Shishigou family would continue no further than Shishigou Kairi's generation.
Shishigou Kairi left