"..."
"...Lady Seth…?"
The elderly woman stayed silent and her expression turned only more concerned, causing the gold-haired girl to lean back, lowering her hands and pressing them to her chest, before asking anxiously.
"Sweetie, take a deep breath."
"..."
Lady Seth delicately caressed Melinda's hands and said calmingly, making the girl look around in confusion, terrified about what words might be spoken next.
"You are sterile."
"..."
The best healer in the Emeraldios Empire announced, but the gold-haired girl didn't even budge.
"...p-pardon…?"
Only after a minute or so of no follow up from the elderly healer, Melinda blinked a few times and leaned in, asking with blank expression.
"You are sterile. You can't get pregnant."
Lady Seth repeated herself and then explained.
"You mean, like, that I'm infertile?"
"Unfortunately, no. If you were infertile, getting pregnant and carrying the baby would be very difficult but possible. Your case isn't that. You are sterile. It's impossible for you to get pregnant. Completely."
Melinda lowered her head before raising it up and asking Lady Seth with a feeble shadow of a smile, but the elderly woman shook her head and clarified even further.
"...o-oh…"
Melinda's eyes brimmed with tears, and her chin trembled so hard that even the whimper she let out was distorted.
Then she slouched, or rather crumbled down, ending up with her face buried in her own knees as her shoulders trembled when she still tried to hold back from breaking down.
"...I wanted to have Zane's baby… I wanted us to have a baby…"
"I understand, sweetie."
Melinda sobbed, and Lady Seth, who never let go of the girl's hands, squeezed them supportingly.
"Why me?"
"..."
Melinda whimpered while Lady Seth watched her with sadness.
"...you see…"
"...?"
Unexpectedly, the elderly woman spoke up hesitantly, only to stop herself, making the gold-haired girl look up at her and sniffle.
"The direct reason for it is the venom of a beast known as the Royal Hydra that you've got afflicted with in your mo…"
"IT'S BECAUSE OF THE ROYAL HYDRA'S CLAW!?"
Lady Seth began to explain, having Melinda jump upright and scream in despair.
"I…! I castrated myself by not removing it in time?! I… I…!"
Melinda sobbed, shaking so horribly that it seemed as if she was about to shatter into pieces at any moment.
"Sweetie, no."
But before she could blame herself more, Lady Seth sternly tugged on her hands and shook her head decisively.
"...Lady Seth, thank you for your concern, but with the Royal Hydra's venom, the only time I could have a chance of being exposed to it was when it was lodged in my side… And I didn't make any effort to remove it… I actually… actually insisted on keeping it in… and… and because of that…"
Melinda's mouth twisted in a desperate smile and she cried out, her chin trembling more and more the more she said.
"Sweetie. No. That's not how it happened."
But once again, the elderly woman tugged on her hands and shook her head while stating adamantly.
"...then what? How did I get poisoned with Royal Hydra's venom?! THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THAT IN MELINDA'S LORE!"
The gold-haired girl trembled once again, but this time almost losing herself in anger, releasing a spiteful screech that caused the ringing in the ears of the silver-haired healer.
"You weren't poisoned directly, sweetie. You were afflicted with it while still in your mother's womb."
"...ah…"
Lady Seth straightened her back and declared, staring deeply into Melinda's golden eyes, making the despairing girl freeze up with a soft gasp passing through her pale lips.
"The poison used on Kyani was the venom of the Royal Hydra. Upon using my ability-exclusive poison detection skill, I was able to recognize it. Its description was distorted in the same way as the one on the monster claw that ended up lodged in your side. I cannot say for sure whether both of those came from the same specimen… although that doesn't matter in this case."
"...you… you tended to my mother…?"
The elderly woman revealed, getting slightly off track by the end, but Melinda's shocked question made her focus back on the main point.
"..."
For a moment, Lady Seth kept quiet as if deeply considering her next words.
"Sweetie, at the time, your father didn't care in the slightest about countries and politics. He wanted the best healer. It feels wrong when I say it myself, but the one with that title at the time was me."
She finally said, with a serious expression.
"Back then, everything that I knew, my experience in the field, and even my gut feeling was telling me that you, the child that Kyani was carrying, wouldn't survive her being poisoned."
As the gold-haired girl stayed silent, looking up at Lady Seth with her eyes widened by shock as the elderly woman continued.
"Within the rules of our world, you should have died. But instead, by a miracle, you were only born prematurely with a handful of side effects that only I was able to pick up on. A trifle when compared to the other option. Kyani has already passed away, and you were so weak that just keeping you alive took a team of healers casting the strongest healing spells known to humans, dwarves, and beastmen for more than a week to stabilize you."
Lady Seth said with a serious expression, hesitating about what she should and shouldn't share.
"I… honestly… I… While I am convinced that the Royal Hydra's venom is the main culprit, I cannot completely rule out that something about the combination of various types of magic used on you back then ended up… sterilizing you."
"...!"
Finally, after losing a fight with herself, the elderly woman broke eye contact with the gold-haired girl and lowered her head, confessing everything that she was hiding - causing Melinda to breathe in sharply.
"Only after you appeared to have a chance at life did I notice deviation in your medical reading about a condition that would prevent you from conceiving a child in the future."
Lady Seth added, too worried to look the gold-haired girl in the face.