human
Subaru:  “There are two possibilities I can think of here.” Subaru bent down one of his raised fingers as Beatrice stood silently before him. “First, this is graveyard humor, a really awful joke. Put bluntly, this really isn’t funny, so…if you’re gonna bring out a wooden sign that says FOOLED YA! and laugh, go ahead, now’s the time.” He closed one eye in an attempt to lighten the mood.
gpt
Beatrice:  Beatrice’s expression went unchanged.
human
Subaru:  With Beatrice saying nothing before him, Subaru folded the second finger. “If it’s not a joke, there’s only one possibility: The curse hasn’t been lifted yet.”
gpt
Beatrice:  Beatrice folded her arms as if to lend support to Subaru’s hypothesis.
human
Subaru:  This was the result of white scars from demon beast bites covering his entire body. They still throbbed as Subaru looked at them in a new, ominous light. “I’ll ask just to make sure. You can’t lift the curse? You’re not holding out on me here?” He didn’t think Beatrice would say, No one asked me to, so I will not, but he wanted to ask just in case some sliver of hope remained.
gpt
Beatrice:  Naturally, Beatrice replied to his question with a shake of her head. “If it was something I could remove, would it put you eternally in my debt, I wonder?”
human
Subaru:  “Hey, give me a break here. I’m already up to my eyeballs in debt to you!” He couldn’t repay her for even a smidgeon of it, not last time, not the time before that, not this time, either. Not in that world. Subaru’s reminiscing brought a suspicious look from Beatrice, but he papered things over with a hand wave. “Mind if I ask why you can’t lift the curse?”
gpt
Beatrice:  “…I suppose you should at least know how you shall pass on. It is a simple tale. There are too many layers of curses, making the curses too complex to lift.”
human
Subaru:  “…Curses have layers?” Subaru pondered, trying to come up with an image.
gpt
Beatrice:  Beatrice spread both hands apart. Suddenly, the two hands were connected together by a red string. “A curse is like this red string, I wonder?” Beatrice took the string she held on each end and tied a knot with it. “This knot is a curse rite. I suppose lifting a curse is as simple as undoing this knot. But…” With a deft motion of her fingers, Beatrice increased the number of strings between her hands. The new strings were blue, yellow, green, pink, black, and white. She entwined the new strings into knots and tied the knots into one another. “If it is only one curse, it can be undone. But if you mix more of them together like this…” Beatrice held out both hands, offering the knots to him.
human
Subaru:  Subaru slid a hand into the tangle. The string, connecting finger to finger, offered no sign of how it might be unraveled.