The Cursed King

"You know, that's not exactly the truth." Loriel corrected Hilde this time.

"Hah!" Hilde smirked lightly at him and rolled her eyes.

Loriel disliked Hilde's personality so much as it reminded him of his older sisters. The ones who pretended to like Loriel because of his position as king after he took over power but still secretly plotted against his back.

Hilde knew how to tiptoe in between being rude and yet still on the side of polite conversation.

… and yet Loriel couldn't afford to be rude to her and shooing her away.

This woman knew Loriel's secret. Loriel needed to make sure that Hilde didn't say anything else that would let Elise know about the past, but that meant tolerating Hilde's presence and her touchy-feely treatment towards him.

"Um, what are the two of you talking about?" Elise asked at last. 

At first, it was only Hilde who was making her feel left out by completely ignoring her… but this time, even Loriel was reminiscing about something that Elise did not have any context with.

Loriel and Hilde were in a competition? What did they do together? When was this?

Loriel didn't know how to explain it without saying too much, but Hilde spoke over him and gave Elise a smile. "Loriel and I go way back, like I told you. We joined a small competition in the past for a nice reward. It was really fun. To be honest, it was my fondest memory, ever."

This time, it seemed like Hilde was actually happily reminiscing over a memory instead of being rude and mean to Elise.

"I see… that sounds really interesting. What kind of competition was it?" Elise asked. She couldn't imagine Loriel competing with Hilde in the first place and it seemed like a very weird scenario in the back of her head.

"You can consider it as some sort of race or survival game," Loriel said at last. "A unique kind of. Someday I will tell you all about it. It's been a really long time. I barely remember what happened."

Gosh. Loriel was such a good liar. Even though he had promised himself to lie a little less to Elise, this time, he couldn't help it.

How could he forget the race, where he met Hilde for the first time. It was the once-in-a-lifetime event, where the gods held their race and all creatures who wished to be immortals could join and compete in a life-and-death game.

The reward for a few that survived was the immortality potion and a seat among the gods. Hilde was the most ambitious woman Loriel had ever met and their desire and determination to become immortals were comparable.

If Loriel wanted to be immortal so he could meet Elise again, Hilde just wanted youthful beauty and power. And she got everything she ever wanted.

Well, everything but Loriel, who immediately fled and avoided her like the plague after Hilde confessed her love for him.

Anyway…

"I can't believe you forget about those games. It was the turning point of my life," Hilde chided Loriel.. The man only rolled his eyes and scoffed. "So, what? I only like to remember good things. Those are not one of them."

Elise looked at Loriel and then Hilde and inwardly admitted that the both of them looked good and in shape. It seemed like the two of them were people who used to work out in the past. 

Survival games? Were they some kind of triathlon challenge of some sort?

Elise wanted to ask about it some more and yet there was something about their words that were completely vague. Why did it feel like there was something not being mentioned to her and was left out of the picture?

Maybe Elise just didn't have the same amount of information as them so it seemed strange to hear them talk about it without having any single clue. 

Not only did Hilde teach Loriel how to cook but they also participated in a game. If Hilde really taught Loriel how to cook Italian food, when did it happen? 

Did the cooking lessons or competition happen first? 

Probably the competition, first, right?

"Hearing that the two of you participated in this competition… it must have been exhilarating to do. Was that how the two of you met each other?" Elise asked.

"Yes. The competition was where I met Hilde for the first time." Loriel nodded. "After that time, we parted ways. There wasn't anything that connected us beyond that event."

Hilde turned to Loriel and pouted. "You simply cut me off, but the two of us are good "friends" as you said. I think you owe me an apology."

"I do not particularly owe you anything," Loriel replied curtly.

Elise frowned at the two's current exchange because the time when Hilde taught Loriel how to cook wasn't mentioned. "But the two of you still met up to teach Loriel how to cook, right?"

"Oh, right that." Hilde looked at Loriel with a more flirtatious smile. She grabbed the man's sleeve without any hesitation and practically leaned towards him. "You were such a good student, weren't you? Paying attention to every single word I said."

Even though the trouble started dying down in Elise's perception except for the questions in the back of her mind… this was the last straw for Elise. She frowned hard at Hilde and gave her a look.

"I am not sure if you're intentionally doing this, but don't you think that it's inappropriate to keep touching my husband?" Elise asked. "I can see that Loriel is happy with it and you're just taking advantage of his kindness."

"Elise." Hilde smiled. "You're not hearing any complaints from Loriel, right? This is just how we treat each other as friends so you don't need to be so insecure. Unless you don't trust your husband at all."

Elise stared at Hilde and somehow those words were the most offensive thing she had ever heard. "You take that back, Hilde."

Hilde blinked and then snorted. "Why are you so offended? Do you not have any friends of the opposite sex? Are you not used to the banter between them?"

"Hilde that is enough," Loriel said at last. "Apologize! You've said too much."