Miel closed his eyes, hiding the pain away. He sighed inwardly.

After some thought, he took something out of a spatial device and put it down. After that, he looked up and felt his body relax. He had said what he needed to say. If he was scorned by his daughter, so be it.

They said that it was the role of a father to be hated, and only long after their children had grown up would they understand his sacrifices.

Miel didn't believe that he deserved any description so great. He wasn't a martyr, he was a selfish man who used a good woman and made her suffer endless pain for the crime of loving him. Even if Aina always hated him, he deserved it.

In this life, his only role left was his ambition to set the Brazinger family on the right path once again. Everything else would have to wait.

Then, he vanished.

Leonel held Aina in his arms, looking toward where Miel had disappeared. He could only sigh as well, he hadn't expected that things would end up this way.

He could imagine the guilt Miel was feeling. If Leonel was correct, he probably never wanted to marry Anselma in the first place.

He understood how those four families worked, they were obsessed with bloodline and perfectly controlling every aspect. The idea that they would carefully select one another's marriage partners wasn't all that surprising. In fact, he would be more surprised if they didn't.

He could believe that Aina's mother was his first true love. But he also knew that sometimes intentions were more important than the ultimate end result.

He might have come to love Aina's mother, but the reality was that he had tried to use her at first. She was an innocent woman, a mortal of Earth, and yet she was embroiled in this matter because she had been charmed by the wrong man.

There was also the matter of how she likely had little choice. Miel was a man from another world, wielding untold power, having knowledge completely beyond that of Earth. Any normal woman would find it difficult to resist his charms. Aina's mother might have felt that she had found her dream man, Aina's father would have been so much further beyond any other man she had ever interacted with. And why had Miel chosen her in specific?

Leonel's mind couldn't help but fill in all the details on his own, his simulating abilities reaching near perfection.

There was only one realistic answer: her beauty.

Such a superficial and meaningless reason, and only for the sole purpose of making Anselma as jealous as possible.

It was no wonder Anselma had been so obsessed with ruining Aina's appearance, cursing her to a life with a disfigured face and endless pain until Leonel came around.

Leonel rubbed Aina's back.

He remembered how he felt about the idea of his mother marrying another man. In a lot of ways, this sort of feeling for Aina might be even worse than that. He could feel that it was truly ripping her apart from the inside out.

Was it worth it to tell her?

This thought came to mind. It was likely that Aina would have found out one way or another since she was so obsessed with crushing the Brazinger family, but the question still stood...lights

Was it worth it?

There was probably a balancing act going on. On the one hand, did Miel really feel that Aina needed to know? Or was it that the guilt was eating him up on the inside and he had to say it even if it hurt Aina so that he could finally feel better?

Leonel actually didn't know the answer to that. All these complex, tangled emotions were hard to unwind.

So, he just held his wife as she vented out emotions she had probably had buried deep within her for a long while.

It was many hours until Aina calmed down. A mortal would have long since tired out, but it was both a gift and a curse to be so powerful.

She leaned against his embrace in silence, her eyes puffy and tear streaks dried on her cheeks. Her breathing was still a little ragged, but she had mostly pulled herself together.

"... Leonel... what should I do?" She asked softly.

"Whatever you want to do." Leonel answered without hesitation.

If she wanted to hate Miel, he wouldn't try to change her mind. If she wanted to forgive him, he likewise wouldn't stand in her way.

"I really hate her... Am I a bad person?" She asked softly.

The her Aina was referring to was definitely Anselma.

Leonel understood Aina's sentiment as well. If she lost him, maybe her actions would be just as unhinged. She loved Leonel so much, she couldn't imagine losing him to another woman. She felt a crazy raging jealousy in her heart just thinking about it.

But at the same time, she would never forgive Anselma, it was impossible, there wasn't even a single fiber of her being that wanted to.

"..." Leonel sighed, the question was too complicated. His initial reaction was obvious. Even if Anselma was hurt, it wasn't her right to take it out on an innocent woman who knew nothing. But the more Leonel thought about what was wrong and what was right, the more difficult it was for him to reconcile an objective morality.

Was the culling of the Gathering of Kingdoms bad?

On the one hand, you would massacre trillions of people, but on the other hand... wouldn't you allow for the life of many more than that?

What was right? What was wrong?

Leonel kissed Aina's forehead.

"Don't let your thoughts be dragged down by such thoughts," he said after a while. "Your only moral obligation is to yourself and those you love, anyone who steps in the way of that will have to pay a price for it."

Aina's grip around Leonel tightened as they stood there in silence.