HURT

She exhaled a breath of relief quite quickly, though, feeling that things between them shouldn't be so bad if her father came in when he had so vehemently refused to previously.

"Aina, give me your hand," Miel suddenly said, reaching forward.

Though confused, Aina did as she was told. Miel stayed silent for a long while as he held his daughter's palm, but there was a continuous wave of emotions passing through his eyes as the time ticked by.

Just when Aina was about to ask what he was doing, he pulled his hand back. He looked toward his daughter with no small hint of shock in his eyes.

Aina could feel that her father was probing her, but she had little resistance against it. She, obviously, wouldn't put up any guardrails against her own father.

"You've actually progressed so far..." he said softly.

Aina smiled. "Not enough."

Miel sighed. He knew what his daughter meant by that. Obviously, she wanted to wipe the Brazinger family off of the map, but that was a more complicated ordeal than he knew.

Quite frankly, Miel wanted to tell his daughter to just target those that were responsible. But he didn't have the heart to say it.

He had lost his wife, the love of his life, and his daughter had to suffer that same pain, except she was far less experienced, far less mature, and didn't even have him by her side while she dealt with most of it.

He didn't feel he had the right to tell her how to deal with her grief.

"Aina, do you know how I and your mother met?" Miel asked softly.

Aina's eyes widened, but she didn't reply. Miel already knew the answer to that question, she didn't. If not for her Soul Clairvoyance, she wouldn't even remember her mother's care and affection so clearly, she had been far too young.

"I didn't agree with many of the things the Brazinger family did. I... I held more power in the family than you know, and a large part of the reason I didn't tell you about these things was because I felt a great deal of responsibility.

"I chose to leave my duties behind, throwing a tantrum like a child and following after Gervaise to Earth. Those were the circumstances I met your mother under, but it was also because I did so that she suffered so much.

"If I never acted like that back then, and I met the challenge head on instead, I would have never met her. And if my strength hadn't been drastically suppressed so that I could follow those foolish impulses of mine, I could have protected her several times over.

"I..."

Miel took a breath and looked away from his daughter's gaze. There was a great amount of guilt and remorse in his eyes, but there was also something else...

Embarrassment, humiliation...

But he steeled himself.

"Before I arrived on Earth, I had another wife."

Aina's eyes opened wide, these were the last words she ever expected to hear. She never knew the story between her father and her mother, but she always thought of it as a classic love story. She could have never imagined that it had such dark underpinnings.

She looked at Leonel and felt that she suddenly understood Imperatress Anselma's almost unhinged fury. How would she act if Leonel did something like that to her? Material © .

As for why her mind immediately went to that woman, there could have only been one. It was too obvious the moment her father said it. There was only one person who seemed to hate her more than anyone else.

"Your mother never knew until the end. It's all my fault. I was a selfish man and I never intended to fall in love with your mother. I was throwing a tantrum and wanted to harm that woman as much as possible.

"Your mother was the kindest soul I ever knew. I originally never intended to take things so far with her. The guilt was killing me, but in the end I was a weak man.

"I told myself a countless series of lies, that everything would be fine, that we would grow together and I would break things off with that woman.

"I did do the latter, but I was too arrogant. I should have waited until I was stronger, I should have tried to hide it better, but my overblown sense of pride put your mother directly in the line of fire and she died in the worst way possible... and I could only watch it happen."

Miel gathered his courage to look into Aina's eyes. The humiliation he felt toward having to tell his daughter this story was unimaginable, but he felt that he owed her these words.

In the past, he was the only family she had. She was already so alone in the world, he couldn't allow her to hate his guts. If she only knew hate in this world, maybe she would become as twisted as that woman. He couldn't allow her to go down such a path.

But now, he could rest assured.

Even if his daughter hated him now, it was fine... because she had a husband who would support her now, a family of her own aside from him.

He could feel the emotions churning in Aina's eyes as her tears fell. Her memories of that sweet and caring woman were so clear in her mind, and to think that she was just a pawn of her father to get back at that worthless woman...

It hurt, it really hurt.

Aina broke down, but Leonel was there to catch her. She sobbed into his arms, holding onto him tightly.